Now people are fickle... and for the most part especially in these days "stick to itness" is out the window ... Not overestimating the life sways of a crowd... There are all the crowd issues when one looks at how people responded to Jesus...
But the aspect that most fills me with wonder is when I read the different accountings of Jesus' interactions with men and women and children when He walked the face of the Earth ... they only cause me to love Him all the more....
I love when accounts of Him walking in His authority are written.. I love how the people state how different He is from the other religious teachers of the day.. they marvel at His authority...
I also love the accountings when it is written that "even the tax collectors came to Him.." I mean "even" they came to Him.... All of the "theys" of our day.... I know that they would come to Him too....
I love how it is all written... the lost.. the destitute... the poor... the broken... the weary... I love one of the mottos of the church we attend... "Liars... Dreamers.. Misfits... I loved how other leaders I have known and walked with have talked about the "spotted and speckled"...
The religious ones ... hhhmmm not so much....
It has been interesting to me as I have dedicated myself to writing this blog and through the different seasons have grown with it.... what I marvel at right now is how the more embarrassed I am to write something.. the more I cringe inside as I write about the places I am at times within my soul... the more I feel the Lord on it and in my life.....
People are broken.. they are weary.. they are heavy laden... and they need to hear the words...that there is a place of rest...I need to hear those words.... and while I don't always rest there I want to .... In sharing hearts and breaking down walls and defenses I truly believe we are walking into that other.. that other that astonished the people in Jesus' day....
That real place... where we risk with one another.. and we love the good.. the bad and the ugly about one another.. and we love....
People don't need more show.. they don't need more entertainment... they really don't need church to be like the culture... whether they know it or not people need Jesus as He was ... as He is.. and I'm after that.... on good days and bad... on days of rejoicing and days of weeping... on days when He takes me by the hand and leads me into wondrous moments and on days when it feels like a brick wall is between us....
I have to walk into a place where I am more and more like Him... for myself.. but for those that surround my life.... His relationship with the Father... His capacity to do that which our Father was doing in the moment... His capacity to love.. His capacity to know and have confidence in who He was and what it was He was doing...
It is the power and passion of Christ that we all need.. and in walking towards that.. and hungering after Him... and in being real... and in not shunning those that are trying to find their way imperfectly I know we'll get there.... Love always is triumphant.... always....
While the crowds might be fickle .. love certainly isn't and love stands the test of time...
And I look to the time when we walk more and more as He walked... daily ... with power .. love and authority.... completely submitted to Him... and doing that which the Father is doing in our midst.....
I remember being at an outreach and this same sex couple let me pray for each of them ... I prayed for each one for almost 45 minutes... taking the scriptures and the prayers of Paul and using the truth that the Father is also their Creator and using language that they could receive.... they didn't get saved that day but they definitely were brought into a place of receiving God's love for them and brought closer to the day when their eyes would be open to receive the truth about the "Lover of their souls..." I mean "even the tax collectors" will come to Him....
Are we ready for them?
Are we able to be real and genuine and not hide behind religious notions that we have all the answers.. I know Jesus is the answer (PERIOD) but I know that there is oh so much I don't know... and I'm willing for Him to sort that all out.....
I want to be more like Him and walk in grace and love and see as He saw people... lost.. afraid.. wandering.. without a shepherd... without a home.... But with a Father who is heart hungry for them...
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