Wise words from Great thinkers

God did not direct His call to Isaiah—Isaiah overheard God saying, “… who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “… who will go for Us?”

However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”

Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard—”the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.” (From his book My utmost for His highest)

“My Utmost for His Highest”^[1]amazon.com  ISBN-10: 1572937718 & ISBN-13: 978-1572937710 was first published in 1927, and has remained continually in print ever since. Thousands of people have been blessed and challenged as they have regularly read this daily devotional.

Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1874, the youngest son of a Baptist minister. While studying at the University of Edinburgh (1895-96), he decided, after an agonizing internal battle, to study for the ministry. He left the university and entered Dunoon College, near Glasgow, where he remained as a student, then a tutor for nine years. During the last decade of his life, Chambers served as YMCA chaplain to British Commonwealth 

Oswald Chambers’ wife Gertrude Hobbs was gifted in Pitman shorthand and could take dictation at the phenomenal rate of 250 words per minute – faster than most people talk!

After Oswald’s death, from shorthand notes of Oswald’s classes, sermons and lectures Mrs Chambers transcribed and published books and articles. Most successful of the thirty books was My Utmost for His Highest a daily devotional composed of 365 selections of Chamber’s talks, each of about 500 words. The work has never been out of print and has been translated into 39 languages. Biddy died in 1966, knowing that she had fulfilled the ministry which God has entrusted to her.