Teresa and I have now traveled over 7200 miles. We have approximately 2000 more to go before we arrive at home in about 10 days. We have seen so much, and have been blessed so greatly to have made this once in a lifetime trip, celebrating our 50 years of marriage.

One thing we do as we begin each day is to pray that God would bring us across the path of individuals with whom we can share our faith. We ask that He would help us let our lives shine for His glory, and we have been amazed and blessed to see how He has answered those prayers.

But yesterday, while enjoying our last day in Glacier NP, I was sitting by the lake at Many Glaciers Lodge waiting for our time to ride the boat across the lake, at which point we would catch another boat to tour a second lake. I was practicing my action photography as boaters and kayakers made their way around the beautiful lake.

There were six adults sitting at a table next to ours, and one of the gentlemen asked me what I was photographing, to which I replied, “Nothing in particular. Just practicing.” But, I had just a few minutes before taken a few shots of a moose across the lake. He asked if he could see the photo, to which I gladly shared with him and the others with him a photo I had taken.

This led to a conversation that started with a photograph, and ending with a great discussion of our mutual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We discussed the plight of the church in America, and our desire to see God do a great work of spiritual renewal. This conversation went on for quite a while, with Teresa and I sharing with them the reason for our journey, and some details of where we had already been and where we were yet to go.

But then, Teresa and I were blessed to hear one of the gentlemen say, “Could we pray for you?” Then, right there in front of those sitting around at other tables and benches, as well as those passing by, he prayed the most beautiful prayer, thanking God for the 50 years of marriage we were celebrating, asking for God’s continued safety as we would continue our journey, and asking for God’s continued and consistent blessings on the future of our life together.

Needless to say, we were truly touched and blessed. Just as we had been trying to be a blessing to others, God decided to turn the tables and let us be on the receiving end. Now don’t get me wrong, we have been blessed beyond measure on this trip, but that was a special kind of blessing that God surprised us with.

Let me close this post with a heartfelt thank you for all the kind words many of you have shared about my photography. It has been a joy to take all those pictures (many, many more than you have seen!), and Teresa and I will enjoy them for years to come. But please know that every “like” and every comment have meant so much to me and Teresa.

I will share some more of the pictures of our last day in Glacier, and hope you enjoy them. Until next time…

Blessings!

This has been an absolutely amazing journey. We have now traveled almost 6000 miles, have now seen so many sights that I honestly cannot remember all that we have seen and done without visual or written reminders, and have experienced so much more than we could have ever dreamed. This country (and we have only seen a fraction of all there is to see) is a beautiful place, with so much diversity. Even inside Yellowstone NP there are mountains and valleys, canyons and cauldrons, hot springs and snowcapped peaks. All that, and more, within the confines of one national park.

Teresa and I have dreamed of taking a trip of this nature for years, and now that we are well over halfway through this trip of a lifetime we are truly astounded by what we have seen, the people we have met, and the truly majestic beauty of the parts of our nation we have been blessed to travel. As I write this post we are in West Glacier, MT, where we are visiting Glacier National Park.

But an even more amazing journey is the journey of life over these past 50 years. Teresa and I have been blessed beyond measure as we have traveled the road of life together. There have been times of great joy, and seasons of deep sorrow. There have been moments of sheer delight, and moments of overwhelming distress. We have shared times of exuberant happiness, while chapters of our lives have been filled with days of darkness and despair.

We have been blessed with three children – Bryan, Joshua, and Charity. They have now blessed us with six grandchildren – Gaige, Trinity, Jayden, Luke, Levi, and Luna.

We have known so many who have not made it as far as we have in this journey. Some of our acquaintances from our high school days have seen their marriages end by some means. Many have been divorced, others have lost a spouse through death. Then, there are others who have traveled this path of life for much longer periods of time than we have. We have met several couples on our anniversary trip who have been married for well over 50 years, and we celebrate with them just as they celebrated with us.

Fifty years seems like such a long time, and I guess in many ways it is just that. But, as we now celebrate that milestone, looking back over those many years of marriage, it seems like a blink of the eye. Where did all that time go? And as we look ahead, wondering what the future holds for us in this journey of life, we know that the time we have left is much less than the time we have already experienced in this journey of life. And we want to make the most out of the time we have left.

