Innocence Restored!

Jn 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.

Jesus spoke these words reminding his listeners that there exists a power in the universe that wants to completely reverse the life of blessing God created us to enjoy. We encounter that power first in the garden of Eden as the tempting voice that "you will not surely die" if you disobey God's commands.

We encounter that power daily when no one is watching, when it's so trivial it won't really matter, when it won't hurt anyone else, when one more time won't hurt me, or any other time that small voice whispers that God doesn't really care. Who are YOU in the universe for God to pay so much attention to?!?

Sin is like that. It creeps in and establishes itself in small places before attacking the more vital places of our life. Before long, we're sick, we're tired, we're worn out. And the promise of actually being able to live life in innocence (yes, innocence!) is a dream long since passed. The cycle of sin continues. As we react to the sin - all in an effort to make ourselves "feel" better - we find ourselves spiraling deeper into it.

Our prayers (if we haven't given up on prayer) sound vaguely similar to the words of Paul in Romans 7, "Ro 7:21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Paul identifies the hope. It isn't in treating the illness with things that can't ever satisfy. It's in radically reorienting our lives back to innocent living. Come to think of it, we don't do the work at all. We simply hand over our lives to the great physician himself, Jesus Christ. Like the woman who'd suffered from bleeding for twelve years who touched the hem of Jesus's garment - we become healed. Instantly. That's the power of faith.

Now my very educated and rational friends are all saying - but Jay! You can't give people such a facile hope. It's so much more complicated than that. You have to have years of professional therapy and support groups before you can ever really hope to be break free from the life-diminishing influences of society and culture!

Really? How's that working for you?

Abundant life flows out of the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus is at the center our who we are - in prayer, in teaching, in fellowship, in worship, in daily living, in sleep, in waking, in driving our car to work, in work, in play, in family, in marriage - we live abundantly. This isn't something one learns in seminary. They don't teach it there. This is something you experience when you give your life completely to Jesus to work salvation in your life. And, it's only then that professional therapy and support groups can really perform a lasting and beneficial work.

Life in Jesus is a beautiful thing. It's an amazing life. It's a life I want for everyone to experience no matter how far removed they "feel" they are from God. It starts with a simple act of obedience. Stepping out in faith. It moves to the small places before it begins to strengthen the vital places of your life. It restores your innocence in Jesus. And life is never the same after that. It is life to the full.