We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.

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July 6 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord. The first thing David said regarding this devotional was …”do not doubt in the dark what you have seen in the light”. Oswald Chambers says “Let the Potter put you on His wheel and whirl you as He desires”. And Lord, we know that when we are surrendered to You, and connected by the Holy Spirit, we can live joyfully, not because our circumstances have necessary turned all around, but because we know You intimately. When we are surrendered and connected, we just know and feel that You are in control and all things work for the good of those that love the Lord. We know that You have come to give us life and life more abundantly. Without seeing any physical evidence, we just know…You are God and the vision you gave us will not tarry.

And God says…”When I give you the vision, you can be certain it will come to pass. “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”…  How do you know the vision is from Me and not from your own imagination; or an idea from another person or source? How can you trust the vision to be real? I have shown you how to be surrendered and connected intimately with Me in prayer. Just go to your private prayer place, imagine your vision, the roadblocks, and all the conflicting issues claiming they are more powerful than the vision I gave you….then place them surrendered at the foot of the cross. Wrap your concerns, conflicting voices, and your thoughts that you are not worthy into little wrapped presents and present them to Jesus at the foot of the cross in your mind. Then as you feel the powerful and intimate connection of the cross, begin to ask yourself “I wonder how God will deal with this. I wonder how God will meet my needs. I wonder how God will bring the vision to reality. Be curious. And when you find you cannot muster the faith to be curious and faithful, recall that because of Jesus and the cross,  I can and will provide the grace to give you that faith.  You believe and I help you in your unbelief. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you need, including the faith necessary to bring your vision to fruition.”

When I come into the very presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense, but I suddenly realize and the focus of my attention is directed toward the concentration of sin in a particular area of my life. A person will easily say, “Oh yes, I know I am a sinner,” but when he comes into the presence of God he cannot get away with such a broad and indefinite statement. Our conviction is focused on our specific sin, and we realize, as Isaiah did, what we really are. This is always the sign that a person is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but a focusing on the concentration of sin in some specific, personal area of life. God begins by convicting us of the very thing to which His Spirit has directed our mind’s attention. If we will surrender, submitting to His conviction of that particular sin, He will lead us down to where He can reveal the vast underlying nature of sin. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously aware of His presence.This experience of our attention being directed to our concentration of personal sin is true in everyone’s life, from the greatest of saints to the worst of sinners. When a person first begins climbing the ladder of experience, he might say, “I don’t know where I’ve gone wrong,” but the Spirit of God will point out some definite and specific thing to him. The effect of Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of the Lord was the directing of his attention to the fact that he was “a man of unclean lips.” “He touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged’ ” (Isaiah 6:7). The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.

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July 3, 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, perhaps I missed the point here in this devotional.  Over the past 2 to 3 years You have been teaching us to forget about “sin management”. In fact we have learned to not spend any time at all working on our faults; that if we surrender and stay connected to You, the Holy Spirit will transform us in areas of our lives over time. And that has been our experience. You have pointed out areas that need attention, convicted us, and then told us to not give those areas any power by worrying or fretting about them….that You will deal with them. Here Oswald Chambers spends a lot of time talking about how we must manage our behavior. One of our readers sent this note to us this week; Many Christians are “saved by grace” and then enter into a “sanctification by works” mentality.  It’s grace all the way!  But never lacking consequences for the bad choices we make.  I’ve come to believe these consequences are the purifying fire He walks through with us… to bring us to what He wants us to be.

And God says…”There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. As Paul points out in Romans 7, Christ has already dealt with your sins…all of them; past present and future. Listen to what Paul is saying; “Who will save me from this awful condition? It has already been done by Christ Jesus. “

“You are often pulled into a state, where you believe you are responsible for changing your own life because you want to trust something you can see, touch and feel. You want to “see” the change in yourself, you want to take charge of your life and turn it around in certain areas. Or you think you need to think and act differently, as a believer. But true surrender means that you let go of all of it; the sin, the cause and effect, and your own inability to start and sustain a lasting change. Trust in the Lord with all our heart and do not rely on your own ability to manage your life and behavior, and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you need, including your transformation. And when there are gaps in your behavior, as I told Paul, My grace is sufficient.”

