This is the introduction and index to a free eBook concept I'm trying out on this blog. As time passes, I will add surrender-themed chapters down below that can be clicked and read independently. My youngest brother did the artwork, it is very good, isn't it?
Your author has not yet fully surrendered. I am on this journey with you. I grew up in a culture of will. I willed myself to do the right things for God. I want to thank my parents for the example of surrender to God they laid before me. I want to thank my wife for being ever-present support, a safe place to bounce ideas, a listening ear, my best friend, and my love.
So, why write about surrender? It’s an overarching theme in the scriptures when a Bible character who we look up to finds himself or herself at a crossroads, they chose to surrender. This includes repentance, for repentance is a form of surrender. It is to give up our way and turn back, to God's way. Think of Abraham, going up the mountain, with his only son, who he loved so much, and he laid his Isaac down before the Lord. Think of Esther, who when her people were faced with a crisis, of death itself, laid her life down before the Lord. There are so many more examples, in the Bible, and in times since then, and even today of people who came to these crossroads and made their choice. Then some chose not to surrender or repent. Think of Pharaoh, faced with many plagues, plagues that decimated the economy of Egypt, killed their sons, and shook their faith in their gods, he chose to keep doing it his way, and at the bottom of the red sea, he found himself, quite dead, and finally defeated. Think of Jezebel, a conniving and cunning woman, who plotted the death of a farmer, and attempted to assassinate the Lord’s prophet. She went her way, and finally, found herself thrown off the wall to the dogs, and finally defeated.
In this book, an important component of surrender is repentance as defined in the New Testament. For, when I study the Greek words originally used in the New Testament, repentance means, to change direction. When in the context of sin, the type of surrender needed is always repentance. A turn from sin, and a giving of one’s self to the Lord. This is surrender. Not all surrender involves repenting though. There may be a good thing, a true and beautiful and wonderful thing, that the Lord would ask you to fully surrender to him. Think back to Abraham, Isaac was not a sin, but he was to be surrendered. The creation of Ishmael was a sin, to be repented of. So, Abraham would have surrendered that ability to “make God’s will happen” by his own strength when he repented of the sin in trying to do it. The word surrender does not appear in the King James New Testament, however, it is a word that is used in our English, so I will talk about surrender, and yet, in scripture, the expression that applies is, “submit yourself.” This means to subordinate, to obey, and to be subject to. This is the definition I am thinking of when I speak of surrender.
There are many times in life, when you will find yourself at a crossroads, to your right, you can surrender the thing to the Lord, and the outcome then lies in His hands. Or you can keep the thing and turn left, and the outcome will be the consequences of your actions while you keep that thing. This book is to be an encouragement, to turn right as a culture in life, whenever and wherever, your crossroads may appear, turn right, again, again, and again. God bless.
My virtual "editor" tells me what you read above comes across as sad and nervous. Hm. I hope not. I love God's Kingdom, so, in this whole theme of surrender, let's look at God's Kingdom. We are merely giving up things of this world and ways about us in exchange for deeper loyalty to God's Kingdom as a lifestyle both in our loyalties and in the ways we are. We are looking for that kind of full allegiance to God's Kingdom, where we are happy to physically die if that's what it calls for. Each of the links below will take you to a blog post that is designed to do 2 things. 1. To stand on its own is a digestible blog post with no context needed, and 2. To flow with the blog post before it and after it. Hopefully, they do. So, feel free to treat this post as a landing pad. It is pinned to the top right corner of this blog. Click on the links below as you wish, if you click on them in the order listed, they will hopefully flow together.
Trading "Smarts" for Righteousness
Surrendering Rightness for Righteousness
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