Today I began the first book of Corinthians in my scripture reading. I’ve always liked the practical side of this book. Paul has a great way of telling the situation like it is and what our role should be. What was hitting me as I began the first chapter was whom God chose to be those He called to do His work. If you read vs. 28 you will see it says: “And God also selected what in the world is lowborn and insignificant…that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are.”

Joyce Meyers writes an insert regarding this passage. She says, “God works through imperfect people, or what I often call ‘jars of clay’ or ‘cracked pots’.” She goes on to describe how a candle in a jar of clay with a lid on it would still offer no light. However, if the pot has cracks the light will penetrate through them to the outside. She said that this is why God has chosen those of us with cracks in our human exterior–those things we think have made us less than others. Our entry point to the world around us is often not our strengths, but it is our weaknesses which we are willing to talk about/share with others. These are the areas which people are able to identify with us/relate to us.

Reading all of this is like refueling for the ministry work of our Celebrate Recovery and our restoration classes. Even though these ministries have needed to either take a pause in their meeting or meet remotely, the idea of sharing our own struggle and our imperfections makes us “strong in the Lord”. This takes me back to the message I had from yesterday where surrender is not a weakness, but a strength. It is not human strength, but it is the spiritual strength God provides helping others break down their walls as we break down the clay pot which we are so the penetrating Light of God’s Healing can shine through us.

Do you suppose surrender is the key to the message when both devotionals and the scripture are bringing out the significance of this individual act? In the human sense surrender is weakness–giving up. In God’s spiritual sense, it is also giving up, but the end result is so very different. It allows us to experience the empowerment of God’s involvement in our lives. It is as though I think my actions are good and I don’t need God in this particular area of my life when I don’t surrender. The power of surrender is lost if I stay in my selfish man mode.

The older I get the more I awaken to the importance of surrendering everything, and I mean everything. When I was young and had just begun teaching I know I prayed for God’s help, but it was more of a generic prayer. When I became a principal, I prayed for God to be glorified in my work, but I too often saw it as my work, rather than my obedience to God’s leading in my life in every aspect of it.

Today, I’m retired out of the professional work of teaching and administrating. I still do the consulting work with others, and it is here that I find myself wishing I could have had a much better grasp of surrender when I was younger. Even today I realize that surrender is an ongoing, daily choice. Many years ago I asked my grandpa when temptation went away? I asked this question of him when I was a teenager and he was in his late 80’s. I still remember his response. He said temptation simply adjusts itself to whatever is in your life at the time which you selfishly want, but know you shouldn’t do or have it. He gave the example of using white sugar in his coffee. He loved it but white sugar gave him extreme headaches. In spite of the headaches he’d succumb to using it once in a while just because he loved the flavor of white sugar. Then he’d pay the price and be sorry. At the time I thought I’d love to only be tempted with this choice!

Now that I’m where I am in this journey of living each day, I realize the significance of grandpa’s answer. It is always about surrender of man’s choices which can hurt him physically, emotionally, spiritually, and most of all–in his relationship with God, His Son Jesus and The Holy Spirit. I find they not only hurt me, but they deter me from the joy I find when I am fully surrendered. This message is one of the big ones in the book of Romans which I finished this morning. I not only want to heed this message, but I want to live it out for the rest of my days.

The book of Romans is truly one that outlines for a person the importance of accepting Christ as one’s Savior and Lord. It then goes into the struggle of living daily, fully surrendered to letting Christ be the Lord of our life–not just Savior. He concludes the book demonstrating what living the surrendered life should look like. He steps into judgment of others for the way they talk, doubt, dress, eat, etc. He makes it very clear that we in our human state have grave differences. It is not these differences which determine our faithfulness to God and it is not our “job” to evaluate them or judge them. God and The Holy Spirit will take care of this for each person/believer. Our role should more be helping others find their freedom in Christ as Christ is helping us to do the same.

Joyce Meyers writes an important piece connected to Romans 14 & 15 where Paul is writing about how we live out our walk with Christ. She tells of a time in her life where she was doubting Christ’s leadership and His calling. As she questioned God she was directed to read Romans 15:13. It says: “May the God of your HOPE so fill you with all joy and peace in believing that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with hope.” She goes on to say that doubt was overriding her hope/her believing. Once she surrendered this the JOY of the Lord returned to her and she found the confidence to move forward with God’s calling on her life.

There is so much doubt in our world right now with the tragic results of this virus and its dominance over so many aspects of our lives/our world. I hear more and more “doubts”. Putting all of today’s devotional reading into perspective I find myself being told to believe and have hope. Don’t judge people’s thoughts but continue to believe myself. I know our God who is in control and I trust Him fully. I wait in anticipation to see just how He makes Himself better known as a result of this time.

