It is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman —Galatians 4:22

Paul was not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural can be turned into the spiritual only through sacrifice. Without this a person will lead a divided life. Why did God demand that the natural must be sacrificed? God did not demand it. It is not God’s perfect will, but His permissive will. God’s perfect will was for the natural to be changed into the spiritual through obedience. Sin is what made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.

Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac (see Genesis 21:8-14). Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice . . .” (Romans 12:1). Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will resist and defy the life of the Son of God in us and will produce continual turmoil. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves physically, morally, or mentally. We excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I wasn’t taught to be disciplined when I was a child.” Then discipline yourself now! If you don’t, you will ruin your entire personal life for God.

God is not actively involved with our natural life as long as we continue to pamper and gratify it. But once we are willing to put it out in the desert and are determined to keep it under control, God will be with it. He will then provide wells and oases and fulfill all His promises for the natural (see Genesis 21:15-19).

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, I was realizing that we are quick to agree with John the Baptist and Jesus and Paul about the Pharisees and Saducees … “You brood of vipers, etc” … But in different ways, we do our own brand of Phariseeism when we try to clean ourselves up, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and check off the checklist of what it means to be a good Christian, and all the other means of Sin Management … We miss the grace that you have for us. There is a huge difference between “got to” and “get to” I’ve got to stay out of brothels … vs I get to stay out of brothels. If I’m doing something because I have to or I must, or I ought to … then I join the Pharisee crowd and miss the best of what Jesus has for me here. On the other hand, I may do those same things motivated by my connection with you. I get to do them, rather than I’ve got to do them. It can make all the difference. Help us Lord, this day, to walk close with you, to hear your voice, and quickly obey … because we get to. And thanks for the gift you sent in Eugene Petersen, who says here in the Message…….

Romans 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires —Galatians 5:24

The natural life is not spiritual, and it can be made spiritual only through sacrifice. If we do not purposely sacrifice the natural, the supernatural can never become natural to us. There is no high or easy road. Each of us has the means to accomplish it entirely in his own hands. It is not a question of praying, but of sacrificing, and thereby performing His will.

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, is amazing how you speak to me with your promises, not just in your word, but in songs, and the words of friends and even the songs on the radio. Perhaps it is because I am listening for You that I can hear Your voice? Both thoughts are accurate…if I believe I can hear you I can , and if I believe I cannot…..well then…I cannot. I believe Lord, help me in my unbelief.

And God says…”I am the great I Am. Trust in me with all your heart, do not rely on your own devices…and I will make your paths and heart straight. You cannot come to me out of more discipline, more Bible studies, or my gritting your teeth and trying harder to be a man after My own heart. You come to me with a tiny sliver of trust and hope knowing you cannot do any good thing. Give Me your trying, effort and sliver of hope and I will be the light of your life. You can do all things through Christ Jesus. Delight yourself in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart.  “

. . . only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you —Genesis 41:40

I am accountable to God for the way I control my body under His authority. Paul said he did not “set aside the grace of God”— make it ineffective (Galatians 2:21). The grace of God is absolute and limitless, and the work of salvation through Jesus is complete and finished forever. I am not being saved— I am saved. Salvation is as eternal as God’s throne, but I must put to work or use what God has placed within me. To “work out [my] own salvation” (Philippians 2:12) means that I am responsible for using what He has given me. It also means that I must exhibit in my own body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mysteriously or secretly, but openly and boldly. “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection . . .” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Every Christian can have his body under absolute control for God. God has given us the responsibility to rule over all “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” including our thoughts and desires (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to improper ones. But most of us are much more severe in our judgment of others than we are in judging ourselves. We make excuses for things in ourselves, while we condemn things in the lives of others simply because we are not naturally inclined to do them.

Paul said, “I beseech you . . . that you present your bodies a living sacrifice . . .” (Romans 12:1). What I must decide is whether or not I will agree with my Lord and Master that my body will indeed be His temple. Once I agree, all the rules, regulations, and requirements of the law concerning the body are summed up for me in this revealed truth-my body is “the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

To him who overcomes . . . —Revelation 2:7

Life without war is impossible in the natural or the supernatural realm. It is a fact that there is a continuing struggle in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual areas of life.

Health is the balance between the physical parts of my body and all the things and forces surrounding me. To maintain good health I must have sufficient internal strength to fight off the things that are external. Everything outside my physical life is designed to cause my death. The very elements that sustain me while I am alive work to decay and disintegrate my body once it is dead. If I have enough inner strength to fight, I help to produce the balance needed for health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a strong and active mental life, I have to fight. This struggle produces the mental balance called thought.

Morally it is the same. Anything that does not strengthen me morally is the enemy of virtue within me. Whether I overcome, thereby producing virtue, depends on the level of moral excellence in my life. But we must fight to be moral. Morality does not happen by accident; moral virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is also the same. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation . . .” (John 16:33). This means that anything which is not spiritual leads to my downfall. Jesus went on to say, “. . . but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I must learn to fight against and overcome the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness. Then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my nature and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

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December 4, 2013-JDV

Lord, you have taught me to “give up, surrender” and let You engage the challenges of my life. Then I read the devotional form Chambers and he says we must be at war all the time; that we must fight to maintain a spiritual and moral balance. He also says that I am to fight to overcome the things that come against me, and yet I am told that You have already won the battle. Which is it Lord? Do I fight or surrender? How can I build moral and spiritual balance? Do I fight and struggle with the things that come against me, or do I give up and surrender my fight to You?

