While you have the light, believe in the light . . . —John 12:36

Cast your burden on the Lord . . . —Psalm 55:22

Death no longer has dominion over Him. . . . the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God . . . —Romans 6:9-11

Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. But once we do decide, the full life of God comes in immediately. Jesus came to give us an endless supply of life— “. . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Eternal life has nothing to do with time. It is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here, and the only Source of life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning, Lord.
I like the music today, it was the best I could find on the topic. But it only captures half of the deal you offered us with your sacrificial death. It captures the ransom, the rescue, the undeserved love so amazing, and the source of all our hope. But it doesn’t mention what Oswald focuses on today. That we must totally identify with your death in order to totally grasp the life you offer. Meaning a total death to sin and our old carnal “natural” selves. ie Pick up the cross daily. I searched, but couldn’t find any songs about that part. … Then I re-searched and found this one, which captures more of what Oswald is saying today. It boils down to what JD has been saying … It’s all about Surrender! Thankyou.

Only now that I inserted the second song and took a final look did I notice the similarity of the images used in the 2 videos. It’s appropriate … perhaps because the songs are two sides of the same coin? Your supreme sacrifice and totally free love gift … and what it takes on our part to walk in the blessings that you’ve freely provided. Oswald summarizes this little discussed side of the equation … “any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us”

If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection . . . —Romans 6:5

….our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6

Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified—just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.

Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, “Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.

This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.

Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . .” (Galatians 2:20).

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4 15 12 Journal, DJR
Good morning, Lord,
Thank you for the many ways you speak to me and show me things. This last Easter week was full of metaphor. I hadn’t been bothered by predators for several months, then Satan came to my house Saturday, in the form of a fox. In broad daylight he slaughtered one of my 3 red hens and hauled her off. Then around midnight I went to check on the girls and both remaining red hens were gone. One was laying there 20 feet from the coop, cold and dead, torn up and eviscerated … but not eaten. I was devastated. My chicken raising operation had been wiped out … down to one black chicken that Abigail calls Strawberry Shortcake? I went to bed sadder than I’d been in a long time.
Sunday Morning I heard a chicken outside and went to greet Strawberry. To my surprise and joy, there was my last red hen. She had escaped the fox attack and had survived out in the forest all night. What an Easter surprise. It was like she had risen from the dead. Thank You.
The comparisons gave me lots to think about. In every case your pain, anguish, sacrifice and return was infinitely greater … but this personal loss helped connect me to you and your sacrifice.
Like the fox, Satan left you earlier … for a more opportune time.
Like the fox, he comes to kill, steal & destroy.
Like my dead chicken, the tomb was cold and dead on Saturday night. And like Mary, I was devastated … because we didn’t see the future.
Like Mary, on Easter Morning, I had joy at the return of what had been stolen.
Like the prodigal, that which was lost has been found. We must rejoice.
Like the fox, Satan is my adversary. The fox wants my chickens. Satan wants my friends and family. I will stay vigilant against him on both counts.
Like Satan, who, If he had known … would not have crucified the Lord of Glory … that fox didn’t know that his actions have raised my counter measures to a higher level.
Thanks for all these lenses that provide different views into your sacrifice of this last week. For sure they are imperfect, but essential comparisons. Us humans, me at least, need this personal experiential stuff to help us connect to the spiritual realities. An experience like this does not make your death and resurrection more real … but it makes it more real to me. Thank You.

 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them . . . —Mark 16:12

Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.

You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).

Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.

O could I tell, you surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can you receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?

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April 9, 2012

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Jesus you are Savior, the way, truth and the source of my transformation. You have become my joy, truth and my light. I ask You to make me in Your image and do not stop shaping me until I am transformed into the very image of You. Thank You for your sacrifice and the grace, mercy and power that comes to us as a result.

And God says…”You are now learning that the transforming part of the believer’s life does not come without a cost. You are reshaped and transformed from the inside out by circumstances, trials and difficult times. These trials, circumstances, and difficult times drive you to the time and place where you finally surrender all of yourself to Me. Right inside of these trials you learn to praise and worship Me. You learn to trust and obey, relying totally on the Holy Spirit to provide the direction and guidance for your life. Trust in Me with all your heart, and do not rely on your own control, efforts or understanding, and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of heaven, which is Jesus, and I will add all the other things you need to your life.”

He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead —Mark 9:9

Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples . . . . ’Stay here and watch with Me’ —Matthew 26:36, 38

We can never fully comprehend Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but at least we don’t have to misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and man in one Person, coming face to face with sin. We cannot learn about Gethsemane through personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary represent something totally unique— they are the gateway into life for us.

It was not death on the cross that Jesus agonized over in Gethsemane. In fact, He stated very emphatically that He came with the purpose of dying. His concern here was that He might not get through this struggle as the Son of Man. He was confident of getting through it as the Son of God— Satan could not touch Him there. But Satan’s assault was that our Lord would come through for us on His own solely as the Son of Man. If Jesus had done that, He could not have been our Savior (see Hebrews 9:11-15). Read the record of His agony in Gethsemane in light of His earlier wilderness temptation— “. . . the devil . . . departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). In Gethsemane, Satan came back and was overthrown again. Satan’s final assault against our Lord as the Son of Man was in Gethsemane.

The agony in Gethsemane was the agony of the Son of God in fulfilling His destiny as the Savior of the world. The veil is pulled back here to reveal all that it cost Him to make it possible for us to become sons of God. His agony was the basis for the simplicity of our salvation. The Cross of Christ was a triumph for the Son of Man. It was not only a sign that our Lord had triumphed, but that He had triumphed to save the human race. Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being has been provided with a way of access into the very presence of God.

Journal DJR
Good Morning, Lord
I agree with Oswald that we will never totally understand all of what went on at Gethsemane and Golgotha. It seems essential that Jesus suffered as Son of Man. But the Son of God. I guess there’s just no way for a non-God to totally understand that?

There are 4 lenses that will help you understand. Son of God and Son of Man are each experienced by Jesus the Son, and by God the Father. You have friends who have lost children. The grief is tremendous. As Father, I lost a son, my first born son, and as God I lost my Partner. As Man Jesus went thru all that every martyr has gone thru, and as God, He experienced Seperation and Hell.

It’s a lot to think about. Thank you for this Easter Week and the opportunities to “get it” a little bit more each time we celebrate it.

Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you will be scattered . . . —John 16:32

If you had known . . . in this your day, the things that
make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes —Luke 19:42

Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there-the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god-not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known . . . .” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut-doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
You have taught us how to recognize the strange god which comes through various forms of self & lust … But staying out of it’s clutches … that is still a challenge. We are so hardwired and pre-disposed to go astray. The more we walk closely with you, minute by minute, the better things go, and the less doors we miss. Do you have any tips to increase that ratio? And decrease our running amuck?

There are many tips … but only the cross … (pick up your cross daily) has the power to turn a fallen human into one who thinks my way all the time. When the old you is dead, and stays dead, then you can live at a high level and we will have a great time together. That is the way. Practice it, and when you fall and run amuck, get back to me quickly. You know how to do that. And I will always be there for you.