What can God do with us when we
just quit our compromise in the surrender and
give ourselves?
We have really no choice.
We are bought with a very high price,
the very lifeblood of Jesus.
In my book, Amazing Love, I tell how
once Dr. Oswald Smith spoke to us and
he asked us, did you give all on
the altar?
And he answered for himself, and he said,
yes, I gave all on the altar.
I have said, Lord, here is my time,
and he put one book on the altar.
Here is my money, here is my family,
and here is my house.
I have given all on the altar.
My time, yes, but I have ordered a
hotel for my vacation, and these two weeks
vacation I keep for myself.
One book went back.
He said, my money, oh, yes, I surrendered
all my money to the Lord, but that
money for that hotel I keep for myself,
a second book went back.
He said, my family, I dedicated them all
to the Lord, but my oldest daughter will
be a I can't allow her that.
We have a big family.
She must help her mother.
The third book went back.
My house, oh, we had a beautiful dedication
service when we entered it.
It is the Lord's.
But my sister is ill, and she has
six naughty boys.
I cannot invite these boys, for my house
is spick and span, and they will make
it dirty.
They are not my house.
The altar is empty.
I couldn't stand it.
I left that meeting, and I had a
talk with my heavenly Father, and I said,
Father, is the altar empty?
And Father said, yes.
And I took my life again, and I
laid all on the altar.
It was not the first time, but it
is not such a thing as a one
for all being surrendered.
Charles Inwood said it is a moment by
moment confessing of your sins, a moment by
moment being cleansed, surrendered, and being filled with
the Holy Spirit.
After I had done that again, miracles happened
in my life.
Souls were saved.
In the meetings, Christians awakened, don't be afraid
that you will have no vacation.
Perhaps the Lord gives you a more beautiful
hotel than you had ordered, but in that
hotel you will be used to save souls
for eternity.
There is a cross and a throne in
our hearts.
Is Jesus on the throne, then self is
on the cross.
Is self on the throne, then Jesus is
on the cross.
Surrender means obedience.
A little boy came from Sunday school, he
said, Mom, I won't go to Sunday school
anymore.
He said, and you like it so much.
He said, yes, but now I don't go.
I will become a truck driver, and my
teacher says I must be a sunbeam.
What does surrender mean?
Surrender means surrender your blunders, one of the
things.
I found many people who were just like
I.
I hate myself after I have blundered.
How in the world could I, Corrie ten
Boom, be so stupid?
Let us surrender our blunders.
You can never know what God does with
it.
I heard of a weaver school where the
students made beautiful patterns, weavings, and the visitor
said, see, what do you do when you
make a mistake?
Must you cut it out or start from
the beginning?
And the student said, no, our teacher is
such a great artist that when we make
a mistake, he uses that mistake to improve
the beauty of the pattern.
That's what Jesus does.
Some of you understand me, others do not
quite know what I mean.
I was in Japan for the first time.
I had the great difficulty that I could
not recognize all these people with the same
flat faces.
There were about five different Japanese, but the
rest were all the same like these five.
That could be very difficult.
Once I had a student's group, a Bible
group, and I saw a gentleman coming.
I thought, oh, yes, that is the director
of the theological seminary, but he wasn't.
He was a professor of a non-Christian
university, but after I got through with my
talk, I said to him, will you say
now a word of prayer?
He said, I?
I have never prayed in my life.
Suddenly, I saw who was who.
I said, oh, professor, it doesn't matter, I
will do it, and I prayed, but Japanese
people are very polite, and after the meeting,
after the prayer, he came to me, bowing
very deeply several times, and said, Mr. Bohm,
I'm so sorry that I couldn't do what
you asked, but really, I had never prayed
before.
I said, professor, I appreciate it.
Perhaps someone who had been more superficial should
have said a prayer without believing it, but
therefore, you are too good.
But, by the way, why are you not
a Christian?
He said, oh, no, first, and I must
first study Christianity.
I said, no.
In my book, it's not written those who
study Christianity, God gives the power to become
a child of God, but those who receive
Jesus Christ, he gives them the power to
become a child of God.
And I showed him the way of salvation,
and after half an hour, that professor made
the decision that did the angels in heaven
rejoice.
Do you see the picture?
God used the blunder of a dumb Dutch
to save the soul of that professor.
A strategic point in a university in Tokyo.
Surrender your blunders.
Surrender your discouragements.
Surrender your worries.
Trumbull says, worry is a black murderous, God
-defying, Christ-rejecting sin.
Worry at any time for anything, whatever.
Though I must confess you that I have
not yet graduated in the non-worry science.
I'm still studying, and I fear after I
have graduated, I must go to a post
-graduate course.
But Jesus is my teacher.
The Bible says, don't worry over anything, whatever.
Philippians 4, 6.
Tell God every detail of your need in
earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of
God which transcends all human understanding will keep
constant guard over your hearts and minds as
they rest in Christ Jesus.
When I was in a concentration camp, I
knew why my sister and I were in
that camp where 97,000 women were killed
or died.
