Each summer, our youth group attends Creation Festival Northeast, in Mount Union, PA, a five day festival of Christian music and speakers held every June (kind of like Woodstock, only different. ;-))
Last summer, Todd White was one of the speakers. A bit unconventional with his dreadlocks, Todd passionately delivers the message of how God delivered him from addiction to drugs and changed his life in a powerfully dramatic way. He was reconciled with his wife, and became a radical disciple of Jesus.
Todd receives his fair amount of criticism, but you won’t find that from me. I love Todd’s passion and fire, and found his message to be inspiring.
One of the anecdotes he shared painted such a vivid picture of giving ALL of ourselves to Jesus, I’d like to share it with you. I’ve searched for a recorded version of it but wasn’t able to find, so I’ll do my best to recreate (paraphrased, of course).
One night, a man went to sleep in his house when he heard a loud banging at his door. The Devil put his elbow in the door and forced his way in, ransacked the house, beat the man up and left.
The next day, there was knock at the door – it was Jesus, and he asked quietly if He could come in. The man asked Jesus to stay, and gave Him his master bedroom – the best room in the house. That night, a terrible pounding at the door – the devil forces his way in, ransacks the house and beats him up again. In the morning, Jesus came downstairs and asked what had happened. The man said, “Where were you, Jesus??” Jesus answered, “I was in the only room that you gave me.”
The man agreed to give Jesus half of the house – the entire upstairs, thinking surely he is safe now – Jesus is on his side. That night, the devil forced his way in again, and pummeled the man. The next morning, the man, frustrated with Jesus, said, “Jesus, where were you??” Jesus replied, “You gave me half of your house. I want the whole house.”
Knowing that he needed Jesus to fight the Devil for him, the man agreed to give Jesus every room in the house – except one. He said, “I’ll give it all to you, except for this one – you wouldn’t like what’s in that room.” That night, the devil came once again to pummel the man. The man was in the one room he hadn’t given to Jesus, and once again, was beaten up by the devil.
The next morning, the man said to Jesus, “You can have all the rooms in the house.” That night, when the devil came to the house expecting to pummel the man, he was greeted at the door by Jesus, who said to the man, “I’ll handle this.”
Jesus wants our FULL SURRENDER – for every room in your house to belong to Him. Most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, even if we walk with Jesus, have areas of our lives where we haven’t fully surrendered – for many reasons – could be that we like what we’re doing and don’t want to completely give it up – could be that we want to control it ourselves, or think we’ll do a better job with it – who knows. The reality is, if we’re able to let Go and fully surrender, God will bless us beyond our wildest dreams.
Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you. You need only be silent”
All the rooms… does He have all the rooms?
I’m a work in progress, If I’m completely honest. There are days I feel He has all the rooms and days I’m still hiding in a few. I’d guess if we were all honest, we’d perhaps all have some areas of life we hold onto.
Trying to let them go,
SB
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