Joshua said to the people, ’You cannot serve the Lord . . .’ —Joshua 24:19

 “The people said to Joshua, ’No, but we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:21). This is not an impulsive action, but a deliberate commitment. We tend to say, “But God could never have called me to this. I’m too unworthy. It can’t mean me.” It does mean you, and the more weak and feeble you are, the better. The person who is still relying and trusting in anything within himself is the last person to even come close to saying, “I will serve the Lord.”

We say, “Oh, if only I really could believe!” The question is, “Will I believe?” No wonder Jesus Christ placed such emphasis on the sin of unbelief. “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). If we really believed that God meant what He said, just imagine what we would be like! Do I really dare to let God be to me all that He says He will be?

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July 9^th 2012

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

In the past whenever I was asked, by myself or another person to examine myself, I would immediately look inside to see if I “measured up”. And given my propensity for sin and spiritual failure, would immediately get defensive about my Christian performance. If I was a real Christian then I would be more like Jesus. And then You showed me Lord, that I was and am unable to be more like Jesus until and unless I surrendered my own efforts. I had to actually give up my own internal war and just let You be Lord. I had to surrender. Well, Lord, once again this morning I surrender and ask You to live through me this day.

And God says…” Even your most “spiritual ways” are not My ways. You can never “measure up”, and because you can never “measure up” I sent Jesus. He can and will always measure up, regardless of the situation or circumstance. When you look to Jesus for all that you want or need, you begin to notice a transformation in your life  surrounding those wants and needs and desires that used to provide your driving  force and motivation. Your own wants, needs and desires are replaced over time  as you look to Jesus. Do not look at your failures, successes or your goals; look  to Jesus. Do not look for a vision or a sign, even evidence of His working, simply look to Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not rely on your understanding and He will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

The parched ground shall become a pool . . . —Isaiah 35:7

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, 2011 (a journal entry from last year)-JDV

I wonder about the vision when it seems so far away. Lord, it seems like the shaping and molding is taking so long. Day after day the circumstances are still difficult and it seems as if the vision will never become a reality. I know I am being shaped and molded into the man you want me to become…but Lord isn’t there a timeout or a reprieve or respite and or retreat? Is there a place where I can enjoy more of life and life abundantly?  Sometimes it seems like just as the vision gets closer; it is snatched away and put back up on the mountain top ledge. And once again I must start another journey up the mountain.

And God says…”It is essential that you be broken. It is even more essential that you stay broken. You’re shaping and molding is a work more important than the vision and or your accomplishments and support of My kingdom. I can create all the help I need for My kingdom and My people; however, I cannot force you into the character and integrity essential for your life and eternity. You must choose to take those “right…  and difficult steps”.  Your right choices evolve from the character that is shaped by your circumstances. When you move your vision from your circumstances, and onto Me and the vision I provide, you are living life and life more abundantly.”

July 5, 2012….Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass —Psalm 37:5

Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account. We get ourselves into circumstances that were not chosen by God, and suddenly we realize that we have been making our plans without Him— that we have not even considered Him to be a vital, living factor in the planning of our lives. And yet the only thing that will keep us from even the possibility of worrying is to bring God in as the greatest factor in all of our planning.

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives. If we have the idea that we have to put on our “spiritual face” before we can come near to God, then we will never come near to Him. We must come as we are.

Don’t plan with a concern for evil in mind. Does God really mean for us to plan without taking the evil around us into account? “Love . . . thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Love is not ignorant of the existence of evil, but it does not take it into account as a factor in planning. When we were apart from God, we did take evil into account, doing all of our planning with it in mind, and we tried to reason out all of our work from its standpoint.

Don’t plan with a rainy day in mind. You cannot hoard things for a rainy day if you are truly trusting Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:1). God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command— “Let not. . . .” To do it, continually pick yourself up, even if you fall a hundred and one times a day, until you get into the habit of putting God first and planning with Him in mind.

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July 5, 2012

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, through it all I have become closer and closer to You. It is hard to remember when You were not in my mind or on my mind and in my heart making me aware of Your presence in my life.  Perhaps one by product of trials and difficult circumstances is the habit of looking to You. The storms of life caused me to seek you for shelter, and now I find myself seeking you for everything…..well almost everything, but then You are not done with me yet, are You?

And God says…”Do not try to get out of your trials too early, let them have their perfect result. Being connected and focused on Me is the perfect result, regardless of the circumstance. . Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on yourself, in any way shape or form….and I will make your paths straight, certain and prosperous. Seek first the kingdom of God and all you need will be provided. I came to give you life and life more abundantly, look to Me for your life and everything else will follow.

Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips . . . —Isaiah 6:5

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.

Journal DJR
Good Morning, Lord
Thanks for the insight that you start our understanding of sin at particular points that we are able to see … and then show us the deeper issues. I had not seen that the great prophet Isaiah had previously had a case of potty mouth … or whatever “a man of unclean lips” means. I suppose everyone has different entry points for you to begin the revelation of our sin. General revelation doesn’t seem to be adequate. We need a personal specific and you then develop it from there as we are able to receive it. Fortunately the depth of our depravity is matched and exceeded by the depth of your love and grace. Thank you for that.

I will never leave you or forsake you. Even when you are in the “desert” or on a prodigal journey, I am there, waiting for you to return to your senses. People return to their senses when they see clearly who they are and who I am. And it usually starts at a specific point, as in Isaiah’s case and expands from there. You can’t push those revelation times and make them happen in an instant. But you can stay open for them and know that’s how I work and stay expectant and curious. It’s how I want my kids to live.