In our room, in our barrack, many died
with Jesus' name on their lips.
And then we understood why God had allowed
the enemy to bring us there.
First, I couldn't understand.
I had prayed when I was four months
in solitary confinement in my own homeland.
Every day I prayed, oh God, it is
terrible to be alone in a cell.
But I'm still in Holland.
Oh, let the enemy never bring me to
a German concentration camp.
But God gave the no answer.
But when I saw how God used my
sister and me to save souls for eternity,
I saw why God had not answered my
prayers.
You know, our life is like an embroidery,
and we do not see the pattern.
But God sees always His side.
And God has plans, no problems.
There's never a panic in heaven.
Yes, I understood why God had brought us
there in that terrible camp.
It was worthwhile to be there, because many
people could never hear of Jesus afterwards, because
they were killed or died.
But they died often with Jesus' name on
their lips.
And that was even worth Betsy's death.
But I could not understand the suffering of
these people around me.
And one morning there were many newcomers, and
I could hardly bear when I thought of
the terrible suffering that was awaiting these poor
women.
And then I opened my Bible and I
read Isaiah 53, where the prophet sees Jesus
at a cross.
And he says, surely He has carried our
sorrows.
And then I understood when Jesus finished at
the cross, He had not only carried our
sins, but also our sorrows.
And that's why we are not called to
be burden bearers, we are called to be
light bearers and cross bearers.
But our burden we must cast on the
Lord and leave it there.
And I can tell you, I came with
a very heavy case, full with burdens, and
I brought it in prayer to the Lord.
And I mentioned it, one after the other.
I said, O Lord, here are these poor
women.
There were 800 newcomers, Lord, but the terrible
suffering is waiting.
These poor women, have mercy upon them.
And then I brought Berlin.
Although Berlin was 50 miles away, often we
saw the sky red by the flames.
Berlin was bombed.
Do you realize what that means?
A bombed city for the children, for the
sick people, for every human being.
And every night, all the cities in Germany
were bombed.
I brought to the Lord all these people
in the bombed cities.
And then I brought Holland, my homeland, that
had to suffer so terribly from the oppression
of the enemies.
And then I brought my sister, who was
far too frail to be in health to
be a prisoner.
And so I brought one thing after the
other to the Lord till my whole case
was empty.
And then I said, Amen.
That was good.
That was praying.
I cast my burden on the Lord, and
my case was empty.
But what I did after my Amen was
not good.
I put all the burdens again in the
case, and my heart and my case was
happier after my burden, after my prayer than
before.
That's not praying.
You must cast your burden on the Lord
and leave it there and say, my burden
is too great for me to carry.
Why should I do?
Why should I be afraid?
When He who has all power and understanding
waits to sustain, then why not ask His
aid?
To Thee, O Lord Divine, I bring my
care.
I lay it at Thy feet and leave
it there.
But the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray
like that.
We can never get rid of worry if
we do not use, handle it as a
sin.
And that it is.
We know what to do with our sins.
1 John 1, 7 and 9.
Worry is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength,
carrying two days at once.
It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time.
It is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling
around the center of fear.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.
It empties today of its strength.
It does not enable us to escape evil.
It makes us unfit to cope with when
it comes.
I read it in a little booklet that
I have written.
Don't wrestle, just nestle.
It is out of print, but I hope
to have it reprinted again.
Surrender your limitations.
How many Christians suffer under inferiority feeling?
And then they think that it is humbleness.
But inferiority feeling is no humbleness, it is
pride.
It is that you do not accept that
you are you.
You will be more than you.
Surrender means surrender your if-only's.
There are many Christians with long faces because
of the if-only's.
If only that roommate of mine went a
little bit earlier to bed.
If only I had more money.
If only that teacher understood that my thoughts
go a little bit slow when I am
tired.
If only I was married.
That was in my life an if-only.
I was a healthy young woman and I
loved a boy, a young man, and he
loved me.
But his mother wanted him to marry a
rich wife and I had no money.
And then there came a moment that that
young man brought me his fiancée.
And he laid her hand in my hand
and said, I wanted you to be friends.
It was as if my heart was broken
that moment.
And after they had gone I went straight
to my bedroom and I said, Lord Jesus,
I belong to you lock, stock and barrel.
Lord, I have already surrendered but now again
I surrender this part of my being that
is wounded.
Lord, I claim, Lord Jesus, your victory in
that part of my being, my sex life,
my longing to be married, to have children.
And I just talked it over with the
Lord.
And then I experienced that when you surrender
something to the Lord he uses that to
demonstrate his victory.
I've never had the joy to bring to
birth a child but I had often the
great joy to bring to the rebirth someone
else.
The creative power that a woman has to
have married life and children I could use
in the kingdom of God.
I've had a very happy life and Jesus
has taken care so for me that I
have never become a frustrated old spinster.
But I had to surrender my, if only,
surrender your business.
When we belong to the Lord, everything belongs
to the Lord.
My father and I had watchmaker business and
father said sometimes, on my watchmaker business is
my name but really God's name should be
on it.