If the closest relationships of a disciple’s life conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ, then our Lord requires instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person— our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause— He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted bondservant motivated by love for the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not truly devoted to Jesus Christ. No one on earth has this passionate love for the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Spirit has given it to him. We may admire, respect, and revere Him, but we cannot love Him on our own.

The only One who truly loves the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and it is He who has “poured out in our hearts” the very “love of God” (Romans 5:5). Whenever the Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify Jesus through you, He will take your entire being and set you ablaze with glowing devotion to Jesus Christ.The Christian life is a life characterized by true and spontaneous creativity. Consequently, a disciple is subject to the same charge that was leveled against Jesus Christ, namely, the charge of inconsistency.

But Jesus Christ was always consistent in His relationship to God, and a Christian must be consistent in his relationship to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to strict, unyielding doctrines. People pour themselves into their own doctrines, and God has to blast them out of their preconceived ideas before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

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July 2 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord. This scripture is one mom and I spoke about Saturday morning as we discussed the devotional about cutting off the right hand if it offends you and causes you to sin. Once again we have hyperbole to get our attention with a teaching that tells us a true disciple will hate his mother and father. But then I find many scriptures that tell us to love one another. The second and last commandment given us by Jesus was to love my neighbor as myself….after the commandment to love God with all my mind, heart and soul.  Why are you telling us to hate members of our family?

And God says…”Jesus taught in parables and used extreme hyperbole to get the attention of his followers. This lesson was even more difficult to hear and accept in those days than it is now. In the time of Jesus and in the Middle East family is everything. Three and four generations of family live together, and if you were told to abandon a teaching by your family, most people would abandon the teaching in order to stay reconciled to the family that provides food , shelter, love, and acceptance.”

“In this scripture Jesus was teaching that nothing can stand in the way of your commitment to Jesus, not even the most revered institution of the culture. In your country and culture the family is more fragmented and dispersed: your extended family does not occupy the same house for generations anymore, and most often peer groups and friends may hold more power over ideas and commitments than family. But the message is the same; you cannot let anything get in the way of your relationship with Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus….and I will provide everything else you require…including the support of people close to you…Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. “

“When you make Jesus your first priority, surrender your life to Him and seek a supernatural connection, you can expect the Holy Spirit to lead you to and through the relationships you require to live an abundant life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own culture, institutions and understandings and I will make your paths straight. I will give you all the familial support you require and it may look like your family, or it may look like something even more magnificent. I will meet all your needs. I came to give you life and life more abundantly.”

 

There is no heaven that has a little corner of hell in it. God is determined to make you pure, holy, and right, and He will not allow you to escape from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit for even one moment. He urged you to come to judgment immediately when He convicted you, but you did not obey. Then the inevitable process began to work, bringing its inevitable penalty. Now you have been “thrown into prison, [and]…you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny” (5:25-26). Yet you ask, “Is this a God of mercy and love?” When seen from God’s perspective, it is a glorious ministry of love. God is going to bring you out pure, spotless, and undefiled, but He wants you to recognize the nature you were exhibiting— the nature of demanding your right to yourself. The moment you are willing for God to change your nature, His recreating forces will begin to work. And the moment you realize that God’s purpose is to get you into the right relationship with Himself and then with others, He will reach to the very limits of the universe to help you take the right road. Decide to do it right now, saying, “Yes, Lord, I will write that letter,” or, “I will be reconciled to that person now.”These sermons of Jesus Christ are meant for your will and your conscience, not for your head. If you dispute these verses from the Sermon on the Mount with your head, you will dull the appeal to your heart.If you find yourself asking, “I wonder why I’m not growing spiritually with God?”— then ask yourself if you are paying your debts from God’s standpoint. Do now what you will have to do someday. Every moral question or call comes with an “ought” behind it— the knowledge of knowing what we ought to do.

 

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July 1 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, once again it appears that Oswald Chambers takes a position that I ought to do this, or I ought to do that…as he continues to write and teach that there is more work to do to make me “flawless”. But You have been teaching us that the cross has made us “flawless”; that there is no more work to do; that I can add not one iota of value to the work of Jesus on the cross. So why would Chamber teach that we must be convicted and pay a penalty?….He urged you to come to judgment immediately when He convicted you, but you did not obey. Then the inevitable process began to work, bringing its inevitable penalty…..I thought the penalty was totally paid by Jesus.

