A Glimpse at the Price of Surrendering to Christ (Mark 8)

This morning, on "

God is Love - Love Covers All (Facebook page)

, I posted

Mark 8:35 (NIV)

 and said, "I'm starting to see this in so many different ways..." If you read it in context (

Mark 8 NIV

), there's so much in that chapter.

The Feeding Miracles

Miracles:

He fed 4,000 with 7 loaves and collected 7 baskets of leftover. He reminded them that he fed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 12 baskets leftover.

Interlude:

A few minutes later, He warned the disciples to "beware the yeast of the Pharisees, and that of Herod". As with most of us, who keep seeing our sin, forgetting that we have a Saviour, they though 'oh no! It's because we left the baskets of bread! We just have one now!' Jesus had to spell it out. He said their eyes were closed and their hearts hardened. What keeps your eyes on your circumstances instead of on Christ? Do you remember why Peter was able to walk on water? (

Matthew 14:22-33 NIV

) Do you remember why he started to sink?

Lesson:

All after He'd given thanks and broken the bread. God's math surpasses our logic. Give thanks and walk in faith and He'll move everything to meet your needs (came to mind that if all you have is bad food, He can make even that, nourishing!). There is nothing He cannot do. More, there is nothing we cannot do when we walk in Him, in Love.

The Healing Miracle

Miracle:

He took the blind man out of the city to restore his sight. He put His spit on the blind man's eyes to restore His sight.

Interlude:

Do you have that kind of faith? In his shoes would you have said "what the hell?!" and walked away without ever knowing what you missed because of pride? Or would you have surrendered your pride (riskyyy) and stepped out in faith to 'watch Christ work'?

Lesson:

(obviously) if you walk with God in Christ through the intercession of the Holy Spirit by faith, then regardless of how ridiculous the task you're called to, you'll do it. That is what says you know the God you serve.

The Point

Then He closes with 'if you fight for your life you'll lose it, but surrender it to me, and you will gain all'. Those were examples of what we could do, if we trust Him, walk in Him! This doesn't even scratch the surface of all the meaning in, the depth of, this chapter. (The Word is so awesome.)

Source:

www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Inspirational-Images/large/Mark_8-36.jpg

 for this post - 

lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/2014/06/a-glimpse-at-price-of-surrendering-to.html

Everyone reads

Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)

, and says lightly that they'll drop everything to 'seek first His kingdom', so they could have everything. Well, that means laying down all of your idols to make God in Christ Jesus first. Pride, power, stability, control, money, some friends and relatives - all that you hold above God - lay it down. Ready?

Praying for you to have such a strong love-encounter with God, that it would be inevitable that you put Him first. Amen.

Your Love Encounter with God (Part 2)

In

Part 1

of this 2-part series “Your Love Encounter with God”, I focused solely on You and God, in God’s Love, highlighting that it is only when we know and understand what a Love Encounter with God looks like, that we can share it with others. That that is what draws people to God – His Love. After reading that, I hope you are in a better position to share God from a place of overflowing Love, in Part 2.

Love First, Not the Word First, Calls People

If you didn't read it yet, I mentioned in

part 1

that I'm doing the

Leadership Development Program, Level 1 (LDP1)

 developed and delivered in Christ by the 

Bethel Church in Redding California

., and that I was listening to Chris Gore's session, 

"Today is a Great Day

 for a Miracle

"

.

Chris’ message truly brought confirmation, for me, on what God has been saying to me recently. We hear and say all the time that 

"It is God's 

Love

 that draws people into relationship with Him"

,

 yet time and time again we introduce people to 

God's 

Word

 before we share God's Love

. We also forget that 

we

 are the vessels of that 

Love

;

 that people go to the Word of God 

after

 they've encountered God's 

Love

.

 It is only 

then

 that they start wanting to learn more about 

this God

 that 

loves them 

so intently, so completely.

Source: 

http://lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/2014/05/your-love-encounter-with-god-part-2.html

Once God Has Your Heart...

Our God wants us to

go back to basics,

so that we

learn to rest in Him.

It is in the simple rest of Loving God and being Loved by God, that we truly

get food, Love, to share.

Chris shared an experience where he didn't see someone (close to death) whom he'd prayed for get healed – daunting. Later, she did get healed! She told him that she'd never heard of God's Love as a Father – that she'd never had a father's love, when Chris said

"Daddy, please take this thing from her",

it shook her.

That

changed her world!

He couldn't do it without first making time to grow in His own knowledge of God's Love.

God wants first our hearts,

then time and a deep love relationship with us, then complete surrender of every area of our lives – so that we can be further filled with His love, then

when filled to overflow,

we walk out and love others because

we simply can’t help it.

All because we have a simple but deep Love Relationship with God.

Love is our action, our task that yields results.

Love is what we're called to, the Love of God. That love drives action - a free action that flows out of us, from the peace of God and the certainty that God will act (not 'me', but God).

Only God's Love – Not Our Works

Once we start striving, we're on shaky ground.

