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The Key to the Missionary’s Work (2)

October 15th, 2014

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world —1 John 2:2


The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “. . . repentance and remission of sins should be preached . . . to all nations . . .” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins . . . .” The missionary’s message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or preferences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

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Journal Entry for Today

October 15 2014-JDV

Lord, whenever I hear “religious” words like sanctification, justification and propitiation, I wonder why they do not have the personal impact that other words like love; grace, faith, mercy have on me? I wonder why these words and concepts do not seem as personal to me. Should I spend more time learning about them, or understanding them?  Am I right to be distant from these words, or should I spend more of my spiritual energy learning about them?

And God says…”Translators and biblical scholars searched for words that would help explain the wonderful way for mankind, mired in wrong doing and wrong being,  to become connected to Me through Jesus. However in finding these words they often overlooked the heart in favor of the head. And as you know the real way for people to learn the Gospel is to see it lived out in an individual. When the very personal ways of love, grace, faith and mercy are lived out in you, these powerful and personal words have impact on others. However, your ability and opportunity to live out these words are possible because God provided Jesus as the substitute for your wrong being. And as a result you can now live the “God provided” abundant life by being connected to Jesus, curious about how I will answer your life questions, while you remain expectant and obedient. You can live out the life of a Christian not because of any good thing you have or will do, but because of the sacrifice of Jesus. And when you cannot and do not live out your life doing the right thing, the “propitiation of Jesus”, allows Me  to provide the grace and mercy necessary to overlook your wrong doing or wrong being. I do not see you and your wrong being or doing, I see Jesus. You do not have to be good enough; you simply have to accept Jesus and the abundant life provided by His sacrifice.”

 

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The Key to the Missionary’s Work (1)

October 14th, 2014

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ’All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .’ —Matthew 28:18-19

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . .” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”

“Then the eleven disciples went . . . to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, “Come to Me . . .”— that is the place to meet Jesus— “all you who labor and are heavy laden . . .” (Matthew 11:28)— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

“Go therefore . . . .” To “go” simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, “Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,” but, “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places].” He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . .” (John 15:7)— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus . . .” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

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Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth

October 13th, 2014

. . . when Moses was grown . . . he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens —Exodus 2:11


Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, ” ’. . . bring My people . . . out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ’Who am I that I should go . . . ?’ ” (Exodus 3:10-11). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, “Who am I that I should go . . . ?” We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words— “I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, “I know this is what God wants me to do.” But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.
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Journal Entry for Today
October 13, 2014
Lord, this is a good lesson for discovering the difference for knowing what must be done, and having the power….the power of the Holy Spirit to take action. In my life, I have often heard the calling very clearly and then I start out on my own power only to miss the intended mark. You have been teaching us to wait until we not only know what needs to be done, but to wait until we are full of Your power…AND to let You do the work, let You take the action. Even, or especially, when we know what it is we are to do, we are to wait on You Lord.

And God says…”Even when you know the next steps, even when you know exactly what must be accomplished, you must wait on My Spirit. Set your sights on the goal and leave the “how” to Me. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own ways and understanding and I will bring it to fruition. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart. Your responsibility is to simply be connected to Me, remain curious about how and when I will deal with the circumstance for you or on your behalf. Expect Me to act and then be obedient to Me when I do.  And if you cannot do these things, trust that I will do them for you. Believe, and know that I will help you in your unbelief.”

 

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Building on the Atonement

October 9th, 2014

. . . present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God —Romans 6:13


I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Once again we are reminded that our initial reactions to an event might be rooted in our carnal nature and would best go on the back burner while we retreat to a state of curiosity … to see what You are about in this circumstance. Asking the question, “where is the Atonement in this?” adds structure to the way to be curious. Once we connect with you and see, then we can rest in the grace that flows our direction and face the circumstance with love in our heart, remaining curious, while expectant. This seems to make so much sense. Why don’t I do it more? Why don’t all of us live this way more?

You are in process. But you are complete. I know it sounds contradictory but you are both. The confusion comes when you look at heavenly things with earthly eyes. Or analyze spiritual things with normal logic. You are on a good track … staying curious, looking for the Atonement. Just let it happen and receive the grace and the blessings I have for you. It makes me happy when you receive like that.

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Coming to Jesus

October 8th, 2014

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28


Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me . . . .” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come . . . .”“Come to Me . . . .” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me. . . .”
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Journal Entry for Today

October 8, 2014

Lord, once more we learn the lesson of connecting with Jesus; surrendering all else that we believed held answers for us. We surrender our families, spouses, careers, hopes and dreams as we learn that without You these things are not the treasures we thought. They can become part of the treasure you have for us, but only after we surrender them.  Thank You for continuing to show me these lessons.

And God says…”You must be willing to give up your families, spouses, careers, hopes and dreams when you come to Me. And as a good Father, I will not take them from you, I will give them even more purpose and meaning as you allow Me to live through you.  I came to give you life and life more abundantly, allow Me to do just that with the things you treasure most.  Once again this morning you can surrender your life to Me, acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart. I know this is not an easy task, but it is simple; simply imagine everything you hold dear, or want for your life in a  separately labeled package, and place it at the foot of the cross this day: Your family, your career, your spouse, your career, hopes and dreams. And in this act of surrender, know that I will treasure your treasures as a Father that loves you so very much.”

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The Nature of Reconciliation

October 7th, 2014

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. . .” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

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The Nature of Regeneration

October 6th, 2014

When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . —Galatians 1:15-16


If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit._______________________________________________________________

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

October 6, 2014

Lord, it was an epiphany for me when You were finally able, because of my surrender, to teach me that I was not supposed to make myself a better person. It was like a new dawn when I learned that it was not necessary for me to become a “good person” in order to belong to You.  The many times I tried and failed simply served to show me how far from You I truly was.  Then I gave up trying to become a better person, a man of character; someone that cared about others first. I gave up trying to think the right thoughts, do the right things.  And when I finally gave up, You were able to take over….bit by bit.

And God says…”You will come to a place in your life when you realize you cannot transform yourself, and My Spirit is not free to regenerate and transform you as long as you are attempting to do this for yourself. As Eugene Peterson translated Ephesians 2:8-10, “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. “

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. And when you cannot find the faith to trust and believe, trust that I can provide the faith, grace and mercy to bridge that gap, and help you when you lack faith and do not wholeheartedly believe. I know the good plans I have for you, plans for a bright future.  Trust in Me, and trust that you can do all things through Me.”

 

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