Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it (John 13:37). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” (John 13:38). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (seeMark 9:1-29). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “. . . I have called you friends. . . .” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.

 

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June 16, 2014

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, sometimes I just do not understand the message, or lesson You are teaching me. Is the lesson today that I should give up my life? That I should dedicate myself to You working at the difficult task of giving up my life to You? I have tried that Lord, over and over and over again, only to find that I cannot measure up. I grit my teeth, reach down into the boundaries of self-discipline, dedicate myself to a renewed effort of being a better Christian, and then…….. fail one more time.  Who can save me from this never ending cycle of failure? How can I stay committed and actually do the right things, and be the person You want me to be all the time?

And God says…”There is only one person that could and can do the right things all the time, and that is Jesus. He can and does all the right things for you, in your stead. Let Jesus be your guide, your substitute, just as He was and is your substitute on the cross. The Gospel is NOT for you to come to know Jesus, and then operate on your own, trying and failing (or even occasionally succeeding) to live the life as outlined in the scriptures. The Gospel is that Jesus, is your life, identify with Him, be connected to Him, and He will make all your paths straight. He has already saved you from the need to be perfect, or even “good”; because you can never be “good” enough. Let Him live through you and when you fail, let His grace cover you, while you remain connected, curious and committed allowing Jesus to transform you into His likeness.”