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also . . . . And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me . . . . So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple —Luke 14:26-27, 33

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.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord.
It is good to be here with you. Traveling knocks me out of my routine. I’ve missed you and my friend. This lesson shows me how imperfect my love is and how much I need you. Not just that I need your love, your love for me, but I need your love to love others and even to love you. It’s kind of complicated. But since you are Love, it all works out.
Come to me and keep on coming to me. As you say it will all work out. Chasing dreams of human love or human vision can be exciting for a while … but it will never reach the potential that I have for you. Starting today, with the revelation that I am love, pursue love. You’ll never be unsatisfied.
Wow, that sounds awesome. But easier said than done.
True, but all you need to do is start on the road to Love. And then just stay on it. And when you fall off, just get back on it. I am always here for you.

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell —Matthew 5:30

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 2012 (a reprise from June 30 2011)

Lord when I read one of Oswald Chambers’ devotional like this one I wonder if I measure up or if I can ever measure up to the standards you have set? When I read these high standards I wonder if I am good enough to be one of your children, or if I can ever measure up to the standards You have set? Sometimes I realize I am so far off from your standards, I feel like giving up.

And God says…”That is exactly where you should find yourself…giving up. Part of the transforming process for My children is coming to realize that you must surrender your entire life to Me. You cannot hold onto any part of your old life, including the discipline to do the right things. I can use that, but you cannot. Trust in Me with all your heart, do not rely on your own devices and I will make your paths straight. I cannot be you partner in life; I cannot be your copilot. I
can only be your life. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will
be added unto you. I am the way, the truth and the life.”

I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me —Philippians 3:12

Never water down the Word of God, but preach it in its undiluted sternness. There must be unflinching faithfulness to the Word of God, but when you come to personal dealings with others, remember who you are— you are not some special being created in heaven, but a sinner saved by grace.

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do. . . I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

We . . . plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain —2 Corinthians 6:1

“. . . in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors . . .” (2 Corinthians 6:5)— in all these things, display in your life a drawing on the grace of God, which will show evidence to yourself and to others that you are a miracle of His. Draw on His grace now, not later. The primary word in the spiritual vocabulary is now. Let circumstances take you where they will, but keep drawing on the grace of God in whatever condition you may find yourself. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be totally humiliated before others without displaying even the slightest trace of anything but His grace.

“. . . having nothing . . . .” Never hold anything in reserve. Pour yourself out, giving the best that you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful with the treasure God gives you. “. . . and yet possessing all things”— this is poverty triumphant (2 Corinthians 6:10).

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June 26, 2012

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I really like this song, but the lyrics need a bit of a tweak. Instead of when mercy found me, or when grace found me, they should sing; when mercy and grace find me. For years I thought Your mercy and grace were given me when I first came to You and then it was up to me to meet the standards after that. Thank You for showing me that salvation is not a one-time historical “happening” in my life; it is a daily, hour by hour minute by minute occurrence. Thank You for providing the love, hope, mercy and grace for daily living.

And God says…”It is interesting to watch believers come to Jesus for His love, mercy and grace, and then abandon them all for their own “effort”.  The sacrifice of Jesus needs no help from you; it needs no assistance from your effort or trying. The sacrifice of Jesus needs no Christian service, or tithing. All these works will follow, when you simply trust Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own efforts or understanding and He will make your paths straight.”

 . . what shall I say? ’Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ’Father, glorify Your name’ —John 12:27-28

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, 2012

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord it is a difficult lesson to learn; that I learn and am shaped most when I am “up against it”. When I am in pain I hear You the loudest. When I feel threatened or fearful I reach for You. When I have nowhere else to turn, I turn to You; over and over again until I learn that turning to You is not a sign of weakness. I have had trials and difficult circumstances to the point that now I will not take even one step, without reaching out to You…….Perhaps that was the lesson and the necessary shaping. Thank You Jesus.

And God says…”In order to remove the slag or dross from silver, the silversmith must first heat it to the point where the impurities are removed and all that is left is pure silver. Trials and difficulties create the heat and pressure from which you are purified. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding and your paths will become straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and all things of the earth that you need will be added unto you. Whatever helps you turn your eyes to Jesus is good for you. All things work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”

You are . . . a royal priesthood . . . —1 Peter 2:9

How long is it going to take God to free us from the unhealthy habit of thinking only about ourselves? We must get to the point of being sick to death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at anything God might tell us about ourselves. We cannot reach and understand the depths of our own meagerness. There is only one place where we are right with God, and that is in Christ Jesus. Once we are there, we have to pour out our lives for all we are worth in this ministry of the inner life.

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June 21, 2012

Journal Entry from June 2011

Lord, thank you for the lesson about love. Thank you for showing me over and over and over again that you love me anyway, regardless of who I am or what I have done…or left undone. And thank you for Your Holy Spirit that allows me to offer this same kind of forgiveness and grace. As I consider the hurts and slights of others, I suddenly notice that you have removed the notion of judgment. Thank You Lord.

And God says…”The supernatural ability to forgive is a gift of faith activated by your desire to leave your judgments behind. My grace becomes a part of your life, actions and relationships as you seek Me and stay in connection with Me. And when you let go of your concerns and judgements you are free to feed my sheep.”