On May 22nd, 2011, at 6:00pm in Denton, Tx, the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on finally promised me 'forever.' The wedding was a dream come true; two-hundred of our closest friends and family celebrated with us as their love and laughter carried on through the starry night. I couldn't help but feel maximum joy as my Father's love so graciously fell upon and took hold of my heart. The night was perfect. The shorter-than-normal ceremony gave way to an awesome reception where friends of old danced the night away, some better than others I might add!
As the night came to a close, my blushing bride and I were whisked away in an elegant 2000 Volvo S80, the windows of which became a canvas of natural human physiology etched in shoe polish -- thanks groomsmen. As our chariot drove away, the nerve and excitement that had previously left me a couple hours earlier, had returned. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord had graciously kept Madi and I pure for four years so that we might more fully enjoy our new union together as man and wife. But the excitement was short-lived, as the reality of my forgetfulness took hold...yes, I can admit dear, it was my fault we had to turn around ten minutes down the road to retrieve the infamous red suitcase I had forgotten in my sporty Corolla, now in the possession of Travis who was somewhere on the road. But of course, every single person at the wedding still had their phones on silent. So, we would wait in our dorm's parking lot until the hero of the night would come to our rescue. Classic Sky...
After the quick detour, we were on our way to our hotel room at the airport; the aroma of love was in the air! (Or was that just the smell of that night's leftovers our wedding planner so graciously snuck in our chariot?) As we approached our palace, I was completely sure I had outdone myself this time (take notes boys): our room was preset with dozens of rose petals, chocolates, and candles, with a nice bottle of Chardonnay on ice and the smooth sound of Sinatra playing softly in the background. Men's Health, my email is sky.mcclure@unt.edu if you would like the details for your upcoming article "When A Man Loves A Woman"
But never fear, before we could check in, reality was there once again to save the day! Of course, our flight the next morning would be cancelled, and of course we would have to drive overnight on our wedding night to Houston to make it in time for flight number two. Thus, the one night I had been looking forward to my entire life (well since puberty) would take form in a much different way. Instead of Chardonnay, Red Bull. Instead of Al Green, The Village People.
Nevertheless, our Ixtapa, Mexico honeymoon truly was the stuff dreams are made of. And for that, I am blessed. Plus, what an incredible story Madison and I will have the rest of our lives. The Lord worked through us patience of every kind, as we had to depend on Christ on our wedding night to get us there safely, and to be our peace, joy, patience, and above all....love.
So thank you Lord! What an incredible way to start off a life together. If we can, through Your peace, endure the uneasiness of that night, then truly we can endure and enjoy the rest of what life has to bring!
Even on my wedding night, you were conforming me to Your image.
Truly I am blessed through Christ!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Intimacy With Messiah
Dear friend,
I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are so many things I want to tell you, so many secrets I felt have been kept from me but now have been revealed. With the help of this new blog, I hope that by the Grace of Dad and Power of the Holy Spirit, someone out there reading this will join me in the revelation that is indescribably freeing and unbelievably loving. At times, I feel I don't know where to begin. What shall I write down, how can I possibly express with words the beauty and passion that comes from knowing our Lord and Christ, Jesus? If I were to start playing the "you know those people who..." game, I would fall deep into the judgement hole, no doubt proving this message to be in vain. So instead, please let me take a minute and describe how I once was, and perhaps ask yourself if you can relate.
For as far back as memory allows, I can remember being a Christian. I haven't known anything different. Sure, I was "happy," so long as my circumstances allowed (which usually meant the non-rejection of a note to the cute girl in class or hitting at least some of my shots in practice). I grew up in a fantastic, God-loving church, always went to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and didn't drink, chew, or went with girls who do. I prayed everyday, read my Bible from time to time (you know, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights), and attended all the youth group conferences, missions trips, etc. But, something inside me didn't feel right. I'm not gonna lie, I was unhappy with life. I watched my friends have fun drinking, swearing, partying; but, despite my deceitfully "close" relationship with Dad, didn't feel any satisfaction out of Christianity.
There, I said it. There were times I found no satisfaction out of Christianity.
The more I read the Bible (in an attempt to "be" a better Christian and through that find more happiness) the more it contradicted itself. It didn't make sense in so many places. Thus, the more I became discontent with what I was taught to believe. I knew Jesus was real. I knew I was going to heaven when I died. I knew I should have lived a holy life...
