Surrender all?

7 July 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Last Sunday, at church, for the closing hymn, they sang “All to Jesus I Surrender”. Surprisingly, I was so mad I refused to sing it. Years ago that would have been one of my favorite hymns, but today I have gone well past the point of surrender, and the very concept angers me.

Towards the end of the 2^nd WW in Europe, Germany was within weeks of total collapse. The Russians were advancing on the eastern front and the Americans and British were closing in on the west. American President Roosevelt and Stalin had made an agreement on how to divide Germany up and the Americans were waiting on the Russians to advance. The Germans were terrified and sent a delegation to the Americans asking them to, “Please hurry. We want to surrender to you”. This is what surrender to Jesus looks like to me today. It is not a matter of walking forward waving a white flag, but with me on my knees pleading with Jesus to please take me. The options are terrifying. If Jesus doesn't accept me in my offering myself to Him, I am left to deal with the flesh or the devil to direct my life. And, of those two, I don't know which one is worse. For the Germans, if the Americans didn't take them, it was a matter of Hitler or the Russians.

I say I have never surrendered my life to Jesus. I didn't know you were supposed to. In 1956 I stood in a government room and raised my right hand pledging myself that I would be a soldier. With that I was inducted into the United Stats Air Force. After that I never surrendered myself to the Air Force. I made that decision when I joined up. From that time on my life was just a matter of receiving orders and following them. I thought it worked the same way with Jesus.

There is only one time that I remember that I had to make a decision to surrender. I was within weeks of completing my training as an Aviation Cadet. I had one final flying exam, and then I would get my wings. I had done very well in flying and had the reputation as being one of the best student pilots in my class. I had set a near record score on my mid-term instrument test, and no one was worried about how I would do on my final. The day came, and as I was making an ILS (instrument landing system), I got a total mental block. I couldn't read a compass. The instructor said, “I'm sorry, Cook, but if you had been by yourself you would have been killed.” That was the first time I had ever had a bad flight. It looked like my life had collapsed. I desperately wanted to be a fighter pilot, but it seemed that was not the will of God for me. I was going to call every Christian I knew and have them pray for me. But what should they pray for? Should they pray for a miracle that I could get my wings, or should they pray that God would give me grace to wash dishes in the mess hall if that was His will for my life? There was a fierce war in my heart. Fortunately, the Lord won the battle, and I surrendered to do the will of God – whatever that was. Thirty minutes after a measure of peace came to my heart, I was called in the Captains office. He handed me a paper and told me to sign. Oh my goodness, they are quick with elimination. I looked at it and it said, “60-4 Instrument Exam. Satisfactory check.” I asked, “Sir, what is this?” He said, “ILS is not required on a 60-4.” He had found a loop hole and passed me on my flight. I didn't earn my wings, Jesus gave them to me.

After that I can't ever recall surrendering anything to Jesus. But over the years I have lost every precious thing I ever owned. I have had many things that have been extremely close to my heart, but today there is not one that is left. Job never surrendered his children or his possessions, but he lost everything. When he was stripped bare, he looked up and said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). I have had to kneel beside Job and say “Amen” many times. These are not things I have surrendered. These are just things I have lost.

Surrender is letting go before hand. There was a very dear sister in our church in Greenville, SC., who had a very difficult marriage. The greatest joy of her life was her one son. One night, at church, the Lord was speaking to her that He wanted her to surrender her son to Him. For an hour Vivian agonized on her knees at the alter wrestling with the Lord over the most precious thing in her life. At last she was able to release her son to the Lord. Thirty minutes later, Vivian returned home to find him dead on the lawn in front of the house. When she knelt beside her dead son, and realized what had happened, she quietly looked up to Jesus and said, “Yes, Lord, I meant it.”

Having released her son to Jesus before he was taken eased the pain somewhat in her heart, but I believe eternity will reveal a deeper truth about these transactions. There was another sister in our church in Greenville who had a wayward son. She had prayed with tears for his salvation. One night the prodigal went forward to accept Jesus as his savior. What a joy to the mother! That night she had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As she walked past his bedroom, she noticed the light was still on and the door was cracked open. Looking in, she saw that he had fallen asleep sitting at his desk with the Bible open in front of him. That's a pretty good sight. The next morning, on his way to work, he was killed outright in an auto accident. The mother was crushed. He was only saved a few hours before his life was snuffed out. I did not know of that incident, but a few months later the Lord led me to preach on the text in Isaiah 57:1 - “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come”. The dear mother came up to me after that service to tell me that the Lord had explained to her His doings. She knew he was a weak boy surrounded by temptation. To protect him, the Lord saved him and took him straight to heaven.

Paul shared a word with us that I don't believe we fully appreciate. He said he knew Who he believed in and was fully confident that “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him” (2 Tim. 1:12). I believe things that we commit to Jesus are in safe hands. If Jesus asks us to give Him something I don't think He is going to loose it. I believe Vivian Garret is going to discover when she gets to heaven that the best thing she ever did was give her son to Jesus, and Jesus kept him safe all that time. I believe that sister Jones will find the same thing when she sees her son waiting for her in heaven. And even things that we didn't surrender, but Jesus took them without asking our permission, are safe in His Hands. I have never heard anyone preach on this, but Job lost 10 children in one disastrous swoop (Job 1:2,19). Later the Lord gave him another 10 children (Job 42:13). Job didn't loose a thing. In heaven he has 20 children.

What is this non-sense that we nobly sing “All to Jesus I surrender”? We get some sort of a warm feeling out of that as if we have attained to a higher level of spirituality. My goodness, it is not a question whether or not we will surrender; the question is “will He accept us?”. We don't know it, but we are like the Germans trying to surrender to the Americans. Man howdy, if Jesus doesn't own us we are in bad shape. And what is this business of holding tightly in our hot little hands the things He has given to us to enjoy for a few years? Do we think that we are able to keep them more securely than Jesus? If He asks us to give them to Him, I believe it with a great degree of confidence that we can rest assured that He is able to keep them safely. Why should it be an question of surrendering anything to Jesus? Do we think we are smarter than Him or they are more secure with us?

Lord Jesus, forgive me for not singing that song last week, but You know my hands are empty and I shall be eternally grateful if You will accept me and put me in Your house.

                                            bill

PS: There is not one incident in Scripture where Jesus ever asked anyone to surrender to Him. There are several records where He graciously offered to various people the privilege to follow Him. There was one young man to whom He extended that invitation, but the man sadly walked away (Mk. 10:21,22). “Please surrender”, is not a word that comes from the mouth of Jesus.