So, that brings me to the main emphasis of this blog. As amazing as this 50-day journey has been, and as amazing as our 50 years of marriage have been, the most amazing journey began on September 13, 1977: the day Teresa and I were gloriously saved by the grace of God.

At that point of our marriage, we had decided to part ways. Divorce seemed to be the only way out of our misery, as I had made the decision that I simply wanted to play the drums in a rock band. Nothing else mattered to me. Being married did not seem to fit very well with my personal dreams and desires. So, we were discussing how we would part ways.

It was at that point of our lives that God graciously broke through the mess I had made of our marriage, drew us unto Himself by the working of the Holy Spirit, made us realize that our only true hope in this life was a relationship with Jesus Christ, and saved us by His amazing grace. And since that day, almost 46 years ago, we have been traveling the most amazing journey of all. We have served in ministry together for the majority of those years since being born into the family of God.

As we now draw closer to the end of this 50-day journey, we also realize that we are drawing closer to the end of our journey on this side of eternity. As much as I hate to think about it, there will come the day when one of us will stand beside a freshly dug grave, saying good-bye to the mate we have shared life with and now leave behind. But, since becoming children of God we know that this journey will not end with physical death. This journey will continue on, forever!

May I end with a word of encouragement? If you are not already a born-again child of God, then this life is really all you have to look forward to. Eternity, for you, will not be a place of fellowship with a loving Savior, Jesus Christ, but will be a place of eternal torture, separated from God in hell. However, if you do as Teresa and I did those many years ago, on September 13, 1977, then you, too, will enjoy the most amazing journey of all.

Blessings!

We now have been on the road 28 days – four out of seven weeks are now behind us. We have traveled over 5000 miles, and the memories already made will be cherished for the remainder of our lives. We will have pictures to remind us of the details of this amazing journey, along with an assortment of refrigerator magnets that will be a constant reminder of places we have been and sights we have seen.

Today we will travel a little over 200 miles from Etna, Wyoming, to Gardiner, Montana. We will move from one national park – Grand Teton – to another – Yellowstone. We will marvel at the sights we will see as we go from Wyoming, into Idaho, and finally into Montana. As much as I hate to leave the Tetons, I am so excited to see the sights of yet another national park.

As I mentioned in my last post, I would like to share with you yet another encounter we have had along the way. At one of our camping spots, we were privileged to meet two gentlemen who were traveling around the country. They are avid bikers, going on two bike rides in two days in the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains. One evening, as we were having a casual conversation, one of them asked if he could speak with me privately. After we moved to a secluded area, he began to share with me some personal struggles he was having. That day he was celebrating six months of sobriety – a personal milestone in his ongoing struggle with alcoholism. But he was experiencing some intense struggles on that very day of celebration.

At this point I was able to share with him how God had graciously saved me from the many struggles Teresa and I faced many years ago and set our lives on a new path of spiritual freedom in Christ. He told me about his desire to be a better husband and father, and how his life had changed so drastically over the past six months. But, for some reason, he was having a time of intense struggle that very day – the day of his six-month sobriety.

He asked me about my relationship with Jesus Christ, and God opened the door for me to share with him my own personal faith journey. It was a most amazing conversation that ended with him being encouraged in his own walk with God.

Divine appointments come in so many different ways. This particular appointment was orchestrated by God because this gentleman needed someone to talk with, to share his burdens with, to seek spiritual and emotional encouragement from. He ended our conversation with a most encouraging word for me: he asked that Teresa and I pray for him, that he would remain strong in his commitment to sobriety, and that he would be a better husband and father. Teresa and I have prayed for him many times since that encounter and will continue to do so.

In my next post I will be sharing more of our amazing journey, and the personal encounters we are having along the way. Until then:

Blessings!

Does time really drag by? Or, does it speed past with reckless abandon? Seems to me that both are true. As I spent endless hours in researching, planning, making reservations, deciding on a route that would take us to places we really wanted to go, revising, re-revising, etc. etc., it seemed that time was dragging by so slowly and the day of our departure would never arrive. But now, 25 days in, with only 25 days left, it seems that time is flying by. It really does not seem possible that we are at the half-way point of our 50-day 50th anniversary journey.