But I didn't know why. If it were for happiness, then that was a bold-face lie. You see, I saw two dynamics playing around me in the people I surrounded myself with. There were the friends who did whatever the heck they wanted, and they looked pretty dang happy. Then there were the Christians who seemed to find happiness in their "rule following." At times I found myself disrespectfully questioning my Maker, "Why am I so discontent? Why am I not ecstatic with joy like You say I'll be? Why do I feel so fake?"
Then He answered.
There were things holding me back. There were still a great many things I needed to understand in order to experience His joy and His peace. I needed to understand His Grace. I needed to understand The Kingdom. I needed to understand how to live in Him.
I'd like to use this Blog to explain these true doctrines that have helped me come into an exponentially closer relationship with Dad.
Doctrines like:
- Once saved, always saved, Grace is F-R-E-E free (Heaven/Eternal Life does not include a life of surrender)
- The Kingdom is not now, but a 1,000 year reign on this Earth with Christ as King and our potential to reign with Him (which does require surrender)
- We are free from the 10 commandments, they don't apply to us
- Instead of praying for peace, love, joy, etc., Christ is our peace, love, joy, etc. because He physically lives in and through us
My hope is that if you've ever been jaded as a Christian, or are tired of going to church camp just to "get on fire for Jesus" and then fade the next week, that you'll let down the barrier of preconceived non-biblical beliefs and allow the Holy Spirit to be your revelation and understanding.
Non-truth will keep you from intimacy with Messiah. This is something you gotta experience yourself.
For me it has been life changing and Earth shattering.
I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are so many things I want to tell you, so many secrets I felt have been kept from me but now have been revealed. With the help of this new blog, I hope that by the Grace of Dad and Power of the Holy Spirit, someone out there reading this will join me in the revelation that is indescribably freeing and unbelievably loving. At times, I feel I don't know where to begin. What shall I write down, how can I possibly express with words the beauty and passion that comes from knowing our Lord and Christ, Jesus? If I were to start playing the "you know those people who..." game, I would fall deep into the judgement hole, no doubt proving this message to be in vain. So instead, please let me take a minute and describe how I once was, and perhaps ask yourself if you can relate.
For as far back as memory allows, I can remember being a Christian. I haven't known anything different. Sure, I was "happy," so long as my circumstances allowed (which usually meant the non-rejection of a note to the cute girl in class or hitting at least some of my shots in practice). I grew up in a fantastic, God-loving church, always went to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and didn't drink, chew, or went with girls who do. I prayed everyday, read my Bible from time to time (you know, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights), and attended all the youth group conferences, missions trips, etc. But, something inside me didn't feel right. I'm not gonna lie, I was unhappy with life. I watched my friends have fun drinking, swearing, partying; but, despite my deceitfully "close" relationship with Dad, didn't feel any satisfaction out of Christianity.
There, I said it. There were times I found no satisfaction out of Christianity.
The more I read the Bible (in an attempt to "be" a better Christian and through that find more happiness) the more it contradicted itself. It didn't make sense in so many places. Thus, the more I became discontent with what I was taught to believe. I knew Jesus was real. I knew I was going to heaven when I died. I knew I should have lived a holy life...
But I didn't know why. If it were for happiness, then that was a bold-face lie. You see, I saw two dynamics playing around me in the people I surrounded myself with. There were the friends who did whatever the heck they wanted, and they looked pretty dang happy. Then there were the Christians who seemed to find happiness in their "rule following." At times I found myself disrespectfully questioning my Maker, "Why am I so discontent? Why am I not ecstatic with joy like You say I'll be? Why do I feel so fake?"
Then He answered.
There were things holding me back. There were still a great many things I needed to understand in order to experience His joy and His peace. I needed to understand His Grace. I needed to understand The Kingdom. I needed to understand how to live in Him.
I'd like to use this Blog to explain these true doctrines that have helped me come into an exponentially closer relationship with Dad.
