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.______________________________________________________________________

October 7 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord, and thank You for this day, and for the teaching today and yesterday. When I wanted to defend myself and “make myself heard”, You made it clear that part of surrender and connection was the opportunity to surrender my right to “be right” with other people. Even though I may have been right, You showed me that it did not matter, and moreover You showed me that I even had to let go of the potential of my “future rightness” to be an issue of potential pride. I could not do one of those…”Well, wait till they see reality…they’ll remember that I was right!” Your Spirit would not let me, You reminded me about surrender. Left at the foot of the cross, I could surrender my right to myself to You, and know that this was only possible by the power of your Holy Spirit.

And God says…”You are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. This occurs as the Holy Spirit is allowed to live through you. This can only occur when you are truly and totally surrendered. When you chose to advocate for yourself, I cannot. When you take charge of your life, I cannot, when you hang onto your safeguards I cannot make you feel safe. When you choose to defend yourself, I cannot. It is only when you come to the end of yourself that I can live through you. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, do not rely on your own ways and means, and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require. You need only be “right” with Me , and that comes only through surrender. I love you so much, I want you to feel free to make the choices for your life….And I love that you choose surrender. ”