But here we are. I got out of bed at 5:00 this morning, fixed my first cup of coffee, got my Bible in hand, and watched the sun rise over Riverton, Wyoming. As the light of day began to lighten the morning, I watched prairie dogs begin their morning routine just in front of our camper. I marveled at the silhouette of the mountain range some distance away, and once again was moved with a sense of worship and praise of One so mighty as to create such beauty, grandeur and majesty.

Teresa and I have been reminded in so many ways of just how wonderful God is. We have marveled at the many different types of terrain we have seen as we have now driven over 4500 miles. We have seen land so flat that we were able to see vast distances ahead of us, literally miles and miles ahead with no obstructions to hinder the view. We have also seen canyons so deep it was difficult to see the bottom because of the dark shadows hiding the depths below. We have driven over mountain passes that are so high, with roads that were so dangerously close to the edge with no guard rails for protection, that I was literally terrified to take my eyes off the road. We have seen wildlife – deer, antelope, elk, big horn sheep, moose, prairie dogs, pronghorn antelope, golden eagles, blue heron, snake – in abundance, and will see many more as we go into Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

We have met many people, from so many different walks of life, and from so many different places. Interesting people, with stories to share of their own exploits in their travels across the vastness of the United States. We have been able to share our stories, and most importantly, our faith, with these that God has graciously given us the opportunity to meet.

We are looking forward to meeting more on the remainder of our 50-day journey. At this point, would you pray with me for those with whom we have already been privileged to share the Gospel? Would you pray specifically for their salvation? Thank you for your willingness to do that. And, would you also pray for those that we are yet to meet? Would you pray that we would be sensitive to their spiritual needs as we engage in conversation with them? Again, thanks for lifting us, and them, to the Lord.

In my next blog I will share still yet another conversation with a gentleman we met in our travels. Until then:

Blessings!

Teresa and I have now traveled about 4000 miles, crossing 8 states and seeing more sights than I can now even remember. We marvel at the beauty of God’s creation, and wonder how anyone could see such majesty and not realize that there must be a powerful and great God who created it all.

Yes, we have seen much (which I am trying to chronicle in pictures posted on Facebook), but the truly remarkable thing so far has been the people we have met. God is not only allowing us to marvel at what we are seeing, but to also engage in conversations with individuals and families we are meeting along the way. I have spoken in earlier blogs about tours guides, Jason and Eddie. As I sit here at 4:30 am, watching the first glimmers of light rise above the towering mountains surrounding me, I am thinking particularly of two families we have met on our journey.

We met these two families in two different places, and both are from Denmark. The first was a delightful couple who were quite intrigued by our small camper, and simply wanted to know about it and how we were able to take a fifty-day trip in such a small bed-on-wheels, as we have dubbed it. This led into a conversation about life in the US compared to life in Denmark, with a discussion of churches in both countries.

The second family from Denmark we have spent some time with was a family of four who were taking an 18-day tour of the western United States. We shared a delightful meal with them at our host boondocker’s home, and once again the conversation gravitated toward the church in both countries. They were amazed at the many different denominations we have in the US, and shared with us that the church in Denmark is a state church with the queen of Denmark being the head of the church.

We were given the opportunity to engage in conversation about the church in general, which led ultimately to a discussion of the fact that no one is saved through the church, but rather through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is not church attendance that saves – even though church attendance is essential for spiritual growth and development after one is saved – but it is by the grace of God, through faith, that one is saved.

This was all so strange sounding to our new acquaintances from Denmark. Teresa and I hope that our discussion with them will cause them to look more deeply into the matter of individual responsibility and accountability to God. Both families were truly delightful, and it was such a joy to share with them, and now we pray for them to come to an understanding of their own individual need of a Savior.

The first three weeks of our 50-day anniversary trip has been amazing. As I write this blog on Monday, July 3, we will be preparing later today for the next stop along the way – Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. We have now visited Grand Canyon, Great Sand Dunes, and Rocky Mountain National Parks. We’ve taken five train rides, two guided tours, and have seen so much in our own personal sight-seeing expeditions.

As we prepare to take the next leg of the journey to Wyoming – we’ll actually take a couple of days to get there from Estes Park, CO – but there are adventures along the way. Can’t wait to share with you more of the excitement we are enjoying, and pray that you are being encouraged as you read these words and as you view the pictures. Every picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words, but sadly no picture can capture the true beauty of what we have seen. The pictures will simply be a reminder to us in the future of the joy we experienced along the way.

