Surrender

Well hello blog page and sorry I haven't posted in quite a bit. I have missed you, You're such a good listener! So I ate a Toaster Strudel for breakfast today... and for dinner. I have a problem. But they are sooooooooooo good. I like to eat them without the icing for the first five in the box and then put all the icing packs on one toaster strudel. Sound gross? Well that's because it is a little gross, but mostly fantastic. I saw an Instagram post from a high school friend yesterday that really gave me some encouragement. Now before you laugh, it was not a picture of her coffee or food. It was her simply announcing that she will be attending her second year of schooling within the organization that is YWAM. As you know, I will be leaving for my first DTS in September and am beyond excited to do so. I was encouraged because of her willingness to surrender her life and devote her life to whatever God desires for her and wherever God desires her to go. I absolutely adore seeing that in people and it just makes my heart happy that she is so willing to take up her cross daily and completely give herself to Jesus Christ. I don't know if she ever even reads my posts but thank you Autumn for your encouragement. 

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."
-Romans 12:1

In this scripture, Paul, the writer of Romans, is referring to his last refrain of doxology of praise in Romans 11:36. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Since all things are for His glory, we must respond by offering ourselves for that purpose. Paul is encouraging us to surrender. When he uses the word "urge" he is, based on the original Greek root that means to "call alongside to help." Jesus actually referred to the Holy Spirit in a similar manner by using the word comforter in John 14:16,26. By the mercies of God. Wow. Is there nothing more beautiful than the mercies of God? There is grace, righteousness, and the gift of faith. All of these are gifts from God and by no means came from man alone. Even the ability to have faith came from God. The ability to accept Him comes from Him. By the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. So because of God's great mercy, we must surrender our lives to Him. In the Old Covenant, God accepted sacrifices of dead animals. However, because of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, those sacrifices no longer have any effect. 


"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." -Hebrews 9:11

Now, in light of all the spiritual riches believers enjoy solely as the fruit of God's mercies, it only makes sense that we all owe our highest form of praise and service. In this case, it is understood that is priestly, spiritual service. I don't know about you, but the passion and detail that Paul writes with in chapters contained in Romans gets me absolutely fired up and I desire so greatly to serve God in the purest ways possible. He wrote with such sincerity and wrote with so much fire to aid in his brethren to service to God.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man accordance to his deeds."
-Matthew 16:24-27

Deny himself. Take up his cross. The first time that Jesus uses the word "cross" is in Romans 10:38. "...and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." When one pictures a death by the cross, it is as violent and ugly of a death that one can have. Jesus is demanding full commitment from His followers. That includes physical. Kill me Lord if need be. Be willing to die for Him. For it is in death that we are made alive. We cannot serve two masters. You may not be a slave to sin and a slave to Jesus. That's what we must be. We must be bond-servants to Jesus Christ and His kingdom. What shall a man exchange for His soul after judgement? Nothing. It is in this life where we must absolutely surrender to God's will and DIE to this life. 

Are you surrendering? True faith will always produce authentic obedience. Put this life to death. Put God before absolutely everything. "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." That is a powerful piece of scripture. I don't feel that it needs a whole lot of explanation but instead just acceptance. Nothing is on the same level of worth as The Lord. Surrender your life to God. Jesus calls us to die so that we may live IN HIM. We must all take up our cross daily.