SURRENDER
Edward Fudge
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Today's gracEmail is by my longtime friend, Wayne G. McDaniel of Phoenix, Arizona. Wayne's e-mail address is WayneMcD@extremezone.com
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The joy of the Holy Spirit is almost absent.
The hope of seeing the Father's face is nearly unknown.
Looking out across a church can be like looking out into the night.
The light of life is gone from the faces.
For many, it has been gone since childhood--
never reborn by surrender to the Risen Lord;
The rule of the Creator never restored.
All of the teachings and all of the practices of all of the churches cannot awaken the light of life. There has been no repentance.
It has not been pleaded for.
The preaching has called for involvement or understanding --
but not surrender.
The hope of seeing God
has been replaced by an array of lesser things.
Familiar songs are sung -- new songs are sung --
but the hearts are old, holding on to pride -- refusing life.
He bore our sins in shame upon the cross,
we refuse to confess them to one or two.
He emptied himself, we refuse to.
He received our stripes, we refuse his healing.
He drank the cup of our punishment, we refuse him as our Lord.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."-Isa.53:6
You and I can still imagine his anguish,
it calls out for our surrender.