September 2017

Jottings...

I am a sucker for clever phrases. One I hear a lot in Christian circles is: “Jesus is not Lord at all if He is not Lord of all.” In some ways it is a bit simplistic but in other ways it catches a core theological concept. Jesus is not just our Savior so our sins can be forgiven and we can go to heaven but as the Son of God He wants to guide us in the use of our time, money, and possessions and He expects us to be fully surrendered to Him in our thoughts and actions as well.

Some related theological concepts that relate to full surrender (or not!) are sanctification and idolatry. Idolatry is not just worshiping a false God or other God but placing anything above God in our values. It is the nature of sin and of human nature to struggle to surrender what means most to us. We may think if we do that we won’t like the place God leads us to regarding what we keep for ourselves. Or maybe we surrendered ourselves to God but have slowly taken back control of certain areas of our lives.

As I write this article I am also working on the sermon for August 27 and the text is Romans 12: 1-8. In Romans 12:1 Paul challenges us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice but the problem with a living sacrifice versus a slaughtered sacrifice is that the living sacrifice can crawl off the altar! Charlotte Elliott, the hymn writer who wrote “Just as I Am” also wrote a hymn called “Thy Will be Done.” One verse in that hymn captures this concept of full surrender well: “If Thou shouldst call me to resign, what most I prize, it ne’er was mine. I only yield Thee what was Thine. Thy Will be done.” That is both a very mature and a very biblical way of looking at our life with God.

We are starting a sermon series in September called “JesusEverything” that will explore what areas we find a challenge to place God in charge. It is not intended to be a series to beat folks over the head and lay on a sense of guilt. Rather it is a springboard into fully knowing, appreciating and living out what it means when we say: “Jesus is Lord.” After all, Jesus is not Lord at all if He is not Lord of all!

- Pastor Brian