Until next time:

Blessings!

Teresa and I are almost three weeks into our 50-day anniversary celebration. It has been absolutely amazing to this point. We have already seen so much that it takes a few minutes to think about all that we have seen and done. I would love to tell you about everything, but it would take far too long to rehearse all the wonderful things we have done in the short space of a blog. So, I will share one of those divine encounters God has given us along the way.

I shared with you in a previous blog about a tour Teresa and I took of the Grand Canyon, and of a conversation we had with our tour guide, Jason. He gave a very intellectual discussion of the theory of Darwinian evolution, to which God gave opportunity to share the Bible’s teaching of divine creation.

We have now taken another guided tour of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and our guide for this trip, Eddie, spent a great deal of time discussing his understanding of philosophical existentialism. He told several interesting stories which all ended with the same conclusion: nothing is good, nothing is bad, all serves the purpose for which it exists. His understanding of humanity is that we are just one of the multitude of forms of animal life, and nothing of any significance separates human beings from any other animal.

Eddie is a great storyteller. His entertaining stories filled the time when we were traveling the 1 1/2 hours from our starting point in Denver to the entrance to the park. After listening to him share story after story, each reaching the same conclusion as the previous ones – that life is meaningless, nothing good, nothing bad – I shared with him that the Bible presents a totally different view of all that exists. It gave me the opportunity once again to share with our tour guide, as well as the rest of the group taking the tour. the Biblical view of creation, and the sanctity of human life being created in the image of God.

As we all marveled at the beauty of God’s amazing natural creation, Teresa then went on to share with our group the amazing story of God’s gift of supernatural re-creation when one places his faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty of our sin. No one, as far as we know, embraced the presentation of the Gospel, but they did hear it. They are now accountable for what they do with it. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will continue to bring that conversation to their minds and bring them to saving faith.

In my next blog I am going to share still yet two more divine encounters that God has brought across our path on this amazing journey. Until then:

Blessings!

As many of you know, Teresa and I have now embarked on our 50-day 50th anniversary journey. We have passed through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. After four days on the road, covering over 2000 miles, we took a bus tour to the Grand Canyon, witnessing there one of the most spectacular sights in the American Southwest.

Our tour guide, Jason, was very knowledgeable of the area, and shared with us so much information about the area, beginning in Sedona all the way to the south rim of the Canyon. Much of what he shared was about the places we traveled through on our 2 1/2 hour trip from Sedona. When we got close to the Canyon, he began a very detailed discussion of how the canyon was formed, giving us a most elaborate diatribe on Darwinian evolution. His discourse went on for about 20 minutes, and when it was clear that he had finished, I thanked him for his obvious knowledge and understanding of the evolutionary process, and then asked if he was aware that evolution was not the only explanation for the existence of the canyon.

He then asked what I was speaking about, which opened the door for me to share the creation account from the Bible, and say to those who were part of our tour group that it is possible, even probable, that the canyon exists because God created it just the way it is. The couple sitting immediately in front of us nodded their heads in approval, while the rest of our small group remained silent.

I say this simply to illustrate the fact that God opens doors for us to share our Biblical faith in some of the most unexpected places – we simply need to be on the look-out for those opportunities. I’m not sure that the conversation between me and Jason had any bearing or significance to the others in our captive audience, but at least they were given both sides of the story, and the opportunity to choose for themselves.

Teresa and I are witnessing the majesty and grandeur of God’s creative activity. We see God everywhere. Others might observe the same sights and see God nowhere. It is all a matter of perspective. As our journey continues, we will be heading to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and North and South Dakota before heading back toward home. We will see so much, and it will lead us to worship the Creator of it all. Why? Because we choose to believe God is now-here, while others believe God is no-where. It’s all in the eyes of the beholder.

Blessings!

Teresa and I have always loved taking a trip to the mountains – whether it be for a day, a week, or now, for fifty days. We are headed west to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary, with plans to visit New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas.

