The Lamb of God
Douglas Webster, The Discipline of Surender, Chapter 11

Here is a picture of Jan van Eyck's painting Adoration of the Lamb (1432). I posted it as large for you to be able to see and consider the numerous symbols of surrender embedded within. Which one strikes you the most?

The image of surrender in the Lamb of God runs deep in the veins of our Life. It links Christ's sacrifice as a continuation of the Jewish protocol of of temple worship and it links us, who have been washed with that same precious substance to the Day when, we who are washed in the Blood of the Lamb, will be reunited with him and remain with him forever. Appropriating Christ's sacrifice to ourselves is the only - the ONLY - way we get to heaven. It restores us to the New Eden, where we are once again untied in favorable companionship with God and have fellowship with him in the cool of the evening. 

Yet, with all it's theological importance, Webster's comments ring true. "Moderns are looking for a friendly Jesus who makes them feel better about themselves, but the Biblical Jesus laid his life down that our sins might be forgiven" (p.105). Wow. That slaps me in the face. You mean Jesus didn't die to make me feel better. You mean I have something called sin in my life? Are you telling me I need to be forgiven before an all-holy God? Are you telling me that you are in and I am out?

Exactly. 

It's interesting that in the Jewish temples - the first ministry station was always an altar upon which sin was dealt with. It was the first thing the worshipper saw when walking into the temple. Sure, there were other - more wonderful things to experience in the Temple (personal washing and cleansing, sacramental experience, intercessions, and the privilege of being intimate with God) but none of them could be experienced until the worshipper dealt with the sin in his or her heart. In fact, in the Tabernacle of Moses, the Altar of Sacrifice was not only the first ministry station of the temple. It was also by far the largest. 

Perhaps you have had a change to share about the forgiveness of sins to a neighbor, co-worker, of friend at school? Share with us their reaction. What are some modern objections to the Faith as you have heard them?

Douglas Webster, The Discipline of Surrender, Chapter 10


A powerful chapter not only describing the passion of our Lord but also bringing out the ways that thorns in our flesh keep us humble, relieve us of our self-sufficiency, and get us into "weakness" so that God's power can be unleashed.

Webster writes,"The thorn is not an obstacle to God's will but a catalyst for doing God's will... it prepares us for ministry" (p.98). Of course much of the world sees weakness as something that prohibits success. Not so with God. His is an upside-down kingdom. I can remember so well my own struggles in becoming ordained to the Priesthood, some 25 years ago. I struck out not three, but four times! Yet, with each passing strike my self-sufficiency lessoned. It wasn't until the fourth strike that I fell to my knees completely emptied of how I could be a good priest, or how the church needed my gifts, or what a terrific guy I could be to this or that particular people group... That's when God said, "Finally, something I can work with!" 

It reminds me of a story I once heard of John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Movement. One night he was found in a cheap hotel at the end of his rope, completely exhausted from doing ministry. Nothing was happening. No souls being saved, no healings happening, no nothing. To him, pastoring the church seemed senseless. He rolled over and fell to his knees and remained there, at the side of the bed, completely emptied before the Lord. It was then when a beautiful thing happened. He heard the voice of the Lord say, "John, I've seen your ministry. Now I want to show you mine." John was finally ready. He returned to his church with new priorities. It wasn't easy at first. But soon thereafter his church exploded with signs and wonders, healings and miracles - and new music to go along with it - of which the world is still embracing. 

Webster asks a couple of wonderful questions - questions which I'd like to pass onto you:

What has God allowed in my life to remind me of my weakness? (p.95)

What has God placed in our lives [in our community life at St. David's, for example] to remind us of our weaknesses and Christ's power? (p.97)

"And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him." Hebrews 5:9-10

I have heard it said that a bird with its wings clipped is still a bird. Jesus, though clipped, remained God. In his case, the clipping continued to his death.

