God, You Own Me

Last Saturday, it was like somebody flipped on a light. I saw myself clearly and realized that my heart was in need of change. The moment was of the Spirit, I am convinced, His presence calling me to get back in line. There have been so many other times of conviction, when the truth about a choice, an attitude, some part of me comes into clear focus.  Sometimes it is just a simple, “Yes, Lord” that gets it right. Sometimes it is a fight inside of me – between the sinful nature and the spirit.

If we want to walk with God, led by the Spirit, there is a basic requirement: we must let go of Self and let God own us!  This is, by the way, not a once and done choice. It happens daily! Paul was inspired to call us to a life aligned to God’s plans with these well-known words. "I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)

Note where we start in this surrender. It’s not with fear of a terrible Deity who is out to destroy us for our willfulness. We look at His mercy.  We remember that He for us, that we have an Intercessor who is praying for us, who has given everything required to be right with God, freely at His own expense! We do not have to beg to be right with Him, plead with Him to forgive us, or bargain for salvation. Are you feeling the sting of a guilty conscience? That’s mercy!  He loves us too much to just let us run to our own destruction.

We continue by understanding that He is interested in more than our Sunday words or our affirmation of right doctrine. “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”  God cares about how we act. We know that food, drink, sex, pleasure, leisure are things of this temporal world and yet those things are part of how we serve Him, ways in which we delight Him by accepting His way over our own. This passage connects “bodies as living sacrifices” with “spiritual act of worship.”  If we speak words of contempt for another we make a lie of our claim to live in love. If we wallow in lust, seeing others as objects of our desire, we dishonor our call to bear the image of God in the world. If we define our value as a person by the things we own, we reveal that eternity has little hold on our heart. 

“Living sacrifice” sounds like a contradiction in terms at first, doesn’t it?  Under the Jewish Law, sacrifices were killed, then laid on the altar to be consumed in an offering to God.  In the Christian covenant, Self dies, offered up to God, so that the very lives we live are a holy offering. Think about that!  As the Father looks on you today, will He find a sweet offering of words of love flowing out of a heart given to service?  Will He find sincere prayers ascending like smoke from an altar, giving Him adoration?

Yes, there is a fundamental choice – will I be shaped by the values of my sinful nature, which are formed by the world in which I live?  Or will I allow the wisdom of God to restore me to Him, producing a transformation in me?  Only when God owns my body, my mind, and my heart can I consistently live a life that is aligned to His purposeful plan.  That plan, by the way, is always ultimately “good, pleasing, and perfect” (complete and whole) for us.  I’ll be honest. There will be times when you say, “This is going to kill me!” You will feel a terrible sense of loss. You will struggle to love Him more than yourself.  There will be struggles that do not end with a single prayer or one confession. But, I can tell you this, too.  In that place of forgiveness, when we are reconciled to our Father in Christ, when the Spirit is leading us – there is a kind of peace of mind that is incomparable to anything of this world.

The word from the Word is that passage again, but this time from a contemporary paraphrase, The Message. Before you read it, pause and pray this. “Father, I want You to own me – body, soul, and spirit. I love Your mercy and thank You for your patience in making me into the person that You desire.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

"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, The Message)

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Build My Life

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name
Jesus the only one who could ever save
Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
We live for You

Holy there is no one like You
There is none besides You
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me

I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken

Brett Younker | Karl Martin | Kirby Elizabeth Kaple | Matt Redman | Pat Barrett
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Humble enough for awe?

I like explanations, to know how things work. That’s always been who I am. According to my mother, even as a small child I took apart my toys, destroying them in the process of trying to figure out how they worked. I do remember getting a school bus for Christmas that had lights in it that flashed and motors that whirred.  I was perhaps 6 or 7 and that toy ended up a pile of parts on the living room floor, much to the chagrin of the grandmother who purchased it for me.  Sometimes it’s just better to enjoy the thing for what it is, admitting that we do not yet understand all things.

In my reading of Paul’s letter to the Romans, I came recently to chapters 9, 10, and 11; a long discussion of the place of “Israel” and the Gentiles in the scope and reach of God’s plan, of a doctrine we call ‘election.’  I read the words but struggle with the meaning. Like my younger self with those intriguing toys, I want to tear it apart to try to see how it works, to fit Paul’s inspired words into my sense of what is just and right. I wonder how can a good and loving God choose some for salvation and others for destruction? Who is ‘Israel,’ the Jewish people, the literal descendants of Abraham, or is he speaking of all those who are adopted into God’s family when they respond to Him in faith?   My point today is to not solve the questions found in these chapters!  I urge us to approach God’s Word with humility, so that He can form us, not so that we can rewrite Scripture to

‘fit’ our sensibilities!

