Wave the White Flag

This week we started a series in youth called "Surrender". It started as most, a little slow with the leader (me) fumbling around trying to get the timing right. However, the time came after the video portion to discuss what surrender is. Some answers I got were interesting. I heard most of the usual answers like "give up" and "let go." However, the one that caught my attention was "weak" or "to be weak." That really perked my ears. I never really thought of it in that light. Is the act of surrender showing weakness? Some people may disagree, however, I intend to hopefully shine a light in order to break our pride.

            It really showed me something that was right in front of my face the whole time. Surrender is showing that you are weaker than your adversary. You surrender in order to save your life. You give up your way of fighting and come under the leader that you surrender to in hopes of being cared for by that kingdom. Now, I understand that not all kingdoms in the past have been accommodating to the people that have surrendered and come under that rule. However, I want you to focus on the concept and not past events of what has happened to those who have surrendered!

            This is a total act of humility. Surrendering is losing your pride and admitting defeat. You can no longer sustain this battle on your own efforts and if you continue it will ultimately bring your own demise. I hope by now after just beginning you are starting to get a picture of what I am pointing out. I know that some people will be admitting it takes a great deal of strength to surrender. Our surrender to Jesus shows how strong we really are. I guess in the light of being humble, it does require an amount of intestinal fortitude to admit that we are weak. However, don't confuse the point. In surrendering you are admitting that you are weak.  

            So, now I hope you can see the direction I am heading. The whole concept of new life in Christ is surrendering the old self over to the saving grace of God and allowing him to change us from the inside out. However, we must surrender. What does that mean now? It means that we recognize our weakness. You may ask, "What weakness?" 

            We are regrettably weak beings because of the fall. What weakness? Sin. It is because of sin we cannot be righteous, good, holy, saved, or enter Heaven on our own. However, the pride of people is that we can do it. We can earn it. We can do the right things to get to Heaven. Well that is what every religion in the world tells us. Except for Christianity! It says that we are weak and fallen beings that need a Savior and only through that Savior can we be saved. We have to become humble and own up to our weakness.

            Paul states in 2 Corinthians 12 that only when we are weak are we strong. Jesus is quoted there as he tells Paul that, “My grace is sufficient for you, power is perfected in weakness.” (1 Cor. 12:9 HCSB) It is amazing that Christ and Paul are telling us to boast in our weakness for that is when we will be strong.

            So in retrospect, in order to surrender to Christ we must boast in our weaknesses. It is we turning over what we cannot do on our own. CHANGE! We cannot become a Christians, get to Heaven, be saved, be good, be holy, or be righteous without Jesus.

           

            So in order to save your life you must surrender to the only one who can save it, Jesus! He is a good and just King. He is the one who rules with justice and mercy. We are on the battlefield. Whose banner will you be fighting under? Will you fight under the banner of the world, where you will become weary and eventually destroyed? Or will you fight under the banner of Jesus, who already won the victory, where the burden in light and the yoke is easy?

All you have to do is surrender! 
Wave the White Flag!

Consume Me!

As I sit here in the mountains, thinking of my life right now with God, I come to the stark conclusion that I need to totally consumed by the almighty God. I know I love Jesus and I know I know Jesus. However, there are days when I need more than just my knowledge. I need to God consume my life. I also know for that to happen I have to surrender and open myself up for that. So today I want to give you a song that speaks to this very message. Enjoy Worth Dying For singing Consume Me.

What to do with truth?

If you were told something that is a proposed truth, what would you do with it? Would you choose to believe it on blind faith? Would you refuse it on blind faith? Would you choose your opinion based on others opinions? Would you base your opinion based on research? What would you do if you found the "truth" told to you wasn't the truth at all? What would you do if you found out it was the truth?

This is what every single person faces when they are confronted with the gospel. They have to formulate in their mind what course of action they must take to solve this dilemma. The fact is that most don't even take the time to understand what they have been told. What I mean here is to actually process the information given. This is the first thing that needs to happen. We should not dismiss or accept any information on a whim. We should process this information mentally and intellectually. What strikes me strange is that a group in Berea had something along these lines happen to them and they just didn't accept new ideas and  concepts as truth. Look at this scripture in Acts 17:10-15

As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea. On arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that God’s message had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and disturbing the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to go to the sea, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there. Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed. (Acts 17:10-15 HCSB)

What you have to first noticed is the fact that they were open-minded. A person can never accept a truth unless they first break down there world views and preconceived notions that closes minds. Most people consider themselves open minded. However, when truth encroaches on a persons idols their mind becomes narrow because they must defend their idols. (A side note. An idol that's needs defending is not worthy of your worship. That's another blog all together.) A person will violently defend their idols. Nothing narrows a mind like idols. However, most people will not admit to idol worship, whether a person is a believer or not. Ok idol rant over.

Now even though the Bereans were open minded they were not naive.  They tested the what they heard to the word of God. This should be the action of every believer and non-believer. A man can be wrong, even your pastor and even me, especially me.  Man is an errant creature. However, God is inerrant. Though, some take this concept a step to far. The completely throw out what someone new brings because they only trust what they know right now. Sometimes, what they know is what another pastor has taught them and that may be wrong because they never examined the scriptures when they were taught at first. People live off a blind faith that is dangerous. That kind of faith is when the object is a person or thing and not God. They so blindly follow a person because they stand behind a "pulpit" and "preach" a message they pull out of scripture, which may or may not be contextually correct. We need to examine God's word to see if the message they are hearing is the truth. 

