What if….
What if most of the stuff our parents made us do, write, study in confirmation school, had to do in order to be ‘found right in Jesus’ eyes, what if it was, well-different? If we could see ourselves the way Jesus sees us? What if, now I’m just spit balling here, what if we have been told, raised, molded, as a Christian and aside from understanding and believing Jesus died for us, the what did you do for baby Jesus today has absolutely guilted us into a life of performance-based religion which had caused us to feel, at times, worthless, unfit, unworthy, and then pass those feelings to anyone around us-like our own kids.
What if the way to a relationship with Jesus is different than what you thought?
I spent my first adult season of my life as an investigator. I got pretty good at it, looking not just at all the usual suspects but also being able to sort them out. Based on sometimes simple stuff. Sometimes alerted at the way they looked away when I interviewed them. Simple things, wrapped in a world of smoke and mirrors.
So, what if….
So, what if we look at a few things first before I ask the questions. Why would God, through his son, Jesus, decide to separate Himself from his Father, and take on not only my sins, but yours? That takes care of two of us, but what if He did it for the rest of the world? Now, I don’t know about you, but my crap isn’t that bad. I mean, those people in France or Japan, or heck-how about New York City or Yuma, Arizona? My crap, my sin-isn’t that bad.
And Satan smiles.
We feel we have to do something, anything, to pay Jesus back for Him taking our place. It’s like someone inviting you over for dinner, a nice dinner, like barbeque ribs with roasted corn. You leave and thinking back about the night you smile then quickly frown because, damn, you have to have them for dinner now! Here is the fact-there is nothing you can do to pay it back. Nothing. To add to your frustration, you-me, just aren’t worthy of it. It’s like telling your five-year-old to go out and ride your high school ten-speed down the street. They just can’t.
In one event, he did it for all of us.
Ask yourself, what if….
Ask yourself, what if I am already who I wish I was with Dad? What if-the greatest thing you could do for, move through, or to honor God, His son, through the Holy Spirit you have in you, was to simply to allow God to love you?
Well sure, I got that, sure I do! Yeah, Jesus loves me, this I know. Here is a surprise-Jesus already knows the sins you committed, are committing, will commit this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, ten years from now 2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV – And God is able to bless you – Bible Gateway . Yes, you’re going to live at least ten more years. It’s a crap shoot after that.
What if God….
What if God just wants to be with you. I’m just asking, what if He just wants to listen to you talk, cry, laugh. What if He is there in your bedroom when you can’t get that damn list of crap you did, didn’t do, need to do starting in three hours before the sun comes up or there’s going to be hell to pay. What if he knows about your drug addiction? The crime you think you got away with twenty years ago.
How could He love me after I did-that? 1 John 3:1 NIV – See what great love the Father has – Bible Gateway
You forget the last couple of hours on the cross. Jesus is on the cross. Nailed to it. Two guys on either side are there, attached to their own cross. Apparently, they earned that punishment. No halfway house for them. They can’t even spell JESUS. One guy, somehow got the strength to challenge Jesus to prove himself. I would think he would hedge his bets that maybe the guy could be who he said he was. But Dad needed to show the contrast between, not only these two men who represented the entire world, and his Son, and he did it with a simple compare and contrast. The other guy, who I hope is me in this late season of my life, told the other to shut the hell up. I am sure that quote is from some new version of the Bible.
Then, he set the stage. “Remember me when you get to Heaven.”
BOOM!
That son of a bitch didn’t have to do anything other than believe who Jesus was and what he did and believe it was true. He was in. He lived, I am guessing, a miserable life, but was washed as clean as anyone today.
So are we.
…I am sitting at a bar.
As I write this, I am sitting at a bar. Its Friday afternoon and I am looking at my bar mates. Working men and women at the end of a week, sitting at any such establishment in your neighborhood, two forearms leaning on the bar, listening to Def Lepard’s Hysteria over the music speakers. Just men and women marking the end to another week. Hall and Oates was just on. People like you and me sitting and talking or watching some soccer game. Each one is a mirror of us. They just got through another week. Or, they have another week or two or three to go.
At the end of the bar….
At the end of the bar, near me because I’m sitting in the corner where the bar turns back and attaches to the wall, I imagine is a great-haired old man, slowly turning his glass of what I guessed was scotch-because, well, what else would he be drinking. He looked up at me and smiled. His long grey hair, topped with a well patinaed Peterbuilt ball cap, matched its well cropped grey beard. He smiles and raises the glass as if He’s toasting me. She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals comes on the speakers. now. The God of the Universe shows up and toasts me. He wants to be that intimate with me-you. He is here, next to us all the time. We have been, through the sacrifice by his Son, made white as snow. Any attempt on our part to pay Him back demeans what was done at the cross. We can’t do anything to repay anything. He knows our desire is to do so, to give us some idea we have value to give. We do when we take the gift. We then become His adopted child. Done.
So, love those you want to love. Love them in deed or word because you now have a heart to. You can mirror the One who saved you. But if you don’t, that’s okay. He knew you wouldn’t all the time and does not love you any less. But be prepared. After a while, days, months, decades you won’t be able to help yourself. It will just happen.
And the old man at the bar smiles.
2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV – And God is able to bless you – Bible Gateway
1 John 3:1 NIV – See what great love the Father has – Bible Gateway
How Does The Life Of Christ Save Us
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