"I Surrender All" is one of my favorite yet most piercing hymns. By piercing I don't mean that the sound hurts my ears (although it may if I were singing it), but I mean that the message is piercing to my heart. Being a follower of Christ means constantly walking into new places of surrender, which force us to decide whether or not we will reach for selfish pursuits or surrender to the cause of Christ. Surrender is not easy or natural. It is difficult, tough, hard, and sometimes seems risky.
In Mark 10, Jesus was having a conversation with a wealthy guy who claimed to have kept all of the commandments such as honoring his father and mother and not committing murder, adultery, and theft. In 10:21 Jesus looked at him and "felt a love for him." Here was this guy who thought that he had it all together, had everything figured out, and was basically a good guy who followed the rules. Jesus felt compassion for him because he was lacking something. Jesus said, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." It was apparent that this guy loved his possessions more than anything. Jesus didn't tell every person He came in contact with to sell everything and give away their money. However, Jesus told every person that they must surrender whatever they loved more than Him. Jesus made it very clear that no one could serve two masters. To follow Him means to let go of everything else we are holding on to, and exchange our pursuits for His.
For the wealthy guy in Mark 10, he refused to let go of his love for possessions, and was saddened and grieved. He considered the invitation to follow Jesus, but the risk of surrendering his possessions to trust Jesus was not one he was willing to take. He did not understand one very important thing about surrendering to Jesus. Are you ready? Surrendering to Jesus seems risky, but there is no greater security. Jesus told this rich guy that if he would obey and follow Him that he would have treasure in heaven. Possessions provide a sense of false security, and it is false due to them being temporary. On the other hand, Jesus offers security that is eternal!
Surrendering to Jesus is the most secure investment we can make. There are two accounts in which we can invest. One is the earth where things can be destroyed and stolen, and one is heaven where nothing is destroyed or stolen. The earth is high risk with no return. One whose greatest passion is to gain earthly possessions will ultimately lose their possessions along with their soul. Heaven is zero risk with infinite return. One who surrenders everything to Jesus investing in heaven has an eternal reward and makes an eternal impact.
Jesus understands that people will have a hard time surrendering and following Him. He shared that with his disciples in 10:24. However, He said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God" (10:27). It is hard to surrender, but not impossible. It seems risky to surrender, but there is security. It seems like losing, but it is gaining life and victory through Christ.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
From the Inside Out (pt. 2)
This is a continuation of this series covering topics that demonstrate that spiritual growth in Christ truly does occur from the inside out. In the first post, I discussed the topic of meditation on God and His Word. In this post, I am going to deal with another inward aspect of spiritual growth - prayer. I know that prayer is such a simple thing that needs no explanation for those of you who are deep, spiritual, religious, and disciplined; but I want to share a few things anyway.
Richard Foster said, "Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life." If we desire closeness to God we must pray. Expecting to be close to God without praying is like expecting to make a close friend while ignoring them. To move to the front lines of impacting the world with the message of Christ requires moving toward the face and heart of God through prayer. William Carey wrote, "Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness." The phrase that "prayer changes things" is certainly true. Prayer changes those who pray! When we meditate God transforms our minds through His Word, and when we pray God transforms our passions. As we pray seeking God, we will either transform to love what He loves or dismiss Him in order to maintain our love for other things.
When we respond to the transforming power of God willfully, we continue to grow in the depths of intimacy with God and in the likeness of Christ, which will produce results in our lives. In the life of Christ, prayer was a priority. He went away to spend time alone to pray (Mk. 1:35). The locations where the early church would meet were often referred to as "places of prayer" (Acts 16:13, 16). Paul prayed for the church, and asked churches to pray for him. Charles Spurgeon said that "prayer can never be in excess," and he attributed his success to the prayer of the church. Billy Graham wrote, "Prayer is not an option but a necessity."
Jesus was willing to sacrificially give His life on the cross for the sins of the world. The early church reached people with the gospel daily. Paul spread the gospel to places where it had never been heard, planted churches, and endured persecution. Spurgeon and Graham both led thousands upon thousands of people to Christ. Each of them understood the value of prayer. When we pray our desires become God's desires, and His desire is for people to come to Him. When we pray God truly will change us from the inside out!
