LORD of ALL or NOT Lord at all ...

Question: Want to know how you can know God is telling you something? Answer: When you read the same message over AND over again!

It all began with a simple Online Bible Study with Proverbs 31 What Happens When Women Say 'Yes' to God.  It was in this book by Lysa Terkeurst where I first saw the phrase "If Jesus isn't Lord of all then He's not Lord at all."

When God wants our attention about something, He'll make sure He repeats Himself!

At my home church, we are doing the Draw the Circle 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson. I wanted to know more about this "Circle Maker" so I purchased his book The Circle Maker. It's a DEEP book! Makes a gal think! Can't read it fast because I'll miss something! I found Batterson's blog. In his post about his new book All In, he writes "Either Jesus is Lord of all or He isn’t Lord at all.  It’s all or nothing." (www.markbatterson.com)

And if we don't get it the 2nd time, He'll repeat Himself again ...

I have signed up for Mary Southerland's Online Bible Study. The current study is called "A Balanced Life".  What happens with this study is we receive one Email a week.  All 5 days is in one Email.  Makes it nice.  Can read it whenever and go at my own pace.  I was reading Week 2 Day 1 the other day when my eyes caught this "To make Jesus Lord means that we submit to Him as the boss and ruler of our lives. If He is not Lord of all, then He is not Lord at all."

Seriously? Is God trying to tell me something about me?  I do believe so!

He wants to be LORD of ALL my life not just little snippets here and there.  God wants "my" to be "His".

• My time to be His time
• My money to be His money
• My energy to be His energy
• My choices to be His choices
• My mind to be His mind
• My heart to be His heart

He wants ME to surrender me to Him!  He wants me to see I don't own anything including myself!  Oh, yeah ... to drive home His point ... we are working on Stewardship lessons that go with our Capital Campaign.  To make sure I am hearing Him the first lesson is about His complete ownership! In 1 Chronicles 29, King David gives God praise and glory. He acknowledges God as supreme owner and all he and his people where giving to fund the building of the Temple was stuff God already owned!  David.  Sweet David. (He's one of the many people in Heaven I wanna meet!)  Here David is the "richest" man around declaring everything he owns really already belongs to God!  To drive home the point, he wrote a Psalm!  Psalm 24:1 says "The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it".  Look at that! "The earth is the LORD'S ... and ALL WHO LIVE in it."

So, what is God saying to Vivian?  He is saying ... "Take a look at your life with Me and let Me show you where you aren't letting me be LORD. You are mine but there are some areas you need to let Me have ..."

For me ... it's TIME! That's why He asked for Netflix.  Instead of spending time catching up on episodes of shows gone by, He wants me to spend time with Him.  Instead of me spending time checking Email and Facebook-ing, He wants me spending time with Him.

For me ... it's CHOICES! Mainly food choices. He wants to be LORD of my food consumption.

For me ... it MONEY!  I'm good at paying tithes, but I'm not good at saving money for a rainy day.  I'm not good at penny pinching so there is a resource for Him to ask me to give for causes dear to His heart.

I went in that order for a reason.  CHOICES is the key to both of those!  Choices for the use of time. Choices for the use of money.  Jesus wants to be LORD of my choices, He wants to be the one calling the shots for ALL areas of my life that isn't my life ... its His life to spend not my own.

Check out the following Women and Man in ministry referenced in this blog:

Mark Batterson  http://www.markbatterson.com/  
Lysa Terkeaurst  http://lysaterkeurst.com/
Mary Southerland  http://www.marysoutherland.com/