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“<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE”
MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Jim & Marie Watt</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email:
<a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></font></p>
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<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Web: <a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
November 13, 2011</p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"><br></p>
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“<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>PREACHING” – From
“Disciples Indeed” – Oswald Chambers - March 15, 2007 </b></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">These
lectures were given to students in the sermon class at the Bible
Training College, in London, between 1911 and 1915</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Because
of the give and take nature of the class, Oswald’s lectures were
short and practical. Rather than giving a detailed process to follow
in sermon preparation, he sought to motivate students to think,
study, and prepare. He often stressed that the behavior and words of
the person who preaches are inseparable.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>FOREWORD
– </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Oswald Chambers
was above all else a teacher of spiritual truth. Our Ascended Lord’s
promise was to give His Church “some to be … teachers; for the
perfecting of the saints” (Ephesians 4:11 RV). This book contains
messages spoken by such a teacher, full of wisdom and instruction in
righteousness. Teachers call for learners. Some of us who heard the
spoken word became humble and eager learners. Many who never saw or
heard the speaker are learning from him now. In a recent letter the
writer said, “It is not generally known how these books came into
being, and the time seems favorable for revealing God’s providence
in it all.” Oswald Chambers received his Home-call in 1917 when
working with the Y.M.C.A. among the Troops in Egypt. It seemed like
the end of a fruitful ministry. Then it was that Mrs. Chambers
realized that her custom of taking down in shorthand her husband’s
lectures and addresses for her own profit had left her with a great
store of spiritual wisdom which could be shared with the wider world
by the printed page. So began a remarkable ministry of spreading in
book form the original spoken words. As the writer of the
above-mentioned letter says, “The whole matter is a sheer miracle,
especially as the only planning has been God’s.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> DISCIPLES
INDEED, the latest book to be issued, speaks for itself. Other
volumes show by the outlines and headings given what careful
preparation was made for every spoken message. But often the
spontaneous word of a Spirit-filled man, whether the subject was
Christian Doctrine, Psychology, Biblical Ethics or Homiletics, would
be added, and appear in the shorthand notes. Many of these not
included in the earlier publications are printed here. They touch a
wide range of subjects, and take us to the heart of Oswald Chambers’
message. They make this book a kind of VADE MECUM of sainthood.
– David Lambert</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>PREACHING
– </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">A personal
testimony feeds you from hand to mouth; you must have more equipment
that that if you are to preach the Gospel.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
preacher must be part of his message; he must be incorporated in it.
That is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit did for the disciples.
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost He made these men living
epistles of the teaching of Jesus, not human gramophones recording
the facts of His life.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> If
you stand true as a disciple of Jesus He will make your preaching the
kind of message that is incarnate as well as oral.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> To
preach the Gospel makes YOU a sacrament; but if the Word of God has
not become incorporated into you, your preaching is “a clanging
cymbal” (RV); it has never cost you anything, never taken you
through repentance and heartbreak.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> We
have not to explain how a man comes to God, instead of bringing men
to God, that hinders; an explanation of the Atonement never drew
anyone to God; the exalting of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified does
draw men to God (see John 12:32).</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>REMEMBER,
YOU GO AMONG MEN</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>AS
A REPRESENTATIVE OF JESUS CHRIST.</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">The
preacher’s duty is not to convict men of sin, or to make them
realize how bad they are, but to bring them into contact with God
until it is easy for them to believe in Him.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> No
man is ever the same after listening to the truth; he may say he pays
no attention to it; he may appear to forget all about it; but at any
moment the truth may spring up into his consciousness and destroy all
his peace of mind.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
great snare in Christian work is this – “Do remember the people
you are talking to.” We have to remain true to God and His message,
not to a knowledge of the people; and as we rely on the Holy Spirit
we will find God works His marvels in His own way.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>LIVE
IN THE REALITY OF THE TRUTH</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>WHILE
YOU PREACH IT.</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Most
of us prefer to live in a particular phase of the Truth, and that is
where we get intolerant and pigheaded, religiously determined that
everyone who does not agree with us must be wrong. We preach in the
Name of God what He won’t own.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> God’s
denunciation will fall on us if in our preaching we tell people they
must be holy and we ourselves are not holy. If we are not working out
in our private life the messages we are handing out, we will deepen
the condemnation of our own souls as messengers of God.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>OUR
MESSAGE ACTS LIKE A BOOMERANG;</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>IT
IS DANGEROUS IF IT DOES NOT.</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> A
good clear emotional expression contains within it the peril of
satisfactory expression while the life is miles away from the
preaching. The life of a preacher speaks louder than his words.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> There
is no use condemning sensuality or worldly-mindedness and compromise
in other people if there is the slightest inclination for these in
our own soul.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> It
is all very well to preach, the easiest thing in the world to give
people a vision of what God wants; it is another matter to come into
the sordid conditions of ordinary life and make the vision real
there.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Beware
of hypocrisy with God, especially if you are in no danger of
hypocrisy among men.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Penetration
attracts hearers to God, ingenuity attracts to the preacher.
