The student - Chambers, Oswald

2 timothy 2:15

Practical sphere of work (2 Corinthians 11:9;

1 timothy 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:9)

The difficulty in christian work to-day is that we put it into a sphere that upsets the reasoning of things this sphere for sacred and that for secular; this time for activity and that for study. God will never allow us to divide our lives into sacred and secular, into study and activity. We generally think of a student as one who shuts himself up and studies in a reflective way, but that is never revealed in gods book. A Christians thinking ought to be done in activities, not in reflection, because we only come to right discernment in activities. Some incline to study naturally in the reflective sense, others incline more to steady active work; the bible combines both in one life. We are apt to look on workers for god as a special class, but that is foreign to the new testament. Our lord was a carpenter; Paul was a weaver. If you Try and live in compartments, god will tumble up the time. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will bring you into the circumstances that will develop the particular side of your life that he wants developed, and be careful that you do not upset his plans by bringing in your own ideas.

Another danger in work for god is to make natural temperament the line of service. The gifts of the spirit are built on gods sovereignty, not on our temperament. We are apt to limit god by saying, oh, i am not built like that; or, i have not been well educated. Never limit god by those paralysing thoughts, it is the outcome of unbelief. What does it matter to the lord almighty of heaven and earth what your early training was like! What does matter to him is that you dont lean to your own understanding, but acknowledge him in all your ways. So crush on the threshold of your mind any of those lame, limping i cants, you see i am not gifted. The great stumbling-block that prevents some people being simple disciples of Jesus is that they are giftedso gifted that they wont trust in the lord with all their hearts. You have to learn to break by the power of the holy spirit the fuss and the lethargy which alternate in your life, and remember that it is a crime to be weak in his strength.

Poverty and work (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Our lord Jesus Christ became poor for our sakes not as an example, but to give us the unerring secret of his religion. Professional Christianity is a religion of possessions that are devoted to god; the religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of personal relationship to god, and has nothing whatever to do with possessions. The disciple is rich not in possessions, but in personal identity. Voluntary poverty was the marked condition of Jesus (see Luke 9:58), and the poverty of gods children in all ages is a significant thing. To-day we are ashamed and afraid to be poor. The reason we hear so little about the inner spiritual side of external poverty is that few of us are in the place of Jesus, or of Paul. The scare of poverty will knock the spiritual backbone out of us unless we have the relationship that holds. The attitude of our lords life was that he was disconnected with everything to do with things that chain people down to this world, consequently he could go wherever his father wanted him to.

Providential will of god (proverbs 3:56)

Remember you are accountable to no one but god; keep yourself for his service along the line of his providential leading for you, not on the line of your temperament. The servant of god has to go through the experience of things before he is allowed to go through the study of them. When you have had the experience god will give you the line for study; the experience first, and then the explanation of the experience by the spirit of god. Each one of us is an isolated person with god, and he will put us through experiences that are not meant for us at all, but meant to make us fit stuff to feed others. How much time have you given to wondering what god is doing with you? It is not your business. Your part is to acknowledge god in all your ways, and he will blend the active and the spiritual until they are inseparable, and you learn to live in activities knowing that your life is hid with Christ in god.