Steps to Christ STRENGTH IN ADMITTING WEAKNESS
When I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Cor. 12:10.
The term surrender is grossly misunderstood by thousands of Christians. If a person's idea of Christianity is based upon behavior, then his primary focus will be on the Ten Commandments and trying hard to obey them. If he is strong, he will "succeed"; if he is weak, he will fail. The behaviorist philosophy never gets the person to the point of helplessness to take him on to surrender. The behaviorist who is strong and apparently succeeds doesn't realize he is helpless. The behaviorist who is weak says, "I can't do it; I give up," quits trying, and goes away from God at the very point, if he only knew it, at which he is the closest to God that he may ever be.
The behaviorist thinks that surrender is giving up certain things in his life--giving up his sins, giving up his problems and his weaknesses. So the behaviorist says, "I stand before God and this audience, and I promise that from now on I won't smoke, drink, or dance anymore." If he is strong, he never does them again, and he becomes a so-called "good" church member. If surrender has primarily to do with giving up things, the strong succeed and the weak fail.
I've heard a lot of different gimmicks for giving up sins, giving up things. I've even hear of people writing their sins on a piece of paper and passing them to the aisle, where they are all collected and brought down to the front of the church. There is a little altar there, and someone lights a match and burns the "sins" all up. Wonderful! The sins are gone now. The sins are all burned up. Psychological and mass-psychology gimmicks. The problem is that the weak person who wrote his sins down on a piece of paper in order to burn them up gets home and discovers he still has them. There are people who have tried every gimmick in the book until finally they say, "I guess some people were born to be fuel for the fires of hell, and I must be one of them." And they begin to believe in predestination.
I'd like to point out what surrender really is. Surrender is not giving up things. Surrender is giving up the idea that I can do anything at all about things, except one: to come to Christ just a I am. We must surrender ourselves to Him.
When I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Cor. 12:10.
The term surrender is grossly misunderstood by thousands of Christians. If a person's idea of Christianity is based upon behavior, then his primary focus will be on the Ten Commandments and trying hard to obey them. If he is strong, he will "succeed"; if he is weak, he will fail. The behaviorist philosophy never gets the person to the point of helplessness to take him on to surrender. The behaviorist who is strong and apparently succeeds doesn't realize he is helpless. The behaviorist who is weak says, "I can't do it; I give up," quits trying, and goes away from God at the very point, if he only knew it, at which he is the closest to God that he may ever be.
The behaviorist thinks that surrender is giving up certain things in his life--giving up his sins, giving up his problems and his weaknesses. So the behaviorist says, "I stand before God and this audience, and I promise that from now on I won't smoke, drink, or dance anymore." If he is strong, he never does them again, and he becomes a so-called "good" church member. If surrender has primarily to do with giving up things, the strong succeed and the weak fail.
I've heard a lot of different gimmicks for giving up sins, giving up things. I've even hear of people writing their sins on a piece of paper and passing them to the aisle, where they are all collected and brought down to the front of the church. There is a little altar there, and someone lights a match and burns the "sins" all up. Wonderful! The sins are gone now. The sins are all burned up. Psychological and mass-psychology gimmicks. The problem is that the weak person who wrote his sins down on a piece of paper in order to burn them up gets home and discovers he still has them. There are people who have tried every gimmick in the book until finally they say, "I guess some people were born to be fuel for the fires of hell, and I must be one of them." And they begin to believe in predestination.
I'd like to point out what surrender really is. Surrender is not giving up things. Surrender is giving up the idea that I can do anything at all about things, except one: to come to Christ just a I am. We must surrender ourselves to Him.
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