And God says…”Chambers is describing the process I use to transform you. There are causes and effects in the world. And part of the transforming process includes allowing you the freedom to make wrong choices…and the scriptures have been very clear about causes and effects. When you make a wrong choice, you are subject to the effects of that choice. I do not keep score, because Jesus has paid for all your wrong choices; past, present and future. However the effects of those choices on your life remain. And I use those choices and effects to help mold and shape you. All things work for the good of those that love the Lord. Before Me you are flawless as I see Jesus and the cross instead of your wrong choices. And over time, you are being made into the likeness of Jesus, pure and spotless. Your actual life changes; you are being transformed, as you are surrendered and connected. As you allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your life. “

“As Chambers says….. God is going to bring you out pure, spotless, and undefiled, but He wants you to recognize the nature you were exhibiting— the nature of demanding your right to yourself. The moment you are willing for God to change your nature, His recreating forces will begin to work. And the moment you realize that God’s purpose is to get you into the right relationship with Himself and then with others, He will reach to the very limits of the universe to help you take the right road.”

In this verse, Jesus Christ laid down a very important principle by saying, “Do what you know you must do— now. Do it quickly. If you don’t, an inevitable process will begin to work ‘till you have paid the last penny’ (Matthew 5:26) in pain, agony, and distress.”

God’s laws are unchangeable and there is no escape from them. The teachings of Jesus always penetrate right to the heart of our being.Wanting to make sure that my adversary gives me all my rights is a natural thing. But Jesus says that it is a matter of inescapable and eternal importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him. From our Lord’s standpoint it doesn’t matter whether I am cheated or not, but what does matter is that I don’t cheat someone else.

Am I insisting on having my own rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ’s standpoint?Do it quickly— bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act immediately. If you don’t, the inevitable, relentless process will begin to work. God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to obedience. The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit of God so strongly urges us to stay steadfastly in the light! (see John 3:19-21).

“Agree with your adversary quickly….” Have you suddenly reached a certain place in your relationship with someone, only to find that you have anger in your heart? Confess it quickly— make it right before God. Be reconciled to that person— do it now!

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June 30 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord. This devotional struck home. In a conversation with a colleague yesterday, I made certain that I asserted my rights. I suspect that there is/was nothing wrong with setting and communicating boundaries to colleagues, friends and family, but I felt a bit conflicted and convicted after reading this devotional. Asserting my right “to be right” seems to be part and parcel of simply setting and reinforcing boundaries Lord.  Am I to be a “Harvey Milquetoast” and let others steal my rights? Don’t I have to “stand up for my rights?”

And God says…”Certainly you can stand up for your rights.  It is a part of your culture, your DNA. In fact you are about to celebrate a holiday that recognizes and remembers a fight for the rights of your citizens. But this scripture and lesson are designed to remind you that whenever you are engaged in a fight for your rights, make certain that your “fight” is a byproduct of surrendering your rights to Me. This devotional is about doing what is required to stay out of confusion, conflict, and court so that you will be free… and you can stay out of jail. But jail is not the issue. Many of my disciples have found themselves in jail because of their love of God. The caution here is that you not go to jail because of love of yourself and your rights.”

“”Your rights” in our relationship start with giving up your rights. Surrender your rights to be right, to be in charge, in control. Seek first the kingdom of God, and I will provide everything else you require, including protection of your “rights”. If God is for you who can stand against you? Acknowledge Me in all our ways; do not rely on your own position on issues and conflicts, and I will make your paths straight.”

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that “if your right hand causes you to sin” in your walk with Him, then it is better to “cut it off.” There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then “cut it off.” The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed.

There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do— things that would be sin for you, and would be recognized as sin by those who really know you. But the unspiritual people around you will say, “What’s so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!” There has never yet been a saint who has not lived a maimed life initially. Yet it is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God’s sight than to appear lovely to man’s eyes but lame to God’s. At first, Jesus Christ through His Spirit has to restrain you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. Yet, see that you don’t use your restrictions to criticize someone else.

 

The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in Matthew 5:48 Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life— “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

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June 29 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, this is a very difficult teaching: That we are to consider cutting off an arm or to poke out an eye in order to keep us from doing the wrong things. This sounds like a metaphor that I want to avoid reading and studying. It seems too harsh, too legalistic to be a part of what God has been teaching us.

