Sermon Illustrations on Surrender

Willing to Give All I Don't Have

True giving is measured by willingness to sacrifice even what little we have.

A new convert declared his determination to give all that he had for the Master. He said, "Pastor, if I had fifty pigs, I'd give twenty-five of them to the Lord." "That's very nice," said the pastor. "If you had thirty would you give fifteen to the Lord?" "Of course I would," said the new Christian. "If you had ten would you give five of them?" asked the pastor again. "You know I would," he answered. Then the pastor said, "If you had two, would you give one to the Lord?" "Now Pastor, don't ask me that. You know I have only two pigs." A "Nickel" Heart "Ah!" said a woman who in her poverty had done much for Christ and who had a great sum willed to her, "I cannot do as much as I used to do." "But how is that?" someone asked. Said she, "When I had a nickel purse I had a silver heart, but now I have a silver purse and I have only a nickel heart." A Drop in the Bucket Let's not refuse to give the little we have; God will multiply it. I remember an elderly man who was giving very little, but it was truly sacrificial. He had a younger friend who was always making fun of him. "Such need in the world, and yet you think that with your few dollars you will make a difference! Old friend, what you give is only a drop in the bucket." But the old man with rejoicing in his face turned to his friend and said, "Yes, all that God expects of me is my drop and He will see to the filling of the bucket."

Jesus, Submission to

John 6:37

A soldier surrenders to Jesus, trusting His promise to never cast out anyone who comes to Him.

A sceptical soldier in the hospital at Atlanta sent for a chaplain, and, in various ways, tried to get rid of his doubts. Upon the wall was hung the Scripture, "Whoso cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out," which caught his attention one night. In the morning, he asked to have a letter from his mother read to him. It was an earnest entreaty to accept Christ. The reader came to the words, "Whoso cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."—"There," said he, "that's what I want. I thought mother said that. Read it again." It was read. "Mother says that, does she?"—"Yes."—"And it's in the Bible too?"—"Yes."—"Then it must be true. Jesus will receive me. I will come to him. Here, Lord, I give myself up." It appeared to be a genuine surrender and a gracious acceptance.

Take care that you put all your dear ones into God's hand

Surrendering loved ones daily to God eases grief and trusts His providence.

You have put your own soul there, put their souls and bodies likewise into His custody. You can trust Him for temporals for yourself, trust your jewels with Him. Feel that they are not your own, but that they are God's loans to you — loans which are called at any moment precious denizens of heaven, not entailed upon you, but of which you are only a tenant at will. Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of the Lord. You shall find it greatly mitigates the sorrow of bereavements, if before bereavement you shall have learned to surrender every day all the things which are dearest to you into the keeping of your gracious God.

Surrendering Your Rights

Luke 10:17

It is natural for people today to demand their rights. But followers of Jesus surrender their rights to Him, enjoying only the privileges He, in loving sovereignty, allows. What are some of the rights Jesus' disciples must surrender?

1. The right to take revenge. Rom 12:19-20

2. The right to have a comfortable, secure home. Luke 9:57f

3. The right to a good reputation. Matt 5:11

4. The right to spend money however we please. Matt 6:19f

5. The right to hate an enemy. Matt 5:43-47

6. The right to be honored and served. Mark 10:42-45

7. The right to understand God's plan before we obey. Heb 11:8

8. The right to live by our own rules. John 14:23-24

9. The right to hold a grudge. Col 3:13

10. The right to "fit in" in society. Rom 12:2; Gal 1:10

11. The right to do whatever feels good. Gal 5:16f

12. The right to complain. Phil 2:14

13. The right to put self first. Phil 2:3-4

14. The right to express one's sexuality freely. 1 Cor 6:18f

15. The right to rebel against authority. 1 Pet 2:13f

16. The right to sue another believer. 1 Cor 6:1-8

17. The right to end a disappointing marriage. Matt 5:31f

Surrender

Luke 4:18

Paul Stanley: As an infantry company commander in Vietnam in 1967, I saw Viet Cong soldiers surrender many times.

As they were placed in custody, marched away, and briefly interrogated, their body language and facial expressions always caught my attention. Most hung their heads in shame, staring at the ground, unwilling to look their captors in the eye. But some stood erect, staring defiantly at those around them, resisting any attempt by our men to control them. They had surrendered physically but not mentally.

On one occasion after the enemy had withdrawn, I came upon several soldiers surrounding a wounded Viet Cong. Shot through the lower leg, he was hostile and frightened, yet helpless. He threw mud and kicked with his one good leg when anyone came near him.

When I joined the circle around the wounded enemy, one soldier asked me, “Sir what do we do? He’s losing blood fast and needs medical attention.” I looked down at the struggling Viet Cong and saw the face of a 16- or 17-year-old boy.

I unbuckled my pistol belt and hand grenades so he could not grab them. Then, speaking gently, I moved toward him. He stared fearfully at me as I knelt down but he allowed me to slide my arms under him and pick him up.

As I walked with him toward a waiting helicopter, he began to cry and hold me tight. He kept looking at me and squeezing me tighter. We climbed into the helicopter and took off.

During the ride, our young captive sat on the floor, clinging to my leg. Never having ridden in a helicopter, he looked out with panic as we gained altitude and flew over the trees. He fixed his eyes back on me, and I smiled reassuringly and put my hand on his shoulder.

After landing, I picked him up and walked toward the medical tent. As we crossed the field, I felt the tenseness leave his body and his tight grasp loosen. His eyes softened, and his head leaned against my chest. The fear and resistance were gone — he had finally surrendered.

The God to whom we surrender is not our enemy. He heals and cares for everyone he takes captive.

#2174

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Faith Turned His Energies From British Nightclubs To Churches

Acts 3:19

No one thinks of a Southern Baptist evangelist as a guitar-playing, kilt-wearing Scotsman converted while listening to Billy Joel’s hit song, “I Love You Just the Way You Are.”

But then Bert Rait is not your average evangelist. In fact, “evangelist” is not a term he uses to describe his calling and ministry. Rait says he sees his task as “building up the church,” a job he considers essential if churches are to become more effective in missions and evangelism. “This is where my heart and my greatest vocational concern is,” says Rait, director of Calaedonia Ministries, the name of the ministry he founded in 1987 in the Washington suburb of Springfield, Va., to assist local churches to experience revival.

Rait says he works best where he is able to encourage the congregation’s leadership, minister to the pastor and “take the blindfold off sleepy members.” Rather than lead evangelistic crusades, Rait does concerts, leads conferences on witnessing and finding spiritual gifts and preaches revivals. “I like to touch people, put my arms around the kids, pat the dog. You can’t do that in a stadium.”

Sixteen years ago Rait was a 29-year-old entertainer making a more-than- adequate living delivering his polished comedy and pop music routine in British nightclubs. He traveled England and his native Scotland, playing 20- minute gigs to warm up audiences for featured performers. He was raised in Aberdeen, an oil city on the North Sea, the oldest of five children in a working-class family. His parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren or Puritan Church, a denomination Rait says “would make fundamentalists look like liberals.”

Although Rait was taught the Bible and remembers making “some sort of profession” as a boy, he says he was “absolutely nothing” spiritually. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, rock music and guitars were his life. By age 17 he caught his first big break as an entertainer, a gig in London, the equivalent of “being invited to Hollywood or New York.” The next 12 years Rait traveled and did situational comedy and concerts. He admits he was a “recycled teen- ager” and life was “unfulfilled.” “I was engulfed in secularism. Music was my god and life was alcohol and parties.” Occasionally he returned to Aberdeen to visit family. During one of these visits, in 1979, an encounter changed his life.

Rait’s mother and brother had become active in a year-old mission church planted by a Southern Baptist foreign missionary. Through what Rait calls “the quiet manipulation that only a mother can do,” the missionary visited the Rait home one Tuesday afternoon to meet the entertainer and invite him to lead the music at the following Sunday’s worship service.

Rait saw through the scheme but did not object. “I expected to get preached at, a guilt trip. But he (the missionary) was interested in me, not preaching at me or to me.” Rait agreed to do Sunday’s music at the mission. Between Tuesday and Sunday, in what Rait describes as a “miracle of miracles,” he attended a Christian rock concert which the mission sponsored to reach young people in Aberdeen. During the concert, as he listened to a rendition of Billy Joel’s “I Love You Just the Way You Are,” Rait was saved. “I knew it was the Lord speaking -- it was very clear. It was an offer too good to turn down, really.”

“That night I gave my life, not just my heart, to Christ. I gave him my home, my possessions, my goals, my vocation, my vacation. I gave him everything -- not just what I was, but what I was to become. That was the end of my first life.”

Not everyone was ecstatic over his conversion. Some, even in the church, saw the change as “suspect.” So for the next two years Rait says he “laid low” to “work out a map for myself, to come to terms with my decision.” To pay bills the former nightclub performer took a job as program director of the local YMCA, “a godsend,” he says, because he had Christian bosses. A summer missionary assigned to work in Aberdeen rented a room in Rait’s house. When he returned to the United States he engaged Rait in 1982 for a five-month music tour in several eastern states. The next year Rait returned for a three-month stint.

