White flag time

The exercise has been this: becoming vulnerable for the Spirit's use.

In other words, despite my being a pastor (or maybe because of it), despite all my reading of scripture (daily), despite the hundreds of sermons I've prepared (or certainly because of that), despite countless prayers and the couple mission trips I've ventured on, I have to learn to surrender my will to His.

In other words still, I've got way too much of me in the equation and not nearly enough of him. That being the truth that Jesus is always rattlin' on about, what is the 14-day Acai spiritual flush that roots out me and allows him in?

Let's hope for this reaction...John the Revelator sees a door standing open in heaven. The voice (God's magnificent, stringent, powerful, throaty voice) says: come up here and I will show you what must happen afer these things.

John the Revelator says that INSTANTLY he ws in the Spirit. He sees a throne. he sees someone sitting on the throne. The one sitting on the throne is brilliant as gemstone. Twenty-four thrones surround him and twent-four elders sat on these thrones. And everyone is singing, good voice, bad voice, training or not, they're singing "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to reveive glory and honor and power. For you created everything and it is for your pleasure they exist and were created."

That's a worship service that doesn't start at a particular time and end at a prescribed time. It starts when God calls things to order and ends just past the end of time as we know it.

How do we get rid of that mess we call ourselves (sorry for all those reading who think they really, really have got it together) and allow so much of the wonderfulness, the awesomeness, the greatness of God in?

Simple. Really. Simple.

Worship. Truly, really, magnificently worship God. Sunday morn? Sure. Wednesday night? Absolutely. But don't forget Monday, Thursday, Tuesday and Saturday. And especially, especially Friday. Worship. Truly, really, magnificently at that place of holy ground you call...uh, whereever you passionately feel like worshiping.

Give it up for Jehovah. Woof, woof, woof.

Worship.

The Bible says of worship: (in Genesis 24) The man bowed low and worshiped the Lord.

(in Exodus when Moses and Aaron talked to Pharaoh about releasing the Hebrews) “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go, so they can worship me.

In First Chronicles: Then he led the entire assembly to the place of worship in Gibeon, for God’s Tabernacle was located there.

We can deduce from these things that we are to bow, we are to submit, we are to do this where God's Tabernacle is located.

Bow? I can do that.
Submit? Oh, I'm working on that.
Tabernacle? Where, uh, is that. I had it right here. Somewhere. I had it. Holy ground? Holy? Smoke.

Getting less of me and more of Him is a process. It begins and ends in the same place, the Garden. The Garden where we talk and walk and get to know each other more, or better. The Garden where things are went awry but the Garden (or new Jerusalem) where God promies perfection will get leafy again one day.

There is this notion throughout the Bible that we must surrender to God, which simply means more of him, less of us. This is vital because we've all seen what we do with freedom, what we do with control, what we do with the keys to the auto. We wreck the dang thing, over and over and over.

So we need to slowly let go of control and slowly allow him to take that control. Life, to me it seems, is about who has control.

The prophet Daniel says God ... controls the course of world events;he removes kings and sets up other kings.He gives wisdom to the wiseand knowledge to the scholars.

Paul wrote to the young church in Rome, "Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires." And "The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins." And So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace."

More of Him, less of us is not a mantra. It is life, well lived, abundant. Amidst all of the religious information that is available, it is best to keep our focus on Christ Himself. Simply growing in Christ-likeness -becoming more of Him and less of ourselves- will produce the fruit that the Lord desires to see on our lives. The more we surrender fully to Christ, the more victory we will have over sin and self.

The end of the third chapter of John's gospel (which I suggest for anyone who hasn't read all of the gospels) says this: The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.

"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

HE MUST BECOME GREATER, I must become less.

John the Baptizer said much the same thing.

It is the way life must be played out if one is to live well. The one who comes from heaven is above all. Period. Therefore, to live properly, one must submit to the one from heaven.

More of HIM, less of ME.

Yesterday I was diagnosed as being, I think I understood this correctly, diabetic. I have to test my blood sugar every day. I have to poke a hole in my abdomen daily and shoot medicine into said hole. I have a new way to live, apparently.

But the new life only works properly if I use the medicine properly. I am a new creature, but the old creature still exits and if the new one doesn't act in a proper manner, the old creature will rear its ugly head and viola, there he is again.

Paul says that all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. New ones. Fresh ones. Those clothes that have not yet been soiled. More new clothes and less old ones.

The old hymn says this: All to Jesus, I surrender, all to him I freely give.

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.


Are you capable of doing this? Can you become vulnerable for the Spirit's sake? If you can, life will overflow with abundance. That's the simple truth that is so very difficult to not only believe but to live.