Richard Foster said, "Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life." If we desire closeness to God we must pray. Expecting to be close to God without praying is like expecting to make a close friend while ignoring them. To move to the front lines of impacting the world with the message of Christ requires moving toward the face and heart of God through prayer. William Carey wrote, "Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness." The phrase that "prayer changes things" is certainly true. Prayer changes those who pray! When we meditate God transforms our minds through His Word, and when we pray God transforms our passions. As we pray seeking God, we will either transform to love what He loves or dismiss Him in order to maintain our love for other things.
When we respond to the transforming power of God willfully, we continue to grow in the depths of intimacy with God and in the likeness of Christ, which will produce results in our lives. In the life of Christ, prayer was a priority. He went away to spend time alone to pray (Mk. 1:35). The locations where the early church would meet were often referred to as "places of prayer" (Acts 16:13, 16). Paul prayed for the church, and asked churches to pray for him. Charles Spurgeon said that "prayer can never be in excess," and he attributed his success to the prayer of the church. Billy Graham wrote, "Prayer is not an option but a necessity."
Jesus was willing to sacrificially give His life on the cross for the sins of the world. The early church reached people with the gospel daily. Paul spread the gospel to places where it had never been heard, planted churches, and endured persecution. Spurgeon and Graham both led thousands upon thousands of people to Christ. Each of them understood the value of prayer. When we pray our desires become God's desires, and His desire is for people to come to Him. When we pray God truly will change us from the inside out!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
From the Inside Out
This is the first post of a series entitled "From the Inside Out." I will be dealing with a variety of topics in this series, which will demonstrate that our spiritual growth in Christ truly does occur from the inside out. In other words, we cannot display our faith in Christ in the arena of life unless we are growing in our faith in Christ internally. We will be unable to demonstrate Christlike attitudes, actions, and speech unless we are devoted to Christ. Therefore, the first thing that I want to share in this series is that we must be devoted to meditation. I know that the first thing that comes to many of your minds is that meditation is not something that Christians do, but rather something that mystical, Eastern religions practice. However, there is a distinct difference between the meditation that I suggest Christians should practice from that of all other religions.
Meditation to many means to empty one's mind, but the meditation that we need as followers of Christ involves filling our minds with God's Word. In Psalm 119:97, the psalmist wrote, "O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." Meditating on God's Word is to literally fill our minds with the voice of God and His truth. This includes the following acts: listening to God, reflecting on God, and becoming more like Christ.
So, why should be compelled as followers of Christ to meditate on God's Word? The first reason involves intimacy. We have the opportunity to fellowship with God through Christ, and we can become more familiar with the God who created us and saved us (if we have received Christ). The second reason involves the transformation of our minds. All of us have minds that are prone to regress back to dwelling on the things of the world, but when we meditate on God then He fills our minds with righteous thoughts and an imagination of the infinite ways that He desires to use us. If we are confused about what God wants to do through us then we should meditate on Him and His Word. The third reason involves obedience. If we are close in fellowship with God and our minds are focused on God then we are much more likely to obey God in our lives.
Psalm 1:1-2 lets us know that a "blessed" man is one whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." A blessed life full of intimacy, transformation, and obedience can be experienced. However, it begins with a relationship with Christ. We must desire and love Him, and if we do we will meditate on Him and His Word.
Meditation to many means to empty one's mind, but the meditation that we need as followers of Christ involves filling our minds with God's Word. In Psalm 119:97, the psalmist wrote, "O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." Meditating on God's Word is to literally fill our minds with the voice of God and His truth. This includes the following acts: listening to God, reflecting on God, and becoming more like Christ.
