There are two types of people; those who have surrendered their life to Christ and those who are still putting up a fight.  Some people think that those who surrender in battle are cowards.  I don’t think this is always true. Surrendering in battle actually takes courage.  When you surrender you are placing your life in the hands of your enemies.  You are hoping they will treat you fairly and with dignity and that one day when the war is over, you will be set free.  Cowards are the ones who run from the battle and hide. 

The thing about this war with God is that we can’t win.  There is absolutely no hope to beat God.  He is just too powerful, too just, and too loving.  So I am encouraging everyone who is still fighting against God to surrender.   It will take courage, especially since you have no idea how God is going to treat you and whether or not you will ever be set free from His captivity.  But let me assure you…God will treat you with dignity, He will love you unconditionally, He will show you mercy and He will set you free.  Freedom with God is different than what most of the world thinks though.  Freedom with God is when He sets us free to be who He originally created us to be.  You see, for those who are still battling against God, putting up a good fight, you are actually enslaved.  You are enslaved to a lifestyle that focuses on yourself, which is actually pretty pathetic.  Why would anyone want to settle for something so little when you could have so much?  Why settle for a purpose in life that centers around a creature who is so limited?  We were created to live in relationship with the eternal God.  We were created in His image and our purpose is to worship Him and glorify Him in all we do, say and think.  I know this sounds absolutely crazy for those who are battling against Him, but just think about it.  God created us to live in this awesome relationship.  He gave us the entire world to have dominion over and to rule.  He said that He would walk through life with us, every step of the way.  But we have chosen to rebel against God, run away from Him and then try to rule the world without Him? What is that all about?  Why would we give up so much to attain so little?  It doesn’t make sense.  What does make sense is when we realize what we have done, how stupid and self-centered it is and then return to God.  God uses this word called “repent”.  This just means that God wants us to turn away from our old way of living, our old way of thinking and turn back towards Him.  Only when we come back to God will anything in life begin to make sense or have meaning and purpose.

But how in the world is this possible?  If God is really just then it would go against His perfect and holy character to let me, His enemy, go free without punishment?  God has made it possible by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to take your penalty upon Himself.  Jesus lived a perfect life, perfectly fulfilling every law that God demanded.  God sent Jesus to die for you, in your place.  So God really is just and His justice was taken out on His own Son, Jesus.  So surrendering to God means believing that Jesus died for your sins and giving your heart over to Him.

So, you may be a coward and run away from God, you may have the gall to stand and fight God or you may have the courage to surrender to God through Jesus.  But ultimately, God is going to win the battle, whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not.  So my suggestion is to surrender to God.  Believe that Jesus died for you, that He rose from the grave and now sits at God’s right hand.  Believe that He will send His Holy Spirit to come and live in your heart, to walk through every moment of life with you.  Come back to God and let Him take you captive.  It is His great desire to have you back, to show you mercy and grace, to love you unconditionally.  Surrendering to God has no regrets.

All for Jesus,

Fletch

My wife is reading a book called Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers. It is a fictional book based on the historical Biblical Minor Prophet Hosea. It’s a gut wrenching story of love, prostitution and redemption. In the Bible, God tells Hosea to marry the prostitute Gomer. God’s purpose is to show Israel that they are His Bride but have prostituted themselves with the idols of other nations. Hosea reveals how the people have degraded themselves with sin and idolotry against a pure and holy God. Even after Hosea marries Gomer, she continues to go back to her way of life as a prostitute. In the fictional book, Redeeming Love, the wife continues to go back to her life of prostitution as well. She does not know any other lifestyle, she feels like this is just how she was made and that this is just how life is going to be. She also feels dirty and unworthy when she is around her husband who loves her deeply and keeps accepting her back.
What a perfect picture of how we, even as believers can act towards God. We have been redeemed by Christ. Christ has brought us out of our degraded life of idolotry and rebelliousness and into a right relationship with God. However, we often go back to some of our old ways, giving in to old desires and worshiping our old worthless idols of materialism, lust and self-satifaction. The Good News is that God relentlessly pursues us. He will never let us wander too far off. His hand is ever upon us even when we sin. What we need to “do” is to “believe” in who we really are because of what Jesus has “done” for us. You see Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins. We believe in faith that Jesus died for us and God imputes the righteousness of Christ upon us. That big word imputes means that Christ has washed us clean from all of our sin; past, present and future. Then God takes the righteousness of Christ and clothes us with it, like giving us new permanent clothes that are holy and pure. Even though, we, like Gomer, do not always see ourselves as worthy of anyone’s love. But because of what Jesus has done on the cross we can see ourselves as holy and pure, as one who has been completely redeemed. We do not have to go back to our old ways, old habits, or old loves. We have to trust and believe that God has made us new people.
While the story of Hosea seems like a strange love story, it is actually a beautiful love story of an awesome God who relentlessly pursues His people with an infinite love He has showered us with in His Son Jesus Christ.
I hope that today you will believe that God loves you unconditionally, that He continues to be faithful in the midst of our faithlessness and that He will never, ever give up on you.
Happy Valentines Day!
Fletch

Is it better to live here on earth or is it better to be in heaven with Jesus?  To live here on earth means that we experience pain, suffering, difficulty and sorrow.  We have to live in a wretched world full of sin and misery.  Disease, sickness, depression, hatred and selfishness characterize our daily lives.  But in heaven none of this exists.  There is no sorrow, pain or sin.  Heaven is a holy place.  So is there really a question as to which is better?  Of course we will be better off in heaven.  Then the question follows…why don’t we just go to heaven once we become a Christian and skip the pain and misery of living here on earth?

The answer comes from the Scriptures;

²¹ “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” Philippians 1:21-26

Paul says that it is better to be with Christ but to remain here on earth means fruit labor.  He says “it is necessary on your account.”  Don’t miss this.  For Paul, it is better to be in heaven with Christ.  But Paul is not looking at his life according to what is best for him.  Paul is looking at life from the perspective of what God thinks is best.  God wants Paul here on the earth for the progress and joy of the Philippians.  So Paul’s life here on earth has nothing to do with himself, at least not directly.  Paul’s life is to be lived for others for the glory of God. 

The problem is that most of us go through life living for ourselves.  So we live life exactly the opposite of how God wants us to live it.  We must understand the Biblical concept of not living life for ourselves but for God and for others.  Jesus makes this clear when He is asked what is the first and greatest commandment in Matthew 22:34-40.  Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.  Neither commandment says that we should live for ourselves.  There should be no confusion.  Except that our sinful nature constantly and consistently puts ourselves at the heart and center of everything.

Somehow we have to lose sight of ourselves and get caught up in loving God and loving others.  Joel Osteen has a bestseller called “Your Best Life Now”.  Where’s the focus? It’s on YOU.  I think a title of a more Biblical book would be called, “Life is not about you!”  It probably wouldn’t be a bestseller.  But it would be glorifying to God, whereas Olsteen’s book is a stench to God.