Archive for September, 2010

The Awareness of the Call 9-29-2010

September 28th, 2010

The Awareness of the Call

September 29, 2010
. . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16

We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called.The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural—something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.”

At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through—”I chose you . . .” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.

If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”

He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.

If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.

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September 29, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

There is a keen sense of peace and well being that emerges as I focus and look to Jesus.  This sense of peace and well being is not because the circumstances and difficulties of life have disappeared, nor because all my prayers have been answered. I simply become aware that everything is as it should be as I focus and stay connected to Jesus. And I know that as I am focused on Jesus, as I stay connected, I am right in the middle of His will.

And God says….”Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. You can delight yourself in the Lord and capture the very things your heart cries out for; peace, hope, love and faith. These fruits are not dependent on your circumstances. They are by products of your delight in the Lord. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own designs and plans and I will make your paths straight.”

THE “GO” OF UNCONDITIONAL IDENTIFICATION 9-28-2010

September 27th, 2010

The “Go” of Unconditional Identification

September 28, 2010
 
Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’ —Mark 10:21 
 
 

The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26  has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

“One thing you lack . . . .” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.

“. . . sell whatever you have . . . .” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “. . . come. . . and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.

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September 28, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Sometimes when I feel disconnected from God, I wonder what I might have done wrong, what have I allowed to get in the way of the intimate relationship that is essential to love, peace, joy, hope and rest?

And God says…”Sometimes you seek the fruits of your relationship instead of the relationship only. When there is only Jesus in your eyes and heart, everything else will follow. However, when you seek the fruits of your relationship, you put the fruits ahead of Jesus. The fruits and blessings follow the relationship. Seek Jesus and rest. All else will follow……..Seek first the kingdom of God”

The “Go” of Renunciation 9-27-2010

September 27th, 2010

The “Go” of Renunciation

September 27, 2010
. . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57

Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.

Luke 9:58 . These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “. . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.

Luke 9:61 . The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but . . .,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.

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September 27, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Knowing You are there gives me the strength to step off in unknown directions leaving all that is safe and familiar behind. It seems that You have removed everything else that I have held onto so that I can only hang onto You.

And God says…”You cannot hang onto anything else but Me. When you try to find comfort or reassurance in other familiar things you find I have let go. Take hold of Me and let Me provide all that you need. When you become familiar with MY reassurance and MY strength you will find nothing else will satisfy you. But you must let go of everything else from which you think you find strength and courage.  Trust and obey and find faith, love, hope and that you are complete in Me”.

The “Go” of Preparation 9-24-2010

September 24th, 2010

The “Go” of Preparation

September 24, 2010
 
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift—Matthew 5:23-24 
 
 

It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparationand more preparation.

The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. “. . . go your way. First be reconciled to your brother. . . .” The “go” of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it—confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, “I will not give up my right to myself”— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

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September 23, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I often struggle with the thoughts about how and when will I allow Jesus to live through me….all the time, without failing over and over? When and how will I be able to trust all the time, hope all the time, and love all the time? How can I do this? I seem to fail all too often.

And God says…”It is not something to learn, or something you learn. Allowing Jesus to live through you is not natural, but you can become a reflection of Jesus as you pray without ceasing. When you pray without ceasing, and focus on Jesus, you find you can trust, hope, and love all the time. This occurs supernaturally as you focus on Jesus.”

 “You will reflect Jesus all the time when you leave this life and live eternally. Here in this life, you are being shaped and molded by the Holy Spirit so that there is always less of you and more of Me. Your nature will always be there in this life, but Jesus saves you from this nature as you trust and obey. And even the ability to trust and obey are gifts from me. Pray without ceasing and you will find hope, faith, love and direction.”

”And when you fail as you surely will? Reflect on the grace and mercy from Jesus that covers you even as the rain.”

The Missionary’s Goal 9-23-2010

September 23rd, 2010

The Missionary’s Goal

September 23, 2010
He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ —Luke 18:31

In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?”. . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . .” (Ephesians 4:13), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.