Doctrines like:
- Once saved, always saved, Grace is F-R-E-E free (Heaven/Eternal Life does not include a life of surrender)
- The Kingdom is not now, but a 1,000 year reign on this Earth with Christ as King and our potential to reign with Him (which does require surrender)
- We are free from the 10 commandments, they don't apply to us
- Instead of praying for peace, love, joy, etc., Christ is our peace, love, joy, etc. because He physically lives in and through us
My hope is that if you've ever been jaded as a Christian, or are tired of going to church camp just to "get on fire for Jesus" and then fade the next week, that you'll let down the barrier of preconceived non-biblical beliefs and allow the Holy Spirit to be your revelation and understanding.
Non-truth will keep you from intimacy with Messiah. This is something you gotta experience yourself.
For me it has been life changing and Earth shattering.
Monday, February 14, 2011
All You Need Is Love
All you need is love. No, that's not right. All you need is Christ. There, that's better.
But wait, Christ is love, or is love Christ? What came first, chicken or egg? I think I'm going to stick with the assumption that the chicken came first, making the egg a derivative of the initial fowl; thus, the chicken is the superior. Now that I've beaten this proverbial dead horse, or chicken, let's make the spiritual jump. Christ came first, being that God came first, and so manifesting the perfected attribute of love. All this to say...Christ is love.
Dear friend,
As we draw upon this romantic time of the year, perhaps the offspring of a capitalist motive, perhaps not, let us take a moment and reflect upon a most lovely thought. This 'love' that we so choose to express to those we cherish, from where does the source lie? If you say, "I love you," and you mean as you say, that it is a love that springs forth from your own inner life source, is that worth anything? Think about it. If we truly are as Romans 3:13-17 says, then we're all kinda worthless to love, I mean really worthless:
"Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known."
Yeah, that's us. All of us. Even Fabio. Even Mother Teresa. So again I ask, how worthless is it to say, "I love you with the love that comes from me?" Wouldn't it be so much more meaningful if it came directly from God, the Creator, Perfecter, and Full Expression of love? Let's put it to the test: man-love vs. God-love.
Now, surely there's no need for me to explain man-love. You see it all the time. Might I even dare, my friend, to suggest that perhaps the love with which your most intimate affair dotes on thee is perhaps, man-love?
Consider this, the love with which we Christians are called to love is not our own, but our Christ's love.
Okay, easy to glaze over what I just said, reread that if you will...okay cool, thanks for that. I've always loved the Bible's gospel of the exchanged life. In Lamen's terms, it's where we don't look to change anything in our lives as Christians, but rather, allow our body and soul life to be exchanged with Christ's life.
It ain't no metaphor. It ain't no simile. It's the real deal, the real McCoy. As a believer in Christ, my dear friend, you not only have the Author of the known universe dwelling in you, but because of Jesus' inclusion of you at the Cross, your spirit's been killed, your spirit's been raised, and you now can live the exchanged life! It's such a reality. All you must do is reckon this to be true. Now you have the capability of loving as Christ loves! (Isn't that so much sweeter?)
But how does Jesus love? Check out John 15:12b-13,
"...love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
Yes, it's true, and amazingly so, Jesus died for us. But this isn't the only way the Scriptures tell us that He laid down His life for us. John 5:30,
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me."
Don't you see? Isn't this mind-blowing? Jesus, who was and is God, completely denied His right in every single regard. Jesus, who is the physical manifestation of the Father, who designed the galaxies, who walked with Adam in the garden, who spoke to Moses, who saves the world, who will reign as King on this planet, who is bringing an army of angels to meet Satan in battle, who will be our best friend for eternity, completely denied his deity.
Laying down one's life is not merely dying, but denying.
Dying, by it's very nature, is a one time occurrence that has an end. As terrible as it is, it is merely fleeting pain. But denying, that is something else entirely. Denying can only be done actively. One does not, like dying, do it and be over. It is a consistent thing to be done. It never ends.
Denying is continual dying.
Some say nothing is worse than dying. Try denying. That's worse. That's harder. That's more impressive of Chist in my book. So now we can make another connection. If Christ is love, and no other love is greater than laying down one's life (death and denying), and if we can love with Christ's love, then we can (in a very real sense) lay down our life for others without traveling to ancient Jerusalem and dying on a cross. In fact, if Christ offered it to us (directly to his followers, but by implication and application to us) in Luke 9:23, then it must be attainable for us by living the exchanged life.
"...if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."
