She Kneels on a Thousand Surrenders

"She Kneels on a Thousand Surrenders" 
 Luke 1:26-38 
 A Holy, Life Changing, Life Giving, Electrifying, Surrendered and Humble Conversation. 

In reading Luke one (Message Bible) and writing down phrases that stood out to me like gold, I narrowed it down to this: Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her ... 
1. You are beautiful with God's beauty. 
2. God be with you. 
3. God has a surprise for you. 
4. You will give birth to a son and call him Jesus. 
5. Your son will be the Son of God. 
6. Nothing you see is impossible with God. 

 And Mary's humble and brave response: "I am the Lord's servant; may it be to me as you have said."  What a response! 
She could have argued, bartered, asked more questions, doubted. She could have been paralyzed with fear. But instead, she chose to surrender and humbly accept what Gabriel told her. 
 She probably had a million questions running through her head as she thought about "Your son will be the Son of God.” 
But she trusted. She surrendered. 
Little did she know that, with each surrender, there would be never ending Hallelujahs! 
Her precious Son, Jesus, would be the Rescuer of the world. 
 Her Son would be perfect Love and perfect Peace. 

 I painted her kneeling in prayer, in a surrendered posture but with stars glittering around her because she was starting a very holy journey. 
The Journey to bring our Savior into the world … Our Savior, Emmanuel, God with us. 
Tricia Robinson

I ponder if the materialism and materialistic mindset of so many "Christians" breaks Gods heart? He sacrificed His only son for the salvation of the world ... and we say "THANK YOU" by being self serving, self sufficient, self absorbed, social club church go-ers who are more concerned with how we look, where we live, what we drive, perfect kids, and our next vacation or sporting event than we are growing His kingdom and abiding in His presence 24/7/365. I seriously don't think God cares about a Christmas tree or decorations, gifts, photos and greeting cards.
I looked in the mirror today and was sad and sickened by the shallowness of the face looking back at me.
People are hungry, homeless, broken and they need a Savior!
A Healer!
A Comforter!
A Redeemer!
My purpose in this life is spread His Word and bring Glory and Praise to Him. I fail miserably! My checkbook will attest to that. My selfishness will attest to it, as well.
I don't want to be accepted and like this world! This world and everything in it is temporary.
My hope is in Heaven and it is with reverence and fear, respect and awe, honor and complete surrender that I desire serve Him and walk in His unending, perfect love and grace.
My treasure is not temporary, it's eternal.
So, if I don't seem in the "holiday spirit" with all the decorations, shopping and sales and Santa stuff ... I'm not. I'm seriously over it. And I'm not even going to give that blasted Elf enough of my energy to be upset. It's all mockery in my opinion and it has nothing to do with celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Shame on me for it taking me so long to follow the convictions of my heart.

Holy Spirit, YOU are Welcome Here ...

I have wrestled mightily with the enemy in my thoughts today.
When it has been ME, I have failed miserably. When I have captured them and given them to God, the outcome has been much better! This is not a 'one time' thing for me. It is REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT ... see, sometimes, I bring sin suffering on myself when my big ole "I" gets in focus instead of having my focus where it should be - not on myself, but on God! It's a flesh battle - a mind struggle and it's spiritual warfare. If the enemy, who IS NOT omnipresent like my God, can get his minions inside my brain with fear and doubt and anxiety and depression and comparing my life to others or my worth to anything other than HIS LOVE for me .. my own sin nature will kick in and we've got us a big ole' WAR between emotions, untruths, and THE TRUTH that I KNOW!!!
Let me just give you a couple of examples:

Enemy: You are a horrible parent ... look, your child isn't 'perfect' - it's because you divorced and worked and she wasn't raised with both parents and you were never home, and and and and and... you've read Proverbs 22:6!
The Holy Spirit: That is a Proverb. A Proverb IS NOT a PROMISE! However, you did TRAIN her ... and I gave her free will. I created her and lent her to you for a time; along with everything else, she is mine.

Enemy: Your days are purposeless. You don't 'do' anything to glorify God - you sit in an office all day. You're fat. You're clothes are old and you don't look look like your 'friends' with their pretty stylish clothes and perfect houses and perfect kids. You have wrinkles. I mean, to have all the 'stuff' going on in your life, you can't be a disciple for the Lord! Who are YOU?! To be 'useful' in the kingdom of God, you have DO more!
The Holy Spirit: YOU ARE CHOSEN! YOU ARE (MY) CHILD! YOU are justified, sanctified, redeemed. YOU are an heir with an inheritance in Heaven! IN CHRIST, YOU ARE COMPLETE! Nothing can take you away from ME! IT IS YOUR HEART THAT I LOVE because I AM the LOVE IN YOUR HEART! MY WORD IS TRUTH and I DESIRED YOU AND CALL YOU BY NAME ... YOUR WORTH IS IN ME AND YOU ARE MINE!

This is my relationship with The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. It is intimate. I talk to HIM all the time .... home, work, car, shower, grocery store ... I don't go anywhere without Him! When I say "Holy Spirit, YOU are welcome here" - 'here' is everywhere and anywhere that I am, doing whatever it is that I am doing, with whomever it is that I am with! HE IS THERE! His Word promises me that HE WILL NEVER LEAVE ME and I believe it! I depend on it!

If you don't know Jesus, you may think I'm crazy and that this post is insane. That's OK, because Jesus' family thought he was crazy, too. The Word of God, His very breath breathed into it, clearly tells me that this world will think that I, too, am crazy because I follow Him and live my life according to His Word. Unless a person's heart, eyes, and ears are open to God, they will not understand. Though I try, I fail daily, but I am not utterly cast down because HE holds me in HIS righteous hands.

Ephesians clearly defines who I am in Christ. It describes in detail the armor that I need to fight the battle of spiritual warfare just like I described above! The more I stay IN HIM, the more aware I am of the enemy attacks. Make no mistake, I can't defeat the enemy on my own, but my REDEEMER and SAVIOR already has! I have a WAR ROOM where I go for strength and wisdom; guidance and understand; knowledge and rest because I am fully aware that the enemy is not resting - he is plotting, manipulating, lying, deceiving and waiting to pounce because he knows which buttons to push to get my attention!
I praise God for allowing me to love HIM and for being my ARMOR in these battles! YOU ARE HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!

The way is narrow ... Matthew 7:14

If the enemy doesn't hate you and isn't nipping at you, trying to do what it does: kill, steal, and destroy ... you may want to ask yourself "Why"? After all, that is the ultimate "end goal" for every person it can devour!
 I'm not saying it's always going to be difficult when you walk with Jesus - on the contrary because HE IS LOVE! I am saying that the enemy is crafty! He can make it easy, same as he can make it difficult!
"Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any reason to leave. The door's wide open. Till one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it's too late." God Is Not Dead quote

THE guarantee ...

" ... now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee..."
2 Corinithians 1:21-22

Break Every Chain