If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.

When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).

A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.

Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.

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January 11, 2011

There was a time when I could be stopped dead in my tracks when someone, especially a family, close friend, or church member, would say to me…..”You call yourself a Christian, and you…..?”  I would immediately feel the need to defend myself out of anger, or insecurity. I might feel ashamed and humiliated.  I would feel lots of emotions, but I would not often feel comfortable and secure.

And God says…”When you are in obedience and connected to Me, you feel secure even when you are questioned by a close friend or loved one. Your obedience and attachment to Me allows My love, hope, faith, forgiveness and loving-kindness to flow from Me to you and onto others. Challenged, condemned, questioned and criticized and you will feel no need to retaliate or defend yourself. Covered  and cloaked in My righteousness,  the peace that passes all understanding still resonates within you.”

Galatians 5:22-23 (The Message)

 ^22-23But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

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.

God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received 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’s 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.

This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” 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’s ministry to others.

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January 10, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, a brother and I agreed on one New Year’s Resolution; to experience life and life more abundantly…… as you promised and provided. Not necessarily life with more material possessions or more financial ballast, although we both agreed that if it is your will that we experience  blessings in those areas, we would not complain or object. However, it was not our intent to begin our year by praying for  material gain. It is our intention to take hold of your promise of life and life more abundantly, and we asked if you would remove the scales from our eyes and hearts so we can understand more about this promise and all that it entails. You promised it, we want to understand and receive it.

And God says…” Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened. You do not receive because you do not ask and often you do not ask with the right motives. When you come to me with an open heart and mind, trusting and believing in my omnipotence, I can answer your request and begin to show you portions of life and life more abundantly that you can grasp and experience.  And be assured that your life is lived in abundance as you extend your life to others. Your intimacy with Me and abundant life are very closely linked.  You grasp life and life more abundantly through the discernment of the Holy Spirit that lives within you, and the Spirit of God within you testifies to the abundant life that you seek.”

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (The Message)

 ^10-13The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.

 ^14-16The nonspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by nonspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit

These words were not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus was encouraging Philip to draw closer. Yet the last person we get intimate with is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come: “. . . I have called you friends . . .” (John 15:15). True friendship is rare on earth. It means identifying with someone in thought, heart, and spirit. The whole experience of life is designed to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we really know Him?

Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away . . .” (John 16:7). He left that relationship to lead them even closer. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be the visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ (see John 15:1-4).

Once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely and we never lack for understanding or compassion. We can continually pour out our hearts to Him without being perceived as overly emotional or pitiful. The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control. This is the outcome of allowing Jesus to satisfy every area of life to its depth. The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.

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January 6, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Father God, what should my worship resemble? Should it be as Oswald Chambers says; a combination of worship, waiting and work?  I hear what he is saying, but I seem to be able to focus on only one area at a time. When I am worshiping you, I am forgetting my issues, circumstances and trials; yet when I am waiting, I seem to be remembering my circumstances and am waiting for you to rescue me. And working? Well, I seem to be waiting on your specific leading to show me the work you have for me…… so I can then act in obedience.

And God says…”Delight yourself in the Lord. ..When you worship, delight yourself in Me…..drown yourself in My Holy Spirit, allowing Him to guide you into the waiting and working,  trusting that as we are connected through your worship you will know My leading in both your waiting and work. You can continue in daily worship, waiting and working through obedience as you clearly hear my voice…. And you hear My voice as you continually worship and pray without ceasing.

Between these two times Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75). But then he came completely to the end of himself and all of his self-sufficiency. There was no part of himself he would ever rely on again. In his state of destitution, he was finally ready to receive all that the risen Lord had for him. “. . . He breathed on them, and said to them, ’Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (John 20:22). No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives.

All our promises and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to accomplish them. When we come to the end of ourselves, not just mentally but completely, we are able to “receive the Holy Spirit.” “Receive the Holy Spirit “— the idea is that of invasion. There is now only One who directs the course of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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January 5, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I seem to keep learning the same lesson over and over… about getting to the end of myself….actually letting go of a particular area or concern or issue. I go through this process over and over until I realize I should have truly given you all of the issue,  and or circumstance in that area of my life.

Don’t try to get out of your trials too early because you have a great deal to learn inside of them. Unfortunately you often do not turn over an area or issue or circumstance of your life until you discover you cannot handle it. And often you do not do this until you have exhausted every option available to you. You are learning to come to the end of yourself earlier after many lessons. But they are lessons you learn through experience.