In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.”

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matthew 10:24). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our “Jerusalem.” There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going “up to [our] Jerusalem.”

“. . . there they crucified Him . . .” (Luke 23:33). That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation. The saints, however, do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, “I too go ’up to Jerusalem.’ “

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September 23, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I sense freedom and at the same time I am a little apprehensive about letting go of all my preconceived ideas about spirituality and religion and simply focusing on Jesus.

And God says…”He is the way the truth and the light. Regardless of the question, He is the answer. He is the answer to your all your questions. How you shall live, grow, stand against adversity, and how you shall love and worship Me. You are not to wonder what happens next or how to deal with this trial or that burden. Jesus came to give you life and life more abundantly He came as your victorious Shepherd. He is victorious, and so are you when He lives through you. Stay connected to Jesus and everything else falls into place; your life, ministry, family, work, and future are in Jesus.”

DJR Journal 9 23 10

This familiar quote from Jim Elliott came to our mind today.

And we would add from what we have been learning … that it is only available thru connection with Jesus.    And we also saw in today’s lesson the value of a clear mission … to keep us on track in times of temptation to react to the ups and downs of daily existence.   This is parallel to the business world where a clear mission/vision will assist us in decision making.   Jesus had this clear mission and stayed true to it.   Same with us,  in life and business,  It is the “overspray” of staying true to mission that generates fruit and good works,  almost as a “by product” rather than something that we strive for and measure.    That’s what the Pharisees did and they didn’t get good marks from Jesus.


The Missionary’s Master and Teacher 9 22 2010

September 22nd, 2010

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . .—John 13:1316




To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “. . . for One is your Teacher, the Christ . . .” (Matthew 23:8).

Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.

“You call Me Teacher and Lord . . .”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the wordsSavior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word.The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “. . . though He was a Son,yet He learned obedience. . .” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it—a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.

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September 22, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

It is an interesting lesson to learn that we are to do nothing except let Jesus live through us. It is a very different process, this resting and trusting; knowing that God has already met all our needs in Christ Jesus. It is a paradox and requires unlearning a great deal while learning that in striving and trying to trust God, I let my “self” into an equation where it cannot exist.

I ask God to make me more and more aware of His victory already in place for the world and my life. I ask Him to live through me and make me aware that to trust and obey Him is a privilege. I begin to know that whatever He has in store for me is the very best there could be for my life……..and the very best He has provided becomes ever more blessed as I make myself available for Him to touch others through me.

And God says…”There is no trying in the sanctified lie. It is an effortless existence when you die to yourself-and Jesus lives through you. The evidence of living a sanctified life is not in the blessings you receive or even the blessing you become to others. The evidence of a sanctified and connected life is the peace that surrounds you as you take up the weightless yoke of Jesus, and trust that He is already victorious; He meets all your needs and will meet many needs of others through you. Praise Him, and His victory over all that you need……. and worship Him. Everything you need I have provided in Him.”

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose 9-21-2010

September 21st, 2010

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose

(And We Are All Missionaries)

September 21, 2010
Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant . . . —Isaiah 49:5

The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances— we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree. And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, namely, that He created us for Himself. This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do is force the interests of the whole world through the channel of our hearts. The love of God, and even His very nature, is introduced into us. And we see the nature of Almighty God purely focused in

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world. . . .”

We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt. A missionary is created for the purpose of being God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. Once we realize that it is through the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands. He demands absolute righteousness from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life

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September 21, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Once again I read Oswald Chambers and find I am lacking the strength and discipline to measure up; all the time. Oswald says that God demands the absolute righteousness of God from me because He has put the nature of God into me. So if I do not live like the absolute righteousness of God is in me all the time….what is wrong? Am I a believer; a weak believer, or simply a man without the strength or courage to demonstrate God living in me?