To start today’s entry I want to let any reader know that this day, 38 years ago, was when I was introduced to my wife Kathy. It was a blind date. Today I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this gift has been the most significant one God has given me next to The Holy Spirit himself. I have often said that she is a second holy spirit God is using to guide me always into His path.

Today’s devotional time has once again been a time of enlightenment. I have said several times in the last couple of weeks how the book of Romans has been alive with meaning for me as I read it each day. How often I forget that our bible is the very WORDS of GOD to each of us. I do love to read and read a number of books both for my professional work as well as simply for pleasure. However, there is no other book where we can take the words and they become a SWORD to penetrate the attacks of life. It is also a LIGHT which shines in darkness. It is a HOPE for things not yet seen.

My prayer warrior most often sends me encouraging scriptures. She always says that her words are simply her words, but the Word of God is the very weapon God wants us to use to defend ourselves against the attacks of evil.

As I read today in the scriptures of Romans I find an intimacy I’ve not felt or known before. The messages within each chapter have such personal application for me. Surrendering “all of me” is taking on new meaning. Surrender is the first step of obedience, the second step is the willingness to obey what/where/when God wants us to do/or sometimes not do what we might want. How I love this God we get to serve. He never gives up on us.

God’s consistent caring was emphasized this morning once again. Coming off of the past couple days, I was just relieved to have them behind me. However, God is never done with our learning from His presence with us. This was shown in today’s devotions.

My devotional reading was emphasizing the importance of surrender to Jesus’ leadership in our lives. The author was clarifying it by literally naming: mind, thoughts, motives, eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, emotions–and even the ones we possess but don’t mention. Have we literally surrendered all of us to Jesus’ control? In my growing up years this was called sanctification. I often pray for God to take all of me and use it for His honor and glory. However, it was very different today when I took time to reflect upon each and every body part which I have some sense of control over (or it has control of me). Romans 12, as I got to my bible reading, was emphasizing the importance of total surrender to Jesus. I loved how Paul has carefully walked the reader through the struggles of living for Jesus in the earlier chapters. Then he helps us see how critically important it is to know that all of these struggles have been taken to the Cross by Jesus Christ. Now in chapter 12 Paul is having us recognize the foundation of our struggles. That is why we are to reflect on every aspect of our person as mentioned above.

In the past couple of days I easily see how my emotions had been occupying my belief. Chapter 12 tells us to surrender everything to Jesus and to believe. For me, this is the reason starting my day with Jesus is so important. I need to get grounded daily in who I want controlling my day and me in the day. Everything about us Jesus wants to use for His Honor and Glory. This can only happen if I am totally surrendered. How intimate and caring our Father is!

You may be wondering how yesterday’s task turned out? Even if you’re not wondering about it I’m going to address it for a moment. Simply put, it came together without a hitch. I’m always amazed to work through an item like yesterday, fearing the worst each and every time, keeping all of my angst inside so others don’t have new ammunition to substantiate their belief that I’m less of a man than they are, etc. Then I address it to find it worked out just fine and what was eating on me had nothing to do with being a man, it all had to do with being abused as a child. No wonder God was telling me yesterday to focus on believing. For a moment I’d forgotten I was the new creation and I was back being the incapable person/boy who could only do what a woman does (as dad would say).

The added blessing of yesterday was getting a new router for our home’s wireless network. The original one kept quitting on us so the provider was sending out a tech to address it. He’s the one who said to not use the router provided by them. He told me what a good one would be so I could get it and then connect it. I had him walk me through the installation of it as this would likely make me go right back to yesterday. It wasn’t as straight forward as the tech told me, but it is working and I did it (well, God and I did it).

I look at today and yesterday’s blogs and think there is nothing spiritual about either of them–they simply give light to my struggles. Yet, I sense God wanting me to write this so any reader who may struggle with their own personal belief system will know they do not struggle alone. More than that, God is right here with us even in the little details of everyday living. This journey of living one day at a time has many bumps in it and sometimes mountains. The key to all of it is not hiding, but believing that we are never facing any bump or mountain alone. God is always at our side and so are other men if we only open up to the one/s God nudges us to tell.

