Surrendered

Surrendered -- a willful giving of oneself to a Higher Authority. In this case, my Higher Authority is Jesus Christ.

As I look back over this past Sunday, I am compelled to examine how much of my "self" is fully and irrevocably surrendered to Christ. Of course, we would all like to say, "Oh yes, I have surrendered my life to Christ. I did that on ***** (insert date, time, details)." But I the question I must ask is how much have we surrendered and how long does it stay surrendered.

Being out of control is not a good feeling ~ remember feelings are fickle and not trustworthy. Control is highly overrated. When you are in control it means God isn't, therefore you become unsurrendered. Recalling a definition of control, it is along the lines of "restraint" or "to hold back". I think God desires not only for us to relinquish control of our lives to Him but to also abandon our own desires, hopes and dreams in order to fulfill His for our lives.

There is no doubt in my mind that every person on this earth has a God-appointed divine destiny for his/her life. The RESPONSE to our Heavenly Father in this destiny often determines if and when this plan develops and comes to pass. Why are we so hesitant to give it all up to Him? Has He ever proved to be untrustworthy? Has He ever misrepresented Himself as something He isn't or disguised Himself to persuade us into following Him? That answer is unequivocally, NO -- not now, not ever.

Jesus Christ desires that we come to Him willingly. God is not a puppet master of sorts, hanging out in the heavenlies to pull our strings. If He was, there would be no need for us to surrender. He could manipulate anyone and everyone He chose to at any moment. But He doesn't. He waits on us, with open arms and all He asks of us is to "Come". He doesn't require that we clean ourselves up first or that we somehow try to make things "right" before we approach Him. He only asks that we "come". I cannot think of anything else more simple than that. So why do we make it so hard?

Our human, fleshly nature desires to be in control -- you know, the whole "in charge" of one's destiny crap. Giving up control is often seen as some sort of weakness. Perhaps in human eyes it is but, honestly, I could care less about pleasing anyone aside from God. Ultimately, it is what HE thinks that truly matters. Reading from The Message Remix, let's examine the Beatitudes found in the book of Matthew:

"You are blessed when you're at the end of your rope.

With less of you there is more of God and His rule."

That word "rule" used here does not mean dominate, it means "will". It goes right into John 3:30 about "He must increase and I must decrease". The Message reads like this, "This is the assigned moment for Him to move into the center, while I slip off into the sidelines." I don't think any human being desires to remain in obscurity. We all want to be "noticed" by someone. Jesus Christ's life was very much obscure from the popular crowd, the main stream life. Everything He did and said went against the "grain" of religion. Jesus does not desire that we become more religious at all. His desire is that we come into relationship with Him~complete and total dependence on someone (Him) other than ourselves. Today, I will end with this:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me -- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of Grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Matthew 11:28-30

The Message Remix

Listening.....

I was reading my Bible this morning and came across a quote listed in the introduction before the book of Nahum. Crediting The Message Remix (Eugene H. Peterson, NavPress 2003, 2006) here...the intro centered on the huge, larger than life players in modern day history and how they make the world seemingly a center stage for themselves. They are said to often make a lot of "noise" and routinely call attention to themselves, managing to capture the attention of many people ~ this often includes many Christian's. This "Ninevah-distraction" has people focused on that person, rather than THE PERSON of God and His continual way of working. The Message (in the introduction to Nahum)reads this way, "God's characteristic way of working is in quietness and in prayer." It went on to say, "If we are conditioned to respond to noise and size, we will miss God's word and action."

Nahum's writing was certainly interesting in relative term's to today's Christian. The book written towards the people of Israel provides a graphic scene of judgement. It seems Christian's these days are so convinced that God will not judge His children, they often continue a life of sin by playing what I call the "grace card". But my Bible also says EVERY MAN (and woman) will be judged. I think we fail Christ by some how playing off "sin" too casually these days. The "church", as a whole, has failed to remain that pure and spotless Bride that Christ so longs to wed. We have become so much like "the world" that a non-Christian cannot even tell the difference and it's no wonder so many people of today say the church is full of hypocrites.

While as Christian's, and THRU JESUS CHRIST we can do all things, we cannot continue to resurrect our old, fleshly lifestyle and call it "victory". My Bible says we are to crucify the flesh daily, dying to ourselves and our own desires every day. Can you imagine this? I mean, really doing this? Laying down ALL your hopes, your dreams, your desires for your life and simply saying, "Yes, Lord" to everything God would ask you to do? Jesus Christ did. He set the example for us to follow.

When the sheep are totally dependant on their Shepherd, they come willingly and without a second thought. After all the Shepherd knows what's best for the flock, right? In relating this to my own sheep, many of my Jacobs will follow me just about anywhere. Now, there are a certain few who hold back, only coming if I am offering grain from the white bucket. How similar does this seem to the Body of Christ as a whole? Some will follow without question, but the majority only come when they see the "treats" He holds out. God has such an amazing banquet of Himself set before His people and He desires that they take ALL of Him. There comes a day when we must stop treating God and our relationship with Christ like a buffet bar -- taking what we want, when we want it and then running off on our own way. Christ gave all of Himself, in death and in resurrection, so that we could live an eternity with Him. He never asks more of us than He first gave us, so willingly.

I do not see any middle ground with Christ and that is what makes a lot of people nervous. There is no compromise, you either know Him or you don't. You are either on your way to Heaven or on the road to Hell, there is no purgatory. It's all or nothing. Even the words of Christ read "he who is not for Me is against Me..." You either take all of Him, or nothing of Him.

New to this.....

Good morning... Trying my newbie hand at blogging so please be patient as this thing develops.

CHRISTmas day has come and gone but the Reason for the Season remains ever faithful, doesn't He? I read the Christmas story, this year from The Message bible and was literally awestruck and dumbfounded, at the same time. WOW, pretty much sums it up really....

As I contemplate the list of things to do for this week, I am slightly overwhelmed at the tasks at hand. Taking down decorations is at the list top mainly because we have 2 dug trees, needing transplanting and the weather is favorable this week so far. I have many outdoor cleaning chores to be done, again more to do than hours in the day. Sound familiar to anyone? :)

Overwhelm -- interesting word to say the least. Webster's defines this as "to pour down upon or over or to bury beneath". I would imagine our own decision to be overwhelmed (buried) or not often determines our daily priorities. Feelings are fickle (thank you, Joe) and cannot be trusted. Emotions are merely roots of our flesh, not our spirit in Christ Jesus. CHOOSING this day whom I will serve, it will not be my flesh by my spirit man who is alive and strong in the Lord. My prayer is that this day I will reflect the love and character of Jesus Christ and not be an image of my circumtances. All for Jesus!

Leaving now with a thought for the day....
"The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be." Jeremiah 17:9-10, The Message Bible