Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

Another year to read Oswald.

Many years ago, we used to go to a very remote place on vacation.  It was 600 acres of redwoods in Northern California, occupied only by the couple who had homesteaded it.  But out there, in the middle of nowhere, I met an incredibly godly woman.

Married to an unbeliever, (who she thought was a believer when she had married him,) living miles away from anything in a house they had built themselves, she sought God every day, all day.  He was her passion and all that sustained her through a very, very difficult life.

I used to look forward to talking to her when we went to visit.  She was the first person I’d met who really only wanted to talk about God.

Once when we went I gave her my Oswald Chambers' book, thinking she would really enjoy having new insights to read.  Weirdly I found I missed my copy, so when I went the next time, I got it back.

She had used it for a while, but her life was so demanding, and she had so much Bible reading she wanted to do that she said she didn’t have time to read it every day and give it the attention she felt it deserved, so she didn’t want another copy.   But she had used mine for a while, highlighting favorite parts and writing her thoughts in the margins of the page.

Here are her thoughts on today’s:

Today’s passage ends “If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably” she added “by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We can’t accomplish the verb ‘surrender’ we must ‘yield’ to the Spirit and He will do It in us. Even to ‘yield’ we must ask the Holy Spirit to this for us.

Then in the margin she wrote: “I thought this way most of the year 2003 but towards the end I came to realize we have our part to do and then God will have His part He will do.  There are ‘verbs’ we must accomplish.”

I remember having that talk with her, she was so adamant we could do nothing, and that God did everything.  (She knew far more about the Holy Spirit than I did.)  But I was equally adamant that God expected us to do our part and then He would do His. 

Years later I found the supporting text for my opinion in 2 Peter 1, where Peter writes that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness and we need to work and add to that gift.

But I have also come to understand what she was saying.  At the time the Holy Spirit was a fuzzy concept to me, the third part of the Trinity, words on a page.   Now He is real and alive, and I know His power lives in me. I can do nothing without His help.

We all grow and change, we all learn, that is the process of the Christian faith.  But we quit growing the minute we think we know it all.

Love,
Jill