The missionary and Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, whom Rait met while in the United States, encouraged him to attend seminary. In 1984 Rait sold his home, furniture, and with only his guitar and a suitcase, moved to Louisville, Ky., to enroll at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Seminary proved to be a “marvelous experience,” says Rait. In seminary Rait learned self-discipline, a trait he never needed in his profession as an entertainer. Also in seminary he continued to hone his skills as a Christian entertainer.

After graduation from seminary in 1987, Rait moved to Virginia to begin Calaedonia Ministries. Since then his ministry has grown steadily. He has done revivals or concerts in 33 states, and later this year will return to Great Britain for several bookings. Rait and his wife of three years, Laura, are members of Ivy Memorial Baptist Church in Newport News, Va.

Ted Harvey, pastor of Providence Baptist Church in McLean, Va., who used the Scottish revivalist last year for a Sunday-to-Wednesday revival, praised his style. “Bert’s ministry was anything but traditional. His combination of music and contemporary preaching reaches people in the 90s. He tells the old story in a way that it has a new and refreshing affect on people. Our seniors enjoyed him as much as our children.”

The life of a revivalist is not without risks. He is on the road 40 weeks each year and has no income apart from what he receives from his ministry. But Rait says he believes he has the gifts and optimistic, energetic personality necessary to thrive in this form of ministry. “I regard my calling as lifelong. I have never felt so fulfilled as I am now.”

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The Freedom of Surrender

Luke 9:23

The key to joy and peace in your walk with God.

1. Surrender is an unnatural response.

2. The three truths of surrender.

4. Conditional surrender?

5. Tests of surrender.

6. The peace of surrender.

#4103

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Guidance For Your Journey

Where to go when you need direction for your life.

Real Christians stop and ask for directions.

A. Why we wander on our own.

1. We have not because we ask not.

2. We ask, but with wrong motives.

God's primary concern is not the outward appearance, but the heart.

B. The voice of ancient guidance.

1. Scripture.

2. Christian classics.

C. The voice of contemporary guidance.

D. The voice of personalized guidance.

E. The goal of guidance.

#4106

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The Listening Side of Prayer

Learn to listen to God in a world of incessant noise. How to hear God's voice above the clamor.

1. What is contemplative?

Why is simply sitting at His feet with no agenda so difficult - even

frightening?

2. Putting it into practice.

a. Meditate on scripture.

b. Sing and pray the Psalms.

c. Journal in prayer.

d. Take a walk in nature and listen to God speak to you through His

creation.

e. Be still before Him.

#4117

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Faith Under Fire

John 7:5

The prophet Jeremiah learned to surrender to God even when His plans seemed to lead repeatedly to disaster.

1. He surrendered his future.

a. His very purpose in life was put on the line.

b. His first lesson in faith was to receive God's plans without fear.

c. His calling will not be an easy one.

2. He surrendered his family.

3. He surrendered his reputation.

a. He faced ridicule.

4. He surrendered his life.

a. He is beaten and imprisoned.

5. He surrendered his hope.

a. The destruction of Israel was his greatest test.

b. Yet he emphasized God's promises.

c. He never lived to see the restoration of the nation.

Jeremiah stands as a model of faith.

1. He had a certainty of purpose.

2. He knew God's promises, believed them, and asked God to fulfill them.

3. Jeremiah understood obedience.

#4421

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(untitled)

In April of 1988, a TV cameraman jumped out of a plane with some

other skydivers. His goal was to record the exciting jump of the

skydivers as they fell to the earth. What's more, this footage was

shown on the local TV news, but not for the reasons why the cameraman

had originally recorded the event.

After several minutes of "free fall," the cameraman then filmed

the skydivers as they one by one opened their parachutes. Of course,

the final skydiver was the cameraman himself and the time came for him

to pull his parachute ripcord.

However, when the cameraman reached for his ripcord, he realized

to his horror and shock that he had no ripcord. It turns out that he

had completely forgotten to put on his parachute.

For the next several minutes, the cameraman was able to capture

the sheer terror as he ultimately fell to his death. Indeed, toward

the end of the film, the picture went berserk and eventually went

dead.

This story is not only tragic, but it is also ironic. Ironic

because the cameraman took a plunge into what appeared to be an

exciting and thrilling jump. But tragically, in a moment of foolish

carelessness, he made the worst mistake of his entire life: he jumped

to his own death. Yes, his faith had been based upon a parachute -- a

life support -- that wasn't there.

In the same way, if we based our lives upon anything other than

faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will make the biggest mistake

of our entire lives as well. That is, faith other than in Christ will

lead to our spiritual deaths! What's more, this spiritual death will

be for all eternity -- forever and ever!

Carried To A Better Place

There is a beautiful figure, in one of Wordsworth's poems, of a bird that is swept from Norway by a storm. It battles against the storm with desperate effort, eager to wing back again to Norway; but all in vain. At last it yields, thinking that the gale will carry it to death, and the gale carries it to sunny England, with its green meadows and its forest glades.

Ah, how many of us have been like that little voyager, fretting and fighting against the will of God! And we thought that life could never be the same again when we were carried seaward by the storm. Until at last, finding all was useless, perhaps yielding to the wind that bloweth where it listeth, we have been carried to a land that was far richer, where there were green pastures and still waters.

She Gave Up Disco and Drugs For God

Luke 15

[testimony changed from first person to third, below]

After I finished high school I decided to forget university and became a DJ in a disco instead. I spent everything I earned buying records, gambling, and doing drugs. Soon I was broke and in debt. Gone was the glamour this life once had.

In spite of the drugs and the music, I could not drown out the feeling that there was a God and I needed to learn more about Him. I remembered my mother telling me about God when I was a child. I remembered that we sometimes prayed together, but I sensed there had to be more to God and religion than just saying a prayer.

Late one night after I finished working at the disco, I went home and faced off with God. On my knees I literally shouted at God, “If You are here, and if You are real, then help me - now. I am willing to listen to You, but I need to know You are there and You can help me.”

I was in big financial trouble, and I knew I could not solve my problems myself, so I was willing to let God help me. I made a deal with God - I was willing to surrender my life to Him if He would help me. And God took me up on the deal, even though I had no idea at the time what “surrender” really meant.

I did not know where to start with God, but I entrusted my life into His hands, promising Him that I wanted to live according to His will if he would free me from the chains that bound me. And it worked: God took away my addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and gambling - all things that had chained me for years. I was free!

I felt great! I was sure God had done this, but I did not know yet how to live my life for God. Then one day I received a piece of paper that said, “I tried to contact you. Please give me a call.” A few weeks later I called the number. It was a pastor and he invited me for a meal and Bible study. I wasn’t sure about this. I wanted to see these Christians, find out what they were all about. The Holy Spirit impressed me to go, then to come back for another meeting. Soon I began to attend the weekly morning service.

I know now that the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I no longer wanted to fight against God and spiritual things; I was home. I continued attending the church. And I wondered why the people told me to be patient, to take time for Bible study and for talking with God. They were right though, even though I was so eager to move forward. But I slowed down, studied, grew deeper in my experience with God.

God never ripped anything away from me; instead, He showed me step-by-step what He wanted me to do. And as I look back over the past few years, I would ask to keep one thing. The music, the gambling, the “excitement”? No problem; I would rather have Jesus. God has a calling for me, and has given me a new life.

________

By Nicola Taubert, Stuttgart, Germany

=========================================

Converted to third person by Rev. Holwick:

After Nicola Taubert finished high school in Stuttgart, Germany, she decided not to go on to university and became a DJ in a disco instead. She spent everything she earned buying records, gambling, and doing drugs. Soon she was broke and in debt. The glamorous life she once had was a distant memory.

In spite of the drugs and the music, Nicola could not drown out the feeling that there was a God and she needed to learn more about Him. She remembered her mother telling her about God when she was a child. She remembered that they sometimes prayed together, but Nicola sensed there had to be more to God and religion than just saying a prayer.

Late one night after she finished working at the disco, Nicola went home and faced off with God. On her knees she literally shouted at God, “If You are here, and if You are real, then help me - now. I am willing to listen to You, but I need to know You are there and You can help me.”

Nicola was in big financial trouble, and she knew she could not solve her problems herself. She was willing to let God help her, so she made a deal: she would surrender her life to Him if He would help her. And God took her up on the deal, even though she had no idea at the time what “surrender” really meant.

Nicola did not know where to start with God, but she entrusted her life into His hands. She promised God that she wanted to live according to His will, if he would free her from the chains that bound her. And it worked: God took away her addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and gambling - all things that had chained her for years. She was free!

