Meditation Chip Brogden

Today's meditation is taken from:
I Know Whom I Have Believed
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/know.html
"I know Whom I have believed" (II Timothy 1:12ff).

A certain brother was always emphatic about what he believed until someone with equal or greater argument confronted him. This occurred one day and someone pointed out several supposed "errors" in the Bible. This caused the brother to be very alarmed. He went to an elderly sister and informed her of these alleged errors and wanted to know her opinion. She simply stated that the knowledge of God did not depend upon the answering of these questions.
He thought, perhaps not to you, but to me it is important! So he spent the next year investigating what this other person had told him and found it to be untrue. But, had he simply known God He would not have found it necessary to study the whole thing and reason it out. The elderly sister was right, the knowledge of God did not depend upon the answering of those questions. If you know Who, knowing what and why become less significant.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
I Know Whom I Have Believed
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/know.html
"As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions" (Romans 14:1).

My children are immature, but I cannot expect them to be anything other than immature so long as they are children. I am lovingly committed to their long-term growth. In the same way, let us not despise the spiritually immature or the weak in faith. Instead, the Word tells us to receive them and watch over them. For those of you who are further along, never forget how many years of God's dealings it took to bring you to the level of experience you take for granted today.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
The Hidden Christ
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/hidden.html
"While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him" (Luke 24:15,16, NASB).

You see that Christ is revealed or hidden from men as He so desires. So many professed disciples of the Lord Jesus fail to recognize Him. The Lord tells them to go to Galilee, but they go to Emmaus. Many people sitting in church would not discern the Lord Jesus if He walked up the aisle and sat down on the altar. They are not really His sheep, therefore they cannot hear His voice, and they do not know Him.
Even His closest disciples are prone to doubt and unbelief. After the resurrection, Thomas declared, "I will not believe unless I see the scars and put my hand into the wound in His side." When Jesus therefore appeared to them He did not argue or try to convince Thomas. He simply said, "Behold! Look! See my hands and my feet!" When Thomas saw the Lord, he spontaneously cried out, "My Lord, and My God!" This is revelation. Revelation does not require any arguing or convincing, as if it all depends on how well we can make a defense of the Gospel. I see no argument in the Lord Jesus, I only see Him. Seeing Him, I am convinced, and no argument is necessary.

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Good morning!
Today's meditation is taken from:
One Flock, One Shepherd
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/one.html
"I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep, and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My Life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They will hear My Voice, and there will be One Flock, and One Shepherd" (John 10:14-16).

Jesus plainly said, "I am the Good Shepherd." In John 10 He tells us the difference between the Good Shepherd and the hireling. He even says that ALL who came before Him were thieves and robbers. That's why God sent the Son to Shepherd the flock for Him. No one else is worthy. Apart from Him we are all hirelings. We just love ourselves too much. In the same way that no one is worthy to open the seal and read the contents of the scroll except for Christ, so no one is worthy to shepherd the flock of God but Christ. The Lord declared that He would tend the flock Himself, and so He has done so and is doing so through the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
Is Jesus Enough?
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/enough.html
"After they had eaten, Jesus asked Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these other things?'" (John 21:15).
When the simplest disciples grow tired of "just" being with Jesus, and begin to long for something bigger, something better, something greater, something more powerful, something other than what they have in Jesus already, then they are saying that Jesus is not enough. If Jesus was all you had, would Jesus be enough for you? Or do you have to have all the "trappings" of Christianity, all the bells and whistles, all the toys and trinkets?
Make no mistake: there is no life in the things that are ABOUT Jesus. There is life only in Jesus Himself. May I speak candidly? If you are dissatisfied and disappointed with your Christian walk today, it is only because of one thing: Jesus is not enough for you. Somewhere along the line, something else became more important than Jesus. Maybe you have become focused on the things ABOUT Jesus that are NOT Jesus.
There is only one solution. You do not need more of the Lord, because He has already given Himself completely to you already. You just need less of everything else.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
The Ministy of One-Anothering
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/oneanother.html
"For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
Let me explain how the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus relates to our work and ministry in the Lord. It is summed up in this maxim: God will not LEAD you where His grace cannot KEEP you. That is to say, when we undertake the work assigned to us by the Lord we will find the Life of the Lord is present to give us all the inner spiritual strength to see it through to completion.
I am not saying everything will go smoothly and you will never have any self-doubt or fear. Far from it. But listen to what Paul says: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (II Corinthians 4:8,9). His secret? "I labor according to His mighty power which works in me" (Colossian 1:29). Not I, but Christ. This is the secret to the Christian life and it is the key to all fruitful spiritual work.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
Gathering: But Not For The Better!
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/better.html
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 12:32).
Jesus said if HE is lifted up then HE will draw all men to HIMSELF. Instead, we lift up religion and draw all men into an institution.
Are we suggesting that Christians should never go to church or have fellowship with others? Of course not. But we ask, can fellowship only occur in the context of a church meeting? Once we realize that our fellowship is supposed to be based on a relationship with Jesus, not a relationship with "church", we will discover that there are more opportunities for fellowship OUTSIDE the local church building than there are INSIDE.

