Oswald Chambers, 1874-1817
“We hear it said that Jesus Christ taught nothing contrary to common sense: everything Jesus Christ taught was contrary to common sense. Not one thing in the Sermon on the Mount is common sense. The basis of Christianity is neither common sense nor rationalism; it springs from another centre, viz. a personal relationship to God in Christ Jesus in which everything is ventured on from a basis that is not seen.”
–Oswald Chambers
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“One must be a great man indeed to be able to hold out even against common sense.”
“Or else a fool.”
–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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“The warrior of God is not the man of muscle and a strong jaw, but the man of un-utterable weakness, the man who knows he has not any power; Jacob is no longer strong in himself, he is strong only in God, his life is no longer marked by striving, but by reliance on God. You cannot imitate reliance on God.”
–Oswald Chambers
The Road 
I love that, thank you! Common sense and even reason are subjective things, defined by the limitations of the human brain. Quite simply, we don’t know what we think we know. Faith really does ask us to suspend disbelief and trust in things unseen.
Insanitybytes22: It was not common sense when the Lord told Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him unto the Lord. (Genesis 22: 1-2: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”) All of the hitchhiking that I have done in the United States doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to most people, but it has been God’s will for my life.
God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We are here to obey Him. If we don’t understand something that He has revealed to us, we need to wait on Him and He will reveal it to us in His time.
“Faith, Revelation, Obedience”
https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/faith-revelation-obedience/
>>God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We are here to obey Him. If we don’t understand something that He has revealed to us, we need to wait on Him and He will reveal it to us in His time.
So true!
This is so perfectly said!! Love the way others can ‘grab the words’ from me that I did not even know I had! 😉
Amen. Oswald Chambers had great depth and communicated very well in words. Chambers was a real gift from God to the world.
Jesus’ common sense was sensible but not common.
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Thank you, brother, for all the so-true, crucial reminders from Oswald Chambers, Leonard Ravenhill, and Dostoyevsky. They speak a lot of the truth that will set us free.
The reason that so often what we believe is logical or common “sense” is actually nonsense, is because it’s coming from our carnal mind instead of from the Holy Spirit. “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6) The wisdom of man is foolishness to God.
“No longer judge anyone [even ourselves, nor any situation] from a natural point of view.” 2 Cor. 5:16
Tragically, far too many believers–and all of us at times–are actually listening to our carnal (fleshly; natural) mind without realizing it.
But most of us (including me for most of my life) are unaware of this truth because we were never taught these vital truths: that we still have a carnal mind; it died in Christ with our old selves but it and the devil are always trying to get us to resurrect it by agreeing with it/him; how to differentiate between it and the mind led by the Spirit; how to “renew our mind” and take every thought captive, as Paul admonished us to do. As someone (Norman Grubb?) has said, we humans foolishly think that we are completely independent actors and thinkers, rather than always being influenced and directed either by God or the devil–through our own and others’ thoughts, opinions, judgements, and feelings.
Grace and shalom, brother!