Giving God Our All

“God wants our hearts as well as our minds.” – William Wilberforce, Real Christianity

 

God deserves our all.  He doesn’t just want it.  He deserves it.  In fact, God delights in our willingness to obediently follow His commands as well as our willingness to forsake everything else to follow Him.

Jesus said as much in Matthew 22:37, saying for us to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind.  We can hardly accept His offer of salvation without our own form
of sacrifice and submission.  Francis Chan said it plainly in Crazy Love,”Jesus asks for everything.”

 

Giving your all to God is not as easy as it sounds.  There are times when we want to hold on to what we have brought with us.  He dare not release our baggage at the Lord’s altar or drop our burdens at the foot of the cross.  We hold onto what has been having a hold on us for whatever reason or excuse that we conjure up and believe.  We want what God has to offer us through salvation and forgiveness of sins, but we somehow miss out on loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37).

If God can handle our sins, He surely can handle our troubles.

He is able. . .

He can do more than we can “ask or imagine”( Ephesians 3:20).  He wants us to give it over to Him.  And He is more than able to handle it.

He is accessible. . .

He invites us to His “throne of grace” to receive  both grace and mercy “in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16)

 

He is attentive. . . 

“Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” – Psalm 4:3 (NIV).  He hears us and He can help us.  He pays attention to our cries and pleas to Him.

Do not neglect what God can do on our behalf.  He offers so much more than just freedom from sin’s grasp.  God gives us so much and only asks for us to trust Him.  Trust God with your worries and all that weighs heavily upon your heart.  Freely approach God with all that has held you back and release it into His hands.

Give God all of you, and then watch what He makes out of you.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:5 (NIV)

Giving Thanks by Giving Back

I Found the Answer

I was weak and weary, I had gone astray, … I found the answer, I learned to pray

I can relate.

I was weak.

I was weary.

I had gone astray.

I was not in the place or position for God to bless me.

I used to say: “Something’s got to change.” That was not the answer.

I needed to change.

The Body: Being Light in Darkness

Changing My Attitude

Lord, I thank you for changing my attitude about my calling, my ministry and my responsibility.  Continue to feed my spirit and cause me to become more and more open and obedient to You.

Changing My Approach

The Lord had to deal with me on an entirely different level.  He had to help me see how I was waiting when I need to be working.  He had to help me to see that I was forcing it, on the verge of faking, and not facing it. (The “it” was my ministry.)

Changing My Answer

I thank God for giving me the answer along with confirmation from all over the map.  My answer led to my acceptance, and then my actions.

During November, Life Path Ministries & Services will push and promote Giving Thanks by Giving Back: A Week of Works.  This will serve as a launch of our Holiday Outreach Service Team (H.O.S.T.) and the Saved2Serve Volunteer Network, both of which have been on the back burner for a few years now.  Stay tuned for more to come regarding this venture.

After all, I found the answer.

To Serve Like the Savior

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me-John 5:39

Many of us who claim to love Christ have yet to truly live for Christ.  In essence, we cannot live for Christ until we come to learn about Him.  As we learn about Him, we begin to live like Him.  In living like Him, we come into the glorious light of illumination towards living for Him.

To serve like Christ, we must:

• Examine the Savior (Study Jesus)
• Exemplify the Savior (Serve Jesus)

Examine the Savior (Study Jesus)

Start with the Scriptures

Jesus Himself said in the Gospel of John that the Scriptures testify about Him.  The truth about Jesus may be learned and understood through a thorough and consistent study of the God’s Holy Word.  It is this type of study that will revolutionize your relationship with the Lord and Savior of our salvation.  Devote yourself to the daily discipline of biblical study and devotional reading.

Read Sound Doctrine and Materials

Max Lucado wrote an epic book on Jesus aptly entitled No Wonder They all Him the Savior.  It is a simple, straightforward style that presents Jesus in plain everyday language.  Such are the works of brilliant and inspiring theologians.  Find the works of E.M. Bounds, Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Murray and A.W. Tozer as well as some other notable of the faith.

Exemplify the Savior (Serve Jesus)

The New Testament teaching is clearly stated in 1 John 2:6.  We are to walk as He walked.  Andrew Murray states it plainly, saying: “As He was, so we are to be.”

Serving Jesus includes serving like Jesus.  He has given us His own earthly example.

Follow his ministry and its message and methods.  Make a clear divide between what the world accepts and what the Lord commands of us.  Live by the latter of the two.

Some additional helpful resources:

• Dietrich Bonhoffer, The Cost of Discipleship
• Ken Blanchard, Lead like Jesus
• Laurie Beth Jones, Jesus CEO
• www.studylight.org
• www.lifechurch.tv 

The Promise of Prayer

 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you. – 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

Prayer is a promising exercise.  Aside from its ability to help believers release tension and pressure as well as express themselves openly to God directly, prayer comes with a simple promise.

