SURRENDING TO GOD
When we surrender to God, we are are saying that what we "own" actually belongs to Him. By surrendering to God, we are saying, "He is in control of our every move."
We can not do it on our own.
Romans 8:7-8 "For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law; indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Every Christian faces two very deadly enemies each and every day. The first enemy is our carnal nature and the second enemy is the devil. Every day our carnal nature is a self resurrecting monster which begs for attention. And the devil knows this. Our carnal nature demands to be first and the devil preys on this. And this happens each and every day of our lives. That is why Paul said he had to put his carnal nature to death every single day.1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die every day." We can only do this by surrending to Christ.
1 John 1:5. "God is light, and there is no darkness at all when in union with him."
Psalms 85:13 "Righteousness will go before the Lord, and he will make a path for my steps."
I surrender all
Spurgeon, "Weak Hands and Feeble Knees"
Bring all you have and give it
entirely unto God, and say,
"There, Lord, I surrender all to you;
do with me as you will;
take away from me what you will;
give me what you please;
or withhold what you choose.
I leave all in your hand;
I can trust you entirely;
I know you will make no mistake;
I know you will not treat me harshly;
I leave all to you;
without word, or thought, or wish,
I surrender all."
Christians who love and obey the Lord will be led to the joyous certainty that, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
For those that fully surrender, verses like Psalms 143:10 become very important. "Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God.
Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:13 "For I, the Lord your God, am grasping your right hand. I am the one saying to you, Do not be afraid for I myself will help you."
Andrew Murray quoted in his book "Absolute Surrender" ...separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God... given up... by divine grace... acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before Him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh "there dwelleth no good thing," and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying...Isn't that the truth..
John 5:30,states, "I can do nothing on my own".
Romans 6:13 Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes
;...humble ourselves. ...There is deliverance. ...death was the path to glory for Christ... --death to self, and fellowship with Christ
Cristina
posted by Baptist Girl at 4:49 AM
13 Comments:
Excellent!
Convicting!
Instructional!
Correctional!
Thanks, Cristina
July 17, 2007 6:49 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis
July 17, 2007 9:48 AM
Mark,
From your wikipedia reference:
"St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, "The Son of God became man, that we might become God." "
Could this be in some way what Matthew meant in his comments to an earlier post?
July 17, 2007 10:25 AM
Here's the continuation of that thought on wikipedia, which explains it more fully:
"His statement is an apt description of the concept. What would otherwise seem absurd, that fallen, sinful man may become holy as God is holy, has been made possible through Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. Naturally, the crucial Christian assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the meaning of theosis - it is not possible for any created being to become, ontologically, God, or even part of God (the henosis of Greek Neoplatonic philosophy)."
July 17, 2007 10:25 AM
Cristina,
It's a much needed reminder - throughout our lives - to surrender all to God.
I'm grateful that you posted this here. We need to surrender and submit ALL. Dying to self is hard, but necessary.
July 17, 2007 10:26 AM
Cristina,
Please keep us posted regarding your father.
Praying for you both (and your mom too) this day...
July 17, 2007 10:27 AM
"Could this be in some way what Matthew meant in his comments to an earlier post?"
I'll waite for him to come back and tell us. As i see the Wikipedia article I am wondering how Matthew can see that FGT is compatable with Theosis, since therein is mention of useless faith.
July 17, 2007 11:07 AM
Susan and Mark,
Matthew has already answered that here the other day. I asked him. Let me see if I can find it. Here we go:
******************************
Gojira said...
"submerging our humanity into His divine energy. And the glorious future for us is to share in Christ's sovereign rule over the universe as celestial beings.
We are created in Christ to be a new kind of divinized humanity."
Matthew has done gone Eastern Orthodox on us. Are you a god yet Matthew? "The Son of God became man, that we might become God." Essense and energy. Mark pegged it right -- Star Trek. Matthew would you please explain to me just how you intend to give Theosis a Free Grace flavor? Watchman Nee did it, and it was interesting to see how he did it. It would be extremely interesting to see how you can do it to a Free Grace beat.
July 13, 2007 3:35 PM
Gojira said...
Correction: Watchman Nee did it. Should be: Watchman Nee did it with his very unique theology.
There, that's better.
July 13, 2007 3:37 PM
Dyspraxic Fundamentalist said...