I think of the pre-incarnate Jesus as this magnificent free-flowing glorious blob of divinity, without boundaries, knowing no restraint other than his own self-imposed restraint to be about the will of the Almighty Counsel. Then he comes to earth as a man and submits himself to the first big "clip", if you will: humanity. Suddenly all he is has become fractioned off to a time-sensitive, geographically limited piece of creation which, like a metallic cookie-cutter slicing into an enormous piece of cookie doe - laid out across the counter of eternity - separates him, limits him, and defines as a mere fraction of who he really is.

Through his life the clipping only grows. These walls of limitation seem endless. Not only does he willingly submit to a physical body, but to its emotions as well; it's highs its lows, it's hungers and it's pains. Then there is the submission to Palestinian culture, her foods, her religion, and then to the government of Rome, it's system; then to court trials, agony, and then real death - extinction. Thus God left the boundless majesty-driven environs of heaven and shrunk through his suffering into absolute nothingness.

How did he do it? Why DIDN'T he call upon legions of angels to bail him out of this ever-increasing tightening of the grip of his own creation upon everything he was?

Jesus perceived each corner of the road to the Cross firstly, as designed by God. For him, there was purpose in each "clipping" of his wing. His relationship with the Father was at such a place that he trusted his Father. He understood his Father loved him deeply and was able to be about the business of the Father with this assurance as its backdrop. This became challenging at the end, where Jesus cried to take the cup from him. But even here his Father heard his many cries and sent him divine assistance out of that same love and care. Soon thereafter he came to his senses and embraced the way of Life to be only lived in going to his death.

Second, it was Jesus' Godly fear which kept his heart humble. When a heart is humble it is by default teachable. And "teachable" not in an informational way - knowing formulas, design, facts, or statistics. But in a deeply formative and living way. Humility allows the heart to hear far deeper than the academic. It allows the heart to be formed with the understanding of Purpose. Perfect humility breeds perfect understanding of the ways and presence of God.

And while we will never understand the full disposition of Divinity, there is a place within the humbled heart that is able to willfully and joyfully resign to the sufferings of his design, no matter what they be. For us, the knowledge of his purpose, companionship, and promise to guide us through to the other side is all we need to acquiesce to all things Godly - including suffering.

Jesus became perfected in the things he suffered. He embraced them, bowed down to their senseless extremeness. He lived his whole life that way. He came in crying as a baby and wailing as an adult. His entire life was a never-ending series of submitting to sufferings. He got used to that. It became his lifestyle. It prepared him for the final submission. As submitted, joy was released. Power and grace streamed from his hands and heart in miraculous ways, streaming into others with all the force of a mighty river, damed at it's falls but funneled and transformed into currents of electricity which, if not for the limitations of the dam itself, could never reach the glorious extremes of his ministry.

His lifestyle of suffering took him to into the heart of death - his very own death - where he there became perfected.  And through that perfection he became the writer of a New Book, the author of eternal salvation to all who [in turn] obey him.

Praise God for his perfection in suffering.
Pray to God the same for us all.

The Crowing Rooster
Douglas Webster, The Discipline of Surrender, Chapter 9


Somewhere along the line I have picked up the phrase, "You will eventually become the thing you judge." Don't know where I heard it but I believe it may be true. Do I judge the thief? I will become a thief? Do I judge the adulterer? I will become an adulterer. Do I judge the gossiper? I will wind up telling everyone I know about that gossiper.

Webster does a phenomenal job here. The life of Peter is something to talk about for many, many posts. Peter's Pride runs akin to our pride, he says. Even though we are warned in Christ, we are deceived by our pride into thinking we don't even need the warnings! Praise God that, like Peter, after our denials of Jesus the Spirit of God in us will always convict us into Life-giving repentance, not a death-giving regret (i.e. Judas). 

