INTEREST OR IDENTIFICATION?

March 21st, 2011 by JDVaughn Leave a reply »

March 21, 2010

“I have been crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20

The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself.

Paul says – “I have been crucified with Christ”; he does not say – “I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will endeavour to follow Him” – but – “I have been identified with Him in His death.”When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“. . . nevertheless I live. . . .” The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.

“And the life which I now live in the flesh . . . ,” not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.”This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him – “the faith of the Son of God.” It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.

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March 21, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Last week I was very concerned about a number of business issues, and I was wondering where God was in my circumstances. I could not see any solutions in the time I thought I needed solutions. I kept thinking that maybe I did not deserve any answers from God, given the quality of my service and commitment. Perhaps I had stepped over the line “one too many times?” Maybe God had finally tired of my lack of maturity and simply abandoned me to my own devices.  But I was connected enough to know I was (and am) to pray, and asked my brothers to pray with me and for me.  You answered my prayers.

And God says…” My mercy and grace extends far beyond your bad choices and natural inclinations. The magnitude of the sacrifice is the key. I left you inside your circumstances to help you develop your patience, faith and hope.  As you live in this world, you will make mistake after mistake after mistake, and all I will ever see is Jesus. I do not require you to live inside your mistakes, simply come to Jesus and live; trust in Me with all your heart and do not trust your own understanding, and I will make it all clear. Come to Me and I will give you rest”

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