Submit? Me?

Someone very dear to me recently told me that she believed that I needed a spirit of submission. She also went on to say that she too needed to have the same such spirit in her own life. I find that advice and direction are much more meaningful if the one giving the advice or direction confesses to needing the same thing. So I thought about it…

Wait! What?

Submission? What or who do I need to submit to? I’m a guy. Aren’t I supposed to be able to do everything that I need for myself? And I certainly do not need to hand over the reigns of my life to anyone else. Or do I?

My handy-dandy Google dictionary defines submission as “the action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.” I suppose that sounds about right. Then below that they used the word in a sentence.

The sentence said, “The were forced into submission.”

Whoa!

How is it that I need to be forced to submit to anyone or anything? This doesn’t sound good. This can’t be what she meant can it?

Well, I took a few minutes and started to look up some of what the Bible says about submission. I figured that I could probably get pretty close to what she meant by going there. There were two passages (of more than 50) that really seemed to speak out to me about what the benefits of having a spirit of submission may be.

The first one is in the book of Job. In chapter 22 it says;
 21
“Submit to God and be at peace with him;
    in this way prosperity will come to you.
22
Accept instruction from his mouth
    and lay up his words in your heart.
23
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:
    If you remove wickedness far from your tent
24
and assign your nuggets to the dust,
    your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
25
then the Almighty will be your gold,
    the choicest silver for you.
26
Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
    and will lift up your face to God.
27
You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will fulfill your vows.
28
What you decide on will be done,
    and light will shine on your ways.
29
When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’
    then he will save the downcast.
30
He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” (Job 22:21-30)

Now, that makes sense to me. If I submit to God, and do what He says as well as be a believer, He will hear my prayers and if I am at peace with Him prosperity will come to me. This says to me that God takes care of those who have surrendered to Him.

Who wouldn’t want to be taken care of by the Creator of the universe?

It also says that God can handle it, no matter what “it” is. It doesn’t say anything about being forced to do it or being beaten into submission. I guess to gain the blessings, we are to submit to God but it would be our decision we wouldn’t be conscripted. However, according to this passage we’d be crazy not to.

So after reading that, I can see her point. Maybe I do need that. But I wanted to see if there was another verse that might shed some light on what my friend was suggesting.

In the book of James I think I found what I was looking for. In chapter four James talks about how if we are friends with the world then we are at odds with God. That makes complete sense to me so I kept reading. Later in the chapter James writes, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

So submission is looking pretty good right about now. I guess it is very similar to the way we as parents require our children to submit to us. It is so that we can take care of them, help them to prosper and keep them from harm.

Like being beaten or forced to do something against our will. It is about realizing that we are the children of an infinite God who wishes to bless us in many ways if we come close to Him. As a matter of fact the beginning of the very next verse says just that. It says, “Come near to God and He will come near to you.” (James 4:8a)

So I guess what my friend was saying was not that I should have to be forced into submitting to a demanding tyrant of a God, but rather that by submitting as a child would to a loving parent I will find that things in my life will be much, much better.

Okay, I’m in.

It's not about me

Have you ever felt like God is asking too much of you? Boy, I sure have. I have thought things like “God you just don’t understand my life!” or “Sure, that’s easy for You to say because You’re God!” When I look back at those things they are more than just a little silly. They are ridiculous!

I can get all bent out of shape when I feel like I don’t get the respect or attention that I am due. And when that happens I start moving away from God. I start to focus on me before anyone or anything else. I can be a real selfish jerk!

Recently I was feeling this way about being asked to do something. It was stupid. I got upset because of the way that I was asked and the timing of it. I didn’t have anything else to do and had no reason to be upset, but there I was, fuming.

So I figured, someone else must have felt this way too at some point. So I reached out to a friend of mine. I asked her. I said “Have you ever felt taken for granted like I do?”

She said, “I have been in that position before, and I had to examine my heart, motive....whether it was God's will for me to be where I was, and if it's God's will, then I have found He always makes a way for your gift if you are faithful. It's not man, but God who gives us our talents and ministries. We are accountable for doing our part. If we do what we are supposed to, then, if someone is taking advantage, it's between then and God.”

I had never thought of it that way.

So I started to think that maybe the gifts that I have been given aren’t actually mine to dole out anyway.

