There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

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October 21, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I am not certain I totally agree with Chambers this morning,  when he says…”We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.” I have tried and tried to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life and holy on the ordinary streets among ordinary people, and just when I think I am doing all that I am supposed to do….. I fail. And Lord I know You do not grade on the curve. Being 80% on track is not being on track at all. I suspect that this is one more lesson in discovering that the only way I can “measure up” to Your expectations is to stop trying to measure up, and let Jesus measure up for me.

And God says…”That is absolutely correct. You can never measure up, and your struggle to be a better person will always be a very slippery slope, because perfection is the only acceptable condition. And as you realize, and are reminded too often by others, you are not perfect, nor will you be perfect this side of heaven. However, Christ Jesus is perfect and He is prepared to live through you, allowing His perfection to replace your imperfections. Let Jesus be the perfection you can never be, let Him live through you.”

Galatians 2:19-21

The Message (MSG)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . . For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.

We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.

It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

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October 19, 2011

Journal Entry for Today

Lord, the thought crossed my mind this morning that I can choose to live in Your kingdom or this world, daily, hourly and even minute by minute. I can choose to allow you to live through me, or I can choose to live my own live in my own ways….calling on You when I find I cannot deal with my circumstances. I can live a more robust, adventuresome life, curious about how you will manifest yourself in my circumstances. Or I can seek my own ways; running back and forth to you as I find myself overcome by the trials and circumstances of this life.

Lord, I am not really certain how it is accomplished, but I want You to live through me.

And God said…”Seek first the kingdom of God. All you are to do is to seek Me and My kingdom. Trust in Me regardless of your circumstances, stay curious and connected to Me. Bring your petitions and requests to Me and trust Me to know how to respond so that the very best outcomes are yours. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not revert to your old ways of doing things, and I will make all your paths straight.”

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

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October 17, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for the reminder that prayer is not a means to an end, it is the end itself.  You know that I want the circumstances we face to change, that I want us to have life and life more abundantly, and so I pray, as I should. But You remind me in this devotional that prayer is an outcome as well, and I am to reach out to You and for You simply because prayer strengthens our communication and relationship, and is a natural byproduct of Jesus living through me.

And God says…”Prayer is a way for you and Me to communicate and build our relationship. It is the foundation of our daily walk. Take time to simply pray without petitions. Reach out to Me to simply communicate.  Pray without ceasing and discover that your prayers have become a dialog, and the dialog has become a daily discussion that strengthens our connection and your reception and discernment.  And while the discussion and dialog is in end in itself, you will also discover a peace that passes all understanding.”

The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest . . . .” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.

From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.

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October 16, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, sometimes it doesn’t feel like I am in your will, even though I am standing still, surrendered, and waiting on you. I can hear only my own voice and wonder if you are there?

And God says,…”Do not listen or depend on anything as fickle and unreliable as your own feelings. After all these years you should know that your feelings are unreliable indicators of truth. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own ..understanding …and or feelings.  If I said it, I meant it, and it is the truth. And I said and say nothing can separate you from me. Not even your own unreliable and undisciplined behavior and or feelings. I am with you always.”

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . .” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”

“Then the eleven disciples went . . . to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, “Come to Me . . .”— that is the place to meet Jesus— “all you who labor and are heavy laden . . .” (Matthew 11:28)— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

“Go therefore . . . .” To “go” simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, “Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,” but, “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places].” He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . .” (John 15:7)— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus . . .” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

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October 14, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I read another story this morning about a new believer that had to overcome the impact and reputation of the religious community, (including my own evangelical establishment) in order to become a believer.  He had to get past his view of the polarization, unforgiveness and hypocrisy he saw in us. Now that I think about this, it is exactly what Jesus had to overcome as well. He had to challenge the religious leaders and establishment of His time. When they wanted to stone a woman for sexual impurity, he asked them to look into their own hearts and imperfections. Jesus reached out to everyone, even those that were considered “unclean”. But Lord, in many ways, we still exclude many because of their particular kind of sin or lifestyle. Lord, how can we reach out past our religiosity and actually reach, encourage and include so many that do not know You?

And God says…”As Chambers writes, your mission field is in front of you, right where you live, allowing Jesus to live through you.  And your mission is to allow Jesus to flow through you to others. And remember, who you are speaks much more loudly than what you will say. There is no need to quote scripture, or offer up the four spiritual laws, or a sinner’s prayer. When you let Jesus live through you, His love, complete with knowledge, wisdom, faith, and discipline will flow through you and touch others. When Jesus lives though you, people will follow you, because they are following Jesus. Simply surrender yourself, and Jesus will shine through. When you allow Jesus to live through you, the whole world can see, and hear His life singing. And if you are not quite certain how to do this, simply ask Me to show you.”

Galatians 2:20

The Message (MSG)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.