The Line Of Christ

Daily Devotional for August 21, 2023

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. (John 15:4 NIV)

He has chosen us from the foundation of the world in Christ. He has selected One in whom we shall find Him, and in whom alone we shall find Him. All the forces of hellwill be at work, in the first place, to keep us out ofChrist. They rage to prevent people coming intoChrist, and when once they have come in, these forcesare unceasing and relentless in their efforts to getthem off the ground of Christ, on to things possibly,or on to any other ground. There is an immense meaning in Christ's word: "Abide in Me... except yeabide in Me..." (John 15:4). It is a warning,governing word. Where and how shall we find theLord? Only on the line of Christ, where Christ'sinterests are the object of our being here, where it istrue "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).You find the Lord there. Get off that ground, be drivenoff, be allured off, and you lose the Lord. It is there, onthat ground, that the explanation of the Christian life isfound. It is on that line that the very purpose forwhich we are created will have its out-working. It ison that line that we shall find Divine guidance.

This Divine law of God's way has many practicalapplications in the life of the Christian. How manyspiritual tragedies we have known brought about byhuman selectiveness apart from the first and supremeinterest of Christ. It might be the choice of residence,location, for instance, for reasons of convenience,pleasure, escape, or seeming necessity, as in the caseof Abraham to which we have referred. No less aquestion than having the Lord with us is bound upwith such choices and decisions. We cannot move offthe Lord's ground without the consequence ofspiritual disaster. How costly it was in the case ofElimelech! If Christ is the Way, the Directive; then He is theExample. How meticulously careful He was not tomove, or be moved by any consideration but thedirective of the Father!Many motives were put to Him for action andmovement, but He abided in the Father, and, oftenat great cost, refused other considerations.

Bible Verses: John 15:4 Philippians 1:21

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Open Windows messages have been selected and compiled by Austin-Sparks.Net from the works of T. Austin-Sparks. In some cases they appear in abridged form. The introductory verse and its associated Bible version have been selected by the editor and did not always appear within the original message. In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

Editor's Note

Through the years of our publishing books and articles on Austin-Sparks.Net, we have talked of wanting to compile a series of excerpts similar to Watchman Nee's "A Table in the Wilderness," published by Mr Sparks' son-in-law, Angus Kinnear. We felt that not only would shorter daily excerpts be easy to digest, but they might also inspire readers to read a complete message or book that they may not have read before. This project began in January 2010 when we began to send out daily messages to the Daily Open Windows email list. These continue to be sent daily in email form from Austin-Sparks.Net.

As many of you will be aware, Mr Sparks was from Scotland. He, therefore, used British spelling in his writings; however, many transcripts of his spoken messages have since been published using American English. The website reflects a mixture of both British and American spelling, but for the sake of consistency, all excerpts in this book conform to American spelling and punctuation.

Due to these daily messages being excerpts, they are abbreviated and some have had unnecessary words removed, such as "here this evening...." Also, some daily messages are a compilation of several excerpts from one original message. This is usually indicated with a pause in the text: .... and a reference to the complete source document is always provided. You will also notice that different versions of the Bible have been selected for verses that precede each daily message. Sometimes these Scripture references appeared within the context of the original message, but mostly these have been chosen by the editor with, we trust, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As you look through these "open windows" we pray that you will not only look out and see Christ, but you will also hear Him and open the door of your heart so that He can "eat with you daily" (Rev. 3:20). Our desire is that these messages will not simply be "inspiring," as daily devotional messages often set out to achieve, but also challenge you; lifting your vision, opening your eyes, revealing Truth, bringing Life and Light, and enabling you to let go of misconceptions. Light is not always welcome when it first shines into the darkness that our eyes are accustomed to. However, Light is absolutely necessary in order to see. And so we pray that through these messages your eyes will be opened (Eph. 1:18) and we will together "see one thing – how superior is Jesus Christ to all else!"

Austin-Sparks.Net
Wellington, NZ

Open Windows by T. Austin-Sparks

This devotional contains short daily portions from a selection of Mr. Austin-Sparks' messages. In his own words, “Perhaps this is just like a window opened into heaven. If you get the right window you can see quite a lot. You can see great things and you can see far things. But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!”

Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888–1971), often known as "Mr. Sparks" or "TAS", was a British Christian evangelist and author.

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