In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus Christ gives us very clear instructions on how to surrender to his loving authority: To live the life that God has planned for us, which he promises is best (Romans 8:28 Jeremiah 29:11), we need to wave the white flag of surrender. Sometimes we evade being captured by God because doing so would mean surrendering areas of our lives that we like to control. As believers, we make Christ a daily priority-but all too often we mix our duty and honor to God with duty and honor to ourselves. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are duty-bound to him-purchased by his blood and redeemed from sin-and we are to be disciplined by grace through his teachings, drawing near to him as he drew near to us. This incredible tale of one man’s discipline, honor, evasion, and surrender could be compared to our Christian walk. Even in surrender he maintained his discipline and retained his honor. When Lieutenant Onoda stepped out of the jungle to accept the order, he did so in his dress uniform and sword, with his rifle still in operating condition. In 1974, the Japanese government sent its commanding officer to Lubang to order Onoda to surrender. Because of this, he had been ordered by his superiors to never leave his post until he received a specific order enabling him to do so. His primary motivation for not surrendering was his devout belief in the Japanese military code of discipline and honor. While his fellow evaders were eventually killed, Onoda held out for 29 years, dismissing every attempt to coax him out of the jungle as a trick. Almost all of his comrades were killed or captured, but Onoda and several other men hid deep in the jungle. Onoda had been stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines when it was taken over by U.S. In his book No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda tells a fascinating tale of being one of the last Japanese-born soldiers to surrender in World War II. The act of surrendering is very difficult for those who realize that the battle is lost.
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