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Today's meditation is taken from:
The Remnant Principle
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/daniel3.html
"[Nebuchadnezzar] answered and said, Lo, I see FOUR men loose, walking about in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25).

Overcomers are those upon whose bodies the fire has no power (Daniel 3:27a). Put them in the fiery furnace and they are not consumed, only refined, only purified. It only makes them that much more conformed to the image of the Fourth Man, the Son of God, the Lord Christ.
The fire has no power over them because the fire has no power over Him, and there He is in the midst. They do not seek the fiery furnace, but neither do they shrink from it when it comes. They do not ask for temptation and testing, but they are not afraid of it. They do not look for the devil behind every rock, but when they find him they demonstrate the preeminence of Christ over all things and call for his submission to Him. This is the Testimony of Jesus and the ministry of the Overcomers.

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January 30, 2009
Today's meditation is taken from:

Gathering: But Not For The Better
by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/better.html
"Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).

Jesus did not say where the two or three had to be gathered together. He did not specify a church building or a living room meeting. And He did not say how many times a week they had to be gathered, or if the gatherings had to be structured or unstructured, open or closed, inside or outside.

By establishing His Presence in the midst of a group so small as two or three, Jesus repudiates our fascination with large numbers. Anyone can gather a crowd if you tell them what they want to hear. May I say that a large group has no more of the presence of Jesus than a small group. The numbers are irrelevant. Either Jesus is in the midst, or He is not. If Jesus is not in the midst of us then having a large group of people will not compensate for Him not being there.

I would rather sit on the living room floor with three people and have Jesus in the midst than sit in a service with three thousand people where Jesus is nowhere to be found. Of course, Jesus can sometimes be found in large groups of people, but as my wife says, He tends to get lost in the crowd.



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Today's meditation is taken from:

The Secret of Spiritual Power
by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/power.html
"The meek are blessed, because they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

The way of the world says that in order to be stronger, we must build ourselves up and seek strength and dominance over others. Christians everywhere are keenly interested in how to be increased, how to be stronger, how to take authority, how to rise up, how to get more. They look for methods, formulas, and techniques for becoming bigger and better. The results have been disappointing. Many mistakes have been made and many people have been hurt and disillusioned.

The Lord has a different approach for us to take. He invites us to accept weakness in order to be strengthened. We do not become strong by embracing strength, but by embracing weakness! This is the secret of all spiritual power. When Paul learned this secret he was able to say, "When I am weak, then I am strong" (II Corinthians 12:10b). This makes no sense to the natural man. I do not remember ever hearing anyone begin a teaching on spiritual warfare with this verse. It is no wonder, then, that these teachings never seem to produce any lasting fruit.



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January 27, 2009

Today's meditation is taken from:

The Remnant Principle
by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/daniel3.html
"There is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (Daniel 3:29b).

The Lord reveals Himself to us when we are at our end, when the fire burns the hottest. When we have reached the end of our ourselves then He intervenes. He is committed to us there in the fire, because we are committed to Him outside the fire. As we have stood for His Will and His Kingdom in a state of universal compromise, darkness, and deception, so He will stand with us in our state of temptation, testing, and trial.

Towards what end? That the preeminence we have been proclaiming may be demonstrated. He will rise to the occasion and prove Himself faithful.



