Shared Thoughts

 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.… John 17:16-18

Chris Tiegreen is a writer whose thoughts and insights have blessed me richly through the recent years. My prayer journal is filled with them. Today, I want to share three that speak to me with particular effect.

The first is, "Those who abandon themselves to God will find themselves completely embraced by Him." Can we stop and begin to take in something of what that means? Can we begin to realize what it means to live in His embrace? The thought of abandoning ourselves to an invisible God is terrifying to our flesh. We are stepping out onto "ground" that we can only believe is there. We are going into an unknown that He has not promised to tell us about in any detail, or even give indication of where it will lead us. He simply asks that we throw ourselves upon Him and believe that His promise to provide, protect, go with us, and keep us is true. We cannot do this in steps. We must fully abandon all of ourselves to all of Him, and then by His grace and our faith, empowered by His grace, trust that He will get us to the place He has purposed for us to be. The result is that we live in His embrace, and we experience His peace, joy, strength, and hope that is received in that embrace. He cannot fully do this without our abandonment to Him. We will always be trying to hold onto something or someone else, and we'll never know the deep security of a life lived out in the embrace of our God.

Tiegreen's second statement is, "His Lordship will always lead us in humble, cross-centered ways." Now this flies in the face of the common belief that "He has a wonderful plan for our lives" He does, but our definition differs greatly from His. Ours leads to an increasingly better situation and always increasing well-being (read comfort and prosperity) for us and for those we love. We often have greatness in mind; ours. He has His glory in mind, and His glory will always lead to the steady decrease of "us" and the ever-growing increase of Christ's life in us. We believe He will lead us into personal renown. He leads us into places where His name is magnified, and ours either unnoticed, or forgotten. He calls us into a life of true servanthood, the washing of feet. The only way we can live such a life is by way of the cross, where our lust for self exaltation is crucified, and we live for Him, and Him alone. We seek His glory, not our own.

The last statement is, "Whatever was broken in the fall can be healed at the cross." Let me say that I, along with a multitude of others, can testify to the truth of this. I came to Him broken and He healed me. I was further broken in the steps of my journey, and every time those steps led me to the cross, and at the cross, I found His healing and wholeness. I have found that life in Him, as one person said, is a journey of being "broken and re-broken, surrendered and re-surrendered." And it all happens at the cross. Everything was broken in the human race with the sin of Adam and Eve. At the cross of Christ, all that was broken is made whole for those who come to that cross and give themselves to Him there.

Abandonment. Surrender. Brokenness. This is the call of Christ to each of us. In the call there is no room for our glory, but unending room for His glory. In the call is life over death, light over darkness, wholeness over brokenness, and abundance over emptiness. Are these things ideals to us, or realities? Which are they to you?

Blessings,

Pastor O