The Beautiful World of Surrender

As I was driving this morning on my way to work, I was confronted with a question from the Lord that I believe we seldom ever want to think about or answer---“When will you surrender all?” It was one of those “out of the blue” moments where as I was turning the van into a parking lot it was as if the Lord suddenly appeared in the passenger seat and said, “By the way, when will you surrender all?” Take a moment and consider that question for yourself. Now, take even a longer moment and think about it in all honesty, considering your life in light of Scripture, and in examining all of the things in your life that truly do not matter. I can imagine that like myself, if you’re reading this blog the many excuses for justifying the stagnant, secular, and selfish pursuits in your life are starting to come to mind. In fact, we have become the experts of creating our own definition as to what “surrender” means according to God. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, I can already hear my flesh asking, “Did God really say…?”

I find it interesting that in all four gospels Jesus makes this statement to his disciples, “for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25, see also Matthew 10:39, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, 17:33, and John 12:25). What does this tell us? The obvious answer is two fold: first, Jesus most definitely said it and secondly, it must have been something of great importance to us if all of the gospel writers included it in their witness. The problem, however, is what we want to do with Jesus’ admonition to “lose our lives” for His sake. The word “lose” in this passage carries the idea of “putting out of the way entirely or abolishing.” When Jesus points out that the man who wants to “save” his life will lose it, he is referring to the idea that this person is saving himself from suffering and danger while doing everything he can to preserve or rescue his life. In essence, Jesus gives us a picture of a person who is doing everything he can to avoid the life of suffering that comes from truly giving our lives to God. The suffering I am speaking of is one that comes from the denying of one’s flesh. The flesh, when it is denied, desires desperately to be rescued safely back into its comfortable place of indulgence and control. Although God gave man dominion, man wants to rule! He is not satisfied with being the “manager” of what God has given him in life; rather, he would be more comfortable being the “dictator” over all that happens in and to his life. This is the struggle of humanity-----the struggle to maintain control.

We could sit here and argue over what exactly Jesus was trying to say when he submitted that we need to “lose” our lives. We could pretend that He is not interested in the everyday activities of our lives such as what we watch, eat, listen to, and how we use our time. We could convince ourselves that Jesus is only concerned with our “surrender” when it comes to our “spirituality” and that our physical lives are our own to do as we please. Jesus, however, said that “if a kingdom is divided against, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3:24).  When Jesus spoke those words, he was explaining that it is impossible for two ruling influences to be in power at the same time in one’s life. Jesus was accused doing things by the authority of Satan while at the same time, manifesting things in his life that could only come from the authority of God. The most important thing we should note is this: we cannot have our lives both ways. Either God is God in our lives or someone else is seated upon the throne of our hearts. The ultimate proof of this is seen in our willingness or unwillingness to surrender to the Lord. Ultimately, one needs to consider what the chief goal in life actually is: is it to live for one’s self or is it to completely live for Christ?

Many of us would say that it would be to live for Christ; however, our claims are tattered with the notion that we only live for Him in a way that we still get so much of the say with what we do with our time, energy, and resources in this life. In other words, He is our source to the kingdom of God but we remain our own source while on this earthly kingdom. For me, one of the most amazing statements that Jesus made was “by myself I can do nothing…” (John 5:30). Jesus did not simply come to earth to live a good and sinless life to die on a cross-----he also came as an example to be followed or as He put it “the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6). Jesus demonstrated that in all He did, He did only what His Father told Him to do (John 5:19). Did that mean everything He did in life He considered His relationship with the Father? Scripture DOES NOT suggest otherwise! We are the ones who suggest to ourselves that there are areas of our lives where we can call the shots or as I call it, “having our own little kingdom apart from God where we can rule and reign.” Whatever gave us the idea that we have the option that we can do what we want when we want and still follow Christ? Does that mean I have to consult God about things as simple as eating my three plus meals a day? Would we have any weight problems or food related illnesses if we did? If we consulted the Lord for every penny we spent would we have financial issues in our lives? We think we can make decisions a part from God but as Proverbs so eloquently puts it “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25).

I in no way have “arrived” in this pursuit of surrender----and it is a pursuit! My life is surrounded by the things that give me a false sense of well being and help me avoid the unnecessary suffering of my flesh. If I get bored, rather than finding pleasure in God I find something to entertain me. If my flesh is hungry after I had just eaten a substantial meal, I calm it’s suffering by feeding it what it doesn’t need. I am not trying to promote asceticism but I am trying to help us consider how much of our lives are under our control rather than the control of the Spirit of the Lord. Surrender is more than a lofty ideal in the Christian faith. It is the expected ideal for fully experiencing the fruit that comes from knowing Christ. Jesus said, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Our own initiatives in life result in “nothing” of value in this life or the next. We must be intimately connected to Christ in all that we do in life. Doing that, however, is only found in the difficult task of surrender. We can do many things in the kingdom of God but there is no greater expression of worshiping the Lord than to give Him all of our lives. This is a day-by-day and moment-by-moment choice; however, it is the ONLY WAY we can truly become all that God has intended us to be as it is the ONLY WAY we can come to know the true riches of becoming like Christ in all that he did. I have a long way to go but go I begin to enter into the beautiful world of surrender.  

