Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves . . .” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.

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June 1, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Just as I think I have graduated from immature Christian to mature believer, or have been promoted from Private Christian to corporal or sergeant…perhaps even Colonel Christian, I go and do something really off the way…..

Then as I am chiding and condemning myself, asking for your grace and forgiveness, You send me a lesson and song like this, reminding me that You love me anyway. You remind me that your grace is an ocean and I can drown in it if I choose. I may not be able to choose to always be obedient and faithful even as I try my very hardest. But I can choose Your grace.

And God says…”Whenever, whatever, however you find yourself, you can always choose Me. There is no need to be separated from Me, even when you “do something really off the way”. You can be immediately restored. When you are immediately restored through confession and repentance, and are connected to Me you allow Me to once again (and again, and again, and again….) to live and love through you, changing you from the inside out. If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just and will forgive you… and purify you. There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Trust in Me and recall Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans… Romans 7:22-28 -It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.