And God says…”Recall Romans 8:1 …there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Before the time of Christ and woven within the culture during His time on earth, there was law and judgments to cut off the right hand and or gouge out the right eye as payment for wrong doing. Here Jesus tells you that if whatever gets in the way of your relationship with Christ must be cut off and thrown into Gehenna…(the place for dumping defiled objects of the Jewish faith).”

“Whatever gets between you and surrender, connection, curiosity and spirit led obedience must be eliminated. During your mornings when you seek to surrender and be strongly connected, do you leave the music up loud? Do you try to pray when people are all around you talking to you? You eliminated your distractions so that you could be surrendered and intimately connected to Me“

“There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. When you are a child of God, I cannot see your sin, I can only see Jesus. But whatever gets between your surrender, connection, curiosity and obedience must be eliminated so that you can live allowing the very Spirit of God to live through you. This is why I say it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven. His money gets in the way of his surrender and connection. His self-sufficiency can get in the way.  Family obligations can get in the way, as can church service, and church “busy-ness”. This lesson is about removing whatever is in the way of your surrender and connection to Jesus.”

“Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and do not rely on your own understanding and He will make your paths straight. And when you are not strong enough to do this, simply surrender, and allow Jesus to do it for you, while providing all the grace required to fill the gaps created and left by your humanity.”

As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me. You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you lose your head over pride. And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining. The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience. You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

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June 25 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for the reminder about sorrows and suffering, and how we “get” to go through them. David and I talk and pray about how we try to avoid our human nature, and the sorrows and suffering that accompany our lives. But it seems that we cannot avoid the sorrows and suffering, can we? You do not save us from our difficulty You save us out of them. Is this the case? That You use our sorrows and suffering as the refining fires of our lives? It seems that You do not keep us from the sorrows and suffering, You make us stronger, more Christ like as a result of them.

And God says…”As a believer, everything that occurs in your life must pass by My review. As Paul said and Eugene translated Romans 8:28 (Message) … He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

“And James wrote …”Do not try to get out of your trials too early, let them have their perfect result. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. When you are surrendered and connected to Me, you are certain of the result, even though the outcomes may not be what you prayed for. Do not seek your own way, your ways are too limiting for Me. Open up and allow Me to be the Lord of your life, let me select the outcomes and trust Me to meet all your needs. Seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else that you need. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your changed heart. And I will light your way only a step at a time, so that your faith may be strengthened one step to the next.”

Not being reconciled to the fact of sin— not recognizing it and refusing to deal with it— produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the lofty virtues of human nature, but there is something in human nature that will mockingly laugh in the face of every principle you have. If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is wickedness and selfishness, something downright hateful and wrong, in human beings, when it attacks your life, instead of reconciling yourself to it, you will compromise with it and say that it is of no use to battle against it.

Have you taken this “hour, and the power of darkness” into account, or do you have a view of yourself which includes no recognition of sin whatsoever? In your human relationships and friendships, have you reconciled yourself to the fact of sin? If not, just around the next corner you will find yourself trapped and you will compromise with it. But if you will reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger immediately and say, “Yes, I see what this sin would mean.”

The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship— it simply establishes a mutual respect for the fact that the basis of sinful life is disastrous. Always beware of any assessment of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical nor suspicious, because He had absolute trust in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman is the one who is shielded from harm, not the innocent person. The so-called innocent man or woman is never safe. Men and women have no business trying to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child. Any person is deserving of blame if he is unwilling to reconcile himself to the fact of sin.

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June 24 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, once again I wanted to “push back” on Chambers’ devotional as he said we should reconcile ourselves to sin, but then it occurred to me that he was saying we needed to acknowledge our inherent sin nature and our ability to “get it wrong” almost all the time when we operate in our own power.  And yes I do agree with this, and the scriptures do as well. Even with the very best of intentions, and on my very best days… on my own I will “get it wrong”. And as Chambers says, if I acknowledge this fact, I can get it right by acknowledging as the song today says… that Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world, and by recognizing that the battle is the Lord’s and it is already won.

And God says…”That is right. When you recognize that even at your most religious and pious self, you are the human condition, you will being to understand and start with the surrender of yourself, connection to Me while you live in curiosity and wonder about how I am going to move in your life and your circumstance. Paul got it right when he struggled with his sin nature in Romans 7.  Go reread this chapter; it tells of Paul’s sinful condition and how Jesus has already saved us from this problem. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I provide everything else you need, including the innocence of a child, even when and especially when you are not worthy of innocence. You see He that is within you…Jesus, is worthy, and this is who I see when I see you.”

