Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

After Christian fighters captured Jerusalem during the first crusade, pilgrims from all over Western Europe began visiting the Holy Land. Around 1100 A.D. a French knight formed an organization called “The Knights Templar.” Their job was to protect these pilgrims during their visit. When these knights were baptized by the church it was done in a strange way. They would be baptized with their sword, but they wouldn’t take their swords under water with them. Instead, they would hold their swords up out of the water while all the rest of them would be immersed.

It was this way of saying to Jesus, “You can have control of all of me, except this one part. I am all yours, except when I am on the battlefield. All that I have is yours, except this sword.”

I’ve got a feeling that many people today when they get baptized they don’t hold up a sword, but they hold up their wallet. They hold up their laptop. They hold up the title deed to their house. They hold up their 401K. They hold up their pride and their ego.

You must determine the cost of eternal life and that cost is simple. It is complete, absolute, unequivocal, unconditional, total surrender and it is only when you say to Jesus, “I surrender all” that you not only never become the biggest loser, but you really do become the biggest winner.