October 07, 2010

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

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, 2010

Journal Entry for Today

Last night in Bible study, the question was asked,”How do we stay close to God so that we know His voice and His will for our lives, especially when life is being very good for us? We seem to turn to God when life is full of trials and challenges, but we seem to become very independent of God as we live the abundant life. How can we avoid this pattern of behavior?”

I replied that the only way I know to stay connected to God is to be in constant fellowship and connection through daily prayer and Bible study, like CO2, where we are also accountable to a brother. I asked if anyone knew any other way to stay connected on a daily basis and no one could think of another answer.

And God says…”Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. When you come to Me in prayer and search out My truths in My word, you are rewarded. Knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find. When you pray in secret I will answer your prayers openly for all to see. When you seek My Spirit for your daily life, you will be rewarded. You will not need to seek My will; you will be living My will. You will not need to seek connection with Me; you will be living the connection and commitment.”

“When you seek Me daily, and look into My word, you are transformed and we are connected. It is here that I touch your heart and mind and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the Lord your God. When you live like this, you live your days in certain, knowing Me.”

If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.

The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.

And very often God uses the trials and circumstances of this life to make us acutely  aware of our need for the nature of Jesus Christ.-JDV

Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.

__________________________________________

October 6, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Sometimes I think I understand the trials and challenges of life and the velocity with which they come at me. Early in my life as a believer it seemed to me that I did not face as many challenges and life was not as difficult and challenging. Could it be that God is using the challenges of life, and assaults of the enemy to my own advantage? Just like the death of His Son?

Can my regeneration be found in the trials and challenges of life?

And God says….”I use the very obstacles and challenges of your life to give you new life. How will your old nature be crucified if you can overcome life’s challenges with your own skills and with your nature intact?  If you are competent and strong in yourself, you will need trial after trial after trial to become broken enough to let go of your old nature. When you are weak I can be strong in your life, when the challenges of life seem overwhelming and you need miracles I can live through you. You are My child and I will deliver you and bless you as you let go of your own strength and depend on Mine.”

We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called.The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural—something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.”

At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through—”I chose you . . .” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.

If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”

He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.

If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.

_________________________________________________

September 29, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

There is a keen sense of peace and well being that emerges as I focus and look to Jesus.  This sense of peace and well being is not because the circumstances and difficulties of life have disappeared, nor because all my prayers have been answered. I simply become aware that everything is as it should be as I focus and stay connected to Jesus. And I know that as I am focused on Jesus, as I stay connected, I am right in the middle of His will.

And God says….”Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. You can delight yourself in the Lord and capture the very things your heart cries out for; peace, hope, love and faith. These fruits are not dependent on your circumstances. They are by products of your delight in the Lord. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own designs and plans and I will make your paths straight.”

The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26  has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

“One thing you lack . . . .” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.

“. . . sell whatever you have . . . .” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “. . . come. . . and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.

____________________________________________

September 28, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Sometimes when I feel disconnected from God, I wonder what I might have done wrong, what have I allowed to get in the way of the intimate relationship that is essential to love, peace, joy, hope and rest?

And God says…”Sometimes you seek the fruits of your relationship instead of the relationship only. When there is only Jesus in your eyes and heart, everything else will follow. However, when you seek the fruits of your relationship, you put the fruits ahead of Jesus. The fruits and blessings follow the relationship. Seek Jesus and rest. All else will follow……..Seek first the kingdom of God”

The “Go” of Renunciation

The “Go” of Preparation

In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?”. . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . .” (Ephesians 4:13), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.

In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.”

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matthew 10:24). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our “Jerusalem.” There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going “up to [our] Jerusalem.”

“. . . there they crucified Him . . .” (Luke 23:33). That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation. The saints, however, do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, “I too go ’up to Jerusalem.’ “

______________________________________________________

September 23, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I sense freedom and at the same time I am a little apprehensive about letting go of all my preconceived ideas about spirituality and religion and simply focusing on Jesus.

And God says…”He is the way the truth and the light. Regardless of the question, He is the answer. He is the answer to your all your questions. How you shall live, grow, stand against adversity, and how you shall love and worship Me. You are not to wonder what happens next or how to deal with this trial or that burden. Jesus came to give you life and life more abundantly He came as your victorious Shepherd. He is victorious, and so are you when He lives through you. Stay connected to Jesus and everything else falls into place; your life, ministry, family, work, and future are in Jesus.”

DJR Journal 9 23 10

This familiar quote from Jim Elliott came to our mind today.

And we would add from what we have been learning … that it is only available thru connection with Jesus.    And we also saw in today’s lesson the value of a clear mission … to keep us on track in times of temptation to react to the ups and downs of daily existence.   This is parallel to the business world where a clear mission/vision will assist us in decision making.   Jesus had this clear mission and stayed true to it.   Same with us,  in life and business,  It is the “overspray” of staying true to mission that generates fruit and good works,  almost as a “by product” rather than something that we strive for and measure.    That’s what the Pharisees did and they didn’t get good marks from Jesus.