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Enjoy the Surrender Part Two

March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 krisshetter

A continued look at Ecclesiastes Two

My pastor recently asked us if we are committing our lives to God or surrendering them. What’s the difference you might ask? “Committing” implies a bargain or an agreement from which we could divorce ourselves. Whereas, “surrender,” waving the white flag, admits we can’t do this thing called “life” on our own anymore. Our resources are depleted. We come in rags, desperate for a Savior. We succumb to the truth we can’t heal ourselves. Heck we can’t even keep from sinning each and every day.

So, we find our bodies fully prostrate to Jesus. Our Lord and King who provides us with the salve for our wounds. He gives us white, clean robes. He holds us up steady and strong in front of God. And God, in turn, showers us with love and blessings and meaning for all eternity.

Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose… only (upon) the Beloved who will never pass away.”
C.S. Lewis

If we think we can heal our pain and suffering with a better job, spouse or car, a bigger bank account, or even seeing those that hurt us suffer the loss of all those things we fool ourselves. Because here’s the thing. God is also the source of our ability to enjoy all the things we have. Yes, as Solomon discovered, the LORD is the source for even enjoyment. We can try to muster up happiness in our circumstance but without God it’s a wooden stage prop. Look truthfully at the rich celebrities you see on tv, the news or social media. They put off an air of glamour and grandeur and happiness. Then you read of yet another acrimonious divorce, another entry into drug, alcohol or sex rehab. Or even angry rants about how the “little people” just won’t do what they tell them to do. A writer in The Wall Street Journal called money, “an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven, and as a universal provider of everything except happiness.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

The LORD Adonai wants your complete and total surrender. Not a contractual agreement. He wants to strip you bare and give you all that you really need. He is the creator of the source. And He will send you the need – whether through yearning or trials.

As for my friend, who knows what God has next in store for her. She may or may not become a regular Sunday School teacher because that wasn’t the whole point. He wanted to heal her through her willing obedience. Imitating Jesus, allowing Him to set our direction, opens the world of possibilities. It may be passing along the Word to 10 little children or He could give her even more responsibility now that she has taken her obedient steps. The unknown path in the hands of God is more rewarding than any palace or banquet or man-made delight.

It’s time to enjoy the surrender. To wave the white flag. To enjoy the righteousness that God wants to bestow upon you.

It’s not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. “
Charles Spurgeon

Enjoying The Surrender

March 11, 2024April 7, 2024 krisshetter

Part One of our look at Ecclesiastes Two

A friend of mine recently surrendered a bitter, past hurt over to the Lord. She started with obedience, albeit reluctantly she admits. The pain caused by her last church has been difficult to overcome. She told me she’s been praying one of the best prayers you could ever pray: “Help me imitate Jesus.” As part of a study about revival we’ve been doing she’s also spent a lot more time just listening for God’s Word. Not asking, pleading, telling, or even praising. Just listening. And He has spoken.

You see my friend used to love teaching children the Word of God. At her old church she was deeply involved in children’s ministry. After a tumultuous pastor change and the subsequent wrangling for top dog positions within the church, a few staff members were laid off without warning. She was one of them. She had given her whole heart over to the ministry and felt betrayed. It caused her to pronounce she would never work in children’s ministry again, ever.

And then in January we opened Pastor Robby Gallaty’s study on revival titled, Revive Us. He encouraged us to spend time with God starting with just five minutes of quiet time. We soon worked our way up to 15, then 20 and finally 30 minutes. Over the course of the next two months, we shared what God showed us. A word here and there, a vision of being loved, a message of strength, a picture of His majesty.

For my friend? After praying yet again on how to imitate Jesus, she found herself in her quiet time with a vision of a beach scene. A man teaching little children at the edge of the sea. Love abounded from child to teacher and teacher to child. The teacher turned and looked at her and smiled. It was Jesus. She was overcome with tears; real tears streaming down her face in realization that to imitate Jesus would be to do the one thing she had refused. To do the one thing she knew God had gifted her. To teach the children.

