"I Surrender!"

Surrender is such an interesting concept.
This is a blog about God so of course I'm talking about surrender in the context of relationship with God. Interestingly enough there's a nuance of difference in my understanding of the word surrender within this context. But I don't think there should be...
In every other context, surrender has a very specific definition. In fact, I'll post a definition from a standard dictionary here.

sur·ren·der

səˈrendər/

verb

1. cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority. 

"over 140 rebels surrendered to the authorities" 

synonyms: capitulate, give in, give (oneself) up, give way, yield, concede (defeat), submit, climb down, back down, cave in, relent, crumble

Wait a minute? So if I surrender to God, then does that mean that he is my enemy?
Yes. There are some passages of scripture that say it very clearly:

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled

Colossians 1:21

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 5:10

This one hits me pretty hard because it is very specific in explaining why we are considered enemies...

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Ephesians 2:1-3

So when we surrender to God, it doesn't just mean we "give Him everything we have."

For whatever reason, this definition can be the limit of my understanding of the word in the moments when it really counts. What does this alternate definition do to my theology, my understanding of God, and how He relates to me? Well, for one, it transforms the act of surrender into a checklist. "This is something I now have to do, and I must do it well." Does this sound familiar? This is a works based approach, a coping mechanism that masks the reality of what we do not want to admit, that our human nature is in opposition to our creator as enemies.

Surrender-ing then, becomes about mustering up the action of letting go of all things that separate me from God. Don't get me wrong; ultimately, this is a good thing that we want to do. Scripture points to ultimate sanctification,

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them." 

Colossians 3:5-7

Also,

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." 

Romans 6:12-13

It's everywhere in the bible. It comes later on in Ephesians too,

"if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" 

Ephesians 4:21-24

But what preceded each one of these mandates within their contexts? Recognition that we were enemies of God. There is an order we are to follow but when we rush to the end result of sanctification without going through the fire of repentance, confession, and relationship, we fabricate a righteousness of our own without the power of Christ's Spirit at work in our lives.

So what am I trying to say? What is surrender?
This is what it means to surrender. If we are truly enemies of God, then surrender will mean to give up. And I don't mean give up things that you like doing (although that is a later goal). I mean give up control, give up self righteousness, give up believing that you are right, give up believing the lie that you are the good guy, that you are the protagonist in your story, admit that you have been fighting on the wrong side. Surrender then means to submit to the truth that God has revealed. And here is one: that you, in certain areas of your life, live as a son of disobedience, a child of wrath. I think we all know that surrender doesn't just happen once, it's ongoing. And although passages like Colossians, Romans, and Ephesians speak of the moment where you are translated into the kingdom of God by your initial surrender, we still see areas of sin in our lives, little strongholds in the battlefield of our souls in which something inside of us is desperately trying hard to defend from the oncoming expansion of the kingdom of God. This is our indwelling sin Paul talks about in Romans 7. In this right, we can still tend to act as children of disobedience while we are simultaneously children of God. This makes the writings of John all the more expressive when he says,

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! 

1 John 3:1

Imagine a war zone. Barbed wire, trenches and strongholds of safety, the smell of gun powder and dead bodies everywhere, fear of the enemy advancing into your camp. You are in the trench with your comrade, one of the few that you know is still alive, trembling at the thought of what the enemy might do to you when you are caught. You look around and realize that the two of you are the only ones from your camp left as the tanks from the enemy begin to surround your stronghold. It becomes apparent that the only chance of survival is surrendering. "Perhaps they will see my humanity, and through pity allow me to live," you recite over and over in your mind. You scramble to pick up the biggest piece of white cloth that you can find, though it may be blood stained or covered in mud. And in a moment of desperation, and against your comrades wishes, you stand up exposing your entire body, waving the rag back and forth as strong as you possibly can, ultimately submitting your fate to the mercy of the opposition. This is surrender.

Your fate is in His hands...

My Reminder for the Day:

God is not in all things merely because he is in all things. God is in all things because he is supreme OVER all things.


"15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

—Colossians 1:15-22 (NLT, emphasis added)

We don't worship a God in creation. We worship a God of creation, a God who's idea it was

to create creation in the first place. And according to this scripture, our correct view of him in our worship isn't just for him (we can't do anything to add to him anyways). It's also not just a theological exercise to puff ourselves up around one another. It's to understand his

supremacy over our lives as the created. This is to understand his supremacy over our salvation—our security in being made right with God. If he is seen as outside of creation as the supreme master of it, and his will is to "reconcile all things to himself" surely he works outside of creation for the benefit of it. The scripture not only says he created all things but it also says he "holds all creation together." And as part of his creation, we are also being held together by his supreme hand. This points towards his supremacy over our sanctification—our security in being made more like Christ practically.

