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DEVOTED
~to~
-JESUS --
By: Oswald Chambers ---
There is a difference between devotion to principles and devotion to a Person. Jesus never proclaimed a cause: He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself--"
for My sake."
Discipleship is based not on devotion to abstract ideals, but on devotion to a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Consequently the whole of the Christian life is stamped by originality.
Whenever the Holy Spirit sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your whole personality and simply make it blaze and glow with personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. You are no longer devoted to a cause nor [are you] the devotee of a principle, but you are the devoted love slave of the Lord Jesus. No man on Earth has that love unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. Men may admire God and respect Him and reverence Him, but no man can love God until the Holy Ghost has shed abroad that love in his heart (see Romans 5:5).
Jesus puts all this blessedness of high virtue and rare felicity on the ground of
"for My sake." "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake" (Matthew 5:11). It is not suffering for conscience' sake or for convictions' sake, or because of the ordinary troubles of life, but something other than all that
--"for My sake.""Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake" (Luke 6:22).
Jesus
did not say, "Rejoice when men separate you from their company because of your own crotchety notions," but "when they reproach you for My sake."
When you begin to deport yourself among men as a saint, they will leave you absolutely alone; you will be reviled and persecuted. No man can stand that unless he is in love with Jesus Christ. He cannot do it for a convition or a creed, but he can do it for a Being whom he loves. Devotion to a Person is the only thing that tells; devotion to a Person, not devotion to a creed or a doctrine. ~~
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Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was a Bible teacher and a speaker marked by deep insight and vivid expression. He is best known today for the book, "My Utmost For His Highest," which was compiled by his wife, Biddy, after his death.
