The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ….” He did not say, “I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will really make an effort to follow Him” —but— “I have been identified with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.“…it is no longer I who live….” My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.“…and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh— the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God….” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits— a faith that comes only from the Son of God.____________________________________________________

March 21 2016

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord and thank you for this day and this devotional. Once more we read Chambers’ words and fit them into the lessons You keep teaching us. Where he says we are to give up the right to ourselves, our rights to look good, feel good, be right and be in control, we read this as surrender; a daily and issue by issue decision to give our lives over to You, to let go of our rights to our own ideas, motivations and perceptions. We have experienced the “peace that passes understanding” when we do this, and long for ways to stay in this surrendered condition.

And God says… “When you surrender yourself to Me, as Chambers writes, “It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits— a faith that comes only from the Son of God.” You make one decision to surrender your life to Me when you become My child. Then you face many, many decisions, opportunities and challenges over the course of your lifetime. As these challenges, trials and opportunities appear, you can leverage your intellect, experience, education, and instincts to address them or you can surrender them to Me. You can use your own understanding or mine. You can seek control, your own ideas of the “right outcomes” or you can choose to live a great new adventure, and trust in Me with all your heart. What part of your relationship with Me is asking me to give you control and the outcomes you desire, and what part of our relationship is trusting Me and being willing to step out into great adventures where you have no control or leverage? Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight.”