I love Oswald Chambers. He really makes me want to write! There is not a writer alive today who does that for me.
I've been wrangling with this devotion in My Utmost (Dec 17) ever since the first time I read it, which was probably on this day in 2008. Because it sounds like the Lord is doing something which I don't like when men do: Creating a need that people are largely ignorant of, or what Zig Zigler might call "selling". Zig Zigler, a Christian sales guru, doesn't see selling as most of us see it. He sees it as helping people with innovative things to make their life better. He sees selling things (even pots and pans) as a kind of service to humanity, and as the thing that has made America great (not to mention rich). He sees it as noble. And I think it is, when the salesman is noble and the product is noble.
Now, if God does this too, that is, helping us see that the one needful thing is what HE has to offer, that is His Gospel, and since He is certainly noble and his Gospel is of all things most noble, then it is a great service to mankind if WE take that gospel to people and "sell" it to them---and I don't mean charging them money, I mean "closing" with them.
Should this be our understanding? OC seems to agree. He says, quoting from Jesus,
"Ask and it shall be given you," but God cannot give until a man asks. ... By means of asking, God gets processes into work whereby he creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time...Yes, it makes us into new creations, and creates joy and peace in us, and life and wisdom and righteousness, all things that are not within us until we ask and He creates them. In fact, they are not within us because what IS there is the gaping need we cannot even see, because we've learned to live with it. I think OC is trying to argue that the Gospel creates the need. But I think rather that the lack of redemption---the fact that we are lost---IS the need, and that it is created by our sin and fallen nature.
So the Gospel doesn't so much create need as it identifies the need for which it is the one and only true satisfaction. But for the sake of discussion, we'll call this process "creating need". Everyone does this nowadays. Doctors cook up new labels for practically nothing, so that people who sneeze a lot or have dry eyes think they are sick, and then go out and spend money on drugs. Advertising is huge in America, perhaps even bigger than manufacturing! It's maddening, really, to have so much junk mail, spam, and a continuous barrage of commercials while watching House, MD. What can a body do?
Well, for one, get the one thing that is needful, that is, Jesus Christ and his Gospel, into your heart. Then all the other junk that distracts us is shown for what it is, just junk. And then make THIS your passion... become a salesman for Jesus. Again, I don't mean to make money, I mean evangelism. You know, come to think of it, it's been years since I saw a real evangelist. They had one in Chicago named Greg Laurie, but I wasn't able to be there and see him. There certainly aren't any here in Virginia... that I'm aware of. I know one in Raleigh (Jonathan). These days all my desire is to get out and preach the Gospel, esp. on the university grounds. But I seem to lack faith or courage. It is probably conviction that I lack, the strong conviction that this gospel is THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, and that everything else I do is "meaningless, meaningless" by comparison, and not even worthy to be compared to it.
What can I do to get this conviction and courage and empowering of the Holy Spirit to be an evangelist, a salesman for Jesus? Where can I go to find this strength? I know for sure it only comes from Jesus, and that He has promised it to those who wait for Him. But his command is "GO". And as we go, to preach (Mark 16:15), make disciples (Matthew 28:19) and be his witnesses (Acts 1:8).
Father in Heaven, soften my calloused heart to receive your Spirit and power, that I may courageously go and give Jesus to a world that desperately needs Him, but doesn't even know Him. Despite our riches, Americans are spiritually destitute and our land wasted and ruined. Please open my mouth, and their hearts. IJNA
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