To Know Christ and Make Him Known.....

Sometimes it is the simplicity of the Gospel that trips us up.

The truth that the longest distance in the world can be the 12 inches between the head and the heart.

The difference in believing from the distance of intellectualism that God exists versus that He exists in the embrace of making a way for me to come to Him.

So simple, His way. So complex.

So familiar. And such a mystery.

How is it we can be rocketing down a wide road leading straight to destruction and with a heart felt cry of belief in the Son of God, our road narrows into the path of the Cross where we walk in the Way laid out for us so many years before when the Son of God was sent to die.

For me. For you. For all who accept the Gift.

My mission statement came to me one day in that still small voice. I’d read somewhere in one of the books stacked beside my bed that every Christ follower should have a mission statement. I don’t even think I breathed a prayer, but into my mind came the words, “To know Christ and to make Him known through writing, music and drama.” I knew it was right.

Sometimes I fail miserably. I do other things besides write. I get frustrated with music ministry. No one schedules me to perform and I wonder if I have lost my calling, but my life is more than writing, music and drama.

My life is about knowing Him better today than yesterday and sometimes I fail in that, too, pushing my prayer time and journaling and Bible study to the back of my schedule of things that have no eternal value.

I am to make Him known to others–to be a Christ follower and Christ-like when I speak to the check-out girl who is more concerned with her recent heartbreak than her customers (me!) need to hurry. I am to be Christ-like when I drive from hospital to hospital. Does the Icthus/fish symbol on my car identifying me as a Christian testify to the life changing power of the Gospel as it flashes by in my need for speed? When I lose my temper, when I gossip, when I tell a little white lie so I look better to someone (and worse to Him) am I making known the power of Christ in my life?

When He found me I was a sinner in desperate need of grace.

I had tried all I knew to have a good life. I’d followed the rules and broken the rules. I’d fallen into the pit of sin and crawled back out. I’d comitted the little day-to-day sins that wear on our souls and sear our consciences. And I’d comitted the big time sins that make us cringe as I careened around trying to figure out life and make sense of the longing in my heart to be loved with an everlasting love.

On the surface I looked like I had it made. Wordly success was my oyster. I had a good job. A career that paid well. I was smart. I was pretty. I was funny and could tell a joke with impecable timing bringing laughter to an entire room. I lived in a big house in an upscale neighborhood, shopped the best stores for the best clothes and vacationed in the places I read about in travel magazines.

And all of it was a cover-up for a broken heart.

When God brought me to the end of myself, when I had run as hard and fast as I could after worldly success as well as religious success–striving to do good so the God of my childhood would give me cosmic Brownie Points into His good favor–I had to admit all my strivings had failed.

The paradox of the Gospel. That to find our life, we must lose it.  And when we lose our life, we find it–His LIFE! Abundant life! Overflowing with His goodness and love, filled with mercy toward me a sinner, bubbling with the unmerited favor of His grace. Free for the asking. Too good to be true, but is.

Why was I so afraid of giving up control of the pitiful striving existence that I knew as my life? Why did I fear giving up the emptiness of laying my head down at night wondering if this was all there was and ever meant to be to life?

All I can say is that we have an enemy that speaks to us the lie of the Garden…..”Did God really say……?” making us doubt His goodness. Making us think our own way is better than giving ourselves to a God who just wants to cramp our style. Oh, the lie of the enemy of our soul!

We live in a world built on that lie.

“Do this! It’ll make you happy!” “Try this! It will change your life!” “Here it is! This is what you’ve been looking for!”

Empty promises.

But Kim, you ask, don’t you have to give up a lot to be a Christian?

Yes….the emptiness, the lonliness, the heartbreak, the striving for happiness, the gnawing emptiness of running place to place, person to person, thing to thing looking for what will change your life.

There is only one way and that is the person of Jesus. God’s own Son. Sent to die as a sacrifice for every sin ever comitted by anyone past and future.

Mind boggling, but Good News! That He died for my sins and yours!

As I write, Britt Nicole is singing these words, “What are you waiting for? What do you have to lose?”

I told a friend last night that the difference in belief and BELIEF is this:

You stand on the shore of a raging river. A boat is there to take you across the water and the Captain asks if you believe the boat will make it across the water. It’s a strong boat, well made for the journey not to mention the only boat that has ever made it across the water. You say yes, you believe and the Captain reaches for your hand. “Come on then! I’ll take you across!” You back away, unsure you want to actually get on the boat and go across and the Captain leaves without you.

That is the difference. You can say you believe that the boat will make it but until you act on that belief and actually get on the boat, trusting the Captain to take you across, you have not yet accepted and acted on your belief.

Dear ones! Please do not stand on the shore watching the boat taking first this one and then that one across! The day is coming soon when the Captain will make His last trip and you don’t want to miss it! Jesus is coming soon! Don’t miss out, standing on the stormy shore with your face to the wind and rain as the lightening strikes around you and the thunder rolls, watching the boat pull away, thinking, “Maybe next time.”

What if there isn’t a next time?

But, what do you have to lose? He loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!

Too far gone, you think? No one is beyond the grace, love and forgiveness of God! I am living proof!

Get on the boat! Don’t miss out!

~~Kim

If you don’t know if you can trust Him, then trust me when I say you can. If you are reading this and you know a lot about Jesus but you don’t know Him but want to, please pray the prayer at the end of this blog. And when you do, please let me know. May you be blessed as He changes your life and you step from darkness into His beautiful light!

“Dear Jesus, I have done things wrong in my life and I ask You to forgive these things that You call sin. Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God. I believe that God, the Father, sent You to save us from our sins and that includes mine; past, present and future. I believe that You died a terrible death on the cross so I wouldn’t have to die for my sins. Thank You, Jesus. I am asking You to be Lord of my life. I am “getting on the boat,” Jesus and trusting You with my life. Thank you, Jesus for saving me. Amen.”

Congratulations! You are adopted into the family of God! Please let me know if you prayed this prayer! I have a gift for you!