WORSHIP By my guest Mary Kay Hodges-Cates

One way I worship is with my garden and all the signs praising the glory of the LORD!

Worship equals surrender. From my (Mary Cates) notes on The purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (He seems to use scripture out of context a bit so eat the meat and spit out the bones.)

No one likes the words surrender and submission because they implies being a loser, defeat, forfeiting and yealding.

We are taught to not five in or give up. Winning is everything and no one wants to hear about a loser only success and conquering. No one wants to hear of anyone submitting and obeying unless its a child to parents and teachers. Or a criminal to police.

Surrendering to GOD is the AWESOME outcome of our worship It is the natural response to GOD's amazing love and mercy. We do it out of love not fear or duty. Why? Because he first loved us.

Paul pushes us to offer your selves as a living sacrifice to GOD, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.
This only happens when you give yourself completely to GOD. IE: offer

The act of personal surrender is called many things: yielding to the Spirit, dying to self, making Jesus your Lord. It does not matter what it is called what matters is that you do it.

The barriers that block our total surrender to GOD are pride, confusion and fear. We want to control our own lives, we don't realize how much and real GOD's love is, and we don't understand the meaning of surrender.

The  LORD sends me daily reminders of HIS love for me and what I do in HIS name to remind people of HIS love for us.

Trust is essential to surrender. You have to trust God or you won't be able to surrender. Love casts out all fear. The more you know how much GOD loves you the easier it is to surrender.

How do you know GOD loves you? He gave you many evidences, GOD says HE loves you, you are never out of his sight, he cares about every detail of your life, he gave you the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure, he has good plans for your life, he forgives you , and he is lovingly patient with you. GOD loves you unmistakeably more then you can understand.

The biggest proof of this is the sacrifice of GOD's Son for you. God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. If you want to know how much you matter to GOD, look at CHRIST with His arms outstretched on the cross, saying, I love you this much! I would rather die than live without you.

I live near places of great beauty that CRY OUT the GLORY of GOD.

God does not bully and coerce us into submission. He doesn't try to break our will, but he comes to us as a lover wooing us to HIM so that we might offer ourselves freely to HIM. GOD is a lover and a liberator and surrendering to HIM brings freedom , not bondage. When we completely surrender ourselves to JESUS, we discover that he is not a tyrant, but a savior, not a boss, but a brother, not a dictator but a friend.

Mary lives in the pacific north west in a town of less then 300 people.  She has been married for 24 years to her husband and has two kids.

She is guest writing on my blog today because hers was recently removed from the internet buy the blog providers and she is looking for her fans.  

I often use her pictures for my blog.