So, why should be compelled as followers of Christ to meditate on God's Word? The first reason involves intimacy. We have the opportunity to fellowship with God through Christ, and we can become more familiar with the God who created us and saved us (if we have received Christ). The second reason involves the transformation of our minds. All of us have minds that are prone to regress back to dwelling on the things of the world, but when we meditate on God then He fills our minds with righteous thoughts and an imagination of the infinite ways that He desires to use us. If we are confused about what God wants to do through us then we should meditate on Him and His Word. The third reason involves obedience. If we are close in fellowship with God and our minds are focused on God then we are much more likely to obey God in our lives.
Psalm 1:1-2 lets us know that a "blessed" man is one whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." A blessed life full of intimacy, transformation, and obedience can be experienced. However, it begins with a relationship with Christ. We must desire and love Him, and if we do we will meditate on Him and His Word.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
The State of Faith
Faith matters. It matters because Jesus taught to have faith in God (Mk. 11:22), that faith in Himself would result in the forgiveness of sin (Lk. 5:20) and could move mountains (Mt. 21:21). Faith matters because we cannot experience a relationship with Christ, spiritual growth, or influence the world without it. It matters because it is necessary to please God in all areas of our lives (Heb. 11:6).
Faith in relation to Christ means believing that He only is Savior and Lord and trusting Him with all aspects of our lives. This is an obvious statement to those of you who have grown up in Christian families and churches. This is a statement in which the church would acknowledge as vitally important because faith matters. However, do we live like it matters? Are we fulfilling God's expectations of living lives of faith? Are we avidly striving to be faithfully obedient to God? How are we doing in the area of spiritual growth? What is the state of faith in my life and in the church?
In order to begin answering such questions, we must honestly survey ourselves and the church to observe our present attitudes and growth. Recent research has discovered that around 75 to 80 percent of those claiming to be believers say that their faith in Christ is the top priority in their lives and futures. That of course means that 20 to 25 percent have something in their lives that is more important than being faithfully committed to Christ. The church is often critical of the world's lack of faith, but it has been the church that has put faith in Christ in the background. From the first disciples to the church today, Jesus has been saying, "Why is your faith so small?"
Recent research has also discovered that when believers are asked to identify the single most important thing that they desire to achieve over 80 percent identify something that is not directly connected to their faith in Christ or spiritual growth. This reveals the state of faith in the American church: We say faith matters, but we do not live our lives in a manner that reflects it. We are in pursuit of financial gain, comfort, health, popularity, happiness, retirement funds, education, and material wealth; but we are not in pursuit of Christ. Our faith seems to be so weak because we are so distracted. Our dreams for God's glory are so small because our dreams of vain pursuit are so big.
So, how can this state of faith change? There is no complex formula or systematic equation. Its simple. God must be first in our lives, and we must truly believe that He is enough. He is worthy of our lives because Jesus gave His for us. He is strong enough to save us, give us fulfilling lives of purpose, deliver us from pain, and move any obstacle that hinders us from pursuing Him faithfully. When we are focused and always looking to Him, when we are satisfied by nothing other than Him, and when we fully embrace His dreams for our lives then the state of faith will change. Faith in Christ matters. If we allow Him to consume our lives through faith, He will change us and use us to change the world.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
My Faith Story
Before I share some "faithnotes" with the intent of encouraging the reading audience to receive Christ by faith and display their faith in the arena of life, I thought that it would be best for me to share my faith story. There are some memories from my childhood as it relates to faith that remain in my mind to this day. I remember having a big Bible storybook decked out with illustrated pages communicating the stories of the Bible in a manner that was easy to understand. I remember attending a VBS and playing with small toy animals and a my size version of Noah's ark, and although my family did not "regularly" attend church then I even remember some of the stories I heard at Sunday School.
Obviously all of those things were intended to promote faith in Christ. However, there is one thing that I remember well that left a mark on my mind that I will never forget. I was twelve years old and sitting in the living room at the house of one of my friend's grandmother, and I overheard a conversation between his grandmother and older cousin. The conversation was about faith. They were discussing an encounter with an acquaintance who believed that through works and trying to be a "good" person one could achieve salvation and earn the reward of an afterlife in heaven, which sounded right to me. Then I overheard the phrase: "Only by faith in Christ can someone experience salvation and eternal life in heaven with God." I was shocked and maybe even a little confused. Those were a lot of heady, religious words for me to attempt to digest at that juncture in my life, and I didn't say a word to anyone that day regarding the conversation I had overheard.