It may be worth noting here the difference between condemnation and conviction. The devil condemns us after we have denied Christ. But the Lord convicts us after the same act. Condemnation drives us to remorse. Conviction is always lined with the fragrance of Destiny. Condemnation draws us inward, isolates us, and blinds us from seeing not only who we are as children of God, but questions the whole of our relationship with him. Condemnation will say, "You are bad. Get alone and wallow in your the realization of what you did. And, while you're at it, let's look deeply at all the other things you supposedly did for your God, if they were anything at all. Do you really think you are walking with him? Did God really say?" And so on down the line. Condemnation will seek to undo in your head everything you have ever done in your heart for Christ. 

Conviction is different. It says, "You blew it - but get up! There's more to do. I have a work for you. I forgive you. Trust me in that and let's move into the plans I have for you!" See the difference. For us that means we need to be listening to the voices in our head when seeking restoration. We need to discern whether we are feeling one way or the other. The Holy Spirit first reveals the sin. That's the good thing. But the devil is quick to rush in to blame and confuse and seek to keep us in that guilt-ridden state for as long as he can. Our response to this assault? Don't listen to it. Rebuke it and run. Choose rather to accept the loving conviction of the Father and then allow him to feed you on the beach of restoration. "Do you love me?" he will ask. "Yes, Lord, you know I love you. I still love you," will be your response. Notice here Jesus doesn't go back to the event. He doesn't seek to unveil Peter's motives for the denial, what he could have done better, why he fought for Him one minute and was denying Him the next like the devil will do. Didn't matter. Jesus wanted Peter to know he was forgiven and that it shouldn't hold him up. Get up. There is real work to do!!! "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

Comments?

Back to the book. I was struck with how the rooster was transformed from a reminder of something terrible to a memorial of restoration! Only God can do that. "The rooster is a strange Biblical image, but it was Jesus who drew it to Peter's attention and to ours for our own good" (p.88). Christians place a unique symbolism in normal everyday things. Why? God uses normal everyday things to incarnate himself prophetically through them: a donkey, a towel and basin, an altar, and so on. 

What normal everyday thing has God used in your world to reveal a deeper meaning? Download a picture from the internet and post it - explaining how God has used the thing in your life!

The Towel and Basin

The Discipline of Surrender, Doulas Webster, Chapter 7

Just this morning I was asking the Lord for a heart of humility. Not exactly that. But a heart that can appreciate and live into humility. I think humility is needed so we can breath in all that God is doing in our life. Else we mis it.

Humility was absent with Peter. He refused to simply "be" in the midst of what God was doing in his life. In this case, he was hidden from the greater mystery ("... the full extent of [Jesus's] love". Jn. 13:1) and forced to deal with the awkwardness of his Rabbi washing his feet with a lesson that has endured thousands of years. I want to be like that. Not like Peter. But like a person who is continuously and deeply reflective of all that God is doing around me, if I am indeed graced with the ears to hear and eyes to see.

Question: Is it easier for you when someone washes your feet (speaking parabolically here) or when you wash the feet of others? 

Webster states on p.69 that the caring for the practical, daily needs of others is equated with washing the feet of others. 

At the homeless breakfast on Saturday there was a woman who was holding a card dear to her chest. She was smiling. I asked her about the card and her face lit up with the story of how she was on the bus when a man invited her to sit next to her. She took the seat and noticed he was writing out a greeting card. He signed it, licked the envelope, and gave it to her, just before getting off the bus. She showed me the card. It was an Easter card. In it he wrote that God loved her. That she was his child. And that, through the power of the resurrection, it would all work out. That man washed that woman's feet. Not through the tools of towel and basin, but through the tools of pen and paper. 

We could all do that.