With this said, I do like the interjection from a gospel artist, who recently being stuck between a rock and a hard place artistically, articulated, "We’ve

limited Christianity to salvation and sanctification. Christianity is the truth about everything. If you say you have a Christian worldview, that means you see the world through that lens—not just how people get saved and what to stay away from...Christians need to embrace that there need to be believers talking about love and social issues and all other aspects of life." This truth of God's supremacy over creation affects everything! Specifically us, but not just us. After Paul's explanation of the supremacy of Christ he says, "This includes you who were once far away from God." He did not say "This means you" or "This is referring to

you." He said "This includes you." Surely he holds us in highest regard in relationship to the creation—why else would he create us in his image, give us dominion, and call us to rule the earth and subdue it?—but we are not all that his redemption plan affects. The rest happens through us, by him, once we've been changed. I believe that the redemption of all creation is manifested downward from the order that God has established from the beginning, first to the sons of God by Christ's saving work on the cross, and second, that work spreading out to the rest of creation from the redeemed sons of God, Jesus ultimately being the "first" of course (Romans 8:19-22).

Because of syntax, the New Living Translation can almost sound like all things in the earth have already been made right by Christ's death on the cross. I like how the New King James Version reads in verses 19-20 of Colossians. It points to the "It is finished" of Christ on the cross, but still exposes the unraveling process of his victory in the verb tenses, "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." This is his plan. This is his power. This is our God.

I didn't know this! Did you?

I've been reading Richard Foster's Freedom of Simplicity and it has been ministering! Anywho, while I was reading this book something caught me off guard, and it was so good I wanted to share it.

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light." (Matthew 6:22 NLT)

I always used to view this passage with a lot of ambiguity. Whether I read it on my own, or in the context of a bible study with other believers I'd always be left saying, "Ok Jesus, so you're telling me to make sure my eyes are good? Thanks that's really descriptive and helpful...(sarcastic tone)." But apparently it was a miscommunication (I've been learning a lot about these as I've been on the road to marriage, but that's another post). It looks like God had an intention that was clearly explained and everything I wanted and needed to know from the passage was always there. I just didn't take the time to find it.

I never knew this, did you?:

In the conditional phrase "when your eye is good," the word for "good" in the King James Version is "single." I looked it up and the original Greek word is haplous which apparently means simple, single, whole, good fulfilling it's office, or sound.

So how does this affect the application of the passage? Well, we could retranslate it to say something like, "Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is simple and whole (focused on one thing, the thing that it was designed to focus on, which fulfills its office), your whole body is filled with light. (Matthew 6:22 NLT)

So what do we focus on? If you've been indoctrinated, in any sense of the word, to Christian culture, the answer might have blurted out of your mouth already, "Well, Jesus of course!" And to that I respond with a resounding, "Yes! You're right!" Here's another question? What is the context and how does it affect our understanding and application?

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."(Matthew 6:19-21 NLT)

[...]

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?" (Matthew 6:24-25 NLT)

So the in the context, Jesus is preaching about money, and more generally possessions and the idols of this world. The good news is that it appears that Jesus' call to us is not so much about picking up some new command (spending time worrying about whether our eyes are good), but rather it's about letting go and living singlemindedly on the kingdom. Simply, in the Freedom of Simplicity....

How about that? 

A Romans 5:9 Kinda Day

I think today (May 9th) is a good reminder of Romans 5:9, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!"

...which wouldn't make too much sense without the context of my yesterday, Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ  died for us."

I'm walking into today grateful and expectant!

Psalm 37:7-17

7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;

The word for "rest" can also mean "to be silent, to be still or die, to be struck dumb."The word for "wait patiently" can also mean "twist, dance, writhe, or wait anxiously." This command is telling us to be silent even when it hurts. It's telling us to die to ourselves and be still as we wait for God in a way that makes our flesh get anxious. But the next command is...

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

So we wait on God in a way our flesh doesn't like. We may suffer in the waiting process; we may get anxious. But the second command says do not fret. It's only gonna bring a negative result. Why should I not fret? Here's the promise:

9 For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Where there was waiting patiently (writhing), there is now peace. The specific thing we want is not always promised, but delighting ourselves in peace is. Verse 4 of this Psalm says "Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart." When our hearts are aligned with the Fathers (aka when we ask for things in Jesus' name) we ask and it is simply given to us. But our hearts are wicked and deceitful; when we're off God always has the freedom to pull the "I'm sovereign" card and say "I see that you want this, but I have something for you that's even better in the long run." But that's a thought for another time. The main thing about these verses here is that it is promised that we will "delight [ourselves] in the abundance of peace."

Knowing the end result of this promise, that is peace in the best way, we can apply it to our present situation by faith because it is the Word of God. Remember "now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" and "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." And in case our faith needs some boosting, the Psalmist adds an illustration:

12 The wicked plots against the just,
And gnashes at him with his teeth.
13 The Lord laughs at him,
For He sees that his day is coming.

