The bare naked Truth

OK everyone. Here it is. The bare naked truth revealed here for the first time on this blog... I think. Definitely not the first time revealed but something I must re state again for my own sake if for no one else. God knows who will read this so I leave it up to Him to decide the viewers.

The truth is Jesus.

The bottom line is Jesus.

The answer is Jesus.

Whatever you've got going on or going wrong or not going your and my answer is simply Jesus. That's it, plain, pure, and simple...

JESUS.

Oh my heart knows this to be true but it has taken a while to remind it. My mind knows it to be true also but getting into that quagmire of neurons firing explosively at any given millisecond has been a chore. But Jesus can and will do it. I have known it for so long and yet I have gotten so used to knowing it I just kind of took it for granted. How unbelievably arrogant and inconceivably bold to do so. SO I ask myself and you this question.

If you do know HIM and yet still struggle then WHY?

If you don't know HIM and struggle then why not give HIM a chance and see if I am right or wrong?

When I write these words I am drawn to the words of a dear friend of my wife and myself. She struggles with this as much as we have for the past several months if not years. She is a fellow believer in Jesus and yet can't seem to find the button to push to "bring back the Springtime" to her relationship to HIM. SO much has happened in her young life to her and around her that even though her faith in Jesus is strong she still finds herself questioning so many things that distract her from the bottom line... the truth... the answer.

I can relate to this wholeheartedly. The lives of my wife and myself, not to mention our little girls have been in the washer for a while now. And even as I write this I am brought to this analogy by my Savior. A washer can be a violent thing. After all it's purpose is to loosen the dirt and grim attached to your clothes and linens etc so that they can be used again and again. It has cycles that are specifically designed to do specific things. The one we seem to be stuck in as of late is the agitator cycle. Even though we have one of those front end loaders and it doesn't have the agitator thingy I am using this for the purpose of this analogy. The front end loader although it uses less water still tumbles and rumbles and squishes and rolls your clothes clean. Agitation of some sort. Have our lives been SO like that for about the past year and a half.

Lately it seems to be on the spin cycle. Whether it is a water leak in your mother's home that you have been trying to sell for almost a year that causes $10,000 worth of damage JUST after you get a contract on it, or an orange crayon that stains your little girls brand new (well, consignment brand new to us) clothes you just could afford to get for her because she has run out of all the "hand me downs". Or your hubby leaves you for 8 days to act alone as a single parent wondering if he will make it home... there is no mistaking that we rely in HIM. We just perhaps don't want to sit and realize how much.

We are taught again and again these days that we are to be self reliant. Independent. We are forced to distract ourselves every waking moment with something. I mean, I can't even go to the bathroom without having some distracting reading material or something and I am seriously considering putting a flat screen in front of the toilet. (Just kidding Shelley) Anyway, you know what I mean.

Our minds have been "booby trapped" by the "boob tube" and every other kind of external input we can think of. The Internet, the radio, the cell phone that we sleep with just in case some idiot wants to call the wrong number at 3 in the morning while trying to reach Hilary Clinton. Some distraction of some sort that will keep us from


the bottom line...

the truth...

the answer.

We have to stop sometime. We have to get to that place somewhere. The place that we know in our hearts that is screaming out to us, in one of the "out of the way" corners, behind the boxes of crap that we have piles up to block the door. The place in our heart that remembers what it was like to have Jesus enter in to our spirit and

save us,

forgive us,

and give us the peace that we long for.

The peace that passes all understanding.

I just talked to my wife a few minutes ago and she gave me the wonderful news about our friends father who recently asked Jesus to save him... forgive him... and you know the rest. He is 67 years old and lives in Ukraine. Our friend Mariya who has a wonderful faith that is most definitely on track has faithfully prayed and witnessed to her Father about "My God". The Jesus she knows and believes can do anything. The one I used to know so well and moved away from.

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't just pick up one day and move. No sirree bob tale. I just took a rest ... in our washing machine.

And by the way, the washing machine has a rinse cycle that takes all of that dirty crap that was once on your clothes and rinses it away. Hopefully the stains have come out. If not you sometimes have to wash your clothes again or sometimes you put them in for an extra long wash cycle. Perhaps that is what our lives have been in for a while now. The extra long wash cycle.

I believe that we have just been getting ready for something. I don't know yet but I can tell you this. I want more of Jesus in my life. Not religion. Not books about HIM or songs or poems. I want the Jesus that whispered in my nine year old ear " I forgive you, I love you". That Jesus.
The one I felt tingle me from head to toe when I went under the water and "felt" that washing away sensation (let's don't get bogged down in theology please- after all I was nine and it was how I felt and what a nine year old understands).

THE bottom line is JESUS.

THE answer is JESUS.

THE TRUTH is JESUS.

JESUS JESUS JESUS

We have to remember that and live it and watch out for the enemy who is trying his dead level best to steal it from us or at least distract us so that we forget it.

He is there and he misses his time with us. I am brought to this wonderful song that Larnell Harris sang so many years ago. Here are the lyrics. May this speak to your hear like it does to mine. May Jesus fill your heart and lives more and more EVERY day. Jesus. What a name. What a God.

There he was just waiting, in our old familiar place

an empty spot beside him, where once I used to wait

to be filled with strength and wisdom for the battles of the day

I would have passed him by again if I didn't hear him say

I miss my time with you

those moments together

I need to be with you each day

and it hurts me when you say

you're too busy

busy trying to serve me

but how can you serve me

when your spirit's empty

there's a longing in my heart

wanting more than just a part of you

it's true

I miss my time with you

What do I have to offer how can I truly care

my efforts have no meaning when your presence isn't there

but you will provide the power if I take time to pray

I'll stay right here beside you Lord

and you'll never have to say...

I miss my time with you