Total Vulnerability

There is a place in God where we can find increased strength, strength to live a holy life according to His will for us. It seems ironic that what we call "surrender" is actually the means to the most powerful place found in God.

A soldier in wartime dreads the moment when he is cornered on all sides by the enemy and forced to surrender; he willingly gives up all his personal rights, leaving himself totally vulnerable to his captor. But with God, this is exactly what He desires for us—to totally surrender to Him, to willingly give up all our personal rights and become totally vulnerable to Him. He wants to "captivate" us totally through our surrender to Him.

"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength" (Isaiah 40:29).

When our might and our strength to do things our own way are surrendered to Him, we lay down our will to the Father enabling Him to increase His strength in us, He is able to empower us for service. He is then able to provide everything we need that pertains to life and godliness.

John 3:30 reminds us: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Consider the meaning of those words as you're reminded of today's verse: "…to them that have no might he increaseth strength"!

Have you totally surrendered? Have you decreased that He may increase? Is the strength in your life His strength or are you existing on your own might? Examine yourself today and make a decision to totally surrender to Him so His strength will be increased in you, so He will be seen in all you do, everywhere you go, and in whatever you set your hand to. Glorify Him today through total surrender ... it's our highest calling.

Father, I long to be totally surrendered to You. It is a place I desire more than anything, not for the empowerment, not for the blessings, not for any other reason other than to glorify You. Father, I recognize total surrender as my highest calling, but I'm calling upon You for help as I fall so short of the mark so many times. Help me surrender to you totally. Help me decrease that You may increase. Help me walk in my highest calling—total surrender to You, amen.

© Jan Ross
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The Holiness of God

THE HOLINESS of GOD

-excerpts by A.W. Tozer.

"God is not now any holier than He ever was. And He never was holier than now. He did not get His holiness from anyone nor from anywhere. He is Himself the Holiness. He is the All-Holy, the Holy One; He is holiness itself, beyond the power of thought to grasp or of word to express, beyond the power of all praise."

"Language cannot express the holy, so God resorts to association and suggestion. He cannot say it outright because He would have to use words for which we know no meaning. He would have to translate it down to our unholiness. If He were to tell us how white He is, we would understand it in terms of only dingy grey."

"It was a common thing in olden days, when God was the center of Human worship, to kneel at an altar and shake, tremble, weep, and perspire in an agony of conviction. We don't see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful God, 'mine Holy One' (Habakkuk 1:12), who is 'of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity' (Habakkuk 1:13)."

"We've used the technical interpretation of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ until we've watered down the wine of our spirituality. God help us in this evil hour!"

"We come into the presence of God with tainted souls. We come with our own concept of morality, having learned it from books, from newspapers and from school. We come to God dirty – our whitest white is dirty, our churches are dirty and our thoughts are dirty – and we do nothing about it!"

"If we came to God dirty, but trembling and shocked and awestruck in His presence, if we knelt at His feet and cried with Isaiah, 'I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips' (Isaiah 6:5), then I could understand. But we skip into His awful presence. We're forgetting 'holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord' (Hebrews 12:14)."

"O God, soon every person must appear before you to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Father, keep upon us a sense of holiness so that we can't sin and excuse it, but that repentance will be as deep as our lives. This we ask in Christ's name. Amen."

-A.W. Tozer.

Gift of Service

Being a "servant" carries with it a negative impression--bondage, servitude, enslavement, burdens, etc. By definition, that's exactly what a servant is. But the context of today's verse sheds a totally different light on the word "servant." Actually, it is used in the context of a "gift."

This verse explains four "gifts" which are given to those who have new life in Christ:

"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." (Romans 6:22)

• WE ARE FREE FROM SIN
  
• WE BECOME A SERVANT OF GOD
  
• WE ARE GIVEN FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS
  
• WE ARE GIVEN EVERLASTING LIFE
  

These are all benefits, including the privilege of being a servant.

We are designed to be servants, either to sin or to righteousness. There are no in-betweens. There is no other way. We either serve God or we serve sin.

The choice is ours as it was in Joshua's day: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).

Choose God and you choose life! Being a servant then becomes a benefit, a privilege, and a blessing rather than a burden.

What is your choice?

