Surrender

The other day, talk on the twitter stream was "What does "surrender" mean to you?"
As a Christian, surrender, has a different meaning than it would for a non believer or at least a different context.
Most of what I read on the stream was, Defeat, Giving up, letting go..etc and the like. What struck me was that these definitions are all true, but as a Follower of Christ it means so much more.

When you surrender you are Defeated ( you can no longer resist)

When you Surrender you are Giving up (you are giving up what you can no longer handle)

When you Surrender you are letting go (you are letting go of what you want and letting the victor Have it).

True enough.. then I got to thinking.. to put this in perspective for a Christian When we surrender to God.. we are letting him have control of our lives we are no longer going after the things we want.. for now what we want is to be more like Him.. we seek him to know him.

We surrendered , He takes us... When an Army or Government accepts the surrender of a foe..what happens? well in the case of say North vs South(US Civil War). The north came in and rebuilt the south.. After Japan Surrendered to the U.S.A. The US came in and rebuilt the infrastrucure of Japan and Protected them with Their Army...And then it Hit me...

When we surrender to God our lives.. He ( the Victor) comes in and rebuilds (Restores) our lives.
He also Protects us We fought against him, we surrendered to him our problems, our fraility, our insecurity, He came in and gave us RESTORATION..

How Beautiful is that?

Zealots and Religious Nut Jobs

I dont know if you pay attention to the news or not but have you seen the story about the Preacher in Tempe Az that is Praying that Barack Obama die from a brain tumor?
http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/tempe_pastor_reiterates_wish_for_president_obama_s/

I was like "WOW" I could'nt believe what I was hearing. To be honest when you hear something like this you ask yourself "No wonder the secular world looks at Christians as weirdo whacko nut jobs?" Recently I was in Memphis TN. I was just driving around looking for a bank when i saw this huge Church that took up most of the city block.. and standing on the corner was a huge Statue of Liberty holding, not a torch, but a big Cross.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html

Now some of you are probably standing applauding this, but I was alittle embarassed by it. Again somebody who isnt a Christian would look at this and shake their heads.
all I am saying is that we always say we are under attack but dont you think that maybe just maybe we bring it upon ourselves?.. Im not saying do nothing, just keep your hands in your lap.. but C'mon.. is this the message of Love we want to project. Is this the message we want to send to the outside world? Come be a follower of Jesus and you took can be a weirdo..
NO way ... I like Christine Caine's veiw on this..BE THE CHURCH. we dont have to be over the top. We just have to be Christians not the sterotype of religious nut jobs, which is the catagory I place these two into..

Death and Divorce

My Grandfather died Monday night. You can send your condolences if you want but save them. Save them because while he was my grandfather I never knew him, thanks to divorce. I dont have any "moments " to remember because I never met him..ever. Quite frankly, i didnt even know he existed until 1997.

I am the product of a divorced family. My Mom? A product of a divorced family. My Dad? A product of a divorced family. I have no real memories of ever living with my own father,and to be honest I dont even have a "father/son" relationship with my dad. Rarely even talk to him on the phone. I know your sitting there saying "oh thats so sad". Please dont be. I think it helped me to be a better father to my own children and a better husband to my wife. I knew that it sucked to not be around my Dad and I had a great Step-Dad, but I didnt want that for my kids. I always felt abandoned by my father who had gotten remarried and had a couple kids. My Dad was a non-participant in my life. He was military so, as an adult, I understand.... kinda. But like I said before, I didnt want that for my kids.

I have 3 Sons and 1 Daughter and I cannot be in the same room with them and not touch them in some way. (Hand on the shoulder, arm around the neck etc.) The lack of a father figure for me has placed a burning in my heart to let these kids know that their Father Loves them and while we may be angry with each other at times ( the boys are 15, 17, 20) there will be no doubt in their minds that I love them. I do things with them because I want them to have the memories I didnt have of doing things with their Dad.

On a side note: I still dont feel comfortable enough to call my Dad and say Im sorry about his loss. He didnt know that his step-dad wasnt his dad until he was 18... He never knew his Father either.. Do you see the cycle?.. I had to break it

Hi

Hey, how are you doing? This is my first attempt at a blog. My assumption is that its just basically my opinion('s). Well I have my opinions about alot of stuff. I would'nt say I am a radical. As a matter of fact , I've been told that I have a knack at looking at both sides of any issue. I dont fly off the handle either. I am really curious as to how this will develope. I look at your blogs and they are so well done. Nice graphics and professional looking ( to me anyways), I wonder how I will compare. I wont be doing the comparing though because quite honestly I dont care how I "measure up " to you. I'm doing this for me and nobody else.

feel free to comment but please be gentle..LOL