And that is a great joy.
When we surrender all then we can expect
Christ's victory everywhere.
I think you know that story of the
boy, the widow who had one boy and
she worked hard for him and he became
a doctor.
She had so worked hard that he could
study but she was a very simple woman
and a doctor married a rich wife and
once she said, far away from here is
a very simple woman who has been good
to me when I was a child.
Do you think it is alright that she
comes to live with us?
And his wife said, of course, she is
very welcome and she has been good for
you.
And he invited his mother but at the
station he said, Mother, never tell anyone that
you are my mother.
And there she lived in an attic room
but she always prayed for her children downstairs.
Once the doctor's wife found out that that
lady upstairs was their mother and she went
to her and she said, Oh, Mother, come
down.
I didn't know that we were your children.
From that moment on, that house was blessed.
Where does the Holy Spirit live in your
life, in your house?
That you only give him an attic room?
Throw open all the doors.
Recognize his presence and yield to his control.
If Jesus is a guest in a little
attic room, then no one knows he is
there.
His strength to protect is lost.
To lose your life for Jesus' sake, that
means to gain, to win it.
Surrender your past, your present, your future.
Many Christians are like tightrope walkers, going from
the past to the future.
In one hand to sack with the indigested
past, in the other hand to sack with
the anticipated future, always balancing between hope and
fear.
But when you have a surrendered life, you
are like going on an escalator.
You stand relaxed and you are going higher
and higher.
That's going with Jesus.
A surrendered life is relaxed.
Now I've spoken a little bit about the
great joy of the surrender.
But as a matter of fact, we have
no choice.
We are bought with a very high price,
the precious blood of Jesus.
Did you give him his money's worth?
Just imagine that I had still my jewelry
store and I sold you this watch and
you paid the whole price.
But when I packed it, I removed the
golden bracelet.
At home you should find only the watch.
I am sure you should tell everyone, don't
buy from Corrie ten Boom.
She does not give you your money's worth.
Do you realize how high the price was
that Jesus paid for your sins?
We make the cross of Jesus often so
beautiful, but it was cruel.
Perhaps we in the concentration camp have understood
a fraction of that suffering.
And Nathan is so thankful.
We sometimes had to stand on a naked
parrot.
We were stripped of all our clothing.
Before October, we had to stand outside in
the street after October inside the barracks.
The first time was the worst.
I have never felt so humbled, so miserable,
so cold.
When I stood there and Betsy, my sister,
stood beside me, I said, Betsy, I cannot
bear this.
This is so terrible.
This is worse than what the enemy has
done for us before.
And I thought that I could break under
the burden of that suffering.
And then suddenly it was as if I
saw Jesus at the cross.
And the Bible says, they took his garments,
he hanged there naked.
And by my own suffering, I understood only
a fraction of the suffering of Jesus.
But it made me so thankful that I
could bear my own.
Love, so amazing, so divine, demands my life,
my soul, my all.
In the Bible is written a text, the
eyes of the Lord go to and fro
to strengthen him whose heart is fully turned
towards him.
May I ask you a question?
Did you experience the rivers of living waters
flowing through you and touch the very thirsty
world around you?
You didn't?
May I ask you a question?
When I keep this cup upwards, do you
think there can come water in and out?
Of course not.
Did you think that when your heart was
turned towards the world, that the Holy Spirit
could use you for the streams of living
water?
Of course not.
But I know your heart is not turned
towards the world, otherwise you shouldn't be here.
Are you 50-50?
50% turned towards the world and 50
% turned towards God?
Now look what happens.
Nothing comes in and nothing comes out.
But I have the idea that navigators are
better.
Are you 90% turned towards God and
only 10% turned towards the world?
Oh, then you are better than Christians.
Are only 60% turned towards God and
40% turned towards the world?
Let us look what happens.
Yes, there comes water in and there comes
water out at one side.
Only when I keep the cup 100%
upwards, now look what happens.
At all sides it streams over.
What are you?
You are not this.
You are not 50-50.
Are you 99.5%?
The eyes of the Lord go to and
fro this hall to fill with his Holy
Spirit whose heart is 100% surrendered.
Let us pray.
Thank you, Lord, that you will have us
100%.
Oh, Lord, how great is your love for
us that you will not compromise but that
you will have us 100% and to
demonstrate your victory in every corner of our
lives.
Listen, Lord, who at this moment surrenders everything.
Lord, I surrender my blunders, my limitations, my
if-onlys, my sins, my bitterness.
I thank you, Lord, when we bring our
sins to you, you forgive and forget and
the sins are dead.
Search our hearts, Lord, our lives.
If there is any compromise, thank you, Lord,
that you have bought us with such a
very high price, your precious blood.
Forgive us, Lord, that we have not always
lived like more than conquerors because we tried
hard to do it ourselves.
But now, Lord, take my life and let
it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Did you hear it, Lord, who said it?
Oh, Lord, what can you do for miracles
with a hundred percent surrendered, decent sinner saved
by grace?
Hallelujah!
Amen.