Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters…, so our eyes look to the Lord our God… —Psalm 123:2

In Him we have…the forgiveness of sins… —Ephesians 1:7

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.

Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.

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Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
Today, right now, I am grateful. Grateful for your salvation and atonement sacrifice that allows me to come into relationship with you and receive your love. Staying grateful, consciously grateful, as the challenges of life come my way … that is the challenge. I sometimes feel disconnected, and ungratefulness usually comes along with that. How can I hold onto the gratefulness more consistently?

There will be an ebb and flow. It’s natural and part of the human condition. After a busy schedule of being with people, I needed to get away and recharge and reconnect with my purpose and my power source. That’s what you are doing when you consciously re-connect. You wouldn’t need to reconnect if there had not been a disconnect. Life will do that to you. Expect it. But don’t live there. Reconnect with me. Make it part of your life structure. It is one of the few things that is safe to make a structure around.

If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. —John 8:36


If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.

God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, “I can’t do that.” God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our “arguments…and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)— we have to do it. Don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.

“If the Son makes you free….” Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ….” His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. “…you shall be free indeed”— free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.

By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing…I will bless you… —Genesis 22:16-17

Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God……My goal is God Himself… At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

“At any cost…by any road” means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.

There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me. God’s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God’s character. ’Tis because I am ordinary,  Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.

It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, “In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”

The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen…” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our “Yes” must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, “Amen,” or, “So be it.” That promise becomes ours.

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November 17, 2014

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, this devotional brought to my attention my propensity for shaping my own behavior, discussions, actions and living so that I can, in my own judgment and opinion,  move my agenda or my idea of Your agenda forward. I will guard my words or offer up watered down or watered up status of a circumstance or opinion so that I do not offend anyone, or such that it casts a good light on my idea or initiative. I help shape the discussion so that it benefits me and my agenda. It is especially true when I can also feel as if I have moved Your agenda forward by shaping it in the “right way”.  But You tell me this is not obedience, even when my motivation and the outcome seems to support my efforts to grow Your Kingdom.

And God says…”My ways are not your ways. I often move in ways that you will never understand and your attempts to make it right, or make it better or more spiritual can become acts of disobedience even when it looks more religious or spiritual.  Just because your words are soothing, or your actions support the ABCs of churches (Attendance, Buildings and Cash) does not mean you are being obedient, in fact it may mean the opposite. And when you add your own ways and means of growing the vision I have given you, you dilute the vision and by your actions tell me that you can take “take it from here”.  Surrender, and let Me take it from here, there and everywhere. Be connected to Me and allow Me to act because you have not interceded and given it your own brand of shaping. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own ways and means and I will make your paths straight.  And your character will be shaped by the knowledge that it was and is God that manifests the vision.”

As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me… —Genesis 24:27

We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.

Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.

…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. —Galatians 2:20

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17

He said, “Take now your son…” —Genesis 22:2

God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

“So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not “confer with flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to “confer with flesh and blood” or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, “I will only go to there, but no farther.” God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.

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November 11, 2014

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, Chambers once again reminds me that when you make your will known to me, and often I wonder and wander around on this important step; that I am to respond immediately. But I am often confused regarding Your will, especially when I am at a crossroads facing difficult times, uncertainty and pressure all around. Although I have never faced the same kind of pressure as Abraham, I have often found myself in difficult situations, calling out to You for rescue, direction and answers, only to hear the cacophony of silence. Is this the way of the lesson? That I wait on You? Wait until I am certain of Your will even though it seems as if You will never answer?

And God says…”Remember My promises, recall My commitments to You and yours… those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired…..Know that I shall meet all your needs according to My riches in glory. And I know the plans I have for you; they are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own ways and means and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I shall provide everything else you require.”

“Do not measure my response by your ideas of time and need. My ways are not your ways. Do not evaluate my response by what you can and cannot see, touch, taste, feel or hear. Your senses are too limiting. Know that I am God, and all things work for good for those that love the Lord. If I did not spare my Son, I will not spare you any good thing.”

…fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… —1 Thessalonians 3:2

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28