Just now on chapter three

I'm just now on chapter three and I think I'm a week behind what we had set forth to accomplish. Maybe I'm not the only one who got behind. But, anyway, this chapter is one that makes me take a fresh look. I had heard this taught about the pierced ear referred to in Exodus 21; but, I had never had anyone point out that Scripture or ancient historical records do not record a single instance in which a servant made this choice. Yet, the Lord Jesus chose to become a bondservant. He did this to deliver me and you who were in bondage to sin. Now we can freely choose to surrender to Him Who gave Himself so freely for us even though the price He paid was so huge. I love how she simply stated in her bullet-points on p. 80 the difficult things that have come her way because of her surrender to Christ. She honestly shared them, not in self-glorification, but in an authentic openness. She also shared her privileges as the bondslave of the Lord. What an eternal perspective! I want that!
I had never thought about the difference in "commitment" and "surrender" but she is so right. Ownership is the issue as opposed to the concept of employment. If I'm an employee, what I do on my "off-time" is my business. But if I'm an owned slave, my master has every right to know and make demands of my perceived "off-time". The beauty of surrender to Christ is that He is a Master who is perfect love, perfect justice, perfect holiness and perfect power. He loves me as I am, but He loves me too much to leave me that way. He is the potter who is fashioning a useful piece of pottery out of this lump of clay. He puts firm pressure and works the shape of what he is perfecting. The time it takes is irrelevant to Him. He, the all-knowing God, sees a finished product while all I see is the sometimes painful process of learning to yield to the potter. I must trust Him. This verse comes to me: "For I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
Thanks for letting me blog out my thoughts on this chapter.
Bonnie