Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Struggling With SIn? The Only Way To Win Is To Say Chieu Hoi - I Surrender!



…work out your own salvation…for it is God who works in you… —Philippians 2:12-13

CHAMBERS} “Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin. The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human beings— sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. “…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” With focused attention and great care, you have to “work out” what God “works in” you— not work to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,” but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. […] Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.”

{ELGIN}  Paul addresses the battle that rages between wanting to do the right but choosing the wrong instead in Romans chapter 7.  In the end he says “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:21-25)  Our struggle with our old nature is a spiritual battle.  Many just give up feeling that trying to resist is futile – hopeless.  They resolve to be content with the presence of sin in their lives.  Instead of seeking Jesus out and letting the Spirit change them from within, they assume an air of spirituality and let that be their substitute for their new life in Christ.  We can never overcome our old nature through self-effort, only through total abandonment to Jesus.  It is a question of surrender. 

During the war in Vietnam there was a repatriation program named Chieu Hoi (chew hoy).  The original name of the Chieu Hoi Program was Phong-Trao Chieu-Tap Khang-Chieu Lam  Dong, or The Movement to Regroup Misled Members of the Resistance. Amongst the US forces the name eventually came to mean – “I surrender”.  The idea was that the Viet Cong (VC) could be restored – repatriated.  The VC would raise their weapons above the heads and say “Chieu Hoi” – I give up.  My point? In a similar manner we must raise our will above our heads and say “I surrender”.  It’s the only way to win.  I have quoted this before … it’s from the Focus on The Family study “The Truth Project”  Dr. Del Tackett asks the question “Do you believe that what you believe is really real?”  If you don’t really believe God and the Bible and willing to act on that belief then you are bound to struggle … because what you are attempting to do requires the power of God.  That can only be happen if you are willing to say “Chieu Hoi!”

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