Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Surrender Theme of the Week: Who's at the Controls? Wednesday, July 21, 2004
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Men of IntegrityJuly/August 2004SurrenderTheme of the Week: Who's at the Controls?Wednesday, July 2174
Key Bible Verse: He died for everyone so that those who receive this new life will no longer live to please themselves (2 Corinthians 5:15). Bonus Reading:Romans 6: 1—11
At 9:04 a.m. on September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, World War II officially ended. Signing on behalf of Emperor Hirohito, the Jap-anese foreign minister inked his signature to the document declaring Japan's complete, unconditional surrender to the Allied powers.
You know what followed. With occupation aid and tutelage, Japan emerged from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recovery, though slow, was steady. It become one of the most productive, peaceful countries in the world. Placing itself at the mercy of the prevailing powers allowed Japan to renew itself. But first the Japanese military and government had to completely give up, lay down its arms, and accept surrender with no conditions.
Can you imagine Japan coming to the formal table on the USS Missouri and saying to General Douglas Mac-Arthur, "We'll sign, but we want to strike through the 'unconditional' part. We'll agree, instead, to use the phrase 'mostly surrender'"? That wouldn't have cut the mustard with MacArthur and the leaders back in Washing-ton. It doesn't cut it with God, either.
—Kenny Luck in Every Man, God's ManAdapted from Every Man, God's Man (WaterBrook, 2003) by permission.
My Response: What "strings" have I tried attaching to my surrender to Christ?
Thought to Apply: I have this day … given myself to God, so that I am in no respect my own. I have given myself clean away.
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