When we start arguing, taking offence, being afraid for/of anyone or anything, plotting to persuade, then we know that

we have missed it.

When we "drop a word" on someone and walk away with

no regard for how they receive it,

we have missed it. We're not responsible for making sure people feel what we intended, but we are to check our hearts to

ensure that we Loved.

We will not be perfect in this journey

 – no one is – but

we can be transparent and loving when we're secure in God's Love for us.

This is why it's so important for us to

go to God,

not just with our plans, our ministries, our calling/purpose, but

simply with ourselves, for some Love!

We have to have down time with God, just laughing at nonsense, being in His presence and

basking in His Love,

to be able to share that complete Love with others.

Evangelism, the great commission,

our call as Christians – is that – sharing the Love of God. Those we share simple, true love with, will pursue Him after.

My Prayer for You

In the name of our Loving God, our Father, in Christ Jesus, through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, I lift up your hearts – our hearts – and ask for the slate to be cleared, of all woes, responsibilities and fears for a moment. I declare, now, that God will teach us to guard our time with Him jealously, and that we don't use that time for works, but for Love Relationship. I stand in faith on the knowledge that

it is finished,

and that His Love will overflow from us wherever we go, in all that we do. That people will see a "new glow" about us, and want it. I believe that You, God, will use our tongues, hands, our entire beings, to

pour forth Your Love,

so that others will draw near You – not just us – in pursuit of More. Amen!

I hope that this 2-part series has rejuvenated you, in some way! Bless you! (

Click here for

Part 1.

)

Only Love Changes. Romans 6, 7, 8 Explained

Pre-Law, Before the Commandments:

We sinned but we didn't realize it. There was no clear margin for men on what was right and wrong, and after the fall of man, apart from God, our hearts became corrupt. We just didn't know it, or at least couldn't delineate or identify the boundaries or right and wrong. We developed the bad habits, the lifestyle of sin.

A lot like babies or toddlers in the stage where everyone thinks 'naughty' is cute, before we start correcting them. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." -- Walter Scott. Even if it's not intentional.

Law, the Commandments:

If you are Jewish, include 613 laws to govern implementation of these 10 commandments. Once we see the law, we see where we've been going wrong. The Law itself is right, holy, in perfect alignment with the righteousness of God - thus revealing that we were not.

Ever tried changing your diet? You've never wanted fries, chocolate cake or ice cream, as much as when you decide that you can't have it. Now, if it's so hard with an intrinsic decision, imagine now how impossible that is when it comes from a God you've forgotten or have grown distant from.

Some may say here we are akin to teenagers, but I'd say we're like prepubescents. Suddenly, no one's smiling when they say "don't do that". Now things that were fine before are met with brute verbal force (or your Trini grandmother gives you "ah ha'd slap") and glares that could kill, and you have no idea why. 'Things are far more serious than we thought!' We realize we've been deceived!

Source: http://donotdepart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/1280X960-Ro-8_38-39.jpg

Jesus Christ, the Law Fulfilled:

No matter what, the wage of sin is death. We were deceived, but "ignorance of the law is no excuse" with God either. The debt for sin had to be paid. Even if we gave our lives, we couldn't afford to pay that debt.

God, being sovereign and good, seeking reconciliation with mankind, whom He made for love, for relationship, had a painful answer. Being a God of His Word, however, (ha ha ha. cheesy pun intended), He can't be unjust and just say "okay, okay, let's start over". To honor the law, someone had to pay. Someone in perfect opposition to sin. That was Jesus Christ. Christ, whom God poured out His wrath and judgment on by forsaking him, paid for all sin through time and space, so that God could be reconciled to us for Love and relationship.

This reconciliation is a process. You are still that prepubescent if you're a Christian, and still a baby/toddler if you don't know Christ. A mature Christian is one whose very heart, desires, have been transformed to the likeness of Christ... by His Love. The teenager, therefore, where most of us are, is the Christian who is being transformed - the one who is battling and repenting daily to surrender every area of his/her heart to God.

The teenager striving for his/her place in the world, once they know how, goes to God for desires to be changed, and for the strength to walk it out. What seems like rebellion to "adults" is that battle. Will you encourage or manipulate? If God Himself tries to ensure that we come for Love, of our own volition, shouldn't we do the same - for each other? We are all, very much, teenagers. Pray for God's will.

Only in Love Changes Us:

You cannot give what you do not have. If you do not know the transformative Love of God in Christ, then guilt, shame, condemnation haunt you as you strive in your own strength (not leaning on God) to correct your actions. Or, as the weight of sin, death, becomes too great, you drown it out. You drift away on the distractions life offers, missing out on the peace and liberation that truth, in Love, brings.

Romans 8 ends with Paul talking about the all-consuming, unconditional nature of God's Love. Do you know that Love? Or do you weigh God's Love by circumstances within a fallen world?

Being human, note that this is what was revealed when I read these chapters of God's Word. He may speak to you differently.

Where are you, today? Here, read it yourself:

Romans 6, 7, 8, ESV

: http://mobile.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6-8&version=ESV