Prayer may not change the outcome.

The promise of prayer is that it can change our own outlook.

Prayer can change our outlook on matters both big and small.  It can actually alter our own perspective on our position within the midst of misery or the precipice of a problem.

“Prayers never die.” – E.M. Bounds

Once we pray, the promise still holds true.  The promise is all about change.

You may not God’s mind or His intention like the prayer of Hezekiah when called out to get his house in order through the prophet Isaiah.  Yet, prayer offers us power to change our walk along this journey of life.  You can make changes in your life due to your prayer life.

Here is how to tap into the ever-changing power and promise of prayer:

• Put prayer into effect.
• Take advantage of what God can offers you through prayer.
• Always stay connected to God through an active and responsive prayer life.

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From the Woods of Walden to the March on Washington

And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. – Titus 2:7 (NLT)

How often do you think of a Hindu as  good example of “good works” for a Christian to follow?

Would you really feel comfortable recommending an existentialist’s political views and ideology as a ‘pattern of good works’ that Christians could imitate?

Henry David Thoreau had such an influence.  His words of social change and individual ideological protest had an influence that span across decades and then centuries.  Walden and its escape from societal norms of the 19th century was combined with Civil Disobedience and its core message of anti-war protest and nonviolent, pacifist yet disruptive social action.

Gandhi bought into it over a hundred years later.  He used its powerful message to turn the British Empire upside down as he held hunger strikes and nonviolent protests to free India from the imperialistic reign and rule of the British.

MLK read Thoreau as part of his study of the social gospel.  His own words in Why We Can’t Wait exploded with the very essence of Thoreau’s fit with taxing Americans for the war with Mexico that no one really wanted except Texans and the federal government.

Thoreau’s influence went beyond these two and continues.  Yet, as Christians, we act as if a many of the faithful men and women of the Bible’s early church period and history’s Roman Empire were not persecuted for their faith.

Yet, Thoreau is a not  a sole voice speaking up against social ills and unchecked injustice and tyranny.  The Bible speaks of speaking up and taking a stand against such earthly rulers and social chaos.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

– Ephesians 4:1 (ESV)

Was Bonhoeffer influenced by Thoreau’s words of wisdom or the red letters of the New Testament as spoken by Jesus? Did not the Apostles stand up before the Sanhedrin in the Book of Acts, vowing to follow God rather than to listen to man? Was Paul not a persecutor of the people of the Way, later known as the church, as a Pharisee only to later be punished by the Roman government in spite of being a Roman citizen himself?

8 Open your mouth for the mute, For the rights of all the unfortunate. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy. – Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)

Suffering in Sin

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins– Ephesians 2:1(NASB)

“Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected.”- Jonathan Edwards

Sin had us in a state of deadness.  Our trespasses and iniquities held us captive.  As Paul wrote in the New Testament, we were “slaves to sin.” Sin prohibited any ability to truly live.  We could see any way out of the grasp of sin.  Its stronghold had us blinded.  It blocked any sign of light from penetrating into our dark dwelling place.

God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins

– Colossians 2:13 (NIV)

Set Free

God set us free.  He freed us from guilt by grace.  He freed us from shame with salvation.  He freed us from pressure with perfection.

He set us free.

He set us free without condemnation.  He set us free with forgiveness.  He set us free through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

No Longer Dead But Alive with Christ

By freeing us from sin, He made us “alive with Christ” (Col. 2:13).  He took us from one state of being (dead) and led us to another state of being (alive).  He freed us that we might have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).  We have that abundant life in and with Christ Jesus.  He’s the reason we are free, but He’s also our Redeemer.

Suffer No More

He freed us, but He wants us to live like Christ.  He saved us, but He desires us to follow the example of His Son.  He set us free so that we might not suffer any longer.

Live today fully liberated by the might work of the Lord’s saving power.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. – Romans 6:11 (ESV)

Our First Calling as Believers

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  – Mark 1:15 (NIV)

Repentance and belief are what lead to salvation.  The first calling for us as believers is to salvation.  We are called to believe the Good News (the gospel).  Upon our internal belief in it, then we confess our belief in Jesus as Savior before men.  This our public profession of Him as our personal Savior.

This is our first calling as Christian.  It is what makes us Christians.  We accept Christ as Savior and enter an entirely different realm of existence, for His Spirit indwells within us upon belief.  That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Many of us may differ upon the numerous other things that transpire upon belief.  Some things are more inherent to our denominational traditions and beliefs rather than biblical facts. However, as believers, we all have a common faith with Christ as the head authority over us all.