Hmmmmmm.
She went on to say, “If you are where God wants you to be, then we have to trust He will make a way. If it is man that is preventing you then he'll have to answer for his actions. Either way I have always found that as long as I am where He tells me to be, He makes room...in His timing... He takes care of us as long as we are faithful.  The steps of a righteous man are ordered by God, as long as we are in accordance with His will and His work, He will move to make room for you and His work in and through you. And we have to trust that God put us where we are for a reason, maybe it's not the season...again, it depends on the situation. ...I will be praying for you.”

This girl really hit home with me! She was telling me exactly what I needed to hear and understand.

It wasn’t about me! And she did it in love! Wow!

Paul writes to the church in Philippi that “Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.” (Phil 2:3-4). I am not sure I can count the number of times when I put my wants and desires ahead of others. It is something I have to UN-learn almost daily!

And of course the most unselfish example for those of us who identify as Christian is Jesus Himself. As Paul continues he writes, “You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself,
by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:5-8).

Now there’s something that I find humbling. I am having a hard time putting others, like me, ahead of my wants and desires while Jesus who IS God put those who are much less than Himself in a position to be served by Him!

Just have a look at Matthew chapter 20.

 “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:27-28) That’s Jesus telling it like it is.

Okay, so I now have absolutely NO ground to stand on for my whiney complaining. And to top it all off, when I completed the task at hand, I was greatly praised by those who I had believed were taking me for granted.

Yes folks, another lesson learned. My gifts were given to me to be shared and to bring glory to His name.

It’s not about me.

Easter hits a homerun!

When I was a kid Easter meant chocolate bunnies, those absolutely terrible little marshmallow creatures called “Peeps”, a brightly colored basket with plastic grass and new starched shirts and pants that were only suitable for wearing to church. I was always hopeful that there would be a toy or two in the basket and usually there was a little something, but all in all it wasn’t my favorite holiday.

What did I know? Not much.

Easter means a lot more to me these days. Mostly it is because I have decided that I will be following Jesus from here on out. Oh sure, I still struggle with sin, but I know who I can take it to, and ask for help, Jesus.

That’s a game-changer for sure.

I am by no means an expert on Holy Week, Jesus, or even the resurrection, but I can tell you why I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so important. Hopefully it will make sense to you.

Very simply, Jesus did what He said He would do. He said that He would be persecuted and killed before being raised from the dead on the third day. Then He actually did it. I have to say that right there is enough for me to follow the guy.

In the Gospel of Matthew we read, “Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive.” (Matt. 16:21 Msg.). So there it was, Jesus put it out there. He tells us, “here is what I am going to do.” And He also explained that it was “necessary”.

Why was it necessary? Because He already knew about you and me. He knew that we would be born into sin and that we wouldn’t make it into heaven without Him. He even already knew about each of the sins that we would be guilty of. It is why it was necessary for Jesus to do the only thing that would cleanse us of those sins.

I have to say that I really do identify with that little piece of “bumpersticker theology” that says “It was not the nails that kept Jesus on the cross, it was His love for you.” Because looking back on it from 2,000 years down the road, we can clearly see that as the incarnation of God, Jesus could have gotten off of that cross easier that you or I can step off our front porch. But it was His love for us that made all of the difference. It had to be done.

It makes a difference because it has provided us with hope. What do you mean? you might ask. Well I think that the apostle Paul explains it pretty well in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

He says, “If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.” (1 Cor. 15:16-20 Msg.)

Wow! So let’s get this right then. Since Jesus was raised from the dead, then as His followers, (which is the same as being family), we will also be raised from the dead when He returns? Yep! Woo hoo! I am SO in!

But wait a minute! How do we know that Jesus really was raised from the dead? I mean when I was a kid it all seemed like some sort of fairy tale.

Well, Paul points out that the resurrection of Jesus was not secret. Jesus didn’t hide or try to avoid being seen. It is a historical recorded fact that Jesus did what He said he would. Paul says, “The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me.” (1 Cor. 15:3-8 Msg.)

That sure sounds like a first hand account to me. So if Jesus stepped up the plate, pointed His divine bat at the center field wall and then proceeded to knock it out of the park, who am I to do anything but to stand in awe of the One who has saved me, my Messiah, the eternal clean-up hitter.

The game completely hinges upon Jesus delivering on His promise. And He did. He beat death and He beat it for each of us. Why you wouldn’t want to be on the winning team is beyond me.

Quit that other team! Jesus wants you suiting up for Him!

Happy Easter!