These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “. . . for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .”

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?

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November 3, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Sometimes in my desperation to find answers and solutions for the issues I confront daily, I forget the one single event that provides all the answers; the cross. Sometimes when I find myself searching for God’s brilliant and timely rescue I overlook the fact that He provided all the answers at the cross in Jesus Christ. Dear God, please help me to look to the cross of Jesus for all my answers.

And God says…”When I said I am the way, the truth and the light, I was responding to all questions. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own way of thinking and I will make all your paths straight. Whatever the question, look to Me. I will always provide the lamp for your feet……..and the faith that is required for our relationship will light your path a step at a time’’.

Our Lord never insists obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

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November 2, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I sometimes wonder where God is when I need to be near Him. I call out and He does not answer me. Where is He? What has happened? And then I realize that He is holding me in His arms and there is no need for dialog.

And God says…”Seek and you will find, I am with you always, nothing can separate you from my love. Sometimes I do not respond to your cries for help because I know just how safe you really are, and I am allowing you to come to learn it as well.”

……A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”   They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:37-41

There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?

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November 1, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I do not know exactly why we must be broken over and over until we are conformed into the likleness of Jesus. However, I do know that the pattern of being broken can become familiar to the point that we know God is shaping us, and we begin to understand that He brings the courage ,strength and patience essential to the change.

And God says…”When you open your heart to Me and ask Me to come in and live with you, there is a fair amount of “housecleaning” that needs to be accomplished. Your self reliance, notions about pleasure and pain and self must be eliminated. The Holy Spirit within you can and will grow and consume you from the inside out as your natural state is broken and discarded.”

“Seek first the Kingdome of God…..Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways….and remember a broken and contrite heart I will not ignore”