No Strings Attached

One of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard closed with these challenging words, "Why should we come to Jesus Christ? Not for our own benefit. We should honor and serve and love and give our lives to Jesus Christ even if we were to go to hell at the end of the road...because He is worthy!" (Paris Reidhead, Ten Shekels and a Shirt, www.sermonindex.org )

It's amazing how the act of 'surrender' can become all about us. A woman once wrote me an e-mail expressing her hurt and confusion because she made a bargain with God -- "If I surrender my dreams of romance to You and live in purity, then I expect You to eventually write a beautiful love story to me." And since it hasn't happened yet, she feels that God has let her down.

Christ loved us without expecting us to love him in return. As he lay dying on the cross, those He had come to save were mocking and spitting in His face. Can we love Him the way He loved us? Can we surrender everything to Him without expecting anything in return?

I have discovered throughout my life that our Lord cares deeply about our dreams and desires of our heart, and He takes great joy in meeting them in His own perfect time and way. Surrendering to Him is not drudgery, but delight. As we abide in Him, He changes and shapes the desires of our heart to match with His desires for us. As it says in Psalms 37:4

Following His pattern doesn't leave us with a second-rate version of life on this earth, but far more glorious, beautiful, and fulfilled one. And yet, even though having the specific desires of our heart fulfilled is very often a byproduct of surrender to Christ, it cannot be our reason for poring out our all at His precious feet. Our reason must be passionate love for Him, with no strings attached.

Surrendering Even The Good Things

Hey everyone, first I just want to say i am terribly sorry for not posting in such a loooong time!!! And remember the book I won?? Well so far it is great it has taught me alot of things!!! The reason I haven't been on here in a while, is well, I have been extremely busy with school and just life in general oh and going on road trips lol!! But what I want to talk about today is surrendering even the good things.





The concept of trusting God to script our love story in His own perfect time, without manipulation on our part, is typically treated as ridiculous and naive in today's Christian world. The idea that everything--including the good dreams and hopes God has given us--must be surrendered back to Jesus Christ is often deemed extreme and unnecessary in modern Christianity. And shooing away mediocre men in order to wait for a man completely abandoned to God is viewed by many as a life long disappointment.





Many modern voices contend that since God obviously created marriage, and that marriage is clearly a good thing in Scripture, that we should not accept an extended season of singleness. They tell us we should view singleness as a curse of our society, not a purpose-filled opportunity from our loving Father.





But what is the pattern of the Gospel?





Christ said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26)





Paul said, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Phil. 3:8)

Once upon a time, Christian me and women knew what it meant to lay down everything for the sake of Christ--including their desires for marriage and a family. Like Abraham surrendering Issac, they willing laid down there most sacred and priceless blessings upon the altar before God. They relized if He desired them to be married, He would make it clear in His own perfect time and way. But He must alwways come first, and He must always be implicity trusted. For some fresh information of this Bibical pattern, I encourage you to read some of the great love God-written love stories from the past, like Jim and Elisabeth Elliot (Passion and Purity), or Oswald and Bitty Chambers (Abandoned To God.) Stories such as these remind us that when Jesus Christ is in His rightful place, we dicover lasting true beauty and fullfillment. There is always unspeakable joy on the far side of surrender!

Encouragement

Psalms 2:12
I found these words in my Bible earlier.
A real encouragement to start the day!

Psalm 16:11

"You will show me the path of life, in Your presence is
fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures
forevermore."

Psalm 150:6

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!"

Psalm 5:11

"But let all those who rejoice who put there trust in You; Let
them ever shout for joy, because You defend them: Let
those also who love your name be joyful in You."

Psalm 146: 1,2

"Praise the Lord!

Praise the LORD,O my soul! While I live I will praise the

LORD;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being."

Psalm 100:4,5

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into His

courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.

For The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His

truth endures to all generations."

Thought For Today...

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lifes through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.


God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.


But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labour, light for the way,
Grace for the trials,help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.



~Annie Johnson Flint, 1919