{"id":2656,"date":"2010-08-25T06:33:40","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T14:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=2656"},"modified":"2010-08-25T07:32:21","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T15:32:21","slug":"sacrifice-and-friendship-8-26-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=2656","title":{"rendered":"Sacrifice and Friendship 8-25-2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacrifice and Friendship<\/h2>\n
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August 25, 2010<\/div>\n
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I have called you friends . . . \u2014John 15:15<\/a><\/div>\n
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We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, \u201cI\u2019ll surrender if . . . !\u201d Or we approach it by saying, \u201cI suppose I have to devote my life to God.\u201d We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.<\/p>\n

But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see\u00a0John 15:13-14<\/a>\u00a0). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit\u2019s ultimate expression of love.<\/p>\n

Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8<\/a>, \u201cI delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .\u201d He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see\u00a0Hebrews 12:1-2<\/a>\u00a0).<\/p>\n

Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional\u2014 for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have called you friends. . . .\u201d Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.<\/p>\n

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August 26, 2010<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

What does it mean to be known as a friend of God?<\/p>\n

I know what it feels like to be known as a Christian, and some of the negative responses have been earned. We often seem to stand against more things than we are for, we seem to polarize others and not in a good way, but in judgment.<\/p>\n

Is that me? \u00a0Do I judge others? Am I quick with a criticism or judgment because they may not look, or think or believe as I do? I suspect it is true. I would rather be known as a friend of God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0And God says, \u201cYou are my friend. When you accepted Christ as Savior and then Lord, you became a friend. And as My friend, I can transform you into a willing and eager friend of others. Judge not; remember the second commandment Jesus gave you\u2026.. Love your neighbor as yourself. One of the ways to tell if you are truly My friend and are truly connected to Jesus is when you love others. When you sit in judgment, you are sitting there alone, without Me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You are My friend and therefore a friend of all others<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacrifice and Friendship August 25, 2010 \u00a0 I have called you friends . . . \u2014John 15:15 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, \u201cI\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656"}],"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=2656"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2665,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions\/2665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}