In 1975, we lived in a town called Oak Forest in Illinois. One Sunday morning, my sons and I walked down the block to the little Baptist Church.
I heard a message from the Bible about Jesus. This was a brand new experience for me, having been raised in a very different religious environment.
At the end of the service, the organist played a song I had never heard, with a message I had never heard. The song was called I Surrender All. All around me, people sang out loud and strong, and I knew this song had tremendous meaning for all those people. Little did I know God was working on my heart that morning, preparing me for a message that was to be delivered later that week.
The song I Surrender All was written by an American art teacher and musician named Judson W. Van De Venter in 1896. Winfield S. Weeden, his associate, set the words to music.
Van De Venter had been struggling for five years to determine if he should continue developing his art career or if God was calling him to full-time work as an evangelist. As only God can, He caused a change of heart in Van De Venter, and he surrendered all to God. He left his art career and became an evangelist.
This defining moment inspired the writing of the song I Surrender All. Author and publisher of more than sixty hymns, this song is his most famous.
The following Thursday, there was a knock on our door. Bob and Betty Wallace from the Baptist Church had come to visit me. They introduced me to the Jesus everyone had been singing about - the blessed Savior. And I surrendered all to Him that day. It has been over 50 years, and my surrender on that day still brings me to tears. God's goodness and grace overwhelm me.
Three weeks later, as my five-year-old son and I stood together at the back of the church, at the end of the service, Peggy, the organist, whom I now knew, began to play I Surrender All again.
I glanced down to see my son step out into the aisle. His small body, filled with determination, walked straight to the front of the church to surrender all.
I might catch some heat for saying this, but there is nothing quite like a few of the old hymns combined with the Holy Spirit to stir someone's heart.
I would like to invite you to have your heart stirred today. Sit back, relax, and take a few moments to listen to I Surrender All. Click below or Copy and paste the link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j04Bx9pKwpU
Each day we receive is a gift from God. I invite you to surrender all today, and every day, to the blessed Savior.
Gloryland Books
Roxanne's Website: https://roxannedrury.com/
Roxanne's Books : https://www.amazon.com/stores/Roxanne-Drury/author/B07R97B757
