Speaking in the Light…I Surrender, Lord!

Is there a boulder that is blocking your heart from coming out into the daylight so that it may be allowed to fully beat to-day? Is there some worry, annoying anxiousness, defeat, denial or disap-pointment that is keep-ing you from taking the step of faith to being alive again?
All of us have experienced the dark hours of losing loved ones, seeing our dreams die, watching our self-esteem get stepped on, having our good intentions be spit at and told over and over again by uncaring individuals to just keep your mouth shut, get back in line and do what it takes to survive.
We are not just a number…This life isn’t just mere coincidence…And we can’t be told to “keep the faith” that we don’t have…
What I love about Easter is that Jesus is still in the business of rolling away the stones today…I tried for years to attempt to arrange my life in such a way that everything would come up roses and all of life would be a big Broadway musical and in the end we’d all live happily ever after. Life just never co-operated with my agenda.
I have experienced hatred and hurt and death and cancer and deceit and lies and lots of rain on my parades. I have felt the despair of being in the lowest of lowest places on this earth, where I didn’t sense I could move another step. I actually got to the place where I gave up, but that wasn’t such a bad thing after all…
Have you ever noticed that we do the same thing when we surrender and when we win a race of victory? We hold our hands up high to the sky. When I finally sur-rendered my dreams to the Lord by raising my hands and showing him my empty palms, I felt like I gave up everything. But it was only in that posture that I was finally ready to receive from the Lord.
And it was there at my lowest that He was about to raise me up to new heights. What did He long to give me? Every-thing. Not everything I want, but everything He knows that I need. Unconditional love, the ability to forgive and be forgiven, and the reality that faith doesn’t mean it will all work out in my time, but it will all make sense in God’s hands and plans.
When Jesus died on the cross, He held out His hands in a posture of surrender. And what looked like a great defeat to everyone around, it was actually a position of victory. Jesus kicked death in the teeth and took on the wrath and punishment for our sin and made it possible for everyone who would hold up their hands and sur-render to Him, to be able to receive God’s gift of eternal life.
Eternal life is not a quantity deal defined only in living forever after I die. It is a quality deal defined in living forever now. Eternal life is knowing Jesus and in knowing Him I can hold my hands high in surrender in the overwhelming moments and circum-stances we find ourselves in and know by faith, and not always necessarily by sight, that someday soon, my hands held high will turn into a dance of victory.
So maybe this Easter you needed more than a chocolate bunny. You need a Hero… Somebody who will risk it all and come into your burning building, and when eve-ryone else has pronounced it a defeat, Je-sus lays down His life and rescues you. He turns the sting of death into a championship bout of life. We just need to hold our hands in the air and declare, “I surrender Lord” and now with our empty hands held nervously in the air we are finally ready to receive the gifts that the Lord wants to give us, and that includes that whoever believes- even though he tastes death, the final meal will be a banquet of life.
Our story doesn’t have to end in winter…Easter promises us an eternal spring. If you are long-ing to connect to the God who loves you more than you could possibly imagine, I can’t think of a better time than now. And if you have no church to go to, you are more than welcome to begin your journey at The Lighthouse Church.
We have weekly Cele-bration Services Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9 and 10:45 a.m. Call 465-6690 for more info or you can email me at pastorrudytlc@ com-cast.net I surrender to YOU- Lord.
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