And God says…”Many life lessons are simple and paradoxical. Through Jesus, you have life that comes from His death. You are at your strongest when you surrender and rely on Me.  You are the most wise when you come to Me as a little child. As the Apostle Paul wrote; “When you want to do the right thing, you actually end up doing what is wrong. You struggle to do the right thing and then time and time again do the wrong thing. There IS a war going on inside of you. But once you realize that Jesus has already won all your battles, the struggle is transformed into a victory party. The real struggle is for you to surrender, to give up yourself.  The fight is not a fight that you take on, it is a surrender to Jesus……so that He can fight on your behalf. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else you require, need or desire shall be provided.”

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power . . . —1 Corinthians 2:4

If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality. Take care to see while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, that you yourself are rooted and grounded by faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your presentation, but as you give your explanation make sure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in people.

Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith. But nothing can ever change God or the reality of redemption. Base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God Himself. Once you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God disapproves of our human efforts to cling to the concept that sanctification is merely an experience, while forgetting that even our sanctification must also be sanctified (see John 17:19). I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord. Sometimes I think I’m doing the right thing, the good thing and the Godly thing … but it doesn’t turn out so well. Is that because my effort at sanctification was just that … My effort?

You cannot will yourself sanctified or set apart or cleaned up. If you try, it will be the work of your flesh and won’t be filled with my power. If you wait for my sanctifying work to manifest in your life, it will be a joy to walk in the way that I direct. If you cook up your own ideas, you will get tired and stressed out. It’s a pretty good test of whether you are working with my power or your own. If you are stressed and tired … It’s not me. I give my servants rest, even in the hard times. Back up and get yourself re-calibrated with my love and sacrifice. Listen for my voice, then go again.
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Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect . . . —Philippians 3:12

It is a trap to presume that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do— God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements tends to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you accept this concept of personal holiness, your life’s determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the evidence of God in your life. How can we say, “It could never be God’s will for me to be sick”? If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son (Isaiah 53:10), why shouldn’t He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained devotion to Him whether you are well or sick.

. . . by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world —Galatians 6:14

It is not genuine consecration to think that we can refuse to be used of God now in order to store up our spiritual power for later use. That is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (seeJohn 17:16).

We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, “Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?”

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November 27, 2013

Thank you Lord, for all you have provided, and for the ongoing opportunity to look to You for life and life more abundantly. Thank you for the guiding me to the place where I look to You first and foremost this morning and most mornings. And I am especially thankful for Your grace that envelopes me when I do not look to You first.

And God says…”You are transformed as you continue to look to Jesus, and your transformation continues as a byproduct of His sacrifice, even when you are not thinking of Him at all. My grace finds you because of Jesus, because of His sacrifice.  Seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything you need for a rich and abundant life will be provided; food shelter, hope, love, and the people to share them with. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart. “

. . . except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

If you want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in your human flesh, you must dwell on the tragedy of God. Break away from your personal concern over your own spiritual condition, and with a completely open spirit consider the tragedy of God. Instantly the power of God will be in you. “Look to Me. . .” (Isaiah 45:22). Pay attention to the external Source and the internal power will be there. We lose power because we don’t focus on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these. We are to preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God’s focal point in your preaching, and even if your listeners seem to pay it no attention, they will never be the same again. If I share my own words, they are of no more importance than your words are to me. But if we share the truth of God with one another, we will encounter it again and again. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power— the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings, the focus tends to be put not on the Cross of Christ but on the effects of the Cross.

The feebleness of the church is being criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this focus on the true center of spiritual power. We have not dwelt enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of redemption.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

State your beliefs to yourself again. Get back to the foundation of the Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it. In secular history the Cross is an infinitesimally small thing, but from the biblical perspective it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the Cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will have no power. However, when we preach the Cross, the energy of God is released. “. . . it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. . . . we preach Christ crucified . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23).

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

November 25, 2013

Good morning Lord and thank you for the reminder to look to the cross for consistency; a consistency that only You have and always provide me. It is true that when I look to the cross, and see You, it all becomes clear even though I do not understand. Then it occurs to me that I do not need to understand, I simply need to see You and allow You to live in my surrendered life.  And I know I must surrender my life, because I have enough experience to realize I am unable to live a life of love, peace, understanding, hope and thanksgiving without You living through me.  I know I can live an abundant life, in every area of my life, when I allow You to live through me. Thank You Lord.

And God says…”Left to your own devices, you chase the things that you think will make you happy and they do not. Left to your own devices, you can and will pursue noble and not so noble endeavors that you believe I have commissioned, and I have not. Left to your own understanding and you make choices that bring short term answers that do not hold up in the cold light of day. When you simply trust Me, and allow Me to live through you, you can do all things. You will rise above day to day chaos, complexity and trials. When you simply trust me, you can get out of the boat and walk on water, you will run and not get tired, and you will love without bounds. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31