the worker’s spiritual life - Chambers, Oswald

Communication of the life of god

(Galatians 2:20)

As a worker, watch the sea-worthiness of your spiritual life; never allow a spiritual leakage. Spiritual leakage arises either by refusing to treat god seriously, or by refusing to do anything for him seriously. Bear in mind two things: the pressure of god on your thought from without, and the pressure of god on your attention from within.

There are three ways in which we can responsibly receive communications from god: by giving deliberate thoughtful attention to the incarnation By identifying ourselves with the church, and by means of bible revelation. God gave himself in the incarnation; he gives himself to the church; and he gives himself in his word; and these are the ways he has ordained for conveying his life to us. The mere reading of the word of god has power to communicate the life of god to us mentally, morally and spiritually. God makes the words of the bible a sacrament, i. E. , the means whereby we partake of his life, it is one of his secret doors for the com- munication of his life to us.

Co-ordination of our capacities for god

(Ephesians 3:1619)

Our whole being, not one aspect of it, has to be brought to comprehend the love of god. We are apt to co-ordinate our spiritual faculties only; our lack of co-ordination is detected if we cannot pass easily from what we call the secular to the sacred. Our lord passed from the one to the other without any break; the reason we cannot is that we are not pressed on to the life of god. We have made a world within the world of our own which we have to guard jealousy: i must not do this and that; i must keep myself entirely here. That is not the life of god at all, it is not genuine enough; it is artificial and cannot stand the strain of actual life. There is no room in the new testament for sickly piety, but room only for the robust, vigorous, open-air life that jesus livedin the world but not of it, the whole life guided and transfig- ured by god. Beware of the piety that is not stamped by the life of god, but by the type of a religious experience. Be absolutely and fiercely godly in your life, but never be pious. A pi person does not take god seriously, he only takes himself seriously, the one tre- mendous worship of his life is his experience.

Concentrated centring on god

(Romans 8:3)

If we would concentrate on god we must mortify our religious self-will. Our lord refused to be self-willed religiously, and it was this that staggered the pharisees. We are self-willed religiously, consequently we tell god we do not intend to concentrate on him, we only intend to concentrate on our idea of what the saintly life should be, and before long we find that the pressing in of the life of god ceases and we begin to wilt. We are living a religiously selfcentred life and the communication of life from god comes no longer. We must beware of turning away from god by grubbing amongst our own experiences.

God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ: he expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal flesh. God engineers circum- stances and brings us into difficult places where no one can help us, and we can either manifest the life of Jesus in those conditions, or else be cowards and say, i cannot exhibit the life of god there. Then we deprive god of glory. If you will let the life of god be manifested in your particular human edition where god cannot manifest it, that is why he called you, you will bring glory to god. The spiritual life of a worker is literally, god manifest in the flesh