Nicola felt great! She was sure God had done this, but she did not know yet how to live her life for God. Then one day she received a piece of paper that said, “I tried to contact you. Please give me a call.” A few weeks later she called the number; it was a pastor and he invited her for a meal and Bible study. She hesitated, because she wasn’t sure what these Christians were all about. But the Holy Spirit impressed her to go, and she liked it so much she went back.

Soon she began to attend the weekly morning service.

Nicola knows now that the Holy Spirit was speaking to her. She no longer wanted to fight against God and spiritual things; she was home. She continues attending the church and is growing in her faith.

God never ripped anything away from her; instead, He showed her step-by-step what He wanted her to do. And as she looks back over the past few years, she would ask to keep one thing. The music, the gambling, the “excitement”? No -- she would rather keep Jesus.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #2379]

Joke

Three guys -- one from Massachusetts, one from Vermont

and one from Maine -- were fishing in a lake one day,

when Jesus walked across the water and joined them in

the boat.

When the three astonished men had settled down enough

to speak, the Maine guy asked humbly, "Jesus, I've

suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in

the Vietnam War ... Could you help me?"

"Of course, my son," Jesus said, and when he touched

the man's back he felt relief for the first time in

years.

The Vermonter, who wore very thick glasses and had a

hard time reading and driving , asked if Jesus could do

anything about his poor eyesight. Jesus smiled, removed

the man's glasses and tossed them into the lake. When

they hit the water, the man's eyes cleared and he could

see everything distinctly.

When Jesus turned to the Massachusetts man, the guy put

his hands out defensively -- "Don't touch me!" he

cried, "I'm on a disability pension."

Source: Eculaugh

(untitled)

WOMAN IN RAGS, GARBAGE

REVEALED AS HEIRESS

So read the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle

concerning a lady who was known as "Garbage Mary" who waspicked

up in a shopping mall in Delray Beach, Florida. She appeared to

be just another derelict whose mind had faded.Neighbors told

stories of her scrounging through garbage cans for food, which

she hoarded in her car and her two-bedroom apartment. There were

mounds of garbage in the small apartment, stuffed in the

refrigerator, the stove, the sink, the cabinets and the bathtub.

There were paths between the garbage. Other than in the kitchen,

there were no chairs to sit in because they were piled with

trash.

Police finally identified her as the daughter of a

well-to-do lawyer and bank director from Illinois who had died

several years earlier. In addition to the garbage the police

found Mobil Oil stock worth more than four hundred thousand

dollars, documents indicating ownership of oil fields in Kansas,

stock certificates from firms such as U.S. Steel, Uniroyal, and

Squibb, and passbooks for eight large bank accounts.

Garbage Mary was a millionaire who was living like a

derelict. Untold wealth was at her disposal, yet she scounged

through garbage rather than claim the resources that were rightly

hers by inheritance. Source: Max Anders, Thirty Days to Understanding the Bible, p. 57.

(untitled)

Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally know for his television series

Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He

admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church

he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience.

"My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly

joy far more intense than anything I had know before." But the "gloom

of grace," as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed

himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his

family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy

would prove to be an illusion. So he concluded, "I was too deeply

embedded in the world to change course." Our Daily Bread February 15,

1994

Mold Me To the Pattern

"When I stand at the judgment seat of CHRIST,

And He shows me His plan for me;

The plan of my life as it might have been,

Had He had His way and I see --

How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there;

And I would not yield my will --

Will there be grief in my Saviour's eyes --

Grief, though He loves me still?

He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,

Stripped of all but His grace,

While memory runs like a hunted thing,

Down the paths I cannot retrace.

When my desolate heart will well nigh break,

With tears that I cannot shed;

I shall cover my face with my empty hands,

I shall there bow my uncrowned head.

LORD, of the years that are left to me,

I give them to Thy hand,

Take me and break me, mold me to

The pattern Thou hast planned."

Signing With His Knee

Among those who sought Christ in New London, was one of

Connecticut's ablest lawyers, who prided himself on his intelligence

and rare eloquence. He had no confidence in what are called measures,

yet he was very anxious about his soul's salvation.

In a large meeting I proposed instead of an inquiry meeting, or

coming near the pulpit for prayer, that every person who was able

should kneel down by the seat they occupied. That each person who

kneeled should put his or her honor and veracity in the act as far as

they knew. That it should be fully understood between themselves and

God that when their knees touched the floor it should be the token of

a full surrender of their wills to God, never to be taken back, as far

as knowledge went, just as far as they understood themselves. That no

one should kneel this time except those who meant it as a token of a

full surrender.

This would be signing the deed with their knee. This lawyer began

to move his foot slowly and after a great struggle his knee reached

the floor.

He declared the moment his knee reached the floor, with his

veracity in the act, he felt the witness in his heart that he was born

again.

This action of the will unbolted the door of the heart so that the

Spirit entered and imparted life to the dead affections.

Reader, if you have not already done it, will you promptly "go and

do likewise." -- A. B. Earle, From: "Incidents Used ... In His

Meetings," published in 1888

No Conditions

Among the deeply anxious inquirers in one of my meetings in New

York was one of the professors in a college. For weeks he earnestly

sought to become a Christian, but to no avail. We all wondered what

could be in his way. I asked him if he kept back anything, or if he

knew of any sin he was unwilling to give up. He knew of nothing.

After a long search we found his difficulty. It was this. He had

fully decided that no one should know his feelings until he was sure

himself he was a Christian. We asked him if he would go into the

inquiry meeting, or rise, or go forward for prayer. He said no. We

asked him if he would like to have us pray for him.

"Do just as you please," would be his reply.

And yet, as soon as he could reach his room alone, he would shut

his door, and plead to become a Christian. He would remind God of his

direction to enter his closet and shut the door and pray. He did this

for forty days. But no light. He believed he could find Christ without

letting any one know his feelings, or asking them to pray for him.

This was true; but he could not find Christ until he was willing to

ask others to pray for him. He had a condition, and that was that he

would not ask any one to pray for him until he knew he was a

Christian. He could not be converted in the closet or out of it, until

this condition was given up. So he struggled on for a long time

without peace. At last he was led to ask if it was possible that it

was because he was unwilling to ask any one to pray for him. He was

honest and sincere, and thought he was doing right. He finally said:

"If this condition is in the way, I will give it up," and left his

room to do what he had said he would never do, and that was to get

some one to pray with and for him, and only got to the foot of the

stairs before he found great peace and light. It was then an

unconditional surrender. All conditions must be abandoned before

conversion. -- A. B. Earle, From: "Incidents Used ... In His

Meetings," published in 1888

Holding A Straw

I found a business man in Albany, who said he had been earnestly

seeking Christ for fifteen years, yet to no avail. He was holding to a

straw. It was this. He had said he would never go to an anxious seat

to become a Christian He believed one seat was as good as another. And

so he prayed earnestly, and sought for fifteen long years to become a

Christian, but had not succeeded.

The difficulty was not in a particular seat, but in his will. There

was one thing he would not do, yet it would not have been sinful for

him to have done that thing. He found that the will held as firmly

upon a straw as it could upon a mountain; that he could not have his

way about the least thing, and become a Christian. There must be an

unconditional surrender of the will to God, before God can get full

possession of the dead affections of the heart, to quicken them into

life.

This man would go into an inquiry meeting; he would rise in a large

meeting, and ask Christians to pray for him. He knew of no sin in his

life that he had not given up, and wondered why he could not find

peace.

At last I asked him to leave the seat he then occupied in a large

meeting, and come and kneel with me near the pulpit. This was the very

thing he had said he would never do. His pride and will rose in a

desperate struggle. Should he do, at the invitation of a stranger,

what he had said he would never do? Could there be any virtue in a

particular seat? (The result showed him the seat had nothing to do

with his conversion.) The difficulty was in his will. At last he said:

"I will give up, and do what I have refused to do for fifteen

years."

He started to come to a front seat, and before he had gone half way

to that seat, he felt in his heart that his sins were gone, and that

he was "a new creature in Christ Jesus." It was not the measure, but

the will in the way. He might have sought Christ fifteen years longer,

and died without becoming a Christian, if he had not given up that one

condition. The will was holding to a mere straw.

When I was leaving he called to urge me to tell every one about

him, and entreat them not to lose their souls by doing as he had done

for fifteen years. -- A. B. Earle, From: "Incidents Used ... In His

Meetings," published in 1888

Colt and all, Lord

A gentleman was at the altar praying earnestly. He prayed on and

on

but did not seem to make any progress. Finally, he threw up his hands,

and cried, "Colt and all, Lord! Colt and all." Immediately the fire

fell and he was blessedly saved. Then someone said to him, "What did

you mean by saying 'Colt and all Lord'?"

"Oh," said he, "you know that I am a race horse man. I have a

number

of race horses, but one fire colt on which I have expended much care.

