Conviction of sin is best described in the words:

My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.

Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight . . .” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.

The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.

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December 7, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, just before I began the mechanics of assembling the devotional this morning I caught a glimpse of this quote from Charles Spurgeon,
“You cannot sin so much as God can forgive. If it comes to a pitched
battle between sin and grace, you shall not be so bad as God shall be good. I
will prove it to you. You can only sin as a man, but God can forgive as a God.
You sin as a finite creature, but the Lord forgives as the infinite
Creator.”

Father God, this quote made me stop and consider just how  amazing You are. Your overwhelming grace and mercy just stops me in my tracks  sometimes. Your love goes beyond anything I can imagine. Thank You for the  reminder.

And God says…” I went  to great lengths to show My love and grace in a way that demonstrates  just how far I will go to have a relationship with You. There are no limits or  boundaries on My love and grace. You will never be able to out run, or “out-sin”  my love, grace and forgiveness. There is no limit nor can you ever be separated  from My love and the goodness I have for you. Trust in Me with all your heart  and do not rely on your own understanding….and revel in my grace and love.”

 

Waiting for God to act is fleshly unbelief. It means that I have no faith in Him. I wait for Him to do something in me so I may trust in that. But God won’t do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man must go beyond the physical body and feelings in his covenant with God, just as God goes beyond Himself in reaching out with His covenant to man. It is a question of faith in God–a very rare thing. We only have faith in our feelings. I don’t believe God until He puts something tangible in my hand, so that I know I have it. Then I say, “Now I believe.” There is no faith exhibited in that. God says, “Look to Me, and be saved . . .” (Isaiah 45:22).

When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of His covenant, letting everything else go, there is no sense of personal achievement— no human ingredient in it at all. Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed and radiates peace and joy.

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December 6, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I am not quite certain what Chambers was teaching in this lesson. Is he teaching that we must have a covenant relationship with You? Of course I agree with that. Or is he teaching that I must do my part? I understand that the only part I am to play in this relationship is complete surrender. And yes of course I rely too much on my feelings. My feelings can play little, if any, part in my relationship with You, and there can be no personal achievement on my part for our relationship. I am to simply trust You and You alone will change me from the inside out.

And God says…”

DJR continues…  We keep coming back to the central point of relationship.  If the relationship is right your “peace meter” and its corollary the “frustration meter” will indicate that you are in my will.    That includes keeping in mind, at least in the background, a few keys … like Jesus saying, “It is finished,”   Paul saying, “no condemnation for those in Christ” , “more than conquerers” etc.   When you lay hold of all that, you are inviting me in and it is my Spirit empowering your life.   Then you really can switch to the passenger seat and let me drive.   With that mindset  frustration and stress can easily be replaced by acceptance and curiosity.

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.”

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December 5, 2011

 

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, when I read the scriptures about what I should do, what I should be like, how I should live, I feel convicted. Because I know that I am not being as responsible as I should be. I know that I am not as disciplined nor as “good” as I ought to be. I would like to believe and feel that I have been responsible to the temple of the Holy Spirit, but I know I make many wrong choices daily. What am I to do?

And God says…”First of all forget all your ought tos, should dos and must dos. Remember that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. If you were/are able to be responsible and disciplined, there would have been no need for Christ Jesus. All things are complete in Him. Let Jesus live through you and let Him provide the discipline and focus you need. Simply be in relationship with Jesus and observe as your body, mind and spirit (over time and as a result of  Christ living through you) becomes the temple of the  Holy Spirit.”

The moral law does not consider our weaknesses as human beings; in fact, it does not take into account our heredity or infirmities. It simply demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never changes, either for the highest of society or for the weakest in the world. It is enduring and eternally the same. The moral law, ordained by God, does not make itself weak to the weak by excusing our shortcomings. It remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we are not aware of this, it is because we are less than alive. Once we do realize it, our life immediately becomes a fatal tragedy. “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Romans 7:9). The moment we realize this, the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a person gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Christ remains absurd to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful, confining sense of the law. It makes a person hopeless— “. . . sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). I, a guilty sinner, can never work to get right with God— it is impossible. There is only one way by which I can get right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the underlying idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience. Who of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!We only begin to realize the power of the moral law once we see that it comes with a condition and a promise. But God never coerces us. Sometimes we wish He would make us be obedient, and at other times we wish He would leave us alone. Whenever God’s will is in complete control, He removes all pressure. And when we deliberately choose to obey Him, He will reach to the remotest star and to the ends of the earth to assist us with all of His almighty power.

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These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “. . . for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .”

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?

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November 3, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I want to surrender, but even surrender is hard.  For some reason, I sometimes want to hold onto my worries, fears and concerns about so many things. Sometimes I want to hold onto my religion: Of what I must do to be close to you; study, read my Bible, and pray. It is hard to believe that all I must do is surrender. You will accomplish everything else necessary for my transformation.

And God says…” He that began a good work in you will finish it. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own good devices or activities, and I will make your paths straight. The love that transforms you and makes you the “better person” or more devoted Christian cannot come from your own good intentions or efforts. Your transformation can only come as Jesus lives through you, after your surrender.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-86VTOuZWQ&feature=fvwrel

There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?

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November 1, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, sometimes I forget that I am yours, that I belong to You. Sometimes I think I belong to my job,  my family, my country and oh so often I think I belong to myself. Thank You for reminding me that I belong to You.

And God says…”I bought you with a price more precious that gold or silver. I gave you My Son. You are mine; nothing can separate you from Me, nothing.  I knew you before the beginning of the world, and loved you then.  I love you now. The price I paid for you is evidence of My unconditional love for you.  Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on yourself, let Jesus be your life. Seek first My kingdom, which is Jesus, exchange your life for His, and find peace, joy and life more abundantly.”

Walk by Faith

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

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October 31, 2011

 

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, the scripture is clear that faith comes from hearing the word of God.  But I am learning that I only need faith the size of a mustard seed, because Jesus has all the faith I need for our relationship. Living in me, He brings the faith I need for every circumstance.

And God says…”Absolutely. When Jesus said “It is finished, He meant it is ALL finished. He did not say it is finished as long as you have enough faith, or as long as you do the right things, or as long as you go to the right church.  Jesus brings you everything you need for life and life more abundantly, which includes trials and challenges.  These trials and challenges are essential to helping you realize and understand that the life of peace is Jesus living in and through you. Whatever is required of you, let Jesus deliver and provide.”