For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:35 NKJV)

I don’t remember her name, but I’ll never forget her story.

In 2005, her apartment building caught on fire. It was getting hotter and hotter, and smokier and smokier. She could barely breathe. She heard the firemen coming, and she knew that she would be able to make it out alive.

But her infant son was becoming unable to breathe in the smoky room. He was turning blue. The young mother ran to the window, opened it and held the baby outside so he could breathe. Her baby son began to do a little bit better, but it was getting hotter, the smoke was getting thicker, and she knew that the baby would not live if she tried to carry him to safety.

So she did something radical and difficult. From the window she saw a man on the street, 30 feet down, holding out his arms. Knowing the risk, she dropped her baby boy.

He fell three stories through the air and into the arms of a man who happened to be the catcher for the local baseball team. The fireman safely brought the mother from the building, and in just a few moments, mother and the son were reunited.

Why was the baby able to keep his life?

Because the mother gave it up.

That’s how you come to Jesus.

If you try to hold on to your life, Jesus says you’ll lose it. If you try to hold on to your soul and what you want to do, you’ll lose your soul. But if you come to Jesus on terms of complete surrender and say, “Lord, I give all of who I am to You.  I’m going to say ‘No’ to myself and ‘Yes’ to You,” then your life will be saved.

That’s the surrender He requires.

I pray you have a blessed day today.

-Bro. Brown Herbert

Southside Baptist