Surrender and the servants of God

Some days it seems like you are struggling to hear from God. You are wondering what He has been trying to teach you. The day I entered this in my journal was one of those days. I finally heard Him say "surrender" in a song I came upon online. I used the word "stumbled", but we know that no one ever stumbles onto something when God is leading. This illustrates the truth of this psalm - "He leads me...". Again God emphasized the point today as I write this. The song "Rooftops" was playing and the song "All I need is You" has followed bearing testimony to the truth of surrender, as well as to the words of Scripture - "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing"

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim
That I am Yours, I am Yours
All that I am, I place into Your loving hands
And I am Yours, I am Yours

-from the song Rooftops by Jesus Culture

One more day and it's not the same
Your spirit calls my heart to sing
Drawn to the voice of my Savior once again
Where would my soul be without your Son
Gave His life to save the Earth
Rest in the thought that You're watching over me
CHORUS:
///All I need is You
All I need is You Lord, is You Lord///
All I need is You
All I need is You Lord, is You

- from the song All I Need is You by Jesus Culture

Read more: Jesus Culture - All I Need Is You Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

August 31, 2015

Worship:  Set a Fire Down in My Soul by Jesus Culture; I Surrender All as sung by Brian Lutrell

"Set A Fire"

Set a fire down in my soul
That I can't contain
That I can't control
I want more of you God
I want more of you God

https://youtu.be/5pwbDo1ef9M

. "I Surrender All"

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee, my blessed Savior
I surrender all

All to Jesus I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee, my blessed Savior
I surrender all

Lord, I give to You all I ever have
And everything I was and everything I am
Now I lay it down, I lay it at Your feet
To Your grace, to Your power I surrender all

Lord, I give myself to thee
Fill me with Thy love and power
Let Thy blessings fall on me

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee, my blessed Savior
I surrender all

Copied from: A-Z Lyrics

https://youtu.be/3VM-wNHsJMc

Personal: Worship came hard today with much distraction from outside. From Dog to phone messages. However, it was not only from outside but from inside also. I could not discern what I was supposed to sing. Several songs came to my mind, but as I researched I found I had sung them recently and of course I couldn’t sing them again, after all that just “wouldn’t be right”. But God has a way of emphasizing a need in my life. So I stumbled on the song Set a Fire, by Jesus Culture. It is a simple almost annoyingly redundant song. However, as I kept singing I realized God was trying to tell me something. As I have had time to think about it I believe He was showing me that as I surrender to Him, empty myself as it were, the more He fills me with Himself. The second song listed is the song I have sung before. It is a difficult song to sing without feeling slightly disingenuous. It is written as if surrender is only to be seen in an aorist tense and not an imperfect tense action. I am not speaking of English grammar here, but Greek grammar. Those who know Greek will know what I am referring to. The aorist tense may refer to an action that only occurs one time, as if one surrenders once with no reference to progress. One could almost throw in the perfect as well. An action that was completed in the past with completed results that continues in the present. However, we all know that if we looked at it this way it would cause us to feel guilty, and for many that’s just what it does, so their progress is stunted by false guilt because they misunderstand that, like the imperfect in Greek, it is progressive. Furthermore, progress always comes with regress. It never moves in a straight line though as we mature in the Lord the line gets straighter and straighter. Perhaps we should also see surrender as in the Greek present tense as well, that of continuous action, daily, habitual action. Daily we surrender, sometimes, many times, more than once in a day. It should be seen not only as a daily habit, but a daily head set and heart set. That is, an attitude set on surrendering to God every day.

I have taken some time to gather my thoughts on this and left little time to actually get into the word. May I take to heart what I have said and not just put words down on virtual paper, that like virtual paper, are devoid of substance in my life.

WORD:

1The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4Even though I walk through the darkest valley,a I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. A Psalm of David. KJV

Yesterday we spoke of David’s confident confession. We ended speaking of Jesus as our Good Shepherd who lays down His life for us; He knows us, and that as sheep of His pasture we follow Him.

However, He is not only the Shepherd of sheep (i.e. His followers in general), but also the Shepherd of shepherds (specifically the pastors, elders or bishops), those designated to feed & lead God’s flock. In 1 Peter, Christ is called the “Chief Shepherd”.  As God’s undershepherds, they are exhorted and instructed in 1 Peter 5:1-4:

1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

NIV

Here the shepherds of God’s flock must remember three things:

 First, that God still considers them as sheep of His pasture, so they need to pay attention to their needs as God’s sheep. Never too busy feeding the Sheep as Christ’s undershepherd and neglecting to be led, fed, and make their bed in God’s green pastures. If they neglect to do this, they will certainly go “through the valley of the shadow of death”, but never come out. Moreover, how many will follow him to their own demise?

Second, he must remember that members of his congregation are not really his congregation. They are “shepherds of God’s flock”. This is a fact that no pastor would ever disagree with, but being human, they may find it easy to give this lip service, but hard to give it heart service. Therefore, Peter exhorts his fellow shepherds to serve God’s flock:

“not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you”.

Therefore, the shepherd who has been given the privilege of pasturing God’s flock must never do it out of obligation, nor out of obsession for earthly goods, nor by being overbearing.

Finally, the shepherd of God’s flock must lead by example, not “lording it over those entrusted” to them, “but being examples to the flock”. The best way to be a leader is to be a follower of their Great Shepherd, whose provision and actions are seen in this psalm. Most pastors have pored over the pastoral epistles in order to learn how to serve as leaders of God’s flock, but how many have added psalm 23 to their study of what it means to be a shepherd of His flock?