Thus says the Lord: ’I remember . . . the kindness of your youth . . .’ —Jeremiah 2:2

God is saying to His people, “You are not in love with Me now, but I remember a time when you were.” He says, “I remember . . . the love of your betrothal . . .” (Jeremiah 2:2). Am I as filled to overflowing with love for Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He ever find me pondering the time when I cared only for Him? Is that where I am now, or have I chosen man’s wisdom over true love for Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no thought for where He might lead me? Or am I watching to see how much respect I get as I measure how much service I should give Him?

As I recall what God remembers about me, I may also begin to realize that He is not what He used to be to me. When this happens, I should allow the shame and humiliation it creates in my life, because it will bring godly sorrow, and “godly sorrow produces repentance . . .” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

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January 21, 2013

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I have forgotten lately that all things all possible, that You are able….thank you for this reminder. I have let the circumstances of my life bring me down a bit, focusing on the difficult details of disappointment. Thank you for the reminder that You are truly able…and that Your gift only requires my surrender and acknowledgement that You are God and love me beyond imaginings.

And God says…” You have a way of being distracted by your immediate circumstances, and the enemy knows this. Consequently, he will keep sending short term distractions in an attempt to steal your faith, hope and connection.  Surrender to Me in the morning, afternoon and evening. Surrender and trust the love I revealed through the sacrifice of Jesus. Know that I love you beyond imaginings not because of what you do or can do, but because of  Jesus. Stay surrendered and connected and you will live an abundant and joyful day and life”.

When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . —Galatians 1:15-16

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ —Isaiah 6:8

When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.

The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Today we are reminded that your call is personal, customized to us, and we are the only ones who can hear it and it’s not the best idea to discuss it with others. That’s kind of opposite of what comes natural. But of course it makes sense when we remember that your ways are higher than our ways. It also makes sense that everyone’s call would be different because you are infinite and each person is a reflection of a different part of you. And at the same time, everyone’s call is in a way the same, because it is a reflection on You and your nature, which is Love. So today, help me find the call of your love in my path and follow it … wherever you lead. And also to remember the call(s) that I have heard over the last many years. I am seeing that now is the time for some of them, some that didn’t make sense or could get no traction when I first heard them, I see that now is the “God Time” for them.
Love is my nature and Time doesn’t limit me like it does humans. Remembering those two things will make it easier to discern my call. Those old callings that you didn’t understand when you first heard them, looking back now, were they not about Love?
Yes, totally.

We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).

Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Is it an event or is it a process that you are looking for? The first part of a process could be seen as an event.

Sanctification is a continuing process punctuated by many events. Every person is different. I customize the plan for each individual. You err when you compare. My plan for you is revealed as you come to me with a surrendered heart and expectation to hear and obey. Sometimes you’ll see what the Father is doing and obey, like in John 5:19. Sometimes you will see my hand in your life only after you’ve walked thru an event. It is good to look back often, looking for these things. Then you will begin to know my ways and see things coming your way more often.

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ’Here am I! Send me’ —Isaiah 6:8

Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard-”the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”

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January 14, 2013

Lord, help me be a man after Your own heart…help me to not only say “here I am, send me”, help me to desire this more than anything else. I am a man of  dust and desires, desperately in need of your grace, love and forgiveness.

And God says…”Set your eyes on Jesus, seek Him first and your heart and mind will be refreshed, renewed and transformed daily.  You are not capable but Jesus is capable of doing all things through you and with you as you stay connected. And even when you are not connected, He will bring you into His arms.”

I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 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

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, 2013

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

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,  I am to allow You to do the communicating and teaching after I surrender.

And God says…”Like 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….and in the process quench your thirst as well.”

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23

“Your whole spirit . . . .” The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139 . The psalmist implies— “O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.”

Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight.

We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Oswald started today with,

“The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach.”

Then Psalm 139 shows the depth at which you can know us and protect us. Depths that we cannot even imagine. The neuroscientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of the places in our brains that address the motives behind our actions and feelings. Although some of them feel smug that they have figured out some of why we do the things we do, it is only perhaps a teaspoonful compared to a swimming pool’s worth of complexity that your Holy Spirit navigates easily. Our problems and also our brilliance originate in those recesses of our soul and spirit which we cannot access. Of course we try with self help programs and studies of Psychology and Neuroscience. But to little avail. Those who’ve studied the most and learned the most seem no happier than the rest of us … maybe even less.
So it is comforting that you can take care of all that behind the scenes stuff in the areas of the brain and soul and spirit that we cannot access. So we learn once again that our job is just to stay connected and let you do your work. Thank you for loving us so much. Help us today to walk in the blessings that you have provided.

Abraham built an altar . . . ; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar . . . —Genesis 22:9

This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You . . . to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”

We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Us humans, we think death is the ultimate sacrifice, and maybe it is … but living for you, 100%, all out, … we really find that harder than dying. Is that why so few of us do it … really 100%. Why do we hold back?

You have not completely accepted my gift. When you appropriate all that I have for you, you will give all that you have for me. It’s that simple. So come to the well…. Drink in the waters of life. Know that my life in you is only available thru my death for you.

Prayer:
Help me today, Lord, to find the cross and death and surrender all that stuff that I keep hanging onto … so that I can breathe in your life and live for you.

Jesus said to him, ’Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?’ —John 14:9

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.

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January 7, 2013

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

When I am focused on You Lord, it seems that it is all I need. When I am connected to You, Jesus, I can be at peace without answers or solutions, because You are the answer and solution. You fill up my heart and head, when I seek You and You alone.  How is this Lord, and how can I sustain this kind of intimacy?

And God says…” You cannot capture nor seek intimacy with Me, you can only surrender. When you surrender to Me, you are connected. You are not connected when you try to find Me in works, study or even prayer or  conformity. Although those are all things that are good .You will find our intimacy in your surrender, allowing Me to live through you; works, study prayer and transformation can then occur.  Seek first the Kingdome of God, which is Jesus, acknowledge the Lord in all you ways. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

And I, if I am lifted up . . . will draw all peoples to Myself —John 12:32

When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.

But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.

The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.

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December 20, 2012

Lord, help me walk in a more complete understanding of the cross of Jesus; not an understanding of sympathy but a knowledge of the magnitude of the sacrifice. Please help me walk this day with the shadow of the cross in my vision.  I believe that if I acknowledge the cross I could stay more tightly connected to You.

And God says…”I want you to acknowledge the cross, and surrender and allow Jesus to live through you. The sacrifice of Jesus must be taken together with His life and resurrection. The cross can remind you of His sacrifice, and His resurrection reminds you that you too are being reborn, every day. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is  Jesus. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. Stay connected to Jesus and His cross and allow His resurrection to take place in you, daily.”