I

felt sure that he would outrun anything on the track and I just wanted

to

see him run one time. I told the Lord I would give up the race horse

business but I just wanted to see this fire colt run one time and then

I

would give him up, too. But I could not get anywhere as long as I held

on

to this colt and I was about to go to hell. I was about to fall in and

I

decided I had better give him up too, so I said, "Colt and all, Lord.'

Then the blessing came."

Sometimes it may be a lack of faith but we believe too often it is

a colt that is hindering and, if we will just let all colts go, faith

will naturally rise and take hold of the Lord.

By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."

Answer Now

Suppose yourself placed in the same position as King Antiochus. When

the Roman ambassador met him, and asked him whether it was to be

peace, or war, he said he must have time to consider. The ambassador,

with his sword, drew a circle in the sand. "Give an answer," he said,

"before you move out of that circle, or if you step out of it, your

answer is war." I think there is such a phase in a man's life, when he

must give a prompt reply. I know what that answer will be, unless God,

the Holy Ghost, makes you give the right one, but you must give it one

way or the other, and if the man saith: "No, I will give no answer

yet," if he step beyond that appointed hour, it is war between him and

God forever, and the sword shall never be sheathed nor go back into

its scabbard. He hath thrown down the gauntlet by refusing to give a

decisive pledge of obedience. The Lord hath declared eternal war

against him, and peace shall not be made forever. Before you go

farther, which shall it be? --C. H. Spurgeon

Complete Surrender

It is related in Roman history when the people of Collatia

stipulated about their surrender to the authority and protection of

Rome, the question asked was, "Do you deliver up yourselves, the

Collatine people, your city, your fields, your water, your bounds,

your temples, your utensils, all things that are yours, both human and

divine, into the hands of the people of Rome?" On their replying, "We

deliver you all," they were received. --Topical Illustrations

Jealousy Should Not Deny the Master

Mendelssohn, it is said, once visited that cathedral at Fridbourg, and, having heard the great organ, went into the organ loft and asked to be allowed to play it. The old organist, in jealousy for his instrument, at first refused, but was afterward prevailed on to allow the great German composer to try the colossal “thunder” of the cathedral. And after standing by in an ecstasy of delight and amazement for a few moments, he suddenly laid his hands on the shoulders of the inspired musician and exclaimed: “Who are you? What is your name?” “Mendelssohn,” replied the player. “And can it be! that I had so nearly refused to let Mendelssohn touch this organ!”

How little the Lord’s people know what they are doing when they refuse to let Christ have full possession of their entire life and evoke the full melody and harmony of which it is capable!

Let Go and Let God

Some few years ago a university student was listening to a Bible

reading on the first chapter of Genesis. The speaker described God in

His work of turning chaos into cosmos, and he played on the word

"let", "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light," and

urged his hearers to "let God." This young man went home with the Word

of God ringing in his ears and he could not get rid of them. He carved

them out in wooden letters, threaded them on a string and hung them in

his dressing room. "Let God!" But how could he "let God"? It meant so

much. And then one morning in desperation he banged his bathroom door

as he went out, saying, "I cannot let God." When he came back the "d"

from his legend was missing and it read, "Let go." And he saw his

difficulty. He saw the thing to which he was clinging, which kept him

from blessing, and he "let go" and "let God." --Moody Monthly

Surrender, Or..

Aachen had been surrounded by the American forces. Hitler had sent

orders to the Nazi commander to stand and die in the city's defense.

But the American commander gave the city an opportunity to surrender

before destroying it. Lt. General Courtney H. Hodges sent an ultimatum

to the Nazi commander and to the mayor of this city of 165,O00 souls.

Then thousands of leaflets were dropped into the city by shellfire,

appealing to the troops and citizens of Aachen to surrender and thus

prevent needless bloodshed.

"Aachen is encircled," read the leaflets, "American troops surround

the city. The German command cannot relieve you. "People of Aachen!

The time has come for honorable surrender. We Americans do not wage

war on innocent civilians. But if the leaders insist on further

sacrifice, we have no course but to destroy your city. "There is no

time to lose. On our airfields, bombers are waiting for final orders

to take off. Our artillery surrounding the city is ready to fire.

People of Aachen, act quickly. Tomorrow may be too late. There is only

one choice, immediate surrender or complete destruction."

But the Germans did not surrender. Great destruction ensued! How

like Christ-rejectors today! They are warned to flee from the coming

wrath. They are warned of the doom of Christ-rejectors. Still, they

heedlessly hotfoot the road of vice, whose terminus is endless remorse

and separation from God! All who go to hell, go there as usurpers. It

is a prepared place for the devil and his angels. O, how much God has

done to save souls from Hell! He gave His Son to die a vicarious death

to save men from the eternal burnings! --W. B. Knight

To Whom We Surrender To Be Saved

An escaped prisoner in the Civil War wandered for many days and

nights seeking the Union lines. At last, in the dusk of the early

twilight, he came to a camp which he supposed belonged to the

Confederates. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by the pickets and

captured, to be hurried back to prison as he thought. But what was his

surprise and joy on looking a little closer, to find that it was the

Union blue and not the Confederate gray that the soldiers wore. He had

been captured by his friends. When he thought that his friends were

far away, they were all about him.

Oh, wanderer and fugitive from God, lift up your eyes; the hosts of

your friends surround you! God is near you. Jesus Christ is by your

side. The Holy Spirit is hovering over you. The opening of your

spiritual eyes will reveal it all. --Francis E. Clark

Where She Found Christ

A little girl was once asked where she found Jesus. She replied,

"Just where I lost myself." How true! In just this way every spiritual

blessing is received from Jesus Christ our Lord.-Albert P. Graves

He Gave Up

Joel 2:24

Henry Luce got a new machine for mailing out ads to customers and prospective customers of Life Magazine. He put his data into the new machine and it worked great, until one day, the day of reckoning, came. It was one of those humid days in New York when everything in town sticks to everything else, and you get up from your chair and the chair gets up with you and you shake hands with a friend and you have to be pried apart. It didn’t occur to anyone that the new machine might have gotten stuck just like the human beings were being stuck.

It was clicking away merrily. But the plates had gotten stuck in the machine, and nobody knew anything about it until a few days later when a lone sheepherder out in Montana suddenly received 12,634 letters asking him to buy Life. The little town had not had that much mail in its history. They had to hire a special truck to put all the letters in two big burlap bags and they delivered them to the sheepherder’s porch.

That night when he came, wending his way slowly over the lea, he saw the mail on the veranda with some surprise, because he hadn’t even gotten a postal card from the Book-of-the-Month Club for six months. He, carefully, opened one of the bags with a knife, and started reading his mail. After he read about thirty-four of these letters, he got the general idea. And he went into his little house and made out a check for $6 and sent it personally to Mr. Henry Luce, with a note saying, “I give up.”

(This might be used to illustrate how the overflowing manifestation of Christ’s love can bring about the surrender of one who is overwhelmed by the repeated tokens of God’s love for him. This flood might emanate from many, or from just one Spirit-filled Christian -- D.V.M.)

(untitled)

James Stewart writes, "Lord here am I. I really want to let you

in, but I have so little faith. I have forgotten how to pray. I am

just an ordinary, unspiritual creature. I have tried to open the door

but Lord there is the rust, the accumulated rust of years upon the

bolts. You must do it for me, break through! Smash that rusty lock,

batter my heart three personed God."

Like the Master

Ephesians 4:17

Like The Master

Read: Ephesians 4:17-24

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. --Galatians 2:20

A young boy knocked at the studio door of an Italian artist who had died. When it was opened, he explained, "Please, madam, will you give me the master's brush?"

The boy, who had a passionate longing to be an artist, wished for the great master's touch. The woman placed the brush in the boy's hand and invited him to try.

He made a supreme effort but soon found he could paint no better with that brush than with his own. The woman then said, "Remember, you cannot paint like the great master unless you have his spirit."

So too, people who have never been born again are doomed to disappointment and failure when they attempt to live in a way that pleases God. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, they cannot do it.

Perhaps you have experienced the new birth and you have Christ's Spirit living within you, yet you feel so powerless. The reason may be that though you have all of His Spirit, His Spirit does not have all of you. All your ambitions and desires must be submitted to His control.

The greatness of the power and effectiveness of your service for Christ is in exact proportion to the measure of your surrender to Christ. --Henry G. Bosch

Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord!

Oh, to be lost in Thee!

Oh, that it might be no more I,

But Christ who lives in me! --Whiddington

Christ is seen most clearly when we remain in the background.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Mark 15:24

1. When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ, my God;

All the vain things that charm me most —

I sacrifice them to His blood.

3. See, from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small:

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

[Tune “Hamburg”]

*

I Surrender All

1. All to Jesus I surrender;

All to Him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust Him,

In His presence daily live.

Chorus

I surrender all,

All to thee, my blessed Saviour,

I surrender all.

2. All to Jesus I surrender;

Humbly at His feet I bow,

Worldly pleasures all forsaken;

Take me, Jesus, take me now.

