John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.............
He was there last night at the meeting....
Nervous....
Not knowing what to expect or what to do...
He was uncomfortable....
He was with a group of men who live together in a transitional house.
He wanted to leave.....
Bad history was running like a bad film in his mind.....
Mother had been murdered.....
Brother had been murdered.....
He'd spent time in prison.......
Wanted nothing to do with church, Jesus, or religion.
He'd been beaten as a kid by someone who was full of religion.
Hard to reconcile something like that.
"God loves you!"....
All the while the bruises and whelp on your back say differently....
Of course that is how religion works sometimes, isn't it?
White washed tombs on the outside...
Dead and decaying on the inside...
Yep, that's religion.
Worship starts....
"This is recovery!" is the theme of the first song...
Recovery found in Jesus....
The young man can't take it, he bolts for the front door....
I go to check on him.
He says he is o.k.
Those words ring hollow and empty.
Truth be known, he's had a sensory overload of memories.
Not the warm, fuzzy, kodak kind that leave you feeling good...
The nightmarish horror filled kind that make you want to run...
Somewhere along the way, the choices began to pile up in the form of destruction and relational damage. The toll grew higher and higher.
I make my way to the front to share a message on being connected.
Connection is more than going to a meeting...
Connection is where you give yourself to Christ...
You allow Him to lead you to a group of like minded people. There, in that group, real life begins to take shape as you grow.
I transition over and begin to speak about God's love...the enemies hatred for anything "God"....and the battle for heart, mind and soul.
I'm never to sure about what is going on whenever I speak, but I knew that God's was working in that room.
The message goes on....
Message over...
Time to get down to business, so to speak.
I extend the invitation to come and meet this Jesus I've been speaking of.
Several come forward...
Down to their knees....
Crying, tears...."thank you Jesus"..rises up from the front.
Then slowly, I see someone coming from the back of the room...
It is the young man I have written about.
There aren't just tears....
There is a flood of sweet release...
There is that moment where religion meets relationship, and religion is swept away in a tidal wave of mercy and grace.
Several gather round to pray with and encourage this young man.
Things changed last night in the life of this young man.
He will get up this morning to face life differently than when he awoke yesterday morning.
He will face it with God's Holy Spirit guiding him, showing him the way.
That is why we do what we do....
That is why we are so passionate for Christ.
To see the one person who truly runs into Jesus, and is changed.
I got to see that last night.
Ain't God good?
God on you..
mb
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