There are questions about God, His Word, and His will that I must resolve to humbly allow to exist, alongside of faith.  In time, with maturity, study, and the revelation of the Spirit there are truths that become clearer. And there is clearly a need for us to admit that He is God and we are not.  Even Paul humbly bows his head at the end of those chapters to admit that he cannot possibly know the whole mind of the Lord. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:33-36, NIV)

I am not making a case for laziness, or for refusing to ask hard questions in our study. We grow as we wrestle with Truth, allowing God’s word to shape and form our mind. But, there are things we cannot know yet, which may be revealed to us later on. As much as we might want to know, our Father lovingly asks for our trust, a faith that is settled in Jesus’ promise first given to the disciples as they were about to watch Him die on the Cross. He said that they would have a Guide for the way. “Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me." (John 16:12-14, NLT)

Today, thank Him for His wisdom. Open your heart and mind to Him, inviting the Holy Spirit to lead. Allow Him to create faith in you for those things yet mystery to you.

"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds,

and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8, NIV)

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Mystery

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity

Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity

Bread of heaven broken for me

Cup of Salvation held out to drink

Jesus mystery

Christ has died and

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

Celebrate His death and rising

Lift your eyes proclaim His coming

Celebrate His death and rising

Lift your eyes lift your eyes

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity

Charlie Hall

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The Wonder of It All

 

In the enthusiasm of youth and with more dream than actual plan, in 1977 Bev and I left work, home, and family to move 2000 miles; with little money, feeling that God was leading us to a new ministry. Each month brought a new trial. We grew terribly lonely. Our baby boy developed pneumonia and spent 5 long days in the hospital. The denomination in which I was a newly credentialed minister refused to recognize me in the  District because, due to my inexperience, I had failed to observe proper transfer protocol. To support our family I ended up as a laborer on a construction site, working long hours, sun-up to dark.  We returned to New Jersey a year later having made what seemed a meaningless detour in life.  With time, I came to understand that the Lord was in that year.  

However, His plan for me was far different than my dream. He was doing things in me that were critically important for the future, teaching me about His faithfulness and grace. That year in Wyoming is remembered now as one of the most transformational times of life.

When we think we have life in our control, I think perhaps our loving Father smiles at our naiveté.  Are you ever tempted to think that He is not there, or that He has forgotten you when it all goes wrong, when, in spite of your best efforts, the results are not what you hoped for?

Genesis tells us the story of Joseph, a man beloved of God, who started life full of promise and ended up in a hard, dark place for years! God allowed Joseph to travel from favored son into a place in slavery. The household where he served as manager became a place where he was falsely accused of sexual harassment. That to his imprisonment! But God … was at work! Each `detour' was actually a turn in the road that led to the throne!

Decades later, when he was the Prince of Egypt, he wept as he told his brothers that God had used all the events, even their treachery, to ultimately accomplish His will. He said "God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt." (Genesis 45:7-8, NLT)

Does this all mean that we should become fatalists, floating down the stream of life shouting, "Praise the Lord!" at every jolt? No. We laugh, we cry, we worship, and we wonder, because we are human with a rich range of emotions.  Through it all it is important that we actively pursue the will of God. Choices must be made that are shaped by a God-honoring obedience.  But , we cannot forget that, in spite of our best of intentions, there will be side trips and detours that leave us wondering, “what happened?”

Are you struggling through a situation that seems meaningless?

Trust Him. If you’ve made a mistake, He can turn it around. We have this assurance - "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." (Romans 8:28, NLT)

Here's a word from the Word to take with you today.

"My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you …

Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;  all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life." (Psalm 42:3-8, NIV)

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O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

(An interesting Amy Grant rendition of this great hymn which was penned by a Scot, George Matheson. He was a young man, deep in love when blindness struck him and his fiancé broke off their engagement.

He went n, in spite of it all, to a life of ministry, but never married. The hymn is one of profound faith!)

O love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in Thee.

I give Thee back the life I owe,

That in Thine ocean depths its flow,

May richer fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way

I yield my flickering torch to Thee

My heart restores its borrowed ray

That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter fairer be

O joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to Thee.

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O cross that lifted up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from Thee.

I lay in dust life's glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red,

Life that shall endless be.

Matheson, George / Peace, Albert Lister

© Public Domain