So, now you have examined the scriptures and found this new message to be true. What now? Next thing to notice is that the Bereans that out of their examination of the messages led to their conversion. The Bereans not only came to the conclusion that the message of Paul was true but the truth compelled them to be saved. It is understandable that there is an initial response of denial or acceptance but what happens to the person who can no longer deny that it is truth, will they accept the message then? Josh McDowell tells his story of his road to Christ, which I will greatly paraphrase here. He speaks of his quest on how he was trying to disprove that Jesus was real and show the fallacy he believed the Bible to be. I believe he said he was in a London library when he realized that Jesus was real. However, that did not change his heart. Sometime later, as we all know, he came to give his life to Christ. However, what I derive from this is, even though your brain might accept it as truth your heart has to do the same thing. You have to reconcile the truth you accept to your life. You have to admit that you are not in relationship with God. You have to admit that the truth applies to you and you are not exempt from the fact that we are not God. We have to accept that Jesus did die and was risen for you and me. The Bereans not only recognized Paul's message as truth but also accepted that truth through their hearts. The were saved not just on their head knowledge but on their belief and confession of Jesus' resurrection and Him being Lord and Savior. 

The last thing I want you notice is that whenever a message is found to be true  it will be in direct opposition to anther message. Therefore, there will be people who will be direct opposition to the message bearer and those who choose to accept it as truth. We see the same thing here in Acts. The Jews were trying to keep the message of Jesus from being proclaimed. So don't feel like because you now know the truth everyone is just going to follow suit. However, don't back away from the truth because others are in opposition to you. Stand strong in what you know and believe. 

So what will you do with new messages that you hear? Will you be like the Bereans or the Jews. 

Good in Retrospect?

I was just thinking today about good. Well, not good in the concept of good vs. evil. However, more in object comparison. Those who have been in church awhile especially the more traditionally minded churches have heard the phrase, "God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good." My motto is, God is good when I am not." Therefore, in the light of those sayings, I must never be good. I know that to a point we can be moralistically good by comparison to other humans. However, in the eyes of God we cannot be good.  Even the Bible proves this concept. Look at the following scriptures:

Ecclesiastes 7:20

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Psalm 14:3

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Mark 10:18

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Luke 18:19

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Romans 3:12

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

I am sure if you try hard enough, you could dig up more. However, we can see that it is consistent that we are not good.

Now, where some people may see this as a very negative though process, I see this as very positive and hopeful. Again, you may be questioning my logic by calling this hopeful. You may even say that this is a hopeless path of thought. However, I would like us to think if there was a time when we thought, "Man, I can't get anything right." or "Why did I do that when I know it was wrong?" Maybe you have never had those thoughts but I can guarantee that there has been a time when you have done something you know wasn't right and felt some remorse or regret for it. (If you have never felt that way then I would love to talk to you!) 

I see the hope in this because God gives us grace. The only one good is God and He loves us to forgive and save us. (I also understand that a non-believer will give this no credibility, which in return is why I write this even more for them to see the love God has for all.) God's ultimate love and mercy is given in His divine providence through His grace. Yes, he made a way through Christ's death and resurrection. This is the hope! Even though we are not good He has chosen us to live in Christ as the Holy Spirit dwells in us. However, we first must believe and confess. Romans 10:9, "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."

Maybe a little clarification before I end this post. If you come to the conclusion of understanding and believing the Word of God, then you will understand this idea of good and bad. You already know that we unable to save ourselves because of our nature being contrary to good. You will also understand that the nature of good can only exist in the Father. (Father being God.) So therefore, our hope is found in the love of God to reconcile us who are bad into Him who is good. I hope that straightens the rabbit trails a bit!

Therefore, in saying all that I hope today you that can have the hope of knowing the one that is good. He gives us a chance to be good, not by our own trying and work but through the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is the good news! No more futile working that produces nothing of our own effort. Just simply living in Christ and the Holy Spirit working through us as we love Jesus and are obedient as a result of the love. I pray that you will accept the gift and know one day what good really means!

Don't Call It a Comeback!

Wow, It has been a while since I have posted anything in this blog. Well no time like the present to get back at it!

This may seem like, what some people have called my teaching style of late, rabbit trails. I have not written a post since I stepped down from my last youth ministry position. I may have been a little more preoccupied with things that have not been very important in the grand scheme of things, eternally speaking. However, we can get caught up in our own storms, desert journeys, or whatever you would like to call them. 

I have seen my absence from ministry as a sabbatical to family and myself. It has been a deep learning process that has taken me down several different roads. All to which culminate here tonight with one simple understanding. 

Why do we pursue the wind as if we will ever catch it? 

I am not saying that my entire time has been in vain; however, I could have used it a little more wisely. God has definitely opened my eyes and heart to the lack of assertiveness I have produced. The lack of production may have stemmed from the overly masculine pride to provide for my family in the means of a job and money. I know in my heart that God takes care of us. It is just a knee jerk reaction to produce that attitude to go out and work without thought of Gods plans. I spent so much time being a part of a company that was not in line with God's purpose that I miss several opportunities to fulfill His calling. Well, let’s just say that He (meaning God) has taken care of that and I am very pleased even thought the outcome is not what I would have hoped. 

I do believe that now is the time that God is about to reveal the bigger plan. I have been persistent to pursue all opportunities placed before me, but yet, to no avail. 

I will be more proactive in my journaling and writing again. I will be updating more often about the trials and teaching that have been afforded to me by the Holy Spirit. He has been the consistence in my life where I have been utterly absent. I praise God that He is faithful and that He never lets me forget the victory that Jesus won.

I pray that as I continue on this journey that I will not lose sight of the goal. I will remain eternally focused and keep my mind on heavenly things. There are many things here that God blesses us with but that is all futile when compared to the blessing of Heaven and spending eternity with Jesus.

So know you are blessed by the Most High God and praise Him.