So, although she had obeyed the week prior and told her new church she would dip a toe in to Sunday school the next week by “observing” she said it with trepidation. That vision, given to her the day before she was to serve, filled her with love and joy. When she walked into the children’s ministry department the administrator was so happy to see her – they were short leaders in Kindergarten. “Would she take on the class?” she was asked. Without any hesitation my friend agreed. You should have heard the joy in her voice when she told us how she was immediately loved by the children, how she danced and sang, how she was filled with the Holy Spirit. How she was healed!

"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. " Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

Juxtapose my friend’s experience at Sunday School with King Solomon in chapter 2. The richest man in the world at the time. He had everything at his fingertips. He built palace after palace. He made large parks and orchards. He had plenty of female slaves to do his every (and I mean every) bidding. He had singers, dancers, gold, silver, food, drink – all the delights of a man’s heart (Ecc 2:8). And he was miserable. He was seeking meaning and purpose. He tried buying it and building it and owning it.

The abundant life is to be found in “treasuring up for God” rather than for self.”
Kenneth Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes

What did my friend have? A humble servant heart, slightly broken and needing mending. She didn’t seek to enrich her life. She asked to serve the One True God, Jesus Christ. So, He gave her 10 little, beautiful faces that Sunday. Little children who were eager to be her new friend and to mend her heart.

I read once that we should look at ourselves as channels not reservoirs of joy. Meaning we don’t store up all the blessing for ourselves but rather send them on to others. Pastor Gallaty reminded us of this truth. Through intercessory prayer and acts of service we become those channels.

If revival coming to your family or community depended on your prayers, would it come?”
Pastor Robby Gallaty

When our prayer life and subsequent actions serve only to enrich ourselves, we find our situation mirroring Solomon’s. Striving and chasing wealth, status, knowledge and even wisdom – with God as a supplemental figure or not thought of at all, really. When our seeking pleasure or even “peace” is above all else we miss the beautiful work of God He wants to do in our life.

"A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. " Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

My pastor recently asked us if we are committing our lives to God or surrendering them. What’s the difference you might ask? I’m glad you asked! Join me for my next post Enjoying the Surrender Part Two! Click here.

Bible, bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, christian parenting, Christian women, Faith, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, proverbs, religion, Transformation Prayer, Uncategorized, wisdom

A Responsible Servant

January 6, 2023January 1, 2023 krisshetter

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8

Jack Hyles started preaching at several small Texas churches after he graduated from college in the early 50s. Many of those congregations were small, under 100 members. During his time at Miller Road Baptist Church that congregation grew from 44 to 4,000 members. He eventually moved to Indiana where he took over shepherding the First Baptist Church of Hammond. Membership grew from about 700 to over 20,000. Along the way Hyles saw the need for better Sunday school programs and eventually, through his innovative Sunday bus program, grew a small Sunday program to one recognized as one of the largest Sunday school programs in America, if not the world.

“A person who will not take care of the little things will not take care of the big things, for big things are but an accumulation of little things,” he once said. You see, Mr. Hyles took Proverbs 6:6-8 to heart. He was responsible, a good steward, of the gifts God imparted him. He didn’t need an overseer in the church or a show of hands or even a committee to see how to build God’s kingdom here on earth. He just did it.

I’ve spent many years volunteering in churches and sitting on committees. It seems an unfortunate fact that many feel they need a blessing by their church to start a ministry. You not only won’t find that in the Bible but you will find an urging to individually take responsibility for the treasure and talent you have been given.

The ant is part of a collective, yes. But an ant also knows what its role is within the community. To build, protect, and sustain. It doesn’t go to any one ant to get its marching orders. It doesn’t sit around fretting about its greater purpose before acting. It doesn’t fill out an interest survey to find out its “best suited place.” No, it just gets working.

Friend, we all have been tasked with working for God’s church. To build it, to protect it and to sustain it. Don’t wait for the perfect time or opportunity. He asks us to take care of the little things first. You may find in washing a few dishes or folding programs that God has placed you right where you need to be.

Father God, use me as you see fit. No matter where I am placed, I will work for your Kingdom. Help me to be a good steward of your gifts imparted to me. Amen