Place your perspective where God's is. He knows their end, and He also knows yours. Though we don't always know the day or time, yes, we're allowed to have that confidence.

14 The wicked have drawn the sword
And have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
To slay those who are of upright conduct.
15 Their sword shall enter their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.

They even aim to destroy the upright in their place of prosperity. Because of the greed of their heart, their very own weapons will become their downfall. We may not have everything we want right now. We may not even have what we think we need to be obedient to what He's called us to do. But we can be sure of our fate. What we have now, God will use for His glory, no matter how small. He fed the 5,000 with two fishes and five loaves.

16 A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
But the Lord upholds the righteous.

 AMEN.

So remain in constant war with the wickedness of your own heart. The part of you that makes you writhe while you wait patiently. Seek out true humility, then you will inherit the earth.

A Revelation of David's

Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. ² He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim. ³ They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart as it left the house, ⁴ carrying the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. ⁵ David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
⁶ But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. ⁷ Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.
⁸ David was angry because the Lord’s anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means “to burst out against Uzzah”), as it is still called today.
⁹ David was now afraid of the Lord, and he asked, “How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care?” ¹⁰ So David decided not to move the Ark of the Lord into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. ¹¹ The Ark of the Lord remained there in Obed-edom’s house for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and his entire household.
¹² Then King David was told, “The Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s household and everything he has because of the Ark of God.” So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with a great celebration. ¹³ After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. ¹⁴ And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. ¹⁵ So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.

 ―2 Samuel 6:1-15

Wow... there's so much here...
I've had this story in my bible memory banks for a long time. When I first read it, I was struck with confusion. "God, I don't understand.... You're a God of love. Why would You not show mercy to Uzzah? Sure, he disobeyed your holy law that said that even those specific Levites designated to handle the ark and other holy materials were never to directly touch them. But his heart seemed to be in the right place..." Confusion can sometimes be the best grounds for growth because, at times, the LORD will tear down old thoughts to build up new ones. In my case, my perceptions of God were being challenged. Over time I had no choice but to accept that this is who the LORD is. "It's in His word. It's what He did. Yes, He is love, but He is also holy and to be respected. And even if the sons of Abinadab were set apart by the LORD to do this type of holy work this close to the LORD's presence, even they had restrictions. And point blank, Uzzah didn't follow them." What do we do when God does something we don't expect Him to do? Do we honor it? Do we ask Him about it? Do we pretend like it never happened? Or do we hold it against Him?

How did David react to this?
He reacted similarly to the way most of us would initially. The text says two things. It says he was angry which can be translated as furious, kindled, or heated. It also says he was afraid which can be translated as in awe, reverencing, or respecting. After reading this passage recently, I got some new revelation about how David handled things afterward that we can learn a lot from.

For his entire life David knew the LORD to be a God of protection. 
God protects His people. God protected the Israelites through David when battling Goliath who defied the "armies of the living God." God protected David while he was on the run from the kingdom of Saul. David knew God as protector, so seeing Uzzah perish at the hand of the LORD's judgment may have shaken this foundation of his understanding. While the truth of God "the protector" never stopped being true, what David had not seen yet was how God holds His holy people Israel accountable to a holy standard (at this time the law of Moses). It was not until David's promotion to king that he began to see these new facets of God that would test him and stretch his perception.

So after the event, David takes the Ark of the LORD to the house of Obed-edom of Gath saying "How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care?" But while God's presence rests on the Ark there, God blesses Obed-edom's house. The report David receives about the LORD blessing Obed-edom's house after these 3 months must have reaffirmed to him who he knew his God to be before the incident with Uzzah. David then takes the Ark back with rejoicing just as before, but this time there were some differences. The main thing to note here is that David did not hold so tightly onto what he knew before that he could not embrace the new. He expressed his new reverence for God by:

• having the men of Israel praise specifically "with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet" instead of "all kinds of instruments"
• having the men of Israel sacrifice bulls and calves after six steps of carrying the Ark
• wearing a linen ephod (a priestly garment)

And at the end of the day this new reverence of God blessed his praise. Christians really like that quote that says we should "dance like David danced" when in the presence of the LORD. Well, it turns out that what elevated his praise to that level was what he learned that day at "Perez-uzzah."

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

I used to wonder why God would refer to himself as "the God of Jacob" or "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"... I mean I guess I knew the bible history behind it, but it always seemed weird for Him to say that generations later. But I'm realizing that that was the whole point.

He was Creator and Sustainer of your father's generation, and HIS father's generation, and HIS father's generation.
He was faithful to your father's generation, and HIS father's generation, and HIS father's generation.
He showed mercy to your father's generation, and His father's generation, and HIS father's generation.

He IS.

He always will BE.

He stands apart from His creation called time, yet He chooses to be a part of it.

He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.