Dear Follower of Jesus.....

 Dear Follower of Jesus Christ who is struggling in the walk, and tripping over a few stones along the path,

I guess I should start off by saying plain and simple that the only reason I'm preaching to you guys about following Christ with a pure and whole heart is because I really badly need to hear this myself.  So don't you ever think that I'm saying this because I'm past all this stuff and have moved onto the next level because I haven't.

Upon reading Terri Brady’s post “Climb that Ladder”, there was something in her book that caused me to take a step back and remember how stupid my complaints are compared to His glorious sacrifice. 

Here’s Terri’s excerpt from her post on her blog…

‘I forced myself out of the daydream, realizing the lack of reality in thinking I would ever say that to Him as He hung there.  How petty my prayers seemed that morning now that I had truly surveyed Him!  How selfish!  He died for me; can’t I live a moment for Him?  I slid back into the daydream, recognizing that the only thoughts that could come to mind to whisper in His ear as He hung on that cross were unsaid, choked by tears:

“I’m so unworthy.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.”

He glanced in my direction as if to answer my unspoken words, “I know.  That’s why I came.”’

That’s why Jesus died!  Because He knows I’m so unworthy, because He knows I’m utterly stuck-up, selfish, a jerk to my friends and family, self-centered and so easily distracted.  He knows…. that I’m a sinner.  But here’s the difference, now I know that, whereas before I didn’t even recognize it.  He showed me myself, in light of His awesome grace and beauty, and drew me in to His family!  I am His child now. 

As a dear, dear friend of the family once said to me as I wept over the phone to him, letting out all my struggles into his poor ears; “Darlin’, darlin’…you are a holy Child of Christ…you’re not a freak…the devil should has no right to accuse you of these things, you are His child!  He should be ashamed of himself for accusing you…! he can’t make you do anything without your authority.”

Because of my position in Christ, I now have authority over my mind, heart and actions, whereas before I was a child of the devil, (see Ephesians 2), and bound to him and his ways of this world.

So why is there this struggle within me?  Why is there this battle within me?  The frustrating thoughts, the countless tears in the carpet, the bruised knees, the clenched fists, the anxious heart that longs for it’s thirst to be quenched with cool, sweet Truth? 

Why the struggle?  Because, as real as Jesus Christ has saved me, there is a enemy!  And like a prowling lion he seeks to ‘steal, kill and destroy’, but Christ seeks to ‘give you life more abundant and free.’, the opposite of the devil’s purpose.

I was once dead in trespasses and sin, and I had no choice but to be a minion to the devil’s lies and carry them out,

But God!  Who loves me with a perfect and sweet, tender and beautiful love, laid down His body and said “Enemy, take me, but this little one, she is mine.”

And so with His blood, He paid my ransom, a debt I could never own up to, and never will!  By His blood, now, He has given me authority over the temptation to cling to it, and has shed light on a new and different path.  His path.  His way.  And tenderly, just as He called me into His love by His grace, He again calls my name, saying, “Turn your eyes away from the things which are dead.  Your sinful man is dead, and now you  have the choice to love Me.  Turn your hope onto that which is Alive and Good, and Pure and Lovely, for those are the things that make up Me. 

“I love you.  All I want from you, is all of you.”

So He promises us in 1 John 1, “Confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”

So sinner!  You know you are one…confess!  And if you do confess, then rejoice!  For God has already forgiven your sins, the blood is old and dead and crusted and has fallen away,

And rejoice, I say!  For He has called you white as snow, and His Holy Child.

Notice how the first "forgiven" is faded...looking worn and almost gone...

  

Then see how the second "forgiven" is bright, and clear, revived.

That is how Christ revives us when we cry out for His forgiveness!  He does that every moment!