 It would be much, much easier if you were able to immediately turn your entire life over to Me and allow the Holy Spirit to live every moment through you. But easier is not necessarily better, and that is not your nature, nor do I want you to be a preprogrammed follower. I want you to choose to have a relationship with Me in every area of your life. I want you to understand and know that you will always arrive at the end of yourself, as long as you trust your own devices, and you will continue to trust your own devices as long as they work for you. I give you my peace and joy in the midst of your life, trials and all, as you no longer rely on yourself. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own devices and I will make your paths straight. Do not worry about anything but pray about everything…..and you shall have peace that passes all understanding.

There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.

At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.

Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.

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January 4, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Waiting is hard! I sometimes confuse waiting on the Lord with doing nothing. I was taught that to have a goal and to take no action is laziness. If you want it then you must go out and get it! I often worry that I am being lazy if I am not engaged in it bringing my goals to reality.

And God says…”Oswald Chambers wrote it exactly as directed; “If you have the slightest doubt, then I am not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.” You cannot finish a work I began in you, it is my work and I will finish it, if you wait for Me. You will know it is Me working and My will for your life, when there is absolutely no doubt in your mind. You will know which steps to take when you are absolutely certain it is Me leading your way. Until you know that certainty, be still, pray without ceasing and be at peace knowing that I am working it all out for your good because I love you. If I gave you My son why would I not give you every good thing? Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding…..delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.

My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.

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January 1, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

New Year’s Resolutions Rolled into One

While praying and getting connected first thing this morning, I thought about my resolutions for the year; what I will “give up” and what I will resolve to do. …Be a better person, a better father, son, brother, friend. And of course I resolved to be a better Christian….

…….and then I was stopped in my tracks by a still small voice that reminded me I cannot become a better Christian……….. I cannot choose the higher road, I cannot do more. And in deference to Oswald Chambers, I cannot resolve and then deliver My Utmost for His Highest. I can try, I can make promises, and then I fail; sometimes at the small things and at other times at the very big things. But fail I will, nonetheless. I have a long, long history of these failures.

But I believe I can deliver My Utmost for His Highest when I simply present myself to Jesus and ask Him to live through me; when I ask God to change me from the inside out, to make me a man after His own heart.

And God says…..”It is My hope and plan for you to understand that you can do nothing apart from Me. It is not a partnership….where you do your part and I do mine; if you give Me your utmost I will then give you my highest. I gave you the highest, and He was brought lowest……there is no “your part, or your utmost”.  I do not want your work, your church attendance, or your help for your fellow man. I do not want your very best……I want you, all of you. And that occurs when you realize that the very best you can deliver cannot and does not measure up or justify the sacrifice of Jesus. Do not promise to do the work that can only be done by the Holy Spirit. Do nothing trying to earn my love, do nothing out of obligation or with your own effort.  

 Resolve to surrender…… and rejoice that the work in your life has already been done by Christ Jesus. Your utmost is to simply allow Me to deliver my highest in your life. All else will follow. Resolve to let Me be God in your life……

2 Corinthians…. 3:18 (MSG)  ^16-18Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

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December 31, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

The last day of the year and is it me or is God really organizing my thoughts and vision of a fresh look at life in the New Year? Is He sorting things so that I see and feel His hand on my past and on my future?

And God says…”Your culture and the pervasive communications around the New Year event have prepared your mind for the fertile seeds of hope for tomorrow. It is right inside this cultural field of hope that the Holy Spirit can operate inside your heart and mind and that of many, many others. Be aware that many are looking for the very hope that lives within you and shines on your face. Be sensitive and available to share your hope. The hope you have found in Christ Jesus.”

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.

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December 30, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I heard from a believer today that people were “fleeing” her church. She said her pastor has started telling the congregation that it was his job to dispense harsh messages and if they left feeling guilty it was probably because they were doing something that was wrong. He was pointing out the right way they should live, and if they were not living according to the Bible preaching he was delivering ….then it was alright with him if they got angry and left the church. Since their pastor has been on this tack, about 6-7 months, the parishioners have been fleeing services and attendance has been falling dramatically. How can I help? How can I help the pastor and what can I tell the members of the church that come to me with questions?

And God says…” It is not unusual for God seekers to fall into the trap of the Pharisees and forget the most important commandments of Jesus; love your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. When you follow these commandments God can change you from the inside out. The “trying to be good for God” changes into “being in a relationship that manifests itself by a transformation over time”.

 “You cannot help the pastor; you cannot help him see he is driving away his parishioners by telling them they must live under the law. But you can be available to share the message of love, grace and transformation as it applies to your life and experience. You can be available to share your experience and remind people that any and every virtue you posses is  because of the completed work of Christ. And although His work is completed, He is still working out the completion in you… and it is His work, not yours.