Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I hope to put a few up in the coming days so don’t dissapear on me!
I have been reading a great book put together by a guy named Richard Foster called Devotional Classics. In it is a passage by C.S. Lewis from his book “Mere Christianity”:
“The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
There is a lot packed into this one paragraph. Lewis writes about how Christ wants all of us, not pieces, not portions. All. Christ wants everything we are/were and to replace it with Himself. Think about the implications of that. It is both terrifying and glorious in one. After hearing Justin Kendrick talk about this very point this weekend, I thought this topic appropriate. This is hard for us to grasp. The total surrender of ourselves. What does it even mean? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so please everyone that reads this is welcome to leave a comment below! What does this passage say to you? What are the scary parts, the great parts. Is it possible to even do this? Start some dialogue!
*&* – To add to this post: The comments on this post are great so I want to keep them going so I’m adding this question to the fray –
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“For every true disciple of Christ loves him above father, and mother, sister and brother, spouse and children, houses and land-yes, even above his own life. From this it follows that wherever true religion is, there is a will that moves that person to spiritual excercises. [It]….must be remembered : the exercising of the will is nothing other than the affections of the soul.
I am bold in saying this, but I believe that no one is ever changed, either by doctrine, by hearing the Word, or by the preaching and teaching of another, unless the affections are moved by these things.”
I feel that Edwards is saying something quite profound for us to recognize. What does this passage say about the change C.S. Lewis speaks of in the earlier quote. What does Edwards believe must happen in our lives as a result of real Christ-centered change? Go ahead and continue to post on this!
Blessings.
This post makes me think of the adoption we have from God. He doesn’t just take a part of us but the whole person, all of him. You are either all in or all out of the family, not just an arm, leg and 1 ear in. This concept of giving all of ourselves to God is very tough to understand but simple at the same time, and I think good for those who do not know GOD to hear. What it does is eliminate the need to play a game you cannot win at no matter how hard you try. Living a life for God means giving him just that, your whole life. You don’t have to come up with some kind of plan or way to give him some of the parts and keep others, but just in a way he does not see you. This does not mean we are going to be perfect once we do give up our life, we are still human and broken in many ways. What we will have is a life lived that is moving towards GOD and not away.
Well, after reading the first sentence automatically I thought of how much Jesus is so different from the world today because the world wants our time, money, and work. Jesus wants us a person, however in the second sentence Lewis specifies that Jesus does want our original sinful nature, he wants to kill it so that we may become a better person in him. When one kills there old self they must, completely leave that behind (easier said than done). It is important for us to realize that we cannot be on the fringe of but we must fully commit ourselves to a new life in Christ. Finally, Jesus wants us to get rid of our natural being so bad that he sacrificed himself so that we may have what Jesus has. Complete freedom from our old self….aka sin.
so thats alot of stuff……
Well after reading this it does show that God wants everything. Yes it is a scary thought, but to know that he wants to give us his will it is amazing. Its just that we can have someone love us that much to replace anything we give up. It is also we are giving up our secular life to that of a Godly standard, of love and joy. And when it does say that we must give everything it is hard and its not something that can be picked up over night, but over time God will work in us to take over every aspect of our life and let it pour into our relationships and everything else in your life.
lewis says in his quote that Christ’s “own” becomes ours? What does that say to us? (also don’t forget that we can “kill” nothing of ourselves, it is Christ and his redemption that kills our old self!
i really like this. its so, in a way, refreshing to know that God can take us all. so many people in this world today use and abuse people for things they are, have, or do. i would have to say that that is one of the most horrible things ever because when a person breaks you down into only the things they want, it really isnt you. i always tell myself that “i dont care what people think” or “i can just brush it off” when someone has used me but sooner than later, it hurts. life would be easier in the sense if everyone excepted all of you at once but in reality, thats impossible and if it were true, what would be the point. this passage has made me think alot about what God actually wants of me. i feel like i carry things that arent really me and its tough to figure out whats those are. but again, it is amazing to know that finally someone will truely take me as me, nothing else<3
justine, it is good that u see God wanting to accept you and take you in! What is awesome is that when we give outselves over to him he changes us, he eliminates the old us, the us that is overburdened by the judgements and burdens of others. The us that even in our good intentions does wrong. He instills in us… Himself! His will. His love.
its nice to know that everyone who follows god will go through struggles in life. its a great feeling to know that god will always be there for you when your not sure others will.
living for god is kind of like saying im giving him all or nothing. ive realized i cant live half my life for god and the other half for myself or others. it just doesnt work that way. i cant be one person who cares about how i look or act on the outside and then be living for god too.. he doesnt want that. he wants all of me, 24/7, for the rest of my life. the only problem i have is getting over my fears of what others think of me and just doing it because god said so. not just because my friends are doing it but because he told me to.
so pretty much i have to give up my old self and become who god wants me to be. living for him only. hard but needed..
xoxo brooke
the packet said “change must go deeper than the surface.” its so true. you can try and change on your own and “be good” a million times, but without the solid transformation that we get from God only, we’ll just fall back to where we were, or worse. “We work from the outside in; God works from the inside out.” i think we need to realize that anything we try to do on our own efforts is guaranteed to fail. but God will never deny you anything you do or ask in His name. i read this devotion and it talked about what self centeredness is- its not necessarily being conceited, its about relying on yourself rather than on God. its like saying you’re more powerful than He is. we need to completely submit to Him- He cant just be a part of your life, God needs to be your life, and we need to change for Him.
The whole concept of God wanting all of us is amazing, very sobering, and so real to everyone alive today. Christian or not God tells us that if we are going to follow him it has to be with all that we are. like Joe Pop said in the 1st comment at the top of the page; following Jesus cant be with only one arm or leg, it has to be our whole body, all that we are inside and out. most of the time many of us are not ready to do that because we feel as if we have too much baggage in our lives. And to that i just want to say God will always take us just as we are. And Over time he will tweek our lives shaping us in to what he wants us to be.
The total surrender of our lives to God (this is the scary part) in my life is sumed up in one verse. Psalm 73:25 ” Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth”… ive realized i cant live half my life for God and the other half for myself or others(Brook). when i find myself one foot in and one foot out in my faith i ask my self this question, Can I truely stand before God himself today with a clean conscience and say “Jesus, besides you, I desire nothing on earth!” (HOLYFIRE MINISTRIES).that question has changed my life without a doubt. Its scary but its that next step in our faith many of us need to take. lets all go out on a limb, lets refuse to be just another face in the crowd. Lets follow him with everything we are.
Edwards is saying that where you heart is thats where you will be. That might mean time, money, effort, sacrafice, attention whatever you have to give. It sounds like he is saying unless your spirit is transformed then your body/actions will not be. Its funny to think that some people don’t even believe that you actually have a soul/spirit, when discussing spiritual stuff thats sometimes the first point to find out where they stand on. The thing thats makes us different from all the other creatures and creations in the universe such as animal, angels, fish, rocks etc…is that we have a soul that needs saving and the whole universe seen or unseen is in a battle for that soul.
Thanks for the response Joe! So very true, without the understanding of our “soul” we have no reason to analyze our affections.