Prepare for the Coming Storm

      The Great Tornado Outbreak of April 3, 1974 was a day in America which many will not forget. One town in particular, Xenia, was about fifty miles from where I lived as a child and if you are a student of weather history, you will have no problem recognizing the name of that city as it became known for enduring the most powerful and deadliest tornado in history. Thirty-three people died in Xenia alone with thousands injured. A wave of mass destruction was all that was left in that town. Although nothing could have prevented the obliterating damage in the wake of the aftermath, the thirty-three people who lost their lives possibly could have been saved. The most amazing part of Xenia’s story for me rests in one oversight by community officials----there were no warning sirens installed. Image how different things may have been for the families of those who had lost their lives had someone been able to warn them of the coming destructive storm.

     Like a siren that sounds when a coming tornado is on its way, the only thing that will save us as a people from reaping the consequences for the lukewarm ways of the American church is a return to a radical life of worship before the Lord. For too long we have muddled our way through the Christian faith and have compromised all that is sacred and holy for the sake of comfort, convenience, and crowds. We have lost the essentials of truth, spirit, humility, sensitivity, prayer, holiness, and the fear of the Lord. We’ve replaced these things with relevancy, entertainment, compromise, strategies, and the need to build our own kingdom in the kingdom of God. There is however, a storm that is brewing on the horizon and life as we know it, in comfortable and complacent church of America, is about to experience a wave of unprecedented destruction which will destroy the very foundations that we have placed our false sense of truth. 

     The prophet Ezekiel cried out to his people that “The end is now upon you…” I believe that even more as our nation digresses into moral filth and political corruption, his statement rings true. Jesus promised in Matthew 24-25 that there would come a day when the “end” would be evident. I believe wholeheartedly that we are in the beginning of these days----deception, wars, hatred, and false prophets. Paul echoes this by adding that in these “last days” will be filled with people who will be “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God---having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1-6). It doesn’t take a genius to see the increasing evidence of these things taking place in our world today.

     Worship comes down to a simple transaction which takes place in our lives: we worship which leads to knowing God more which leads to a greater life of faith. Hebrews 10:6 states “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” We cannot please God unless we have “faith.” Faith in turn, is more than simply believing something “about God;” rather, it is a belief “in” God which translates to how we live our lives. In other words, if I have faith in God I believe God, and if I believe God, then I will live my life in complete obedience to God as I truly see Him as Lord and King. 

   There is a storm that is coming very soon. A few years back, the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to “prepare for the coming storm.” Since that time, our country has drastically changed. We can now see the severe storm clouds on the horizon and they appear to be approaching us fast. More specifically, the Lord made it very clear that His people need to learn to live by faith in order to endure the fury of this coming storm. If we as His people who claim to worship Him cannot live in a way that reflects our full trust, hope, and confidence in Him when life is easy, then how will we weather the storm when it bears down upon us? I cannot help to think of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:24-27 concerning the two men who chose to build their houses on completely opposite foundations. This speaks to our faith and in essence, Jesus is asking His disciples, “What will you choose to build your life upon?” 

     This is why worship in spirit and in truth is critical for the people of God. Our faith will never be anything of substance unless we come to a place where we intimately know that One who we need to place our faith in. It is only through true worship where we can discover the depths of knowing God. A half-hearted attempt which is focused on other things will never get us to a place where we can find the revealed heart of the Lord. For too long, the church has made “faith” an easy acquisition which costs the buyer nothing more than a simple prayer and weekly attendance to Sunday service. Rather than examining the reality of our anemic faith which is evidenced through the lack of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in our midst, we make ourselves feel better by convincing ourselves how much God loves us. I will not dispute our need to know of His love but somewhere along the way, knowing of His love should cause us to forsake all that is of this world and passionately pursue His presence with a relentless desire that will stop at nothing to simply “know Him!” 

     This is ultimately where worship in spirit and in truth leads---to a place where God is everything and we are nothing. It is a life that is completely “enamored by His presence, humbled by His grace, captured by His endless love, and consumed by His embrace.” This is the cry of a heart that is desperate for God and will stop at nothing to find Him. And this is the place where faith begins. It’s not a matter of “believing” God. It is a life that has come to know the Lord so intimately that you see no other reason in all of life to seek satisfaction, provision, and passion from any other means or any other place. It is the simple expression of saying “I have all I need in Jesus.” 

     We will never come to that place unless we begin to put ourselves in a place of knowing God in greater depths. Worship should be all of life. All that we do, say, think, and believe should reflect the truth of God and the Spirit of God living within us. We need to come to grips with the notion that “there is nothing good that lives in me”----except for Jesus Christ. Why are we so afraid of this truth? Why are we so afraid to proclaim this in our churches that we are indeed unworthy, miserable and wretched people within ourselves? Rather than believing that the harsh reality of ourselves would turn people “off” to the notion of Christianity, perhaps it would make us realize the incomparable worth of our salvation resulting in a greater faith in the only One who brings any value to our lives! 

     We need to prepare for what lies ahead. We need to find ourselves in the center of the heart of God knowing that we are holding on to all that He is. The time has come to let go of all that has held us back from knowing the Lord as He desires for us to know Him. Otherwise, we will have run our race in vain. We will become like that man who built his house on the shifting sands of life only to be washed away in the coming storm. Our faith will be tested and tried beyond what we have ever experienced in this country. When that day comes the truth about and the spirit of your worship will be made known. When all is said and done, what will be said of your life in regards to how you worshiped the Lord? 

 

     The radical call to worship is one that says “He must become greater and I must become less” (John 3:30). It is the forsaking of one’s life for sake of living life for Jesus Christ. We’ve made it too much about ourselves, we’ve stolen center stage and we have forgotten our First love to love lesser things. I can only be a voice which calls forth a hungry people who would desire to forsake the things of this world to enter into another world---one of Spirit and of truth. As for me, this world can no longer hold my affections nor can it any longer demand my attention. Time is too short.