For me, part of the joy of such an adventure is all the planning that has to be done before the journey even begins. I have spent countless hours researching, looking for places to park our camper for the night, or for a few nights, at the different locations we have chosen to visit. I have also labored over deciding what we could do – and what we would not have time to do even though we would love to do it – in our limited time at each location. Believe me: there is so much to see at each place we plan to visit, so pick-and-choose has been a major task in planning this trip.

The excitement has been building for several months, and the day has finally arrived in which we have embarked on this much anticipated vacation/celebration. (For anyone who might be interested in traveling along with us, I will be posting pictures on Facebook at the end of each day – at least when we are in a location with wifi!!)

But, now to the point of this blog. All the time spent researching, reading, looking at travel videos, etc. etc. has caused me to ponder an extremely important matter: eternity. Life is a journey that will ultimately find its way into the eternal realm via death or the rapture of the church. Life, here and now, is the time for planning for that future beyond physical death. The Bible’s teaching is crystal clear: we will all, each and every one, spend eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell. There are no other choices.

The life we now live in these bodies of flesh and blood will one day end. Friends and family will gather at a graveside, listen to some comforting words from Scripture, and watch as our bodies are lowered into the ground and laid to rest. But before that moment, perhaps a few days before that graveside visit, physical life has ended, and we are ushered instantly into the eternal realm. Those who have been born into the family of God will be ushered into His presence, while those who are not of His family will be ushered into torment. Those ushered into His presence will then await the coming Judgment Seat of Christ and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, while those not of God’s family will await the coming Great White Throne of God’s judgment.

The point is that now – in this present physical life – we are given ample opportunity to make plans for life after death. The journey, for the believer in Jesus Christ, should be one of continual and consistent seeking after the will of God, and the commitment to stay focused on finishing this physical life being able to exclaim, as did the Apostle Paul,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8, NKJV

Right now, Teresa and I are enjoying a journey that has been in the planning stage for several months. But one day, we will enjoy that instantaneous journey which will take place when our last breath is drawn in this physical realm, and we are ushered into our final destination!

We are presently taking a trip hoping that you will travel along with us via pictures taken along the way. We would also love to see you on that ultimate and final journey when we finally meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ face-to-face. Have you made plans for this most important of all journeys? If not, please do so before it is eternally too late. Trust Jesus today – and then we’ll see you over there.

Blessings!

It is very difficult to believe Teresa and I have been married 50 years, but, the calendar says it’s so, so I guess it is. Today, June 6, we celebrate 50 years of marriage. It has been my great privilege and pleasure to be married to the absolutely most wonderful woman imaginable.

I would like to say that it has always been a marriage filled with joy, happiness, contentment, and mutual satisfaction. And, for the most part, all of those sentiments are true of our relationship. However, it didn’t get off to the best start. Perhaps you have heard the story of how we met, and the whirlwind romance we experienced, but since it is the BIG one, I will share it again here.

Teresa and I met in a very unusual way. We met on a blind date, of sorts. Actually, it wasn’t a real date at all. Keith “Doc” Craig, Randy Marshall, and I had tickets to attend a Grand Funk Railroad concert. My fiancée (uh, yes, you read that right!) had to cancel out at the last minute, so I was left holding a ticket that would not be used. Randy’s date shared with him that she had a friend who would love to attend the concert, and since it would be a wasted ticket, I agreed to let her have it.

So, I drove to Teresa’s house, knocked on the door, and waited for a few seconds before the door opened. Immediately, an arm reached out of the door, grabbed me by the arm, jerked me in, and a voice shouted, “Sit down!” I was in a mild state of shock, having never met this 89-pound high school senior who was embroiled in a heated argument with her mother about whether she would be allowed to attend the concert with a long-haired, drum-playing hippy they had never met. Teresa adamantly and defiantly told her parents she was going, grabbed me by the arm once again, this time taking me out the door.

I honestly did not know what to think or how to react to this outrageous behavior. If this girl would talk to her parents in such a way as I had just witnessed, what could I expect from her? I was sincerely afraid of what might happen, so for a while I just sat there, not really saying anything. I was hoping that Doc or Randy, or Randy’s date, would engage in conversation with this ticking time bomb so that I could just sit back, relax, and say nothing until we arrived at the concert venue.

But, as the night progressed, we did engage in conversation, and before we got back to Teresa’s house at the end of the evening, I had fallen head over heels in love with this intriguing young woman. So much so, in fact, that two days later I proposed marriage! Yes, you read that right. We met on Sunday evening, February 25, and I proposed on Tuesday, February 27. I actually would have proposed on the 26th but I couldn’t get in touch with her.