And God says…”You are weak, but I am strong. You cannot meet My demands for the righteousness of Jesus. However, Jesus can and does meet My demands for absolute righteousness, and you are covered with His righteousness as you allow Him to live through you. Do not focus on your own shortcomings or your inability to demonstrate Jesus all the time, instead focus on Jesus and you will never see your shortcomings, and neither will I.”

DJR Journal 9 21 10
Good morning, Lord. I heard many years ago a brother complaining that reading Oswald too much will make you crazy. … Either a Pharisee if you think you are succeeding in meeting the “demands” of God or on a serious guilt trip all the time if you acknowledge that you aren’t and cant measure up. I think the brother missed it by only considering those two alternatives in and either or manner. The best advice I got on balancing “Be ye perfect” with the real “body of death” that I walk around in came from David Peck who suggested that we consider what have been called the 10 Commandments as “10 Suggestions” I love that advice and it has helped me greatly … but it did get me kicked out … oh well, Paul, Peter, Jesus and other good company makes me not worry.  Too much.

What you are saying is a truth for grown-ups. Children need structure. But children in the Spirit can grow thru those phases pretty quickly, much quicker than you would think … into the freedom of responding in love instead of obligation to follow the structure with its check boxes etc.
Last week it got clear to me that disciplines are good, but they are not the thing to monitor. As that will make a Pharisee.    Rather monitor my joy and peace especially in trying circumstances. If those and a few other gages on my spiritual dashboard are good…. then the disciplines aren’t broke – so dont worry about it. If the peace meter idiot lite is blasting, I might want to take a look and change something….
It’s a good way to live, its how I lived and you can too.

The Divine Commandment of Life 9-20-2010

September 20th, 2010

The Divine Commandment of Life

September 20, 2010
 
. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect —Matthew 5:48
 

Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.

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September 20, 2010

Journal Entry for Today

Life can keep me all wrapped up in my own little world, focused and worried about my own concerns and those of the people I know and love. I can be so inwardly focused that I sometimes forget that God can only live and move through me when I am in His will; focused on Him and loving my neighbor.

And God says….”You are perfect as you allow Me to live through you reaching out to others. Jesus gave you but two commandments; love your God with all that you are and love your neighbor as yourself. When this is effortless and natural you are perfect as God is perfect, and this occurs when you are connected to Me and thereby connected and reaching out to others

His Temptation and Ours 9-18-2010

September 18th, 2010

His Temptation and Ours

September 18, 2010
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin —Hebrews 4:15
 

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.

Is There Good in Temptation? 9-17-2010

September 17th, 2010

Is There Good in Temptation?

September 17, 2010
 
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man . . . —1 Corinthians 10:13

The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal— it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else–what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations–He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16).

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September 17, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Sometimes when I read Oswald Chambers I feel so inadequate. He talks about temptation, and how it can be a good thing, but he does not talk about succumbing to temptation. He writes about the spiritual discipline we need to grow, but he leaves out the “how.” He often talks about how we must serve others, and I find myself just serving myself. He seems to set the bar pretty high for me sometimes.

His devotionals often make me feel “less than”, much like the sermons I grew up hearing. Back then I just gave up and quit trying to be a Christian. If I couldn’t keep all the rules and maintain discipline over my thoughts and behavior then it must not be for me. Maybe all this “stuff” was and is for people that can be disciplined and “good”.

And God says…” No one is good. I don’t grade on the curve. My standards are 100% holiness all the time. You cannot reach that goal regardless of your discipline. You cannot change yourself into the man you need to become……regardless of your study, discipline or self control. You cannot even get a little better.

You can become “good enough” when you let Jesus live through you. You are “good enough” when you allow Jesus to provide 100% of the holiness I require. Does this mean you give up living a “good life”, trying to be a “good person”? Not necessarily. But it does mean that the “good life” you live is a life lived by Jesus through you, and the changes that become a part of your life are brought about by Jesus.

You can “give up” trying to live right and simply allow Jesus to live right through you