When we first met, I could think of nothing but that encounter. It was the bliss of my life! Unwavering, Unrelenting and Undefined was this new love experience. I was 9 years old and had been in love, so to speak, a few times already.
But this! Nothing could compare. . .
I was at camp for two weeks when it all happened. I was swept off my feet. It was what I had been looking for all my short lived little life. But could it hold me for the next 52 years? That's right - it would have to hold me for the next half century!
Good news: It has held. Oh, I dropped the ball many times over the years, but my true love never let me go. I had only heard of this one who would be my soul mate and my truest friend. I can still remember asking my mother, at age 4 about this one who would one day be my true love. She described this person to me and yet I could hardly believe such a one could exist, even at 4 years old I had my doubts such a one could exist for me.
But there I was at camp. I had caught a glimpse of the one who would never leave me or forsake me. It was during a short movie that my heart was captured. The film showed thousands in India who had just heard about my lover and friend. They too wanted to know this man: Jesus Christ.
Yes, at age 9 I cried out to the One Who could change my miserable little life. Miserable? Yes, very unhappy and very lonely at age 9. I had already been ignored by my parents to the degree that I was a problem child. A BIG problem. The school teachers already determined to throw me out because I caused so much trouble everyday. I was even suicidal at 9 years old. This dark life had covered me when I was kidnapped off the streets at just 7 years of age - pulled right off the streets of Detroit one Sunday afternoon.
The court trial put the man behind bars, but his effect on my young life and what he did to me were to leave deep scars for many confusing years as I searched for meaning and peace. So that day at camp, when the movie ended, I found myself crying and even weeping - longing for this Jesus to save me.
He did save me, but the years that followed were still filled with pain and confusion because no one taught me about His LOVE - only about man made rules of do's and don'ts. But one day at age 29 a little lady came to town and she told me Jesus could untie all the knots in my life and set me free from all the tangles I had tripped into over the years. She told me about the kidnapping and even how I had lost the ability to trust anyone anymore. I was in shock! How could this stranger know all about my deepest secrets?
She told me Jesus showed her these things and that He had sent her to me to let me go free from the prison my life had become. She told me Jesus had heard the groanings of my deepest heart and then she asked me if I was ready to be free and give my life back to Jesus as I had done as a little boy of 9 years old.
I was weary, I was ready, I gave my life back to Jesus.
Now as the Apostle Paul, I too was "determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified". No attraction would ever be able to hold my mind and soul captive ever again and I knew it this time.
To be worthy of this crucified and risen from the dead Savior we must learn to maintain an unbroken focus on the One Who has promised to keep us to the end. We must never allow anything to deflect us from the intimacy of our one true love affair with Jesus Christ.
As one once said, "the true test of a spiritual person is their unbroken focus on Jesus in the midst of life's best efforts to throw us off balance. To lose focus is the mark of an nonspiritual person. It means 'other things' have a growing fascination for us... "
But thank God, His Son, Jesus Christ has promised to keep us from falling and present us holy and blameless to His father on THAT DAY!
Have you met my lover and best friend? He's able to be your EVERYTHING and meet every need you will ever have in this short struggle called life! Only He understands your confussion and only He is waiting for you to call out ... Why not? Life, real life is your's for the asking...
THINK ABOUT IT!
But this! Nothing could compare. . .
I was at camp for two weeks when it all happened. I was swept off my feet. It was what I had been looking for all my short lived little life. But could it hold me for the next 52 years? That's right - it would have to hold me for the next half century!
Good news: It has held. Oh, I dropped the ball many times over the years, but my true love never let me go. I had only heard of this one who would be my soul mate and my truest friend. I can still remember asking my mother, at age 4 about this one who would one day be my true love. She described this person to me and yet I could hardly believe such a one could exist, even at 4 years old I had my doubts such a one could exist for me.
But there I was at camp. I had caught a glimpse of the one who would never leave me or forsake me. It was during a short movie that my heart was captured. The film showed thousands in India who had just heard about my lover and friend. They too wanted to know this man: Jesus Christ.
Yes, at age 9 I cried out to the One Who could change my miserable little life. Miserable? Yes, very unhappy and very lonely at age 9. I had already been ignored by my parents to the degree that I was a problem child. A BIG problem. The school teachers already determined to throw me out because I caused so much trouble everyday. I was even suicidal at 9 years old. This dark life had covered me when I was kidnapped off the streets at just 7 years of age - pulled right off the streets of Detroit one Sunday afternoon.
The court trial put the man behind bars, but his effect on my young life and what he did to me were to leave deep scars for many confusing years as I searched for meaning and peace. So that day at camp, when the movie ended, I found myself crying and even weeping - longing for this Jesus to save me.
He did save me, but the years that followed were still filled with pain and confusion because no one taught me about His LOVE - only about man made rules of do's and don'ts. But one day at age 29 a little lady came to town and she told me Jesus could untie all the knots in my life and set me free from all the tangles I had tripped into over the years. She told me about the kidnapping and even how I had lost the ability to trust anyone anymore. I was in shock! How could this stranger know all about my deepest secrets?
She told me Jesus showed her these things and that He had sent her to me to let me go free from the prison my life had become. She told me Jesus had heard the groanings of my deepest heart and then she asked me if I was ready to be free and give my life back to Jesus as I had done as a little boy of 9 years old.
I was weary, I was ready, I gave my life back to Jesus.
Now as the Apostle Paul, I too was "determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified". No attraction would ever be able to hold my mind and soul captive ever again and I knew it this time.
To be worthy of this crucified and risen from the dead Savior we must learn to maintain an unbroken focus on the One Who has promised to keep us to the end. We must never allow anything to deflect us from the intimacy of our one true love affair with Jesus Christ.
As one once said, "the true test of a spiritual person is their unbroken focus on Jesus in the midst of life's best efforts to throw us off balance. To lose focus is the mark of an nonspiritual person. It means 'other things' have a growing fascination for us... "
But thank God, His Son, Jesus Christ has promised to keep us from falling and present us holy and blameless to His father on THAT DAY!
Have you met my lover and best friend? He's able to be your EVERYTHING and meet every need you will ever have in this short struggle called life! Only He understands your confussion and only He is waiting for you to call out ... Why not? Life, real life is your's for the asking...
THINK ABOUT IT!
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