3. All to Jesus I surrender;

Make me, Saviour, wholly Thine;

Fill me with Thy love and power;

Truly know that Thou art mine.

4. All to Jesus I surrender;

Lord, I give myself to Thee;

Fill me with Thy love and power;

Let Thy blessing fall on me.

5. All to Jesus I surrender;

Now I feel the sacred flame.

O the joy of full salvation!

Glory, glory, to His name!

The Most Powerful Prayer You'll Ever Pray

Mark 5:24

When you've been sick in bed for six weeks, you can get pretty desperate for things to do. And that's why, during an extended convalescence some years ago, my wife Karen spent so long just watching a frustrated lady bug. Karen had been sick long enough, okay? The kids and I were at a conference where I was speaking, all of our closest friends were out of town, and Karen - well, frankly, unbeknownst to us, she was struggling with her situation. And then along came Ladybug. She was trying to climb up our bedroom window when she came to this little metal strip. Karen described to me how that ladybug tried to come at that bump from every direction, but she just couldn't get over that tiny obstacle, even with her most heroic efforts. And Karen just lay there thinking, "Why can't you get over this little thing?"

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Powerful Prayer You'll Ever Pray."

Struggling with her attitude on a lonely bedridden weekend, my wife suddenly saw herself in that frustrated little ladybug. It was as if God was saying to Karen what she was saying to that insect, "Why can't you get over this little thing?" And in that moment, she just gave up the fight to the Lord. Minutes later, a bouquet arrived at the door - as if the Lord Himself had sent the flowers.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 5:24. "A large crowd followed and pressed around Jesus. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak, because she thought, 'If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.' Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."

This dear lady had tried everything she knew to find a solution. She had given up on doctors, on buying a cure ... she was desperate. And in her desperation, she knew there was only one hope left - lunging for Jesus. And it's that kind of desperation that gives birth to a miracle - for her ... for you.

Which leads us to the most powerful prayer you can pray. "Lord, I give up." It could be those three words are all that's keeping you from a supernatural answer - "I give up." You've been like that frustrated ladybug my wife watched for so long trying to climb our window. You've reached an obstacle that you just can't get over. And you've been struggling so hard to find or concoct an answer, that you've limited yourself to you getting yourself over this. You've come at it from one direction, then another, only to end up frustrated and unsuccessful every time.

Your Lord is saying, "You've tried everything, My child. None of your schemes, none of your efforts has done it. You've got your fingerprints all over everything from trying to make it happen. And now you're tired and you're frustrated. You're out of options. Are you ready for Me to take over?" Sure, you've been praying about it, but not that impassioned prayer of total desperation, of total surrender. And desperation is the heart condition with which God can do the most. And as long as you think you can do it, you'll never be desperate enough to surrender and leave it totally up to God.

It's time to finally get out of God's way and let Him do what He wants to do, what only He can do. You may be on the edge of experiencing His power in a greater way than ever before. And that power comes right after, "Lord, I give up" - the most powerful prayer you'll ever pray.

________________

*

How To Win When You've Been Losing

1 Chronicles 13

As part of our ministry among Native American young people, our sons have been helping out with the local high school football team. Now, that's a team that hasn't known much about winning until this past season. The players are pretty much the same as last year, but their record was dramatically different this year. Last year, they won only one game. This year they were undefeated and even went to the state playoffs. Everybody was in shock! You could tell it was going to be a great season after one of their very early games - they soundly defeated a team that, last year, beat them 59-0! And what was the difference? Pretty much same players. Pretty much same opponents, but a new coach. He knew what to do with that team!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “How to Win When You've Been Losing.”

It's amazing what a difference the right coach can make - maybe even for you right now. It's seemed like a losing season, and you're getting discouraged and depleted. But maybe a new season begins when you get a new coach. So many times, our losing seasons are when we're coaching our life - doing it our way, doing it the same old way, doing it the easy way. But not necessarily doing it God's way.

In our word for today from the Word of God, we discover the expensive lesson King David learned about letting God call the plays. As Israel's new king, David was determined to bring the Ark of God back to God's people. 1 Chronicles 13, beginning with verse 7, describes the moving of the Ark on a new cart, pulled by oxen. The account says, “Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark because the oxen stumbled.” The Bible says that Uzzah died on the spot that day, struck down for touching this holy object that no one was suppose to touch.

In 1 Chronicles 15, David tries again to bring back the ark - only this time, listening to a different coach. Verse 2 says, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord ... It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of Him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” At that point, the Levites did it as God had said to do it over the years - carrying it on their shoulders, suspended on poles - so no man touched what represented the personal presence of a holy God.

Bottom line - when David called the play, he lost. When he let God call the play - when he did it God's way, he won. That's how it always works. And maybe you've been losing because you've been doing it your way or their way, not His way - how you've been running your business ... your love life ... things you've been trying to do in your ministry ... in your family ... how you've been spending ... how you've been trying to fix things. You've been trying to figure out why it isn't working. It may be something good you're trying to do - but not in God's way and not in God's time. And, just like David, your dream is turning into a nightmare.

But David got it back - because he got back to God's way. That's what's going to turn around this losing season for you. It's the only thing that's going to turn it around. God's way may seem harder ... longer ... and it will mean surrendering you way to His way. But there's no other way to win.

________________

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #18690]

(untitled)

Acts 21:1

Surrender

Read: Acts 21:1-14

When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The will of the Lord be done. --Acts 21:14

In the early 1940s, the president of Dallas Seminary, Lewis Sperry Chafer, gave a very brief banquet speech. Introduced after a long program, he announced his subject: "The Reasonableness Of Fully Surrendering Our Lives To God." Then, because of the lateness of the hour, he gave only the three points of his message.

Reason 1: God is all-wise and knows better than anyone else what is best for my life.

Reason 2: He is almighty and has the power to accomplish what is best for me.

Reason 3: God loves me more than anyone else does.

Chafer concluded, "Therefore the most logical thing I can do is surrender my life to God. What more can I say? What more need I say?"

The apostle Paul had the same conviction. He knew that prison and hardship awaited him in Jerusalem, but he also knew that God wanted him to go (Acts 20:22-23). Even his sorrowing friends wisely concluded, "The will of the Lord be done" (21:14). They knew that Paul was right.

No matter what happens, when we do God's will we're in the safest place in all the world. The Lord is all-wise, almighty, and all-loving. Doesn't it make sense to surrender your life to Him? --HVL

All to Jesus I surrender,

All to Him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust Him,

In His presence daily live. --Van de Venter

Surrender means victory when we surrender to God.

Japan's Wartime 'No Surrender' Soldier Dies of Heart Attack

A Japanese soldier who stayed in the jungles of Guam for 26 years after the end of World War II in adherence to the Imperial Army's code of never surrender has died of a heart attack, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Shoichi Yokoi, 82, became a national hero on his return to Japan in 1972 for his dramatic tale of survival.

His first words upon arriving in Tokyo -- "It is with much embarrassment that I return" -- were broadcast nationally and instantly became a popular saying.

He died Monday at a hospital in the central city of Nagoya, in his native Aichi prefecture.

Yokoi's exploits in the jungle fascinated the nation. The Japanese, in the throes of the post-war industrial boom, were intrigued by his bare diet of nuts, berries, frogs, snails and rats, and how he wove materials from tree bark.

His return triggered a search for other Japanese soldiers left from the war, and turned up another straggler in 1974, this time in the Philippines.

Unlike Yokoi, whose rifle had rusted and become useless, former Lt. Hiroo Onoda had kept a working firearm and killed several villagers before he was discovered in the Philippine jungle.

Yokoi, a former sergeant, was drafted into the army in 1941 and sent to northeastern China, and later to Guam. Japan occupied Guam during the war and most of its 22,000 troops were killed when U.S. troops recaptured the island in 1944.

Two local hunters discovered him in January 1972 in a remote Guam jungle wearing a pair of burlap pants and a shirt which he said he had made from the bark of a tree.

He was repatriated to Japan a month later where he started life over in a country and a world he hardly knew.

Japan had then become a nation without an army, just beginning to emerge as an industrialized power. Upon his return, Yokoi, who had been reported as killed in action, was dumbfounded by the changes that had occurred since he left on a military transport more than a quarter century ago.

At the first news conference since his homecoming, Yokoi, surrounded by reporters and photographers after nearly three decades in complete jungle isolation, appeared bewildered and was unable to answer questions posed to him.

He contracted an arranged marriage in November 1972, and traded his solitary cave in Guam for a home in Aichi Prefecture with his new wife Mihoko.

He became a regular commentator on television programs, where he discussed survival skills. He wrote a best-selling book on his experience in Guam and in 1974 ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Japan's upper house of parliament.

On Tuesday, friends and neighbors visited Yokoi's home in Nagoya to pay tribute to Japan's man who "never surrendered," Kyodo news agency reported.