Here, the mindset of 'denying' is turned into the outward physical expression of 'picking up your cross.' In essence, the 'picking' is defined by the 'denying.' Just as Christ denied Himself every God-given right He had, taking the role of a servant, forgoing His own will, choosing to limit Himself, so too must we, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves if we are to express any kind of love worth anything. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of love I want to give to my wife, to my best friends, to my family.
Let us delve now into the application of this glorious truth. I am constantly aware of the way we humans interact with each other, myself included. Perhaps the one fact that baffles me the most, that is most incongruent with our identity in Christ, is how we choose to express 'love' in the grand scheme of things (we 'say it,' even 'show it' in the big thing) but we neglect the small and individual moments. How can we possibly expect to achieve our big picture of love if we do not focus on the smaller? This is like a builder who has in mind what he wants his building to look like complete, but starts to build without thought to what type of brick he uses. In fact, he doesn't even supervise the construction, much less lay the foundation himself. What I mean is, how can we expect to achieve our "Yeah I love people" big picture, if we neglect the individual and elemental bricks of love?
Dear friend, speak love to one another. Don't just say it, speak with it, in your words, but more importantly in your tone. Love in your interactions. Embrace one another. Uplift each other. How can anything else matter? Take care of each other. Compliment one another. Love, please, for the love of God, love. Look at 1 Corinthians 13. With love in the little things, only then can the grander picture of "yeah I love" come into focus and become a reality.
Please, dear friend, love like you've never loved before. Because after all, it's not you loving anyways, but God himself!
But wait, Christ is love, or is love Christ? What came first, chicken or egg? I think I'm going to stick with the assumption that the chicken came first, making the egg a derivative of the initial fowl; thus, the chicken is the superior. Now that I've beaten this proverbial dead horse, or chicken, let's make the spiritual jump. Christ came first, being that God came first, and so manifesting the perfected attribute of love. All this to say...Christ is love.
Dear friend,
As we draw upon this romantic time of the year, perhaps the offspring of a capitalist motive, perhaps not, let us take a moment and reflect upon a most lovely thought. This 'love' that we so choose to express to those we cherish, from where does the source lie? If you say, "I love you," and you mean as you say, that it is a love that springs forth from your own inner life source, is that worth anything? Think about it. If we truly are as Romans 3:13-17 says, then we're all kinda worthless to love, I mean really worthless:
"Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known."
Yeah, that's us. All of us. Even Fabio. Even Mother Teresa. So again I ask, how worthless is it to say, "I love you with the love that comes from me?" Wouldn't it be so much more meaningful if it came directly from God, the Creator, Perfecter, and Full Expression of love? Let's put it to the test: man-love vs. God-love.
Now, surely there's no need for me to explain man-love. You see it all the time. Might I even dare, my friend, to suggest that perhaps the love with which your most intimate affair dotes on thee is perhaps, man-love?
Consider this, the love with which we Christians are called to love is not our own, but our Christ's love.
Okay, easy to glaze over what I just said, reread that if you will...okay cool, thanks for that. I've always loved the Bible's gospel of the exchanged life. In Lamen's terms, it's where we don't look to change anything in our lives as Christians, but rather, allow our body and soul life to be exchanged with Christ's life.
It ain't no metaphor. It ain't no simile. It's the real deal, the real McCoy. As a believer in Christ, my dear friend, you not only have the Author of the known universe dwelling in you, but because of Jesus' inclusion of you at the Cross, your spirit's been killed, your spirit's been raised, and you now can live the exchanged life! It's such a reality. All you must do is reckon this to be true. Now you have the capability of loving as Christ loves! (Isn't that so much sweeter?)
But how does Jesus love? Check out John 15:12b-13,
"...love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
Yes, it's true, and amazingly so, Jesus died for us. But this isn't the only way the Scriptures tell us that He laid down His life for us. John 5:30,
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me."
Don't you see? Isn't this mind-blowing? Jesus, who was and is God, completely denied His right in every single regard. Jesus, who is the physical manifestation of the Father, who designed the galaxies, who walked with Adam in the garden, who spoke to Moses, who saves the world, who will reign as King on this planet, who is bringing an army of angels to meet Satan in battle, who will be our best friend for eternity, completely denied his deity.
Laying down one's life is not merely dying, but denying.
