I was challenged by Oswald Chambers' reflection on Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3) this morning:

Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference. We have no choice in what we want to do; whatever God’s [program] may be we are there, ready. When any duty presents itself we hear God’s voice as Our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with all the alertness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us as His Father did with Him. He can put us where He likes, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because the union is that of the Father and Himself. “That they may be one, even as We are one.”

Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready when God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the ready soul, it is ablaze with the presence of God.

 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).

Lord, I pray that you would find me ready for whatever service you may call me to do this day. Awaken me to the reality that I am in union with you at all times and may this be reflected in my readiness to do your will at all times. Amen.

I really appreciate and am challenged by F.B. Meyer's comments on Mark 1:9-20. I pray that it will a source of encouragement to you as you continue to follow Jesus this day.

If the Lord was thus anointed ere he commenced his life-work, how much more must we be! Hast thou become united with him in his death, made one with him in his resurrection, and anointed by that same Spirit? Then be sure that thou, too, must be tempted. Sons of men must go the way of the Son of man, now under the opened heavens, then tempted of the devil; on one side the wild beasts, on the other the angels; now driven to loneliness, and then to the crowded street of the cities, there to gather disciples by the energy and beauty of a victorious life.

 F. B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day: A Devotional Commentary, vol. 5 (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1914–1918), 83.

I really appreciate Oswald Chambers' description of how the Holy Spirit seeks to work in our lives and what our appropriate response is to be. I hope that it will be an encouragement to you this day as you strive to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house, He invades everything. When once I decide that my “old man” (i.e., the heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything, my part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals. 

 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).

As we are fast approaching Easter and the celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death on our behalf, here's a great reminder concerning the type of sacrifice that he offered:

Our Lord did not die a martyr’s death. The martyr is led to the scaffold or stake because he is overpowered by superior force. But our Lord knew that the invisible world was full of help if only he had expressed the slightest wish. Others die because they are born; he was born that he might die. “He laid down his life that he might take it again.” He would not receive help from the Father, or the angels, or Peter’s sword, but poured out his soul unto death, because of a love that was stronger than death.

 F. B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day: A Devotional Commentary, vol. 5 (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1914–1918), 65.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:10-11).

I read these powerful words today and I wanted to share them with whomever may read this journal entry. They remind me of what really matters. Life can be so noisy and confusing and demanding that we often times end up getting sidetracked and distracted. Sometimes we even lose our way. Pause with me for a moment and drink deeply of this beautiful and sobering reminder.

All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If He wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that. 

 Brennan Manning and John Blase, All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2011).