I was so serious about proposing that I laid out of work on Tuesday, having made up my mind that the day would not end until I had talked with her, face-to-face. When I popped the question, Teresa reacted just as you would expect – she laughed. Out loud. Deep, hard, guttural, laughter. She, of course, thought I was joking. Who, after all, in their right mind, would propose marriage to a person they had just met? Well, that would be me.

To make what could be a long, long, story short, she did accept, and three months later we were married – June 6, 1973. And now, all these years later, we are still deeply, madly, in love. It hasn’t always been easy. There have been some rough spots along the way. As a matter of fact, just four years into the marriage we had decided to divorce. I was completely self-absorbed, self-centered, and self-serving. All I was interested in was ME. It was at this time that God graciously intervened in our lives, saved us, and set the course for our future. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Teresa has been and continues to be my best friend, my confidant, my soul-mate, my partner in ministry, my co-rider on roller coasters in as many amusement parks as we have been able to visit, the mother of our three children, the grandmother of our six grandchildren, the one who has kept me going when I wanted to quit, who encouraged me in attaining educational goals, writing goals, ministerial goals, and so much more.

I certainly don’t encourage others to follow the path of being married only three months after meeting, but by God’s grace it has worked out for us. And I emphasize that it has all been by God’s grace.

This coming Saturday we are setting out on a 50-day trip to celebrate 50 years of marriage. We have no idea how many more years we will have together on this side of eternity, but continuing in His grace, committing our lives and our marriage to Him, He will see us through to the end.

Teresa, I love you with all of my being, and can’t wait to see what the future holds as we walk into our golden years hand-in-hand and heart-in-heart.

Blessings!

In most cases, surrender is thought of in terms of defeat. A losing army surrenders to the conquering demands of their foes. The defeated army ceases to resist their enemy and submits to their authority. The conquering army will then make certain demands of their defeated foe, which could include the confiscation of weapons, the giving up of lands, the payment of monies to cover the costs of reparations, etc.

We can think of surrender in another very important way: as an individual surrendering his/her life to God. There are a few key verses that will help us understand this concept.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 5:10, NKJV

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Romans 8:6-7, NKJV

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4, NKJV

At one point in our lives we were all the enemies of God. We were carnally minded, worldly minded, having our minds set on things of the earth rather than the things of God. Paul states clearly that the carnal mind is enmity against God due to the fact that it is not subject to the law of God. Then, James asserts that to be a friend with the world – the worldly system of anti-Christ sentiment – is to make oneself an enemy of God.

For one to cease to be an enemy of God calls for a total surrender to God. This requires an agreement with God that we were His enemies, that we acknowledge that reconciliation with Him is only possible through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that we are willing to make a total surrender to Him. This means a relinquishment of all my personal rights, and a commitment to His will for my life.

The first component of this surrender is salvation. We become children of God through the sacrificial death of Jesus. He paid the penalty for our sin, suffering the wrath of God that we should suffer. We are no longer enemies of God, but rather we are now children of God. In the act of salvation God justifies the sinner, imputing the righteousness of Christ to the account of the repentant sinner. We are no longer viewed by God as His enemy, but as His children, having been adopted into His family.

This leads to the second component of surrender: sanctification. This is a lifelong journey through which the surrendered individual becomes more and more like Jesus as we discard the old and replace it with the new. We are, as Paul says, new creations. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. To be sanctified is to be set apart for the glory of God.

Then, the third component of surrender is service. As we experience the continual and consistent work of sanctification, we learn that we are gifted to serve God in different ways. Every individual believer in Jesus Christ has at least one spiritual gift which is to be discovered, developed, and used to serve God through the many different ministries in the church.

In order for all of this to take place – the initial surrender of salvation, the continual surrender of sanctification, and the surrender to service – we must cast off the old and replace it with the new. We are dead to our old self, and alive to our new self. Paul states this clearly in his letter to the Galatians.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20, NKJV

Being crucified with Christ means that we are dead to our old self. We are now living by faith to the glory of God. It requires nothing less than total, absolute surrender. May it be so with each of us.

Blessings.