Christ-follower, Husband, Dad, Pastor

surrender

May 17, 2013

Surrender All

Let Christ reign without a rival in your life. Acknowledge His unconditional right to reign and surrender to His Lordship. Worship God by submitting every part of your life to the Lord. Worship as a living sacrifice yielded to God’s purposes. Let Him have all of you.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 MSG)

Abraham gives us a picture of total surrender in Genesis 22:1-18. Even when he didn’t understand fully what God had in mind, Abraham trusted God completely. Abraham’s willing worship released new understanding of the Lord who provides.

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Do you allow the Lord to work in every area of your life in whatever way He desires?

A world of confusion and disappointment results from trying to believe without obeying. This puts us in the position of a bird trying to fly with one wing folded. We merely flap in a circle and seek to cheer our hearts with the hope that the whirling ball of feathers is proof that a revival is under way … A mere passive surrender may be no surrender at all. Any real submission to the will of God must include willingness to take orders from Him from that time on. When the heart is irrevocably committed to receiving and obeying orders from the Lord Himself, a specific work has been done, but not until then. (A.W. Tozer, This World: Playground or Battleground?, p.80-81)

April 26, 2013

God Owns ALL – Including Your Time

Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 4:2 isn’t optional or simply a suggestion, God REQUIRES us to be faithful with the things He’s given to us. “Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2 NLT) What’s been entrusted? Treasure, Talent, and Time!

  • “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.” (Psalm 24:1 NLT)
  • “Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 10:14 NLT)

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Ultimately, God owns ALL – including your time. Do you have God’s perspective on time?

“My times are in Your hand.”  (Psalm 31:15a NASB)

Time is a valuable earthly asset given by God but wise management requires God’s perspective on time. Without appropriate assessment, time is recklessly wasted. Like other assets, your time is owned by God, and you will give account for how you manage His stuff.

“No one has more time than you have. It is the discipline and stewardship of your time that is important. The management of time is the management of self; therefore if you manage time with God, he will begin to manage you.” (Jill Briscoe, Before You Say Amen, p. 15)

Most would easily agree that every giving decision is a spiritual decision, but do you realize every financial decision, every possession decision, and every time management decision is just as important as your giving decisions.

Of today’s 86,400 seconds, how many will you surrender to His Lordship? Sincere submission to Christ’s Lordship is more than simply asking “Lord, what do You want me to do with my time?” A more compelling question is “Lord, what I do with YOUR time?”

March 29, 2013

God’s Plan + Your Obedience = Great Victory

The church where Patti grew to know and to love Jesus Christ is Central Assembly in Boise, Idaho. Patti and I were married there in 1987 and we were honored to have Pastor Ted Buck be a part of the ceremony. Patti’s parents are still members of Central. I appreciate the years of faithful ministry by Pastor Ted. Recently, he commented on how Achan’s subtle sin brought disaster right after Israel’s wonderful victory over Jericho. Pastor Ted shared:

1. When you do what God wants you to do and you do it His way, the way that He tells you to do it, you will have the result that God intended.  You will be the recipient of a victory in your life courtesy of God’s power.  Think of it like this:

God’s Plan  +  Your Obedience  =  Victorious Life

2. When you choose to do things your way, even just a little differently than how God said to do it, it will always usher some type of defeat or failure into your life.  You will not like the result.

God has good plans in mind for you today, but yielded obedience is necessary. “I am grateful that God always makes it possible for Christ to lead us to victory. God also helps us spread the knowledge about Christ everywhere, and this knowledge is like the smell of perfume.” (2 Corinthians 2:14 CEV) As you yield to God’s plan with obedience, you will enjoy the blessed life prepared for you.

Ultimately, God’s master work, His Will is for you to conform to the image of Christ: “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son.” (Romans 8:29 MSG) God is THE Master Artist and “we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

Michelangelo is a name synonymous with artistic aptitude. Yet of the forty-four sculptures he attempted, he finished only fourteen (Ken Gire, Shaped by the Cross, p. 115).

Then there is the final work of his life, the Rondanini Pietà, on which he worked for ten years. [Giorgio] Vasari [a Michelangelo contemporary] writes that Michelangelo “ended up breaking the block, probably because the latter was full of impurities and so hard that sparks flew from under his chisel.” The sculpture was rescued by a servant and survives to this day. It bears the marks of Michelangelo’s chisel, but none of the beauty of his earlier work Pietà. . . .

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The same dilemma exists for those of us who are the work of God’s hands. In an attempt to free the image of Christ that is encased with the stone of the self, God begins chipping away everything that isn’t Jesus. The stone of our lives either submits to the chipping or it resists.

If it submits, features of the Savior begin to emerge from our life. If it submits long enough, the Savior himself emerges. If, however, it resists, and continues to resist, there will come a day when God will let the stone be stone.

C. S. Lewis said as much when he stated that there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “Okay, go ahead and have it your way.” (Shaped by the Cross, p. 116).

I pray that you will surrender to God’s plan and live in obedience. Victory and Christlikeness is God’s will for you. Don’t settle for less.

When you finish reading today’s blog, I encourage you to go and watch “God’s Chisel”. I enjoy the humor and lessons of TheSkitGuys and “God’s Chisel” communicates!

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