Dying, by it's very nature, is a one time occurrence that has an end. As terrible as it is, it is merely fleeting pain. But denying, that is something else entirely. Denying can only be done actively. One does not, like dying, do it and be over. It is a consistent thing to be done. It never ends.
Denying is continual dying.
Some say nothing is worse than dying. Try denying. That's worse. That's harder. That's more impressive of Chist in my book. So now we can make another connection. If Christ is love, and no other love is greater than laying down one's life (death and denying), and if we can love with Christ's love, then we can (in a very real sense) lay down our life for others without traveling to ancient Jerusalem and dying on a cross. In fact, if Christ offered it to us (directly to his followers, but by implication and application to us) in Luke 9:23, then it must be attainable for us by living the exchanged life.
"...if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."
Here, the mindset of 'denying' is turned into the outward physical expression of 'picking up your cross.' In essence, the 'picking' is defined by the 'denying.' Just as Christ denied Himself every God-given right He had, taking the role of a servant, forgoing His own will, choosing to limit Himself, so too must we, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves if we are to express any kind of love worth anything. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of love I want to give to my wife, to my best friends, to my family.
Let us delve now into the application of this glorious truth. I am constantly aware of the way we humans interact with each other, myself included. Perhaps the one fact that baffles me the most, that is most incongruent with our identity in Christ, is how we choose to express 'love' in the grand scheme of things (we 'say it,' even 'show it' in the big thing) but we neglect the small and individual moments. How can we possibly expect to achieve our big picture of love if we do not focus on the smaller? This is like a builder who has in mind what he wants his building to look like complete, but starts to build without thought to what type of brick he uses. In fact, he doesn't even supervise the construction, much less lay the foundation himself. What I mean is, how can we expect to achieve our "Yeah I love people" big picture, if we neglect the individual and elemental bricks of love?
Dear friend, speak love to one another. Don't just say it, speak with it, in your words, but more importantly in your tone. Love in your interactions. Embrace one another. Uplift each other. How can anything else matter? Take care of each other. Compliment one another. Love, please, for the love of God, love. Look at 1 Corinthians 13. With love in the little things, only then can the grander picture of "yeah I love" come into focus and become a reality.
Please, dear friend, love like you've never loved before. Because after all, it's not you loving anyways, but God himself!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Run To Him
I must admit, I've had a pre-emptive writer's block for some time now. I think I made this blog about a month ago, and something, or Someone, has temporarily silenced my once super-curious mind. While waiting for just the perfect thing to write about in my first of (God-willing) many blogs, I think Dad has given me 'just the perfect thing.'
I recently finished reading THE SHACK.
I don't want to ruin it for anyone who might decide to embark on the great spiritual journey that is this book, but it does a wonderful job expressing Dad's unlimited love for everyone, and it does so in such a gripping way. Not only are the amazing doctrinal truths of Christian liberty, life free from Law, and Free Grace conveyed in THE SHACK, but more impressively painted is the elaborate picture of His deep desire to be in intimate relationship with me, and with you.
My heart breaks whenever I hear people speak of Christianity as a list of rules, of 'do's' and 'don'ts.' Not only is this false religious concept preached against in the Scriptures (check out Romans 6-8, Galatians, and Colossians), but it actually works against us in drawing us closer to Dad. My heart also breaks, perhaps even moreso, whenever I see brothers and sisters in Christ who have been saved by faith, who choose to live a life of rule abiding, flesh righteousness. It's like Paul says,
"There is only one thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law [10 commandments + the remaining 603 laws], or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh [a common synonym for law]? --Galatians 3:2-3, brackets mine.
Paul is asking, "If we are saved by faith in Christ for justification salvation (go to heaven when you die), how can we possibly receive sanctification salvation (pratical deliverance from sin and life's junk) by relying on ourselves, which is the essence of following the Law and any other 'rule principle?' The answer," Pauls says, " is that we can't. Living a holy life is all about your relationship with Dad, which can only be fully realized through complete dependence on Jesus."
Our complete dependence on Jesus looks kinda like this:
Let me ask you friend, do you feel the pressures of this life weighing on you? Do you feel jipped as a Christian, like this life isn't any easier now the Jesus is in the picture? If so, then please consider this idea. Jesus guarantees us a joyful and easy life in Him. Although we face all of the normal 'junk' in our lives, we rejoice in it, knowing that abiding in Jesus during that trial will draw us even closer, make our friendship with Dad even more indecsribable.
