{"id":12942,"date":"2015-06-29T09:34:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=12942"},"modified":"2015-06-30T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T16:45:15","slug":"the-strictest-discipline-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=12942","title":{"rendered":"The Strictest Discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"entry-title\">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. \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Matthew+5%3A30\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 5:30<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --> <!-- .entry-header --><\/p>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A8JsRxVczmQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nJesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that \u201cif your right hand causes you to sin\u201d in your walk with Him, then it is better to \u201ccut it off.\u201d There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then \u201ccut it off.\u201d The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed.<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do\u2014 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, \u201cWhat\u2019s so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!\u201d 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\u2019s sight than to appear lovely to man\u2019s eyes but lame to God\u2019s. 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\u2019t use your restrictions to criticize someone else.<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5:48\">Matthew 5:48<\/a>\u00a0Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life\u2014 \u201cYou shall be <em>perfect<\/em>, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>June 29 2015<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, this is a very difficult teaching: That we are to consider cutting off an arm or to poke out an eye in order to keep us from doing the wrong things. This sounds like a metaphor that I want to avoid reading and studying. It seems too harsh, too legalistic to be a part of what God has been teaching us.<\/p>\n<p>And God says\u2026\u201d<em>Recall Romans 8:1 \u2026there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Before the time of Christ and woven within the culture during His time on earth, there was law and judgments to cut off the right hand and or gouge out the right eye as payment for wrong doing. Here Jesus tells you that if whatever gets in the way of your relationship with Christ must be cut off and thrown into Gehenna\u2026(the place for dumping defiled objects of the Jewish faith).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhatever gets between you and surrender, connection, curiosity and spirit led obedience must be eliminated. During your mornings when you seek to surrender and be strongly connected, do you leave the music up loud? Do you try to pray when people are all around you talking to you? You eliminated your distractions so that you could be surrendered and intimately connected to Me\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThere is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. When you are a child of God, I cannot see your sin, I can only see Jesus. But whatever gets between your surrender, connection, curiosity and obedience must be eliminated so that you can live allowing the very Spirit of God to live through you. This is why I say it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven. His money gets in the way of his surrender and connection. His self-sufficiency can get in the way.\u00a0 Family obligations can get in the way, as can church service, and church \u201cbusy-ness\u201d. This lesson is about removing whatever is in the way of your surrender and connection to Jesus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAcknowledge the Lord in all your ways and do not rely on your own understanding and He will make your paths straight. And when you are not strong enough to do this, simply surrender, and allow Jesus to do it for you, while providing all the grace required to fill the gaps created and left by your humanity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. \u2014Matthew 5:30 Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12942"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12959,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12942\/revisions\/12959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}