Thursday, February 5, 2009

White Funeral

I found a book at my sisters... "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. It's technically a daily devotional, but I was completely blown away and so I'm going to type out something I read today..


DO YOU WALK IN WHITE?

"Buried with Him...that...even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral"--the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," a death that has only one resurrection--a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life, it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him.
Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying--"baptized into His death."
Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance--"Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God."
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? 
The moment of agreement depends upon you.

3 comments:

  1. No way! I definitely read that on the 15th of January...I have it sitting next to my bed so I can read it before I doze off in slumber..

    But wow, this convicted me a lot when I read it. Especially that last statement.

    Thanks for putting this up, April...such a good reminder to know that our old life has gone and the new has come...we are a new creation!

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  2. The first verse that flings itself to the front of my mind is Galatians 2:20

    My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

    Oswald, what a guy :)

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  3. I love that book! You can read it online daily at http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php I really enjoy what Chamber has to say- he is a very wise man of the Lord and knows how to communicate clearly and eloquently.

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