Notwithstanding in this rejoice not … , but rather
     rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

     — Luke 10:19,20

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don’t rejoice in successful service,
but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in
Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the
fact that God has used you. You never can measure what God will do
through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your
relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in,
and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water
through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it.
When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and
sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by
God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around
you, you will fulfil God’s purpose, as long as you keep in the light
as God is in the light.

The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the
people who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make
usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that
ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Him self, not estimated
usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not
what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds in a man’s life is the
relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to
glory.

On this day...

• The gradual effects will be monumental - 2011
• Be You - 2011
• Accountability in knowing the Truth - 2010
• Famous Christians - 2009
• Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections - 2009
• Ezekiel 33:22 - 2008
• Song of Solomon 4:12 - 2008
• THE AUTHORITY OF REALITY - 2008