Unconditional Surrender

    On February 1865, at Hampton Roads, Virginia, Peace Declarations from North and South met abroad the Union Steamship, River Queen.  President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward sat across the table from Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and his party to discuss terms to end the War.  The wording in the South's peace proposal made it very clear they were not ready to give into the North's demands.  One phrase that the Confederate Delegation continued to use were the words, "Our two countries." Lincoln made it very clear, that there was not two countries, but only one country, a country at war with itself.  The demands from the Union President were plain.  For there to be peace and an end to the bloodshed, three things would need to happen. The Rebel States must agree to come back into the Union and pledge allegiance to the United States of America.  All Rebel States must acknowledge and agree to an immediate end of hostilities and lay down their arms.  Lastly, all Slave States are to accept that Slavery is now and forever gone as an institution in this Nation.  The terms of the end of the Civil War could not have been stated more concisely.  The South must surrender! Nothing less than complete, unconditional surrender would be accepted by the Union.  This, the Confederacy, the Rebellious States refused to do, so the War continued and more men died.

If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and made him your Lord, you are a spiritual rebel in your heart.  God's terms are the same as Lincoln's.  Return to the God who created you.  Be reunited with the Father who wants to have fellowship with you. Quit fighting Him. The Holy Spirit is wooing you, quit resisting His Voice. Lastly, be willing to give up the things in your life that have made you a slave, and are ruining your life.  In other words, we are being asked to 'Unconditionally Surrender', without any of our own selfish terms.  The longer we wait to surrender our lives to the God who loves and died for us, the longer we suffer a hopeless spiritual war we cannot win.  We must all someday stand before the throne of a victorious Jesus Christ.  "At the Name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and everything in heaven, and everything on earth, and everything under the earth, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father."  Phil. 2:10

I don't know about you, but I have decided to willingly bow my knee and surrender to Jesus now, here on earth.  For a day is coming for those who will not unconditionally surrender here on earth, will be forced to bow and surrender in heaven.