Here's an example you might be able to relate to: Ever gone through a horrible and traumatic event? Perhaps someone you love so dearly dies, or your life is torn apart as your most entrusted relationship not only fails, but betrays you. Now, amidst all of the grief, think of the one person who has been there for you the most during this event. I mean physical human being. Can you remember their love? Can you remember how they squeezed your hand, even embraced you as you wept? Do you remember the intimatcy and closeness that you two had, how you knew that, despite everything falling apart around you, they were there to love you, and that was enough.....and that somehow, through this tragedy, your relationship grew ever deeper?
Do you see the connection?
Dear reader, I love you, but please know that keeping rules for yourself in order to live a righteous life only further seperates you from a warm and rich relationship with Dad. I know, I've been there. I've seen both sides of the fence. Please, I beg you, do not neglect your friendship to the point where only a tragedy will get you running to Dad. Run yourself. Run to Him. Run because in Him, you will find yourself.
I recently finished reading THE SHACK.
I don't want to ruin it for anyone who might decide to embark on the great spiritual journey that is this book, but it does a wonderful job expressing Dad's unlimited love for everyone, and it does so in such a gripping way. Not only are the amazing doctrinal truths of Christian liberty, life free from Law, and Free Grace conveyed in THE SHACK, but more impressively painted is the elaborate picture of His deep desire to be in intimate relationship with me, and with you.
My heart breaks whenever I hear people speak of Christianity as a list of rules, of 'do's' and 'don'ts.' Not only is this false religious concept preached against in the Scriptures (check out Romans 6-8, Galatians, and Colossians), but it actually works against us in drawing us closer to Dad. My heart also breaks, perhaps even moreso, whenever I see brothers and sisters in Christ who have been saved by faith, who choose to live a life of rule abiding, flesh righteousness. It's like Paul says,
"There is only one thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law [10 commandments + the remaining 603 laws], or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh [a common synonym for law]? --Galatians 3:2-3, brackets mine.
Paul is asking, "If we are saved by faith in Christ for justification salvation (go to heaven when you die), how can we possibly receive sanctification salvation (pratical deliverance from sin and life's junk) by relying on ourselves, which is the essence of following the Law and any other 'rule principle?' The answer," Pauls says, " is that we can't. Living a holy life is all about your relationship with Dad, which can only be fully realized through complete dependence on Jesus."
Our complete dependence on Jesus looks kinda like this:
- I have a problem/confronted with temptation to sin.
- I know I need (self-control, joy, peace, etc.) to over come this temptation so as not to fall into sin.
- Jesus, instead of following any rules I completely trust you to be my (self-control, joy, peace, etc.).
- Experience the abundant life, the "easy yoke," the "light burden" of Jesus!
Let me ask you friend, do you feel the pressures of this life weighing on you? Do you feel jipped as a Christian, like this life isn't any easier now the Jesus is in the picture? If so, then please consider this idea. Jesus guarantees us a joyful and easy life in Him. Although we face all of the normal 'junk' in our lives, we rejoice in it, knowing that abiding in Jesus during that trial will draw us even closer, make our friendship with Dad even more indecsribable.
Here's an example you might be able to relate to: Ever gone through a horrible and traumatic event? Perhaps someone you love so dearly dies, or your life is torn apart as your most entrusted relationship not only fails, but betrays you. Now, amidst all of the grief, think of the one person who has been there for you the most during this event. I mean physical human being. Can you remember their love? Can you remember how they squeezed your hand, even embraced you as you wept? Do you remember the intimatcy and closeness that you two had, how you knew that, despite everything falling apart around you, they were there to love you, and that was enough.....and that somehow, through this tragedy, your relationship grew ever deeper?
Do you see the connection?
Dear reader, I love you, but please know that keeping rules for yourself in order to live a righteous life only further seperates you from a warm and rich relationship with Dad. I know, I've been there. I've seen both sides of the fence. Please, I beg you, do not neglect your friendship to the point where only a tragedy will get you running to Dad. Run yourself. Run to Him. Run because in Him, you will find yourself.
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