We are not “acquainted with grief” in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it. We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.

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June 23 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good Morning God. It looks like this is one of those devotionals where I am going to “push back” on Oswald Chambers. When he says…”Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life.” He seems to be countering what Paul said in Romans 7. Paul tells us that our spiritual lives and our nature are transformed by Jesus over time. And over time that sin will be eradicated in our lives, by the power and person of Jesus Christ. And that sin has died in our lives, because of Jesus and His sacrifice, not because of any good thing we accomplish.  Paul tells us that it is not a battle we fight, because Jesus has already won the fight. Which is it God? Is there a fight I must wage? Must I struggle every day and try to become a better Christian through my own efforts, or a combined effort of Jesus and me?

And God says…” The sacrifice of Jesus is and was complete, it requires no additions or support or fight from you. The only fight you must wage is a fight to be surrendered and connected to Jesus. You fight distractions, the idea that you can accomplish certain good things on your own, the idea that you can work to become a better Christian or servant to God and the distractions of the immediate. When you are in harmony with Jesus, by your surrender and connection, you know where you stand, you can sense your oneness with Jesus and you know His Spirit is working all things out for your good. The sacrifice of Jesus for all your sin; past, present and future was and is complete in the cross. And this gift neither demands nor requires any help from you. You are unable to grit your teeth and work harder and harder to become a better person. It simply does not work that way. Your requirement is your surrender, and to allow Jesus to live through you.

As Paul said, Romans 7……… 21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  22 I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned;  23-25 but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.

So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.”

“Now go celebrate your freedom through surrender, connection, curiosity and the obedience you can achieve though the Holy Spirit.”

This statement is not some haphazard theory, but it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give will be the very way you are judged. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus said that the basis of life is retribution— “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the shortcomings of others, remember that will be exactly how you will be measured. The way you pay is the way life will pay you back. This eternal law works from God’s throne down to us (see Psalm 18:25-26).Romans 2:1 applies it in even a more definite way by saying that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act itself, but also at the possibility of committing it, which He sees by looking at our hearts. To begin with, we do not believe the statements of the Bible. For instance, do we really believe the statement that says we criticize in others the very things we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy, deceit, and a lack of genuineness in others is that they are all in our own hearts. The greatest characteristic of a saint is humility, as evidenced by being able to say honestly and humbly, “Yes, all those, as well as other evils, would have been exhibited in me if it were not for the grace of God. Therefore, I have no right to judge.”Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). He went on to say, in effect, “If you do judge, you will be judged in exactly the same way.” Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, “My God, judge me as I have judged others”? We have judged others as sinners— if God should judge us in the same way, we would be condemned to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ._________________________________________________________________June 22 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for the reminder in this devotional. Sometimes we can feel oh so smug wrapped around our feelings of “rightness”. You have been teaching David and me that “sin management” is not something to spend our time and energy addressing; that when we focus on Jesus, and surrender, get connected and remain curious, that You will change our lives and our behavior in Your time and ways. We can forget all about the time effort and energy we used to invest in “sin management”. You simply remake us in Your image. However, You did not teach us to judge others that are still wrapped up in the whole issue of sin management. And sometimes, we talk as if are superior and above it all. Please forgive us, take our tendency to judge away and continue to make us men after Your own heart.

And God says…”Human nature has a natural tendency to want to be validated. Humans want to be right, appear to be right, while seeking to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. It is difficult for humans to see themselves as needing a Savior; a Savior for eternal life, AND a Savior for day to day living. You want to take charge of your lives, be in control and avoid criticism and the judgement of others. And a natural way to accomplish this is to be the one that does the judging. This approach runs rampant in churches, with nations and patriotism, even in neighborhoods. For natural validation, Humans feel and believe that their race, religion, families, neighborhoods, schools, cities, states, and countries are better than others. But if you will seek first the Kingdom Of God, which is Jesus, I will give you all the validation you need. Before you look askew at other people, nations, denominations, churches, music, preachers, teachers, and doctrine, check your own surrender and connection with Jesus. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. Jesus gave you but two commandments: love your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.”