Yokoi's wife Mihoko, 69, told reporters she felt she had lost "a treasure from my heart," Kyodo reported.

"We have had 25 years of happy life, and I told my husband 'Thank you'," Kyodo quoted her as saying.

In 1991, Yokoi had an audience with Emperor Akihito during a reception at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Yokoi, who had said upon his return that he regretted having failed to serve the Imperial Japanese Army well, was overcome with emotion when he met the emperor, media reports said.

^REUTER@

Surrender To the Higher Power

Psalms 61:1

Sermon in Twelve Step series Psalm 61:1-8

SURRENDER TO THE HIGHER POWER

=============================

Step #2: Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can

restore us to sanity.

Step #3: Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to

the care of God as we understand him.

I. Some things are bigger than we are.

II. Small things can get large enough to destroy us.

A. Our habits and relationships can become dangerous.

B. A definition of addiction.

C. The epiphany of inadequacy.

III. "God as we understand him."

A. Oxford Group: openness to people who are searching.

B. Are we defining God, or allowing him to define us?

C. We must understand God as Bible portrays him.

IV. God is higher than we are.

A. God is bigger than our thoughts.

B. God is bigger than our problems.

V. Surrendering to the Higher Power.

A. "Let go, and let God."

B. We must turn our will over to God.

C. Obedience - doing what God says.

D. How surrendered are you?

Giving Your Staff To God

Exodus 4:17

”But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it” — Exodus 4:17

What is the staff God has put into your hand? Is it being a builder? Is it being an office worker? Is it being a doctor? Moses’ staff represented his vocation as a shepherd. God had something in mind for his vocation — to perform miracles. And awesome miracles He did! God turned the Nile River into blood with the touch of the staff. He turned the staff into a snake. He parted the Red Sea with it. These are just a few of the miracles God did with that staff.

When we yield our talents and abilities to the Lord, God can perform miracles through them. First, Moses had to yield what He had in his hand to God. It was only after this took place that God could use that staff. As long as he held onto it, God could not and would not perform miracles through it.

Until we come to this place with our Heavenly Father, we will fail to see miracles performed in our work. He delights in showing His power through us. When we become an open vessel, we can expect to see things happen.

Have you given your staff to the Lord? Offer it to Him and see what He might want to do through it. Your life will never be the same.

Three Reasons Why

Acts 15:25

”Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives (lit: handed themselves over) for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 15:25-26).

When as guilty sinners we come to Christ for salvation, there are no conditions to fulfill, as long as we truly repent and receive Him, because salvation from eternal ruin is all of grace. But if, having become “a member of Christ, and a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven”, you or I desire to enjoy the fullness of fellowship with Christ, then there are conditions which must be fulfilled. In fact, there is one big condition that includes all others: we must be entirely yielded to Him of our own free will, like Paul and Barnabas — “men who have handed themselves over.” whatever the cost, we must be “handed over”; and there are three big reasons for this.

First, He cannot fully use us until we are fully His.. Horatio Nelson, whose name shines as the most illustrious of all of Britain’s naval commanders, had many remarkable episodes in his eventful life. During an engagement with the French, he managed to capture a French man-of-war. The captured officer-in-command, when brought into Nelson’s presence, held out his hand as if to congratulate the victor. “No,” said Nelson; “Give me your sword first, and then your hand.” The handed-over sword was the token of a complete surrender. Our Lord Jesus insists on nothing less; for until we are handed over completely, self-will continually frustrates His will in our life.

Second, until we are completely handed over we miss the highest and the best. Nothing else so elevates the mind. Nothing else makes our life so eternally significant. Nothing else gives us such value in service. Nothing else brings such joy or peace or final reward.

Third, our dear Lord is altogether worthy of us being handed over completely to Him. A radiant Christian man who lay dying kept repeating, “Bring… bring… bring.” They brought various things to him to ease his pain, but he shook his head. At last, just before he died, he stammered out the full sentence:

“Bring forth the royal diadem,

and crown Him Lord of all.”

This dear brother had perhaps seen a vision of Christ to lift his harassed spirit above the struggles that accompanied his poor, tired body. It is good to pass into Heaven exclaiming, “Crown Him Lord of all.” It is even better not to wait until then. In the fuller light of Heaven we shall know absolutely how worthy Jesus is to wear the crown of alltranscendent dominion; but should we not see it clear enough here and now, to give Him complete lordship over our lives?

No matter how difficult this lifelong hand-over may be to the “flesh”, love can make it easier. Indeed, it is really a question as to which of the two shall win – love of Christ, or love of self.

— the Evangelist, news-magazine of the Evangelical Tract Distributors, P.O. Box 146, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 2G9 –1-780-477-1538 – www.evangelicaltract.com – support@evangelicaltract.com

Rest For the Weary

Matthew 11:28

Does the phrase “rest for the weary” evoke in you feelings of longing? In our society, although our conveniences are always increasing, our obligations and worries seem to increase at least twice as fast. We may get adequate physical rest, but many find themselves with nowhere to go to find rest for their souls. Although our fast-paced lifestyles may add to our exhaustion, soul-weariness is symptomatic of a universal human need for rest. This need was just as prevalent in first-century Israel as it is today, and Jesus spoke to it. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”(Matthew 11:28-30, NIV).

The yoke is a puzzling metaphor. At first glance it sounds wholly unfitting to ask a weary person to take up a yoke and pull a load. We are already burdened; does coming to Jesus mean we will be asked to carry an even heavier load? To understand this metaphor, we must think about a yoke and the purpose it serves. A yoke is not merely a harness connecting an ox to its load; a yoke is a crossbeam that connects two oxen to the same load, distributing the weight between them. When Jesus invites us to take his yoke upon us, we do not lift it off his shoulders onto our own. On the contrary, we become yoked to Christ, pulling the load together.

Yet this still does not seem right. Jesus certainly does not need our help. It is we who need his help, for we cannot pull our load on our own. The truth is, when we yoke our selves to Jesus, he starts pulling the load that we have been trying to pull on our own. His strength is so great that what was heavy becomes light. When we yoke our selves to Jesus, we do not pull even half the load because his strength is infinite. What we learn from Jesus is how to keep in step with him as he pulls. I remember as a little child trying to “help” a taller, stronger adult move a piece of furniture. I lifted and felt the weight of the load, but soon it became light as it was lifted over my waist, raised by stronger arms. I still held on, determined to do my share of the lifting, but the most I could do was keep in stride with the one really moving the load. Jesus is taller and stronger than we are, and when we are yoked to him our burden becomes easy and light.

Yet, even when we have been yoked to Christ for a long time, it sometimes still feels like we are carrying all our own burdens. This is because when we start concentrating on the size of our burdens, we forget to keep in step with Christ and try to start pulling on our own. We trip up and the weight gets shifted back to our shoulders, though Jesus is always willing to lighten it again. It is our pride that drives us to pull our own load. God knows that this is our tendency, his Word commands us: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7, NIV).

We have come to a point of full surrender when we are convinced that Jesus is not merely helping us; rather, he's actually pulling the whole load. Whether the burden is guilt, debt, problems with people, anxiety about the future, insecurity, or all of the above, we are meant to bring it to Jesus and consciously give it to Him. As we continually allow him to carry the weight, we will find the rest he promises. If you are weary today, come; take his yoke upon you and learn from him, and you will find rest for your soul.

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A Cup of Rice - Or A Bag of Gold

2 Corinthians 8:9

It was many centuries ago in a remote village in India. Word began to spread that something was about to happen that no one had seen in their lifetime - the prince was coming to visit this forgotten little village. Of course, everyone was excited - but no one was more excited than the village beggar. Every day he eked out another day by sitting by the road with his little cup, hoping to get enough money to buy some rice to live one more day. He actually had two cups - one for collecting money and one for his few grains of rice. But now the prince was coming - I mean, the wealthy prince! When the prince finally arrived, the beggar mustered his most impassioned appeal - “Alms! Alms for the poor!” And the prince stopped. The beggar's heart was pounding furiously.

“Give me your cup of rice.” That was all the prince said. The beggar slumped down in disbelief. Here was the wealthiest man in the land, asking for his lousy little cup of rice. The beggar was about to refuse, but instead he reached in and he put three grains of rice in the prince's hand. The prince turned to his servant and said, “Bring me the bag of gold.” The beggar could hardly contain himself as he eagerly stretched out his empty collection cup. The prince reached into his bag - and placed three grains of gold in the beggar's cup. And then he disappeared, never to return - but leaving the beggar to wonder for the rest of his life - what would have happened if I had given him my whole cup of rice?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “A Cup of Rice - or a Bag of Gold?”

Jesus, the Prince of Heaven, may be passing your way today - with so much to give you. The forgiveness of every sin you've ever committed, a new beginning, the peace that has eluded you your whole lifetime, eternity with Him in heaven. He wants to make you spiritually rich.

