{"id":8030,"date":"2013-01-10T07:21:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T15:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2013-01-10T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T16:17:11","slug":"the-opened-sight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=8030","title":{"rendered":"The Opened Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Acts+26%3A17-18\" target=\"_blank\">Acts 26:17-18<\/a><\/h1>\n<p>This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament<\/p>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><!-- .entry-header -->\u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zm5oirhXl7I\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"620\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section>God\u2019s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, \u201c. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .\u201d When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never <em>received<\/em> anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people\u2019s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.<\/section>\n<p>This is followed by God\u2019s second mighty work of grace: \u201c. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .\u201d In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God\u2019s ministry to others.<\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>January 10, 2013<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, sometimes I think and feel like Oswald Chambers is writing to prove his points, not necessarily your points. This devotional seems a little too complex and disjointed. It seems as if he is trying to make his students learn a thing that he knows. You have taught me that this can be futile. I am not to try and teach someone what You have taught me, \u00a0I am to allow You to do the communicating and teaching\u00a0after I surrender.<\/p>\n<p><em>And God says\u2026\u201dLike every other lesson you have learned and will be learning, the lesson here is that you are to be connected to Jesus. When you are connected, everything else can and does flow supernaturally from Jesus through you and out to others. Do not be confused or concerned that you will not know what to say to others or if you will teach or communicate the right thing. Simply be connected and surrendered to Jesus and it will flow like living waters to quench the thirst of others\u2026.and in the process quench your thirst as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . \u2014Acts 26:17-18 This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament \u00a0 God\u2019s first sovereign work of grace [&hellip;]<\/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\/8030"}],"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=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8037,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}