A few years ago I was rearranging my home office, (I had just bought a new storage unit) and so I had to move a bookshelf and as I began to take the books off the shelves, when God brought to my attention a little book....it is a really small book (easy to miss) but God had it that I would "stumble" upon this little book by Andrew Murray..(One of my favorite authors) and the book is called Absolute Surrender. This is an email I sent to a dear friend of mine and, wanted to pass it to you guys! It’s basically an excerpt of that little book and is a powerful reminder of how we need to surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, every moment of everyday!! Hope it blesses you. The book starts this way; 1 Kings 20:1-4 Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, "Thus says Ben-Hadad: 'Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.' "And the king of Israel answered and said, "My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have are yours." What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him -Absolute surrender. I want to use these words; "My lord, O King, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have, " as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely - the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow. Absolute surrender to God is the one thing And here's how the book finishes: "Let your surrender to Christ be absolute. I do not understand that word surrender fully; it gets new meanings every now and then; it enlarges immensely from time to time. But I advise you to speak it out; Absolute surrender to Thee, O Christ, is what I have chosen."  And Christ will show you what is not according to His mind, and lead you on to deeper and higher blessedness. In Conclusion let me gather up all in one sentence. Christ Jesus said: "I am the vine, ye are the branches." In other words: "I, the living One who have so completely given myself to you, am the vine. You cannot trust me too much. I am the Almighty Worker, full of divine life and power. " You are the branches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is in your heart the consciousness that you are not a strong, healthy, fruit bearing branch, not closely linked with Jesus, not living in Him as you should be - then listen to Him say: "I am the vine, I will receive ...

From time to time people ask me what I listen to, in other words what's on my ipod (a more modern way of saying “what's in your Cd player”). Lately, one of the songs that have been played more often then others is a song by Israel Houghton titled "Say So.” This caught my attention and really spoke to me with the following words: “We could show the world heaven. Show what it means to be His. To be formed in his likeness. Show them they have a purpose. To be salt and light in the world, in the world.” ** This song was obviously inspired by the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Strong words by Jesus wouldn't you say? Why such strong words? What's wrong with "unsalted" salt? What's wrong if we lose our "flavor" as Christian, isn't God going to do His work anyway, regardless of our "flavorless and unsalted life"? Surely others will pick up the slack, right? Some might say they are just going through a rough season of life or that they are just not the kind of Christian who goes out there and shares his/her faith with everybody and bothers people with the truth and reality of God. Maybe other may say they are going to be nice and being nice should win people to Jesus, no need to do or say anything…just live and let die. Or is it so? For the sake of a point, I’ll point out to you that I have met some very “nice” people in the 20+ years I have been a Christian, who actually, at first glance, appeared way nicer then some Christians I know, including myself! People who not only do not believe in Jesus and the word of God the way I do, but that are completely opposed to the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith such as the Virgin birth the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (atonement of our sins by the shed blood of Jesus), the reality of heaven and Hell, etc… Some very “nice” members of various cults (such as Mormons and Jehovah witnesses) have sat next to me on airplanes. I have spoken with some very “nice” atheists and had very civil and friendly conversations with Buddhists and Muslims. Just being nice solely for the sake of being nice does not count when it comes to being salt and light in a dull and dark world. We do it with purpose and that purpose being that it brings glory and honor to the name of our God. So again, the question is asked: What's wrong if we lose our "flavor" as Christians? Well, let me answer that question by asking you another question: What would happen to the salt in your food pantry (or any of the other spices) that had lost their flavor? You would toss them out in the trash can and would go buy the fresh, flavorful salt so t...

  Reach You Where You Are      I wrote this song just days after the Virginia tech. Tragedy. Like all of us, I was so shocked and sadden by yet another school shooting which would take the life of so many in such a random and senseless act of violence.  My heart went out to the family and friends of the loved ones lost in the tragedy and I only wish I could have reached some of the people grieving and given them hope.  My intention was to write this song, put it on a CD, and fly to Virginia Tech to give the song away to as many as possible, in an attempt to bring some comfort and peace to the mourners. I never made it out there but, the song was written and eventually recorded and I still believe that it will reach the ones it was intended for in the first place and that it will, in addition to that,  reach those going through their own personal trials and tragedies. Help Me Stand   Alexander Hamilton said: “Those Who Stand For Nothing, Fall For Anything". So true and especially when it comes to our Christian walk. The cool thing about standing as believers is that we don’t stand for “something” but for “someone” and that someone is God Himself. We can’t pride ourselves in the fact that we stand up for God because truly He is the one who allows us to stand for Him. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” You see, we are all prone to fall and left to ourselves, it is only a matter of time before we do fall. We desperately need God’s help. The longer we walk with Jesus, the easier it is to see that we cannot stand on our own. The song “Help me stand” is a plea for God to help me stand in a world where everyone seems to fall. For those who desire to stand, here are a couple of really good verses:   Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”. Rom. 14:4 “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand”.