Filled with Scripture, Filled with Christ

Had tea in Venice this week with a good friend from Harbor Springs, Michigan, who was here for some work – he and his partner are doing a documentary on President Reagan.

During the 16 months of my interim there, I joined a group of men every Tuesday morning at 7:30 for a hour of Bible reading, sharing and prayer led by my friend. For me, it was the best, and I came to love that fellowship of faith – an amalgam of liberals and conservatives, working guys and retired, men of wealth and men with so-so incomes, but in that special place, we were all joined together in Christ, humbled by his grace and hungry for his instruction.

I think again and again of a life filled with Scripture. Filled with its message, the big picture; a life filled with Christ.

I ask myself questions:

Is my life filled with Scripture?

Is my life filled with Christ?

Am I surrendered to him?

Much of my life IS filled with Scripture, but not a week goes by without a fresh discovery, and as for being filled? There’s an ocean of room in my life for even more. And if it’s not filled with Scripture, it’s just plain empty, or worse, it’s filled with junk.

Much of my life IS filled with Christ, but much of me remains stubbornly and foolishly unrepentant. But Christ is greater and Christ is gracious.

I AM surrendered to Christ, as well. That happened a long time ago. But every day, I pray the Acts 16:5 prayer, for an elder-prayer partner and myself, a part of which reads: “LORD, grant _________ and me the grace today to commit our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ without reservation….”

Dear friends in Christ, work on this with me.

To fill our lives with Scripture.

To fill our lives with Christ.

To surrender to him every day, and every day, make the good effort!

Blessings in Christ, and in Christ, peace and goodness!

We Need a Master

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker … Episcopal priest, co-founder of AA and Faith at Work … one of the spiritual giants of the church, wrote:

“… man needs a master. If he is not to have a fellow-man for a master, with all the harm that comes both to tyrant and to slave in such a relation, he must accept a Master Whose lordship is always just, and always beneficent, while often running counter to human desires.”

Someone said to me years ago, “To be mastered by the Master is to be the freest of the free.”

To give our lives to Jesus … to utterly and forever surrender to Him … that He might master us, for He alone knows us truly, who we are, just as we are, and what we can be. And in surrendering to Him, we are no longer our own, but His, and in being His, our life is truly our own.

Here’s the Prayer of Surrender: “LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you in faith and obedience.”

For a little more info on Rev. Shoemaker, please visit: http://www.aabibliography.com/shoemaker/shoemakerdickb.html