As I begin to write today’s blog I am somewhat at a loss as to what should be written. What I am compelled to write about is BELIEVE. This has been the strong message of the morning. As I started my devotional time my intuition was telling me to believe. I was journaling about the struggle I was facing. As I was reading in my devotional it was centered on believing. Then, as I began to read Romans 10 I get to the 17th verse which says: “So faith comes by hearing and what is heard comes by preaching of Christ.” Joyce Meyers writes an insert at this point which says: “When the Word is heard, faith is imparted to believe it. Once we have heard the Word and believe it, we should continue believing…As believers one of our most important jobs is to simply believe…”

Today I have a simple task to get done which is one of those my dad would tell me, “I wouldn’t let anyone else know you did that.” So, as I head into doing the task my belief is very weak. Thus, having the word BELIEVE being the focus of the morning’s devotion simply sits me back and challenges me to address what I do believe about God and me as a team. I can easily confess when I step into a project like this morning I only see me screwing up something which another man would complete in a short while without a hitch. I don’t see God connected to it at all–just me making another mess of things. This morning I am challenged to address all of this. In reality, so what if I have to redo something. It doesn’t make me a failure. This is what I’d tell anyone else and God is wanting me to see this for myself.

Today–I BELIEVE. I am going to believe as I start today and I am going to be a believer throughout the day.

Today is my middle daughter’s birthday. Happy Birthday Amber! In spite of isolation, the day has already started as a blessing. When I texted her earlier this morning she responded saying friends had come and decorated her front lawn and left a couple gifts. She is in Oklahoma City so our participation is truly long distance.

Easter’s celebration truly was different this year, but that was only on what man did. Easter will always be the same, however, because of what Christ did! Man is so self-centered that we keep thinking the event is ruined if we don’t do it right. Everything about Easter is about what Christ did, not what man did or does. The celebration God desires is the one when man has turned to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. This is why Christ came. This is the message we need to always proclaim. This is the truest celebration of Easter.

Even in this time of isolation we are never isolated from Christ Jesus and His Gift to us–The Holy Spirit. I want to listen to His nudges in how to make this time we are in a continued time of obedience and surrender to Him.

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!! I can’t begin to fathom the intense, overwhelming emotions the ones felt who came to address the body of Jesus on that Sunday morning only to find He had done just what He said He’d do–He would rise–conquer death! But where was He? Where did He go? Over time the followers found that Jesus went to His Father, our Father. This time He went as our Savior. This time He went to forever stand in the gap that sin had created between God and His creation–man (us).

As I reread Romans 8 this morning for the third time I was given a clarity which connected the content of the entire chapter. As the chapter begins Paul is telling the frailty and futility of the flesh. We can do nothing to please God following the old laws of the land in our flesh. Works will never get us to a place of peace with God the Father. Satan wants to keep us trapped in this place of struggle. I’ve lived in this trap so much of my life! Christ not only came to conquer this dilemma, but He also gave us a Gift in so doing–The Gift of The Holy Spirit. Christ lived his life on earth being obedient to The Holy Spirit. He conquered death in so doing. We now have this Gift too.

I know I have The Holy Spirit within me because it is a promise from Jesus. But, like I wrote yesterday, if I know this but don’t live this, then my character has not been developed within. My realization for today is that the character building which takes place from our learning comes from our yielding to The Holy Spirit. He will lead us into developing the characteristics of Jesus. He will lead us as we obey Him and surrender our emotional desires/cravings so we live life as The Holy Spirit directs us to do. The chapter ends saying “we are more than conquerors”. For today, my understanding for “more than conquerors” is that we won the battle through surrender rather than fighting. The fighting was done by Jesus Christ. We win when we surrender to Him and accept and then surrender to The Holy Spirit–our GIFT! A “more than conqueror” is one who faces the battle but doesn’t enter it. Instead, he claims the VICTORY already fought and won by Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Today I reread the 8th chapter of Romans. Tomorrow I will likely read it again. I don’t know of a chapter in the bible which describes in such detail the human side of living each day as well as the spiritual side of living each day. In so doing, it describes the battle therein.

What I found this morning while having my devotional time was a clarity I needed and I want to share. First of all I was reading an Oswald Chambers devotion which in part stated that teaching/learning is important, but it is only a start. If the learning doesn’t develop into character then it hasn’t completed its work. What hit me squarely between the eyes with this is the direct connection to us being “Christ-like”. We are told that Christ is molding us into His image. This is not being done only by what we know. It is done by whom we become. The character of Christ is to become the character of each one of us.

The first half of Romans 8 goes deeply into the struggle of living a life in the flesh vs a life in the Spirit. So much of this centers around belief and trust. Then, the believing and trust must be demonstrated with surrender and obedience. What hits me here is rather simple–do I worry about our present state or do I have a peace that passeth all understanding about it? I can learn the scriptures Philippians 4:6-7 which tell us to not be anxious about anything. But, if my character continues to demonstrate anxiety I will never know the peace God promises. There is a big difference between “learning” & “being”.

I’m needing to stay with this chapter for a while. When Christ went to the Cross so our sins are now forgiven once and for all, He created a pathway directly to our Father God through Himself. There’s so much more I want to learn and become as I continue this journey of human life knowing I have full access to my Father.