Dexterity is always an indication of shallowness.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> A
clever exposition is never right because the Spirit of God is not
clever. Beware of cleverness; it is the great cause of hypocrisy in a
preacher.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Don’t
be impatient with yourself, because the longer you are in satisfying
yourself with an expression of the Truth the better will you satisfy
God.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Impressive
preaching is rarely Gospel-preaching: Gospel-preaching is based on
the great mystery of belief in the Atonement, which belief is created
in others, not by my impressiveness, but by the insistent conviction
of the Holy Spirit.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">There
is far more wrought by the Word of God than we will ever understand,
and if I substitute anything for it, fine thinking, eloquent speech,
the devil’s victory is enormous, but I am of no more use that a
puff of wind.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
determination to be a fool if necessary is the golden rule for a
preacher.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> We
have to preach something which to the wisdom of this world is
foolishness. If the wisdom of the world is right, then God is
foolish; if God is wise, the wisdom of this world is foolishness (see
1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Where we go wrong is when we apologize for
God.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> If
you are standing for the truth of God you are sure to experience
reproach, and if you open your mouth to vindicate yourself you will
lose what you were on the point of gaining. Let the ignominy and the
shame come; be “weak in Him.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Never
assume anything that has not been made yours by faith and the
experience of life; it is presumptuous to do so. On the other hand,
be ready to pay the price of “foolishness” in proclaiming to
others what is really yours.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> People
only want the kind of preaching which does not declare the demands of
a holy God. “Tell us that God is loving, not that He is holy, and
that He demands we should be holy.” The problem is not with the
gross sinners, but with the intellectual, cultured,
religious-to-the-last-degree people.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> All
the winsome preaching of the Gospel is an insult to the Cross of
Christ. What is needed is the probe of the Spirit of God straight
down to a man’s conscience till his whole nature shouts at him,
“That is right, and YOU are wrong.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> It
is the preacher’s contact with Reality that enables the Holy Spirit
to strip off the sophistries of those who listen; and when He does
that, you find it is the best people who go down first under
conviction.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> A
great psychological law too little known is that the line of appeal
is conditioned by the line of attraction. If I seek to attract men,
that will be the line on which my aggressive work will have to be
done.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> To
whom is our appeal? To none but those God sends you to. You can’t
get men to come; nobody could get you to come until you came. “The
wind blows where it lists, … so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Many
of the theological terms used nowadays have no grip; we talk glibly
about sin, and about salvation; but let the truth be presented along
the line of a man’s deep personal need, and at once it is
arresting.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Some
of us are rushing on at such a headlong pace in Christian work,
wanting to vindicate God in a great Revival; but if God gave a
revival we would be the first to forget Him and swing off on some
false fire.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Don’t
exhaust yourself with other things.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Beware
of the devil of good taste being your standard in presenting the
truth of God.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> “Wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16);
that is the way we do know men – according to our common-sense
estimates. The man who knows God has no right to estimate other men
according to his common-sense judgments; he has to bring in
revelation facts which will make him a great deal more lenient in his
judgment. To have a little bit only of God’s point of view makes us
immensely bitter in our judgment.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Beware
lest your reserve in public has the effect of God Almighty’s decree
to the sea – “Hitherto shall you come, but no further.” I have
no business in God’s service if I have any personal reserve; I am
to be broken bread and poured-out wine in His hands.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> If
you are living a life of reckless trust in God, the impression given
to your congregation is that of the reserve power of God; while
personal reserve leaves the impression that you are condescending to
them.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> We
should give instruction unconsciously; if you give instruction
consciously in a dictatorial mood – you simply flatter your own
spiritual conceit.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Have
you never met the person whose religious life is so exact that you
are terrified at coming near him? Never have an exercise of religion
that blots God clean out.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Remember
two things: be natural yourself, and let God be naturally Himself
through you. Very few of us have got to the place of being worthily
natural; any number of us are un-worthily natural; that is, we reveal
the fact that we have never taken the trouble to discipline
ourselves.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Don’t
be discouraged if you suffer from physical aphasia; the only cure for
it is to go ahead, remembering that nervousness overcome is power.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Beware
of being disappointed with yourself in delivery; ignore the record of
your nerves. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Learn
to be vicarious in public prayer. Allow two rivers to come through
you: the river of God, and the river of human interests. Beware of
the danger of preaching in prayer, of being doctrinal.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> When
you preach, you speak for God, and from God to the people; in prayer,
you talk to God for the people, and your proper place is among the
people as one of them. It is to be a vicarious relation, not the
flinging of theology at their heads from the pulpit.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Always
come from God to men; never be so impertinent as to come from the
presence of anyone else.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> How
do interruptions affect you? If you allot your day and say, “I am
going to give so much time to this, and so much to that,” and God’s
Providence upsets your time-table; what becomes of your spirituality?
Why, it flies out of the window! It is not based on God; there is
nothing spiritual about it; it is purely mechanical. The great secret
is to learn how to draw on God all the time.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Whenever
you are discovered as being exhausted, take a good humiliating dose
of John 21:15-17. The whole secret of shepherding is that someone
else reaches the Savior through your heart as a pathway.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>BEWARE
OF MAKING GOD’S TRUTH SIMPLER</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>THAN
HE HAS MADE IT HIMSELF.</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> By
the preaching of the Gospel God creates what was never there before,
namely, faith in Himself on the ground of the Redemption.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> People
say, “Do preach the simple Gospel;” if they mean by “the simple
Gospel” the thing we have always heard, the thing that keeps us
sound asleep; then the sooner God sends a thrust through our stagnant
minds the better.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> If
any man’s preaching does not make me brace myself up and watch my
feet and my ways, one of two things is the reason – either the
preacher is unreal, or I hate being better.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> A
joyous, humble belief in your message will compel attention.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Sermons
may weary – the Gospel never does.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u><b>NOTE:</b></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
Did the thought occur to you as you read the above – “This seems
as if I am reading an extension of the Book of Proverbs?” Good! –
Then it will have the power to grip us, motivate us and shape us.
Though it is directed to those called to preach – yet we can all
pray for all preachers. What a difference answered prayer on this
line will make in our churches! </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> “The
Complete Works of Oswald Chambers” was published by Discovery House
Pulishers in 2000 and is available through Christian Book
Distributors, Alibris or Amazon. It contains 50 books, prepared
posthumously by his wife Biddy. Jim Watt </font>
</p>
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