In fact, it was very expensive for Him to be able to offer you the heaven you don't deserve instead of the death penalty your sin does deserve. In our word for today from the Word of God, God describes the unspeakable sacrifice Jesus made to rescue you. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (that means undeserved love), that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

When God's Son, Prince of Heaven, is hanging on that blood-stained cross, He is totally impoverishing Himself so you can have God's love, and God's resources, and God's heaven. It's hard for us to see that we are the beggar - but the Bible says we're spiritually bankrupt because our running of our own life has cut us off from our Creator. Only Jesus can bring us back. God says, “While we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

Your life is as big as you can make it - and it's nowhere near enough, is it? Jesus is passing by you today, asking you to turn over to Him the life He died for.

If you're ready to trade what you have for what Jesus has, tell Him right now that you're putting all your trust in Him.

Please, don't make the eternal mistake of hanging tightly onto your little cup of rice - and missing Jesus' bag of gold.

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The Wildness Inside

Luke 19:30

There was a movie a few years ago called, “The Horse Whisperer.” I thought that was about a man with laryngitis, but it's actually about this man who has an amazing ability to gentle horses that it seems no one else can tame. In fact, the main character was modeled after a real man whose skill in gentling and training wild mustangs is almost legendary. In the past, people have used some pretty brutal methods to force a horse into submission. But the real horse whisperer doesn't “break horses.” He uses body language and, yes, quiet talking as tools to gentle a horse that otherwise would be uncontrollable.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Wildness Inside.”

We've all got it - a wildness inside us. Or to use the language of “Star Wars,” it's the dark side we all have. We can hide and suppress the animal inside us some of the time, but then there are times when it takes over. The wildness can erupt in an angry outburst, in a selfish lashing-out, in a sexual sin, in words that cut people like chain saws, in unfaithfulness to the person we love, in our deception, our secret sin, our jealousy, our prejudice or criticism.

The things we've done because of the untamed animal inside us are the things that now make us feel ashamed and dirty inside. The things that hurt most the people we love most. But through the years, millions of men and women have experienced the miracle of the animal that once controlled them being brought under control by the Master - by Jesus Christ. No religion, even Christianity, can tame the animal inside us. It can only give us good things we can do to feel better about the bad things we do. No, it takes the power of the only man who ever walked out of His grave under His own power. It takes Jesus.

There's an amazing picture of His power that is just under the surface in the Bible's account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on the original Palm Sunday, just five days before He was crucified. In Luke 19, beginning with verse 30, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus tells two of His disciples to “Find a colt which no one has ever ridden.” Then, “they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.” At this point, this massive crowd starts shouting praises to Jesus. Now, imagine this: He's riding an unbroken colt through a screaming crowd who keep throwing things in his path. I'm thinking buckin' bronco here! Nope. He's as peaceful as a lamb.

It's a picture, when Jesus is aboard, the peace of Christ settles in and the untamed animal is gentled by the Master. Not by His force, but by His love. That's the miracle Jesus wants to do in your life. You need to do something about the wild and hurting animal inside for your sake, for your children's sake, for the sake of people you love; the people you hurt. Ultimately, this wildness the Bible calls sin will carry you all the way to hell. That's the eternal price for a life lived our way instead of God's way. But it's a price the Son of God has already paid when He loved you enough to pay for all your sin on an old rugged cross. This very day you can be forgiven of every wrong thing you've ever done. You can be set free from the guilt, and the shame, and the dark side.

But Jesus doesn't force His way into your life. He leaves the choice to you. Your new freedom, your new “clean inside” awaits your saying to Jesus, “I'm Yours.”

When Jesus comes aboard, His peace settles over your life, and tames what no one else could tame. It's your new beginning.

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Surrender At Gethsemane

Isaiah 53:3

Have you ever felt lonely? Have you ever felt as though your friends and family had abandoned you? Have you ever felt like you were misunderstood? Have you ever had a hard time understanding or submitting to the will of God for your life? If so, then you have an idea of what the Lord Jesus went through as He agonized at Gethsemane.

Heb 4:15-16 tells us

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Consider the fact that Jesus, who was God, was omniscient. He was all-knowing. Therefore, He was fully aware of the horrors of the crucifixion that awaited Him. He knew His disciples would abandon him. He knew Judas Iscariot would betray Him. He knew that Simon Peter would deny Him. He knew they would rip His back open, press a crown of thorns into His head, beat Him, spit in His face, and crucify Him. Worst of all, He knew that all the sins of the world would be placed upon Him.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was "a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). But the sorrow He experienced in Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion seemed to be the culmination of all the sorrow He had ever known and would accelerate to a climax the following day. The ultimate triumph that was to take place at Calvary was first accomplished beneath the gnarled old olive trees of Gethsemane.

Jesus told Peter, James, and John, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch" (Mark 14:34). Jesus' sorrow and anguish was so powerful, it threatened His very life. In the face of this dreadful prospect of bearing God's full fury against sin, Jesus knelt to the ground and began to pray. This was not a quiet whisper of a prayer. Hebrews 5:7 tells us, "While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God" (NLT). It is interesting that the very word Gethsemane means "olive press." Olives were pressed there to make oil, and truly, Jesus was being pressed from all sides that He might bring life to us. I don't think we can even begin to fathom what He was going through.

Maybe you are at a crisis point in your life right now, a personal Gethsemane, if you will. You have your will; you know what you want. Yet you can sense that God's will is different. Would you let the Lord choose for you? Would you be willing to say, "Lord, I am submitting my will to Yours. Not my will, but yours be done?" You will not regret making that decision.

Sometimes we are afraid to do this, because we have a false concept that God's will for us is not good. You might be thinking, "How about His plan for Jesus? That didn't seem very good." No question, it was very difficult for Jesus, to say the least. No question, He faced the full wrath of God against all sin. But look at what it accomplished. It brought about your salvation and mine. Because of what Jesus went through at Gethsemane, and ultimately at the cross, we can call upon His name. Though it was an unfathomably painful, horrific transition, it was necessary for the ultimate goal of what was accomplished.

Maybe you are going through a difficult time. Ultimately, it will be so much better if you allow the Lord to choose His plan for you. One day, you will be able to look back and say, "Lord, thank you for making that choice." God's plans for you are good. As Jeremiah tells us, the thoughts that God thinks toward you are "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (29:11 NKJV).

In our moments of uncertainty, in those times when we think that everyone has let us down, remember that Jesus has been there and is there for us. God's plans for you are so much better than the plans you have for yourself. Will you let Him choose?

A Cry of Surrender

John 6:16

I am often startled by the song I wake up singing, as if it had been playing in my head all night. Sometimes it seems as if the Spirit of God Himself plunges into the recesses of mind and memory, returning to the surface with a thought to begin the day. I am repeatedly thankful for the many hymns that linger there. A line from Augustus Toplady's Rock of Ages once echoed memorably:

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the Cross I cling.

The remaining lines didn't seem to make it to the surface. Perhaps they were not necessary. But with those two lines, my morning began. Before I could pick up either apprehension or confidence for the day I was thinking about the things I try to keep hold of while clinging to the Cross.

The hymnist's thought is at once a statement of fact: “I can bring nothing to God's throne that will mark my righteousness.” For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But is it not also a plea? “Help me to unclench my determined grip on these things I carry — my guilt, my sense of righteousness, my idea of you.” It is the heartened prayer of a believer, for though we latch on to these things inescapably, they too fall desperately short. It is like clinging to a security blanket while flailing about in a turbulent river. In its release is the beginning of our rescue. God in mercy must remove each one from our hands such that we can cling to Him totally.

Like children refusing to let go of the toys in our hands as we struggle to crawl into our father's lap, we live in God's presence with fingers wrapped around worries and people, false pride and false idols. Time after time, like a loving parent He asks us to surrender what blocks us from moving closer, removing what we refuse to surrender, shattering the things that block our vision. Such shattering, mused Lewis, almost seems one of the marks of his presence.

In the Gospel of John is a story marked with the shattering Jesus himself embodied. John reports, “When evening came, [the disciples] went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. But he said to them, 'It is I; don't be afraid'“ (John 6:16-20).

We have an idea of what God will look like in our lives when we let Him in. We have the designs laid out as we wait for an answered prayer that will make all else fit into place. When we are expecting to meet him on the shore and find him instead walking on water our expectations are left in ruins, our ideas are shattered. And Jesus still calls out, “I am here” as if to remind us, “what you were looking for is now among you.”

All too often I have found it is my very idea of Him He must shatter. Other times, it is a grudge or a fear that He gently pries out of my hands. Of this childlike struggle there seems to be no end. For no sooner than one false idol is shattered another one is formed at my hands. The calf is destroyed as I move the bricks of Babel into place. Even so, I am reminded of his mercy even in my sleep. Our most hopeful prayer is a cry of surrender: Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your Cross I cling.

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The King's Ready Servant

2 Samuel 15:15

Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint. — 2 Samuel 15:15.

