…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
___________________________________________________________
November 13 2015
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Lord, thank You for this devotional and the time and space to open my mind and heart to the Holy Spirit’s leading. But Lord, Chamber’s guilt ridden admonitions just seem out of place with what You have been teaching us. Today Chambers leads his students to believe they are guilty if they are not totally and faithfully committed to You all the time. He says… We must break out of our own little world, ….We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices…All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear!,,, Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
I mean whoa Lord, are these words and guilt hooks what You want used for making us into the likeness of Christ? Are these kinds of words and notions you want used to move us into surrender and connection?
And God says…”As we discussed earlier in the week, the reason I use flawed men and women like Moses, David, Abraham, Isaac, Solomon, Sampson, Rahab, Martha and Mary and you is that flawed humans are all I have to work with. It is not unusual for Me to show a believer a sliver of wondrous truth and righteousness, designed just for him or her, and have them run willy nilly off and try to share it with everyone around them. It is not unusual for a believer to experience a wonderful process for surrender and connection and then try to turn it into a denomination, religious leverage and or cult. Most surrendered and connected believers living in the blessings of connection and curiosity want others to share their experience, however, their experience, and your experience will be different. You do not need to go off and try to share your surrender and connection experience, it will simply flow from you like a natural spring. Others cannot help but notice. And you know that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding, methods, or power of persuasion, and I will make your paths straight. Your role is to simply surrender and be connected and live out of that. I will take care of everything else. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus and His righteousness, and I will provide everything else you require.”