As baptized Christians we have been washed with towel and basin. Remember it? It wasn't the washing of hands to justify our behavior (like Pilate). No. We have been washed by Jesus himself through baptism and "marked as Christ's own forever". There was a basin. And there was a towel. So, for us anyway, our challenge may be to wash others in the same love wherein we have been washed, to comfort with the same comfort wherein we have been comforted, to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. But not with hearts that are cold and akin to "just doing the right thing". Anyone could do that. God calls us to do all that stuff with hearts of humility. Why? When we do things with hearts of humility it allows God's love to be transferred through the doing of the thing. Surrendering to a heart of humility enables God's love to be received and given in a way that the essence of heaven is revealed to all who are present. Without love it everything we do is all just a wash.

"Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (Jn. 13:8). What does that mean for us today?

The Easy Yoke

The Discipline of Surrender by Douglas Webster. Chapter 6

I have often heard that farmers will usually yoke a stronger animal with a weaker one. Even though the weaker animal may be huffin' and puffin' under the weight, it is only a fraction of what it could be taking, if not for the strength of the lager beast. I think being yoked with Christ is like that. 

Webster shares that we become yoked to the freedom in Christ, not by theological education, or being spiritual know-it-all's, but through the doorways of our wills (p.56). It is then when, in obedience, we willingly yield to God's wisdom, love, and call. I love it when he says it is then when we enter into a "partnership with the Lord Jesus" and an "empowered partnership" to boot (p. 60). Wow. What a great partner to have!! God.

But there are those, Webster writes, who seek to live with each foot co-yoked onto numerous differentanimals at the same time (my words, not his). "Sometimes we insist on trying to travel the Christian life with all our personal baggage of guilt, materialism, lust, and selfishness" (p.55) When I read these words I was struck with the haunting memory of Robert DiNero in THE MISSION trying to climb up the mountain - all the time clinging to his baggage. And the joy that met him when he was set free. This is an iconic scene which I commend to you HERE.

When you watch this link what do you see?

A Prophetic Word from Gen. 22:6

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. 

As young "Isaac's" we have been redeemed with the fire and the knife of God's mercy. So why are we still on the Altar?

Some stay because it's familiar. We've grown accustomed to it's hard, stony surface. Others are afraid to get off the thing. Still others aren't quite convinced they have really been set free by the knife and purified in the fire. And God waits.

Here's what came to me in church yesterday:

"I have cut your cords with my knife. I have cleansed you with my fire. You are free to rise from the altar. But you do not. Why have you not risen in the Grace where in you can stand? You sin is behind you. Your shame is consumed in my Provision, the scapegoat of the Sacrificial Lamb, crowned in a thorny thicket. 

"Arise, my child, get off the altar of your past and I will lift you into your future. There is nothing holding you back from my end. My plans will formulate as you get off the altar.  Arise from the shame of your youth. It is over. Finished. Dance on its ashes in the power of my Provision."

Gideon's Trumpet
The Discipline of Surrender by Douglas Webster: Chapter 5


I love Webster's opening remark: God's strategy for success is different from ours. Ain't that the truth.

Who would have thought that the whittling down of the army would be a strategy for success? I mean, I was always taught that the one with the most toys wins, the country with the biggest guns won, the pastor with the biggest pasture got the biggest crown, the most expensive thing on the menu was the best tasting thing in the restaurant. Who knew? I guess God's strategy of the Cross runs "cross cultural", so to speak. 

God's strategy for success flies in the face of the "bigger is better" mentality. Why is that?

And with regard to surrender... 

Two things have emerged in my thinking when reading about Gideon. The first is that merely having the attitude, awareness, or even capability of surrender doesn't cut it. For surrender to be truly surrender it must be co-linked sacrificially with the DNA of surrendered Christ. I may be wonderful at surrendering to wrongful things. I may even be wonderful to surrendering to good things. But we are called to surrender to Godly things in Christ Jesus our Lord. Big difference. It is that type of surrender - a whole-hearted surrender to the plans and purposes of God - that link us directly with the heart of Jesus. When we are in that mode we have something so common with the Life of Christ - something so core to his very Life - that one could say that we have become One with him, synced completely with his sacrificial, surrendered Nature. For our God is a Man of surrender.

