The topic of surrender is seldom written about because it is often misunderstood. In a world in which the basic message is that you have to make sure you get all your rights, it doesn't make much sense to voluntarily surrender yourself to someone - even if that "someone" is the all-powerful, all loving God of the Universe. But the Bible brings a different message: You find your life by losing it for God.
This is one of the best books that I have ever read. E. Stanley Jones was a great man who walked with God. His wisdom developed over a lifetime is distilled here. The only path to victory - joy, peace, and purpose in life - is by surrendering one's life to God and spending the rest of one's life surrendering over and over again until it becomes a habit. It is a process, one that takes time and self-discipline. But the result, as Jesus promised, is a life that is full and overflowing - not one without pain - but one of overcoming trial after trial by taking direction from the One who knows and loves us like no one else. The secret of how to do that is in this book. Harold G. Koenig, M.D. Director, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
If going to church or becoming a church member is not an indication of conversion, then what is?The obstacles that stand in the way of true Christianity are real and bigger than any human being can handle on their own. Is there a way out?In Victory in Surrender, Dr. Susan Mbaluka does not only explore the essence of Christianity but also various barriers the enemy places in our way that hinder a genuine relationship with God. The workings of this cunning adversary, says Dr. Mbaluka, are manifested through various vices, including pride, unbelief and fear. Once these vices are allowed to thrive in our hearts, they impede our surrender to God and destroy our relationships with Him and our fellow human beings. Yet, is anyone immune to these vices? And does God expect us to overcome?With captivating stories and testimonies to explain the concepts, this book provides guidance on how to overcome the enemy and the hindrances and stumbling blocks to true Christianity and eternal life.
For a Christian, waving the white flag doesn’t mean, “I give up!” It means, “Victory at last!” Struggling with stubborn habits? Secret sin? Spiritual strongholds? The key isn’t how committed you are to the battle—it’s how surrendered you are to God. This truth can be your breakthrough, the first step towards a deeper, richer, victorious spiritual life. With her compelling mix of profound biblical insight and personal example, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reveals why it is only when you surrender your heart, your soul, your body, your ambitions—everything—to God that He can fully help you triumph. You can win that battle. You can have that victory. But not until you learn to surrender. Surrender is the second book in The Revive Our Hearts Series, which has sold well over 240,000 copies! With study questions at the end of each chapter, it is ideal for personal or small group study.
Near Appomattox, during a cease-fire in the final hours of the Civil War, Confederate general Martin R. Gary harangued his troops to stand fast and not lay down their arms. Stinging the soldiers' home-state pride, Gary reminded them that "South Carolinians never surrender." By focusing on a reactionary hotbed within a notably conservative state--South Carolina's hilly western "upcountry"--W. Scott Poole chronicles the rise of a post-Civil War southern culture of defiance whose vestiges are still among us. The society of the rustic antebellum upcountry, Poole writes, clung to a set of values that emphasized white supremacy, economic independence, masculine honor, evangelical religion, and a rejection of modernity. In response to the Civil War and its aftermath, this amorphous tradition cohered into the Lost Cause myth, by which southerners claimed moral victory despite military defeat. It was a force that would undermine Reconstruction and, as Poole shows in chapters on religion, gender, and politics, weave its way into nearly every dimension of white southern life. The Lost Cause's shadow still looms over the South, Poole argues, in contemporary controversies such as those over the display of the Confederate flag. Never Surrender brings new clarity to the intellectual history of southern conservatism and the South's collective memory of the Civil War.
Do you want to know God and really believe Him? Do you want to find satisfaction in God, experience His peace, and enjoy His presence? Do you want to make the freedom Christ promised a reality in your daily life?
On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbor’s defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he couldn’t find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War. Japan’s no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him. Based on the author’s interviews with dozens of former Japanese POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to light, The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japan’s prewar ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps. Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japan’s certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their homeland. These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration into postwar society. These stories are told here for the first time in English.
A new look at the drama that lay behind the end of the war in the Pacific Signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay by Japanese and Allied leaders, the instrument of surrender that formally ended the war in the Pacific brought to a close one of the most cataclysmic engagements in history. Behind it lay a debate that had been raging for some weeks prior among American military and political leaders. The surrender fulfilled the commitment that Franklin Roosevelt had made in 1943 at the Casablanca conference that it be "unconditional." Though readily accepted as policy at the time, after Roosevelt's death in April 1945 support for unconditional surrender wavered, particularly among Republicans in Congress, when the bloody campaigns on Iwo Jima and Okinawa made clear the cost of military victory against Japan. Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945 had been one thing; the war in the pacific was another. Many conservatives favored a negotiated surrender. Though this was the last time American forces would impose surrender unconditionally, questions surrounding it continued through the 1950s and 1960s--with the Korean and Vietnam Wars--when liberal and conservative views reversed, including over the definition of "peace with honor." The subject was revived during the ceremonies surrounding the 50th anniversary in 1995, and the Gulf and Iraq Wars, when the subjects of exit strategies and "accomplished missions" were debated. Marc Gallicchio reveals how and why the surrender in Tokyo Bay unfolded as it did and the principle figures behind it, including George C. Marshall and Douglas MacArthur. The latter would effectively become the leader of Japan and his tenure, and indeed the very nature of the American occupation, was shaped by the nature of the surrender. Most importantly, Gallicchio reveals how the policy of unconditional surrender has shaped our memory and our understanding of World War II.
