Surrendering to Jesus/God is Not Biblical

Jesus says way more than to obey God just because it's a better way of life. He threatens judgment repeatedly. Those who do evil will resurrect to judgment, he said. Cut off your hand if it makes you stumble, he says, because it's better to enter life maimed than to have both soul and body destroyed in Gehenna. The goats of the judgment of Matt 25 are told they'll be subject to eternal punishment. What does that mean? Doesn't following someone else's commands mean giving up control in some sense? Especially if there's punishments for not following those commands?Jesus talked about losing your soul. Only those who lose their soul for his sake will find it, he says. Those who seek to save it will lose it. "Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and come after me," he says, or you can't be his disciple. He calls himself their Lord, and he most certainly expects them to obey his commands.I don't know what more loss of control you could be looking for. He himself said he didn't do anything except what he saw his Father doing. He suggested we follow his example, and he promised to send the Spirit of God as the "exhorter/encourager" (which is what parakletos really means) so we'd be able to.

Personally, all of this seems a wild reach by you.This statement of yours really doesn't make any sense when you are talking about a guy who said "deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and come after me" and "he who seeks to save his soul will lose it, but he who loses it for my sake will gain it to life eternal."Sure, you're not giving up control of your life to obey EVCForum guidelines, because EVCForum is not your life. Christ, however, is exactly asking for control of your life. "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven."We're not talking about obeying a few rules at school or some guidelines on an internet web site. We are talking about God asking people to love him with all their strength, mind, soul, and heart.And yes, when you have to follow commands for your whole life, you are giving up control of your life and surrendering in some sense. That is why the Christians are called disciples about 58 times in the Book of Acts, but only called believers once. They are primarily disciples, those who obey God."For this reason Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead."Really, to suggest that God and Christ are not asking for surrender is to create a fantasy reading of the Bible. People do that all the time, but really, it's not very convincing.

So were we:Error 404 (Not Found)!!1We are collecting people who are willing to give up control of their lives to God. Since there were thousands of competing churches and competing Bible interpretations but hardly any example of love or unity, we started asking God whether he was really able to produce the unity that would argue that Christ was sent by God (Jn 17:20-23).We asked him to take control of our lives, show us what to do, and let us be his church--a real church, not just a club meeting a couple times a week, but that glorious thing described in the Scriptures, especially in Acts.He did. It doesn't look much at all like we expected it would, but it's more wonderful than we could have imagined and more powerful than we could have dreamed.Anyway, I believe Rose Creek Village is a practical example of what a people (rather than just a person) who have given up control of their lives will look like. No limits, just surrender to God to the extent that he would ask of us.

Arrogant, why? Is it beneath God to personally tell someone something? If God speaks to people at all, then I don't see how it can be arrogant for a person to listen.