Saturday, July 9, 2011

Surrender

On March 10, 1974, almost 30 years after the end of World War II, Lt Hiroo Onoda finally handed over his rusty sword and became the last Japanese soldier to surrender.  Onoda had been sent to the tropical island of Lubang in the Philippines in 1944, with orders to conduct guerrilla warfare and prevent enemy attack on the island.  When the war ended, Onoda refused to believe the messages announcing Japan's surrender.

For 29 long years, long after all his fellow soldiers had either surrendered or been killed off, Onoda continued defending the island territory for the defeated Japanese army.  He hid in the jungle,m living off the land, stealing food and supplies from local citizens, evading one search party after another, and killing at least 30 nationals in the process.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent trying to locate the lone hold-out and convince him that the war was over.

Leaflets, newspapers, photographs and letters from friends were dropped in the jungle.  Announcements were made over loud speakers begging Onoda to surrender.  Still he refused to give up his fight.  Some 13,000 men had been deployed in the effort before Onoda finally received a personal command from his former commander and was persuaded to give up the futile, solitary war he had waged for so many years.

In his autobiography entitled, No Surrender; My Thirty Year War, Onoda describes the moments the reality of what had transpired began to sink in:

"I felt like a fool....What had I been doing all these years?...For the first time I really understood...This was the end, I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets....I eased off the pack that I had always carried with me and laid the gun on top of it.

The war was finally over.

Story from "Old Soldiers Never Die" Newsweek 25 March 1974

I read this story in amazement!  The brutality of war is something that I can't begin to comprehend.  But, I do know that even the most committed soldier is ready to run home after the war is over.  A soldier longs to see his family again, to sleep in his or her own bed, eat some home cooked meals, catch up with friends and just watch a good movie or a favorite TV show.

Mr Onoda not only faced the brutality of war while it was in progress but then spent many wasted years fighting a war that had ended.....the outcome of the war already determined.

Sound familiar?  We are born sinners and we spend our years resisting the call of salvation from the King of Kings....Once we accept Christ as our Savior, we might find ourselves resisting the call of total surrender that is coming from the lips of the King of Kings.  We resist and fight, refusing to surrender in a war where the outcome has already been determined.

Resisting, running and hiding can become a way of life if we continue in it for a period of time.  That is what happened to Mr Onoda.  In spite of the numerous attempts to notify him that the war had ended, he refused to believe and continued to fight.

God uses military terms throughout the Bible when talking about our Christian walk.  I want to talk about the wars we encounter while we are on this earth.  None of them easy, but winnable when we choose to obey the Captain of the Army.

1.)  The first war is the battle for salvation- Salvation is a free gift and don't misunderstand me, this is not a battle we fight to be saved.  We are born lost sinners, bound for hell.  When we are introduced to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, the armies of hell stand ready for Satan never gives up a soul that easy.  He, in his hopes to keep us from accepting Christ as our Savior will begin to use whatever tactics he can to keep us from doing so. "You're too deep into the mess of your life to be saved", "God doesn't really care about you", "You do this and your friends and family will abandon you"  ......lie after lie, tactic after tactic....the war is on.

But, my friend, don't be deceived.  This was a war that was won by Jesus Christ that Resurrection Morning!  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!!!

2.) The second war we find ourselves fighting is the war of surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.(I see it as a war with our will)  The initial surrender to the Lord, which happens at the point of salvation, is not the end of the story.  In fact, it is a starting point.  Now we must engage in a daily surrender, a hourly surrender, a moment by moment surrender to the authority of the Keeper of our souls, Jesus Christ.  We must engage in discipleship and be eager students of the Word, learning how to live a surrendered life.

This is not always easy but it is attainable and we are foolish to live our lives any other way.  To engage in this battle is like America declaring war on her greatest ally.  God is on our side.  Jesus has already declared victory.  He is fighting for us, let's not find ourselves fighting Him



This is why God gave us the weapons of our warfare as laid out in Ephesians 6.  They are not carnal weapons but mighty weapons given to us by the Captain of our Army!!  Our defeat comes when we try to use our own tactics in fighting the devil.

Think of it this way:  I enlist in the army and sent  to Afghanistan to fight.  I am supplied military weapons, but I refuse them and tell the Army I didn't need their weapons because I brought my own.  I begin to pull out of my bag a sling shot, a BB gun, and a water pistol.  These are the weapons I plan to use going up against our foe.  Crazy! Right?

Yet as a Christian, we live defeated lives because essentially we choose to fight the devil with a sling shot, a BB gun and a water pistol instead of using the most powerful weapons offered to us by our Commander, Jesus Christ.

Where are you at right now?  Perhaps you have yet to make that initial surrender to Jesus Christ, inviting Him to be your Lord and Savior.  If this is so, please click on my tab on how you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps you are saved but you have yet to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, allowing Him full authority over your life.  Instead you are running and resisting.  Stop!  You are wearing yourself out!  Find the peace you long for by allowing Jesus to take the wheel.

If you are a Christian then you are definitely engaged in the 3rd war I spoke of.  What are you using as your weapon against the devil?  If it is anything else other than the Word of God, you will live a defeated and exhausted Christian walk.

II Corinthians 10:4-5- For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations and every high things that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Are you surrendered to the Lord?  Lay down your weapons, stop running and surrender!  Don't come to the end of your life saying essentially what Mr Onoda said;  "I felt like a fool.....what had I been doing for all these years?"

To God be the glory!