Doug, you are theologically literate.
Yes, I am advocating a similar docterine to theosis.
I am afraid I have never read anything by Watchman Nee, so I cannot say how close he is to me. I expect there are a lot of similarities.
The Eastern Orthodox tend not to talk so much about men becoming gods; they tend rather to speak of man becoming God, or more accurately one with God.
Teh key problem with the Eastern Orthodox view of theosis is in seeing deification as a process in which man must work.
I rather see theosis as being acheived at regeneration, whereby we posess a new divinezed nature and participate in the life of God.
However, we do not fully experience this position without mortifying the flesh and appropriating by faith our heavenly sanctification.
The ultimate realisation of the Christian's theosis is in His inheritance of the kingdom of God eschatologically where shecomes to exercise sovereignty over creation on the throne of Christ (Rev 3:21).
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
July 13, 2007 5:50 PM
Gojira said...
Matthew,
"Doug, you are theologically literate."
I try to hide it.
Thank you for a very interesting post, Matthew.
July 13, 2007 6:31 PM
*********************************
Personally, I disagree with Theosis. I haven't seen where, or how, it can be distanced from monophysitism. You can have fun with Theosis, though, if the person you are messing with is Roman Catholic. I explain how here:
http://gojiras-stomping-ground.blogspot.com/2007/06/having-fun-with-mary-in-catholic.html
Quick note, I completely missed the Catholic reply! Hmmm...hafta start a new thread.
Anyway, theosis is a monophysite type doctrine, especially in regards to Eastern Orthodox and Oreintal Orthodox (like the Coptic Church.)
July 17, 2007 5:08 PM
Hello all,
Thank you for your prayers. My dad is still holding his own.He has woken up each morning with pains in his chest and the nurses give him morphin.Thankfully they are keeping him in the hospital. (the health system here in Canada like to rush them and rush them out.) I really apreciate your prayers.
Cristina
July 18, 2007 5:48 AM
Doug,
Yer gonna have to dumb it down a shade for me. Take it to the Larry Cucumber level. In other words, yes or no.
Did that all mean that Matthew says men will become God?
(I don't understand theosis or monophysitism - they sound like soemthing going on with the caterpillar cocooned in a mayonnaise jar on our windowsill.)
July 18, 2007 9:31 AM
I shall have to post my thoughts on on this soon. ;-)
July 18, 2007 3:09 PM
Hi Susan,
" In other words, yes or no.
Did that all mean that Matthew says men will become God?"
I wish it could be a yes or a no, but theosis isn't that simple. The classic doctrine as held by the Eastern Orthodox has to do with essense and energies. You do not become God in His essense, but you do become a god in and through His energies. You would not be united to His nature through the very essense of God, but through the expressive energies that manifest, or make known His nature. For example, "bright" is an energy that manifests "light" but is not light in it's essense. Theosis is built off of neo-Platonic thought, if I am not mistaken. Salvation is the becoming of a divine being, but not ***THE*** divine being. What they wind up doing is creating a confusion between the Creator/creature distinction. They also make a false dichotomy between God and His attributes. That is, you would have God, and then His attributes, although to them, His attributes would be uncreated energies through which God in His essense function.
"(I don't understand theosis or monophysitism - they sound like soemthing going on with the caterpillar cocooned in a mayonnaise jar on our windowsill.)"
Yeppers!!!!!!!! That's about the size of it. I'll have to explain the connection to monophysitism a little latter. For now though, broken down and shook out, and to use the example of Christ -- monophysitism would basically mean that Christ was nothing more than a divine being in a dressed up in a human suite. What was truly human of Him would have been divinized. Catholics past the 5th (?) century have been guilty of this. They have to be, else transubstaniation would not work.
July 18, 2007 4:44 PM
Oh, Susan, one more thing, today's modern liberals, especially those from high church Angelicalism (or better, Anglo-Catholics) love them some Theosis to death, as it is related to, and is the direct result of, Recapitulation, which was put on the map by Ireneaus. Except for a few things that are of high importance, I personally do not put much stock in the post Apostolic church. Everything began to be wed to pagan philosophy, and they actually became the very thing they faught against. When I say "church" with the little "c" I am talking about the visible church, which is made up of both believers and unbelievers.
July 18, 2007 4:55 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home