If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait indoors today, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work outdoors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak or “show kindness” for His sake, or at least obey His command, “Be courteous”? If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if today’s appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue? — F. R. Havergal

I love to think that God appoints

My portion day by day;

Events of life are in His hand,

And I would only say,

Appoint them in Thine own good time,

And in Thine own best way. — A. L. Waring.

God's Way Is the Best

Proverbs 3:5

A popular song written in the late 1960s talks about someone looking back over his life and proudly proclaiming that he did it his way. At five different times, the unidentified person declares in a self-satisfied manner that he managed life his own way. The song’s theme is the exact opposite of how God has called believers to live. As Christ-followers, we are to submit to God’s plan and live according to it. How do we go about living God’s way?

Give Him our attention. We are to set aside our agendas and focus on our relationship with God and what pleases Him.

Receive God’s directions. We must obey any steps He has already revealed for our situation. Being confident God will answer, we should continue to ask what the subsequent steps are. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Act on divine command. This requires that we listen attentively to the Lord’s instructions. Learning to hear Him is a basic lesson in the Christian life. If we do not know how to listen to the Lord, how will we know when He has spoken? If we do not know what He has said, then how can we obey?

Accept what God provides as enough. God takes full responsibility for the life committed to Him and provides all that we need in order to obey. We are to act based on this truth (Philippians 4:13) even when our feelings say we have inadequate resources or skills.

What do your choices reveal: God’s way or your own? Commit to making the song of your life “I did it God’s way.”

First, You Must Stop Struggling

Mark 4:38

A story is told of a man taking a trip on an old wooden sailing ship. He was out on the deck one day and saw one of the crew-members climbing the ropes, going up to the crow’s nest. When he was about half way up, the ship pitched to one side and he was thrown overboard.

When he hit the water, he began to scream for help, and flail his arms wildly, as he struggled to survive. The traveler watched as a sailor walked over to the rail of the ship, and calmly observed the man in the water. After a short while the man in the water tired, and began to sink. Immediately the sailor standing by the rail jumped overboard, and rescued the drowning victim.

After both men were safely on board, the traveler went over to the rescuer and asked, “why did you wait so long to jump in the water and rescue this man?”

He calmly replied, “I have found that as long as a man is struggling in the water, there is a greater chance that he will get us both drowned if I jump in too quickly, and try to save him.” I have learned that it is better to let them struggle awhile, and when they come to the end of their own strength, I can then jump in and rescue them.

My friend, are you like the drowning man in the story? Have you fallen from your place of comfort and safety, and you are now struggling just to survive? Have you cried out to God to come and rescue you immediately? It is possible that the Lord is waiting until you have come to the end of yourself, and stop struggling in a vain attempt to save yourself, through any means. When you finally admit you can’t save yourself, God will jump into the water and save you!

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David Langerfeld, THE DAILY ENCOURAGER

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #14161]

All We Like Sheep

Luke 15:4

A news story from New Zealand caught the attention, and yes, bemusement, of people worldwide in April of this year [2004]. In the words of one Kiwi woman, “That's the biggest wooly I've ever seen!” She was referring to a nomadic merino sheep, promptly dubbed “Shrek”, who unbeknownst to his owner and his shearers, hid in a cave for six years. Sheep are normally sheared once a year. When Shrek was finally shorn — live on national television — his fleece measured 15 inches thick and weighed over 59 pounds. He has since met New Zealand's prime minister, raised over $100,000 for a children's charity, and thus rightfully earned his own office — with pictures, of course, of the prime minister and him adorning the barn wall.

On a recent trip to his beautiful country, I had the delight of meeting Shrek himself (he's a very personable sheep), his owner, and the world champion blade-shearer who was called in for the task. (Blade-shearing is nearly a lost art these days with the prevalence of machines, but the owner was advised that machine-shearing would have been too traumatic for this once-hermit sheep.) The owner said that had Shrek not been found and sheared, he probably would've died before the end of the year because his heavy fleece covered his eyes and made it difficult for him to forage for food, and even more, to stand up.

On the morning a friend and I observed the champion shearer and some of his mates at work, we were put in a stall with twenty or so merino sheep pressed against one another. While I wanted to take some pictures, I found myself drawn to trying to comfort the poor animals, but I guess they may have been even more frightened at our presence among them. Sheep are shorn at least yearly in order to keep their fleece from becoming water-logged and hence susceptible not only to infection and disease, but also to being cast (the inability to right themselves). As you might imagine, shearing is quite stressful on the animals as their wool is clipped nearly down to the skin. Many are often nicked and cut if they thrash about or find themselves in the hands of an unkind shearer. Indeed, I'm still trying to get one gruesome image I saw that morning — of a bloodied, dead sheep — out of my mind.

As I witnessed this champion shearer, Peter, at work, I noted that he worked quickly but carefully; there were hundreds of merinos still waiting their turn. Though I have a great fondness for sheep, they are admittedly dirty and dull creatures terrified by the least noise or movement. Who knows how many of them Peter had handled in over thirty years of shearing. Yet his eyes and hands exhibited tenderness and strength with each animal, and he was careful not to nick a one.

As I reflect on what I witnessed that morning and also on Shrek's story, I am reminded of the many times in the Scriptures that we as humans beings are compared to sheep. In several parables Jesus employs this pastoral metaphor to express our frailty and his compassion for each of us. In Matthew 18, he says with affection, “If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off” (vv. 12,13; cf. Luke 15:4-6). The prophet Isaiah also soberly reminds us (speaking of our sinfulness), “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa. 53:6a).

In truth, how often we behave like frightened and nomadic sheep, desperately wanting to be left to ourselves, dragging our dirty fleece for years to our destruction rather than surrender to its removal. Yet in the hands of a skillful shepherd or shearer, we need not run away or thrash about, though admittedly his work is sometimes uncomfortable. Jesus tells us that he is “the good shepherd,” and moreover, that “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). For as Isaiah continues, “...each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (53:6-7). Jesus put himself under the hands of fury that we might not have to endure such destruction. Might we not, then, surrender to his skillful hands, trusting in his tender words and care?

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Scars of Defeat

Genesis 32

French philosopher Michel de Montaigne once noted, “There are triumphant defeats that rival victories.” At first glance, his words fit awkwardly into the battles that currently fill my days with sweat or worry. Whether battling anxiousness or bidding in an auction, defeat is far from my goal. It is a word that, presumably for most of us, carries with it tender recollections of loss and disappointment. Past defeats always with us, even the smallest of victories in life's daily battles offers a hopeful sweetness. And perhaps this is even so, at least at first, in those victories of which we shouldn't be proud.

With his mother on his side, Jacob won the battle of wits over his brother and father. Posing as Esau before his blind and aging father, equipped with animal skin and stew, Jacob convinced his father of his status as the first born and lawful heir of the blessing. Shortly thereafter, a defeated Esau returned to find his younger brother promised all that was rightfully his own. Jacob won the battle, but was then forced to live on the run.

The battles we win at the expense of truth or at the expense of others have a way of staying with us. Years after the fight for firstborn, Jacob seemed to still be living in fear of that victorious scheme and the brother he defeated with lies. When word came that Esau (and the 400 men with him) were quickly approaching, Jacob suddenly stood at an impasse with no where else to run. And Genesis 32 reports that in the silence of the night before Jacob would face the brother he cheated, Jacob found himself in a battle once more: “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak” (32:24).

Along the road to surrendering to God, a battle is unavoidable. Moreover, there is much truth in the notion that our surrender is a fight that begins again every day as if nothing had yet been done. For Jacob, the battle over his heart took place in the moment when he found himself completely alone. With no one else to come to his aid, no possessions to bribe or barter with, stripped of all his usual tools of combat, Jacob wrestled with his attacker and found he was wrestling with God — and losing.

Physically broken, the socket of his hip having been dislocated, Jacob continued in a battle with words: “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” he told his assailant. Yet this time it was Jacob who was outwitted. “What is your name?” asked the one he wrestled with, a question hastening back to the lie that sealed Jacob's deceptive victories of the past. This time, he answered correctly, and though limping, Jacob walked away blessed.

In the presence of the one who moves mountains of sin, healing our past with his severe mercy and bringing us to the feet of God, we have reason to surrender as often as it is necessary. For we surrender to a fortress far mightier than our best days of battle. As the hymnist proclaims: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.” However often He must win, it is our most difficult but most triumphant loss. In this great surrendering we find, as Fredrick Buechner says, “the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.”

Carrying the scars of a fresh wound, the humbled Jacob limped toward the brother he betrayed, on his way to becoming the father of a great nation. Might we also be humbled by the God who refuses to leave despite the words we shout in protest and despite our constant refusal to surrender. Might we be awed by the God who says, “Follow me!” and expects us to trust that He will neither leave us nor forsake us. And might we marvel at the God who, carrying in his body the scars of defeat, invites us to the nearness that is our victory.

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100 Sermon Illustrations on Surrender