David Black asks (Friday June 29, 8:05 AM), “How about you? Do you read Chambers?” Why yes, yes I have. I’ve written quite a few posts about him or mentioning him on this blog. I read his classic My Utmost for His Highest about three times and my copy is as tattered as my Bible, which may not be a good thing, which I’ll get to below. I also read his other two devotionals one time each and his quirky little book on The Sermon on the Mount. David Black links to a post titled Rediscovering Oswald Chambers by Alvin Reid, which is a good introduction with good advice.
There aren’t many people who can get to the truth of a foundational matter in such a concise and profound way as Oswald Chambers. He is always pointing to Christ. I think he was also ahead of his time in what I call ‘real spiritual psychology’, similar to Martin Lloyd-Jones.
A friend of mine has the Complete Works of Oswald Chambers which is a hardcover book of over 1500 pages of his works and includes a CD with all of that on it plus videos of his life. He loves it. I would think for $25, anybody who is a fan of his would want this.
For many years, during my time alone with God, I read my devotional, prayed, reviewed memorized Scripture, and sometimes worked on a booklet for group Bible study. Each devotional reading has a verse with it, although I think most of them were added after the fact. I was unknowingly practicing ‘a verse a day keeps the devil away’ except for when I got the bug to read more, either the Bible, a book, or both.
But after I realized the paucity of this practice, I shunned devotionals altogether. Many years later, through what God started to do in me, I started to have such an increased desire to know Him that I started reading voraciously. I think I also got a little tired of Chambers. I’ve gone back to devotional type reading, taking a look at Deeper into the Word: Reflections on 100 Words From the New Testament by Keri Wyatt (I got the Kindle edition for 99 cents) when I remember to do it. I may start reading Calvin’s Institutes as a devotional, someday The Lord by Romano Guardini, a great Catholic scholar which I read quite a few years ago and is on my ‘to read again’ list. I would think MacArthur’s Drawing Near: Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith would be pretty meaty. I’m also considering doing the M’Cheyne Bible-reading schedule along with D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, which I quoted from in a blog post. I think that would be the way to use a very good devotional like that one. And I should revisit My Utmost for His Highest.
Thank you for asking the question and giving me the idea for this post.
Also see:
Oswald Chambers: You Are Not Your Own by Randy Alcorn