Another thing that strikes me is this: Surrender as a lifestyle. Surrender is not merely something we do after God places a mark on our life, a wonderful victory, or incarnational intrusion on our otherwise mundane existence. If Gideon had only surrendered at the Lord's victory in the trumpet blast that would have been a no brainer. Who could not help but to give into God at such a obvious God sighting! No, the beauty of Gideon's surrender is that it began long before his victory over the Midianites. His "surrender button" was working long before the chaotic blast of the trumpet. He surrendered to God's call in the fleece. He surrendered to God's logic in the whittling down of the troops. He surrendered here. He surrendered there. Perhaps, at the end of his life - as might be our boast as well - he may have reflected, what part of his life WASN'T laced with surrender to the strategy of the cross? 

Surrender is the name of the Game. This type of surrender goes far beyond the "grin-and-bare-it" resignation of particular events to God, where one might look up to the sky and flippantly say, "OK God, you win." The problem is, these things add up. And after a while it turns into an endurance test. This time I surrender, another time I surrender, and ANOTHER time? REALLY?!  Another time?!! Alright. I surrender here, too. That type of surrender has neither purpose or spiritual formation in its release. That type of surrender will only breed anger and bitterness, as it continually increases - event after event - through the years. Like the perpetual nagging of a spouse, or the slow-dripping drops of water torture, it will eventually make you crack. At the end of the day, God always wins. And you? You'll only turn into a sore looser.

My experience is that God's call to us is to be co-yoked with him in a LIFESTYLE of surrender. Up and against the surrender that runs from event to event, this is one continuous surrender which is more akin to a constant flow, a blurring of events - streaming over the particulars much like a crystal river flows gracefully around rocks and turns in the stream - where the particular events demanding particular surrenders become unidentifiable, without beginning or end, enmeshed and without definition underneath the grace-filled rapids of the Holy Spirit. It is when thewhole of our life becomes a single event called "surrender' that we can say we are co-yoked with Christ and walking in the Spirit of humility. How does that happen? How do we get to that point, if indeed it is a place we need to be at?  You tell me. 

Manna In the Wilderness
The Discipline of Surrender by Douglas Webster: Chapter 4


It strikes me that God will create a hunger in our souls - make us fully aware of it - and then, just as we become desperate to fulfill the need on our own, he satisfies that same need with his miraculous provision.

This creation of the soulish hunger comes through something we hate: humiliation. Why is it that God has to go to such extremes to cause us to look fully into his Son Christ Jesus? Webster at P.37: "The only way out of humiliation is to have humility before God."  Humility of course is something that doesn't come naturally. Humility would suggest that we are dependent on God for daily provision, that we succumb to the holy currents of Sabbath Taking regardless of the 40% Off sale at Macy's, or that we humble ourselves afresh each Sunday morning and Wednesday night when we gather to understand we have no life whatsoever outside the Life of Christ, graced to us in the Eucharist.

Yet it's not until we experience the futile fast food experience of materialism (and are left devastated by its empty promises - even to the point of being humiliated because we have hung our very existence on its crumbling foundation) that we can begin to see through its facade and into the Deeper Reality. Our two-dimensional realities shatter to the floor and then - there, just out there in the lingering fog, beyond all we knew, is the face of God. Smiling. Compassioned. Most likely relieved to see that we finally "caught it". He rushes to us, swoops us away from our dying world and tells us how he was there all the time, yet crippled behind our stubborn insistence to feed ourselves from the delicacies of Egypt. 

Why is it that we tend to look for life in things that make us die?

Now onto the Book:

Firstly, any comments about the paragraphs above? 

Secondly, What part of Chapter 4 strikes you? Being daily dependent upon his provision? The discipline of taking a Sabbath? Being nurtured by the Bread of Life in the Eucharist? And why IS it that humiliation see,s to be the doorway into spiritual growth?