Father, it is my choice to serve YOU above all else, not only for the benefits but simply because I love You! You have put in me a servant's heart which makes me glad to serve You! I don't count it a burden to serve you, as I am bonded together with You through Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour. Thank you for freeing me from sin, allowing me the privilege of being Your servant, gifting me with fruits of holiness, and giving me everlasting life. Lord, for all this I cannot begin to thank You enough. Your blessings are truly without measure. Amen!

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved

Nothing But the Blood

We are so keen to other's faults but oblivious to our own most times. Judging others seems to be a favorite pastime for many of us while we neglect the more needful thing of judging our own motives and actions against the Word of God.

"So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7)

Jesus knew that this woman was guilty, there was no doubt. Yet, her accusers were also guilty, maybe not of the same sin, but of other sinful acts and motives. He alone had the power to judge the intents of her accusers' hearts, and He alone had the power to free her from the sentence of death dictated by the law.

We all deserve death, yet Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, stills the voice of our accuser and has freed us from our death sentence. The wounds He bore, the bruises He received, the chastisement He endured, the price He paid, the blood He shed, and the death He died have washed away our sin and set us free from the sentence of death of which we are so very deserving. What can wash away our sin? Nothing—nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Dear Lord, nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse me and make me whole; nothing but the blood of Jesus can purify my heart. Oh, how precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know… nothing but the blood of Jesus. I thank you for the cleansing, saving, healing, delivering blood, the blood shed on Calvary for me. Amen.

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved

Sincere or Insincere?

Abraham had received the promise from God years before He spoke as recorded in Genesis 17:1: "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." In fact, so many years had passed that his faith was being challenged by the aging process of his own body as well as that of his wife.

Yet, we're told in Romans 4:20 that Abraham "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God".

Abraham, well advanced in years, heard from God who tells him three things:

• I am God
  
• Walk before Me
  
• Be thou perfect
  

If anything would make a man stagger, it would be the third phrase uttered by God . . . "Be thou perfect!" How can we be perfect? What does God really mean when He tells us to be perfect?

The word "perfect" actually speaks of "sincerity." To be sincere, not to be masked or to present yourself as something you are not. In ancient times, when someone would go to the potter's house to buy a clay vessel, they would take the vessel they chose and set it in the sun for a short period of time. The sun would soon reveal any cracks the potter may have tried to hide rendering it an "insincere" vessel—one that represents itself as whole when all the while it was a damaged vessel.

God wants us to be sincere, to be absolutely honest before Him. If there is a "crack" in our lives, He wants to be the Master Potter and repair it because any other repair job just won't do. No other potter's hands can do the work of the Master Potter.

Do you want to be whole and complete? Let the Master Potter mold you, make you, and repair you; let Him make you a vessel of honor unto Him, pure and blameless, whole and complete. Sincere. Perfect in His eyes.

Father, Master Potter, I present myself to you as a broken, crushed, and mutilated vessel, one that has been marred by the enemy. Make me new. Mold me, reform me, repair me, and make me complete, sincere, and perfect in Your eyes. Father, whatever it takes, take me and do what needs to be done that I may be that perfect vessel of honor unto You. Amen.

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved

Everlasting to Everlasting

Eternity, a time which knows no measure, no beginning and no end. Our God was, and is and will be forevermore, from everlasting to everlasting—eternal. Before the earth was formed, He was! Before the heavens were measured out, His throne was established! Before the stars were set in place, His plans for your life were set in motion!

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." (Psalm 90:2)

Take a few moments today to think of His eternal existence and to contemplate His everlasting presence. To do so will cause you to drop to your knees in honor of His awesome holiness, power, righteousness—His magnificence! There is none like our God; no where can there be found any like Him.

Now take a few moments to honor Him and worship Him with a greater understanding of how awesome He truly is! Glory to the King of Kings, the Eternal and One True God!

Father, your greatness overwhelms me; your eternal existence is truly a mystery to my limited ability to comprehend. Your holiness is unsearchable, and your holiness untouchable. Thank you for the shed blood of the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the earth, in the eternity before time. You alone are God. Your throne is established forever. You are the Most High, the Almighty, the Exalted One, and so much more! You are my God and I will love You with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. There is truly none like You! Be glorified today in my life, in every ounce of my being, amen!

"But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." (Jeremiah 10:10)

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved