If your friends were able to walk up to the front door of your heart and knock, would they find that Jesus opened the door?  Or would they just find a picture of Jesus taped to outside of the door?

Aspens first phrase began with the two words, “I want”, then she proceeded to add the word or two that described what she wanted.  It certainly was a useful first phrase.  Within about two weeks though she switched from “I want”, to “I need”.  She was around a year and a half when she did this.  But, she still feels as though she “needs” everything that she wants. 

I think as adults we often get our needs and wants confused as well.  We need Jesus inside our hearts, but most of the time it seems that we have our hearts as full of junk, that we think we need to keep us safe, as the garage or the kitchen junk drawer.  Don’t feel as though you can’t invite Jesus on over to your heart until you have cleaned up the mess.  We can never clean like Jesus does.  He has the most powerful window cleaner ever made.  Once he cleans away the grime we are able to see clearly.  His brand of disinfectant will kill the germs of sin with a single spray!  His formula for drains will clear away emotional blocks that will allow us to be the people He created us to be.

Live free today!  Let Jesus into your heart.  Living with junk on the inside while we paste a picture of Jesus on the outside gets us nothing but a  heart too heavy to dance.  We are only capable of flying through the air to previously unattainable heights when Jesus sets us free!

I went grocery shopping today. I typically drive about 30 minutes to a neighboring town and go to the same three stores for groceries.  Costco, Mom’s Organic Market, and The Common Market (another health food store).  I go to these three stores because I know that I will find exactly what I am looking for there.  Granted, the health food stores are by far more expensive than if I shopped at Wal-Mart, but they have what I need, what I am looking for.

Sometimes I think people get a wrong impression of the Christian life.  It seems like we can sometimes get stuck in the “green pastures and still waters” perspective and believe that’s what becoming a Christian feels like all the time.  I think becoming and living as a Christian is more on the edge than behind the hedge, at least an authentic one.

What does it require to live an authentic Christian life?  Risk!  Lots of it.  One of the risks we are asked to take centers on giving up what consumes me that doesn’t come from God.  Worry.  Fear.  Doubt. Self-sufficiency.  Sometimes these can be very hard to let go of because they are so familiar to us.  Familiar is comfortable, even if it’s something we know isn’t good for us, it’s better than letting go and diving into the unknown.

Following God isn’t cheap–It’s the most expensive thing you can do.   We can feel like we are pretty well off, that we live a pretty good life and have a pretty good outlook on things.  But God lays it out for us in Revelation when He tells us that, though we think we are rich, we are really poor, though we believe we live a good life, our righteousness is dirty rags, and our intelligence that gives us vision, is really blindness.  So then God says, “It’s OK, though.  I have eye salve that will heal your vision, white garments you can wear, and my blessings to give you as riches.”  It takes a lot of risk to believe that.  It takes even more risk to act on it.  And the greatest risk to give up all the “fool’s gold” in our lives that we so desperately cling to, and trade it in for what makes us truly rich: a one-on-one connection and relationship with Jesus.  And that’s only the first risk in living an authentic Christian life.  Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Risk #2: The truth that sets you free.

Solomon said, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6, KJV).  Notice what this says, “WE trust in the Lord, and then HE directs our paths.  Risk is the only way to truly know God.  Unless you risk trusting Him, He is not real to you.