It was a year later and my mother decided that we needed to go to church. At thirteen I was not thrilled about this new Sunday activity, but obviously didn't have a choice. I remember walking into a small, but packed typical little white sanctuary on the side of the road on a cool, sunny May morning. An older gentleman invited me to sit next to him in one of the few remaining seats. That morning a visiting band was there to lead worship, and when they had finished their last song the lead singer shared the same thing I had heard a year earlier in that living room. This time I responded. I walked to the front, knelt down, and began to pray. I prayed, "God, I don't know very much about You or the Bible, but I know that I've sinned and need to be forgiven and receive Christ by faith as my Savior."
I was remade into a new person through receiving Christ by faith that day. In the moments and days following, I gained deeper understanding of the love of Christ that was demonstrated by His willingness to give His life on the cross for the sins of the world, and that He rose from the dead to give life to those who would receive Him. The deeper my understanding the greater my gratitude as I recognized that I should have had to pay for my sins and mistakes, but the blood of Christ covered me when I received Him. I marveled at this truth then, and remain in an awe of it to this day.
My hope today is that people will come to understand the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." God loves people and wants each one to come to Him by faith, which is the only way. You don't have to work tirelessly trying to earn salvation or an approval slip granting you entry into an eternal relationship with God. Just come to Him, and He will change your life. For those of you who know this to be true because you have experienced the transforming power of Christ, there are likely some people in your life who were just like me sitting in that living room not knowing the grace of God and the necessity of faith in Christ. Identify them, Share with them, Disciple them, and help them live out their own faith story.
Obviously all of those things were intended to promote faith in Christ. However, there is one thing that I remember well that left a mark on my mind that I will never forget. I was twelve years old and sitting in the living room at the house of one of my friend's grandmother, and I overheard a conversation between his grandmother and older cousin. The conversation was about faith. They were discussing an encounter with an acquaintance who believed that through works and trying to be a "good" person one could achieve salvation and earn the reward of an afterlife in heaven, which sounded right to me. Then I overheard the phrase: "Only by faith in Christ can someone experience salvation and eternal life in heaven with God." I was shocked and maybe even a little confused. Those were a lot of heady, religious words for me to attempt to digest at that juncture in my life, and I didn't say a word to anyone that day regarding the conversation I had overheard.
It was a year later and my mother decided that we needed to go to church. At thirteen I was not thrilled about this new Sunday activity, but obviously didn't have a choice. I remember walking into a small, but packed typical little white sanctuary on the side of the road on a cool, sunny May morning. An older gentleman invited me to sit next to him in one of the few remaining seats. That morning a visiting band was there to lead worship, and when they had finished their last song the lead singer shared the same thing I had heard a year earlier in that living room. This time I responded. I walked to the front, knelt down, and began to pray. I prayed, "God, I don't know very much about You or the Bible, but I know that I've sinned and need to be forgiven and receive Christ by faith as my Savior."
I was remade into a new person through receiving Christ by faith that day. In the moments and days following, I gained deeper understanding of the love of Christ that was demonstrated by His willingness to give His life on the cross for the sins of the world, and that He rose from the dead to give life to those who would receive Him. The deeper my understanding the greater my gratitude as I recognized that I should have had to pay for my sins and mistakes, but the blood of Christ covered me when I received Him. I marveled at this truth then, and remain in an awe of it to this day.
My hope today is that people will come to understand the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." God loves people and wants each one to come to Him by faith, which is the only way. You don't have to work tirelessly trying to earn salvation or an approval slip granting you entry into an eternal relationship with God. Just come to Him, and He will change your life. For those of you who know this to be true because you have experienced the transforming power of Christ, there are likely some people in your life who were just like me sitting in that living room not knowing the grace of God and the necessity of faith in Christ. Identify them, Share with them, Disciple them, and help them live out their own faith story.
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