Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not befor any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—”Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62 ). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ’cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33 ).

True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.

You’re 13 weeks old on the day I’m writing this..

And it is such a privilege to be a part of watching you grow.

This is a simple prayer that I try to pray for you everyday.

May God protect your heart, mind & body.

May you choose to trust and follow only Him.

May we clearly live an example for you to follow.

May you strive to bring honor to God in all you do.

Micah … you are absolutely loved beyond condition.

Thank you God for the honor of this gift.

Just before Valentine’s Day, I was walking around Sam’s Club.

Apparently Sam’s Club is a microcosm of what Texas is supposed to be.

You know … where “everything is bigger”.

So I’m walking along and there’s this bin of EXTRA Large stuffed animals.

And they were VERY reasonably prices.

We’re talking yard-sale-like prices.

So I grabbed this big ol’ puppy and brought it home for Joy as a Valentine’s Day present.

When we gave it to her, she absolutely lit up.

Which in turn lit us up.

And it occurred to me in a way I’d never experienced before…

In Matthew 7, when Jesus is bringing home the sermon on the mount, He says,

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Joy, thank you AGAIN for teaching me something about God I may not have ever known without you.

He delights in our delight.

AMEN.

]]> http://davidbuckner.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/%e2%80%a2-every-good-gift-pt-2/feed/ 1 David Buckner Joy & her big puppy Joy & her big puppy 2 http://davidbuckner.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/%e2%80%a2-the-joy-diet/ http://davidbuckner.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/%e2%80%a2-the-joy-diet/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:15:35 +0000 David Buckner http://davidbuckner.wordpress.com/?p=411 ]]>

I was outside for a little while with Joy today.

We decided it was a great day for a picnic.

I cooked her a grilled cheese, got her some Pringles, & cut her up a fresh strawberry.

For me … salad.

(can you feel the excitement?)

After a minute or two, I said,

“Hey Joy … can daddy have a potato chip?”

She said… (and this is a word-for-word quote),

“Maybe it’s too salty for you.  You eat your salad.”

SERIOUSLY??!!??

Since when does a 2.5-year old know ANYTHING about the sodium needs of a 38-year old?

But I kept my composure.

I resisted the urge to go get the whole rest of the can and just start chomping away.

Nor did I follow that fleeting thought of snatching her chips off of her plate.

What did I do?

I ate my salad.

AND I thanked her for helping me be healthy.

One day, she’ll realize that SHE is one of the reasons I choose to eat the way I do.

And she’s worth it!!!

Like last time, this post features something someone gave us for the kiddos.

I don’t even know what to call it.

It’s some kind of multi-colored-jungle-gym-house-kind-of-thing.

It looks like it would be quite expensive to get it new.

But my parents found one the wasn’t being used somewhere and got it for us.

Joy LOVES it.

She’ll literally grab me by the hand and lead me over to it to play with her in it.

I’m VERY thankful the weather is going to be nice for a few days.

Hopefully, she’ll get all the outside time she can stand.

All this to say,

“Thank you God.  Thank you friends.  And thank you family for so many levels of provision!!!”

So many people have given and given and given to us.

And honestly, sometimes it gets hard to be on the receiving end of so much generosity.

So much of me wants to make sure everyone knows that we don’t deserve all this generosity & provision.

Yet here it is … and I’m already prepping for when it comes again.

May we never once look at God’s various forms provision with eyes of expectation.

May we always and forever see His provision as yet another form of “unmerited favor” (GRACE).

My prayer is that we ALL take a minute, and in humility acknowledge God’s provision.

Whether it is material, physical, familial, emotional, occupational, etc…  We MUST strive to thank our Provider.  Remembering that “…Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father…” (James 1:17)

In an earlier post, I mentioned how blown away we are at how people are so willing to shower us with gifts for Micah & Joy.

Well, this DOUBLE STROLLER was a gift that looks as if it is going to be PRICELESS!!!

On the first semi-warm day of 2010, Mandi helped me throw jackets & blankets on Joy & Micah, and we headed out.

It was GREAT to be able to have BOTH kids confined AND outside AND content.

I would like to extend a ‘virtual’ hug to the inventor of the DOUBLE STROLLER!!!

AMAZING!!!!  Well, at least on this first outing.

Micah seemed to have a great time during his first real outing ever.

I guess he had about all he could take.

I hope this shows up … but if you look closely, you might be able to see Joy running across the background (moving from right to left) with her arms up in the air.

And if you listen very closely, you might be able to hear her whooping and hollering as she chases Kodak (our dog) around the back yard.  Almost as if celebrating the liberation of being outside for the first time after a long winter’s captivity.

The DOUBLE STROLLER apparently has a very different effect on Micah than it did on Joy.

All I know is … so far, so good.

Thank you Stacey Eldred!!!!!!!

Sometimes when Joy really wants something special, she gets this very sheepish grin and becomes very quiet and subdued.

The other day, we were over at a friend’s house and Joy wanted a hershey kiss.

So she did her sheepish-cute-subtle-thing and asked for it.

Me … being the hard-nosed daddy that I am … gave it to her.

Right about that time, she created a dirty diaper.

So I took her into the next room and changed her diaper.

By the time I was done changing her, she looked more like this…

…and I just couldn’t resist it.

I sent her back into the room with everyone else and called out…

“Somebody stop her!!! She got into her diaper!!!”

Yeah.  It didn’t go over so well then either.

Every now & then Joy announces that she wants to hold Micah.

She knows the drill.

Sit down.

Legs out.

Arms out.

Be gentle & sweet.

And she follows these instructions to the letter.

Until she’s done.

At which point she announces that she is finished while at the same time trying to push Micah off of her legs.

You gotta be on your toes when “gentle & sweet” turns into “I’m finished”.

But MOST of the time, what is in the picture is exactly how Joy is with Micah.

She obviously loves her little brother.

And she really is very gentle and sweet with him.

Periodically, she’ll even come up to him, put her little cheek on his even littler cheek, and say,

“I yuv you Mi-cah.”

May God grant us the wisdom to cherish these moments while we have them.

For Valentine’s Day, I decided to surprise Mandi by doing something we’ve never done before.

We took a cooking class together.

Just one class.

Just one meal.

And it was hilarious.

Here we cooking the meat…

Even though Mandi’s face may not show it in this picture, we had a really fun time.

But more than that, we made another great memory.

And isn’t that one of the many aspects of loving one another?

Creating those moments that linger.

And when love sometimes becomes a choice rather than a natural response, it will be those lingering moments that will help me choose to love Mandi more and more.

“Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, and being one in spirit & purpose.”  - Phil 2.2

Mandi … thank you for choosing to be my ‘valentine’ for the 14th time!!!

You are loved more than you could possibly know.

We like to call Micah the “Little Man”.

The fact that we refer to him as the “Little Man” seems to automatically make me the “Big Man”.

As I think about myself in this role of “Big Man”, I’m a mixture of so many feelings.

• Humbled
• Scared
• Intimidated
• Honored
• And 100 others…

But more than anything, I get overwhelmed at my responsibility to BE the kind of man, husband, daddy, friend, son, etc… that we want Micah to see and hopefully become.

The gift of a son is an amazing privilege.

The gift of a son is an amazing responsibility.

If anyone ever reads this, please pray that I’m living faithfully as a child of God and modeling what it means to BE all of those things we hope Micah becomes.  .