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January 25, 2009

Good afternoon!
Today's meditation is taken from:

The Remnant Principle by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/daniel5.html
"Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God." (Daniel 6:11).

Something should be driving us to pray. There should be some unction, some inner compulsion, to seek God, to seek Him early, and to seek Him often. If that is not our daily experience then something is wrong.

Perhaps we have grown complacent, or comfortable, or cold. Whatever the reason, vision is the cure. If we have truly seen God's Purpose we cannot just go along as before. It will consume us. A person with a small vision will pray small prayers. Daniel is a man of huge vision, and so he prays large prayers.



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Good afternoon!
Today's meditation is taken from:

All Things In Christ
by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/allthings.html
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).

All things were created by Him, and everything was created for Him. For Him! Why this earth, the moon, the stars, the galaxies? Why the animals, the birds, the fish, the insects? Why men and women, angels, cherubim, and seraphim? For Him! All for Him!

God's original thought is for Christ to fill every created thing with His Life, Love, and Glory. A design implies a Designer, a plan implies a Planner, and a creation implies a Creator. We are not drifting along aimlessly, and we did not come into being by accident. We were created by Him, and we were created for Him. We were created to love Him, and to be loved by Him



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Today's meditation is taken from:

The Hidden Wisdom by Chip Brogden

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/wisdom.html
"God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty" (I Corinthians. 1:27b).

To the natural way of thinking, power and weakness are opposites. That is, in order to have power, we must eliminate weakness. The Wisdom of God teaches us differently. This Wisdom tells us that the weak things are chosen to overcome the mighty things, and power works concurrently with weakness.

God desires to give you power, but that power only comes through weakness. Any power not obtained through weakness is illegitimate, no matter how spiritual it appears. The only legitimate power is granted to those who have been made weak. Power is birthed in weakness. Many exude a certain "power", but there is not the corresponding weakness. Hence, the power only gives them an occasion for boasting. To remedy this, God has ordained that all who would have His power must first be weakened and made empty - we refer to this as being "broken". The purpose of weakness and suffering is to open the way for His Power. The instrument God uses to weaken us is the Cross. Therefore, the Cross is power through weakness.



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January 20, 2009
Good morning!
Today's meditation is taken from:
From Revelation to Revolution
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/revolution.html
"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this Book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:10-12).

We see here a further polarization between the righteous and the unrighteous, a very pressing conflict between those who will stand for God's Will and God's Kingdom, the preeminence of Christ, and those forces at work that would render powerless the Testimony of Jesus by keeping the saints focused on the natural, the flesh-and-blood, the carnal, and the temporal; particularly those elements and factions within the Church itself that do not accurately represent the heart and mind of God, but claim to.
Organized Religion claims to represent Christ in the earth, but if that representation is faulty then it is almost as bad as having no representation at all, and in many respects it is preferable to the enemy, for now he is able to distort God as God and reduce Him down to the level of our own vain imagination. The Testimony of Jesus does not consist of what we think or say about Jesus; it is the revelation of Christ as He IN FACT IS. To manifest HIM as He is, in life as well as words, is to properly bear the Testimony. The problem is that the Church claims to have the Testimony of Jesus when they are in fact representing something which is NOT Jesus, but is actually far removed from the revelation of Christ.
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January 19, 2009
Good morning!
Today's meditation is taken from:
The Priests of the Lord
by Chip Brogden
http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/priests1.html
"And there was one Anna, a prophetess... a widow eighty-four years old, who never left the Temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day" (Luke 2:36,37).
There in the Temple, Anna ministered to the Lord. She never wrote a book, never had a website, never conducted a meeting that we can tell. All in all it seems to be a very passive existence, the sort of "waste" that makes us want to criticize her for not being more useful. Anna the prophetess should be "doing" something. But how many of us consider prayer and fasting to be serving God?
We cannot repeat often enough that for too many people, prayer and fasting is a way to serve THEMSELVES, or to get God involved in THEIR cause. We have a need, so we pray, and if the need is critical and we become desperate, then we will fast. This may be appropriate in some situations, but it is not necessarily serving the LORD. It may be done to bring about OUR will, but it is not necessarily motivated by a desire to minister to the Lord, to see His heart satisfied, and to see His Need met.
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