This is my prayer for you. That you know you are loved more deeply and more passionately than any movie stars could convey or romance novel portray. That love isn’t something you feel or something you can find or lose or fall into, but this love has a name. And that name is Jesus.

My prayer for you is that you know this Jesus. I don’t pray for you to be religious or spiritual, but to know the Jesus who saw you in your bleakest moments of despair and lowest point of depravity and was willing to suffer agony and die for you. Not only to die for you, but to take all that despair and depravity upon Himself.

My prayer is that you know that all those who pointed their fingers at you and told you how God was fed up with you were wrong. God has not given up on you, nor will He ever. He offers you a new life, a second chance, a clean slate. All you have to do is reach out.

My prayer is that you would reach out and say the most beautiful words in the English language– “Jesus, save me.” You would call out for Him, admitting that you have sinned and made a royal mess out of your life. That you are a sinner, that you are fundamentally broken and can’t fix yourself.

My prayer is that you would throw yourself on the grace and mercy of Jesus. Give Him all of your life for the rest of your life. Let Him lead you wherever He wants, because He will lead you into the best places, better than you could ever have dreamed.

My prayer is that you would find that He is faithful in the good and bad, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, until death. And even past death. He will walk with you through storms and sunshine. He will sing over you in times when you feel like your world is ending.

My prayer is that you are captivated and enthralled and ravished by this Love, by Jesus Himself. May the God of the universe romance your soul and win your heart.

Say YES to Jesus. Lay down your heavy burdens and take His light yoke. If you want to know more about how to say YES to Jesus, you can reach me at GMendel72@united.net.

That’s my prayer for you.

(I know I am treading on dangerous ground, but I believe this is what Jesus would say to us as American believers in our comfortable, exclusive churches on Sunday)

You say you love Me. You say you want to follow Me and know My will for your life. You talk about how much you love  Me and want to know Me above all else. But let Me ask you some questions.

I was that badly dressed man who came to your worship service late and sat in the back. Did you see Me?

I was the girl who stood on the outskirts of your circle of friends and listened while you spoke to each other. Did you talk to Me or even notice I was there?

I was the One selling newspapers on the side of the busy street during rush hour, hoping for enough money to buy a meal since I hadn’t eaten in five days. Did you give Me money or buy Me something to eat?

I was dying of AIDS in a hospital all alone with no one to sit beside Me while I was gasping for My last breaths. Did you come to visit Me?

I was the child who was on the verge of pneumonia from not having a coat to wear when it was below freezing outside. Did you clothe Me?

I was the widow grieving over the loss of her husband, not knowing how I was going to make ends meet or how I would even cope with life alone. Did you bring Me words of compassion and warm hugs?

You say you want Me, but you overlook the least of these. You say you love Me, but you don’t show it to My children. You say you want to follow Me, but only so long as it is to places you know where people you know are.

Repent and come back to your First Love. Love Me by loving the poor, the needy, the broken, the brokenhearted and the lonely. Show them My love. Be My hands and feet. Be Me to them.

Then you will find Me. Then you will know Me. Then you will know my Love not in part, but the whole.

May your driver’s liscense be revoked. Not in the literal sense, hopefully. May it be in the spiritual sense.

Then you are reminded that you are not driving the car anyway, no matter how hard you grip the wheel. Or how much you try to steer the wheel to turn in a direction more to your liking. Or how much you step on the gas or stomp on the break. Simply, you are not in control. God is.

But one thing I’ve found in 38 years of living is this. While I may not always go where I want to go, or where I think I need to go, where God takes me always turn out to be the best places I could have gone. That’s where I have met people who have blessed me and changed me. That’s where I have been a part of seeing miracles happen and seeing God move in mighty ways.

I’m thankful beyond words for all the God-detours in my life that have led me to new friends and new places and new adventures I never would have found on my own. I’m thankful I’m not really driving, because I know the places I wanted to go would not have been good for me. The people I so desparately wanted to get to know and the girls I so desparately desired to date may not have been bad for me, but were far from God’s best for me.

So, thank you, all you unexpected and unplanned friends. You are now a part of me. You have driven me closer to true community and, best of all, to Jesus. A lifetime will never be enough to repay you for what you’ve done.

Thank You, Jesus, that though You may not always lead me in a way I understand or want to go, You always lead me to the places where You are and You always get me there safely and looking a little more like You.

Amen!

I love the ending part of A Christmas Carol. About how Scrooge was better than his word and came to know better than anyone else how to keep Christmas well in his heart.

What does that mean? To actually keep Christmas in your heart and not just sing songs about it or to give presents or eat a lot because of it. Could it mean keeping Christmas is more than a list of activities, more than an attitude of joviality and frivolity?

Maybe keeping Christmas requires a lifestyle change. Maybe it means that you celebrate Christmas and what it means not just one day of the year, or one week, or even one month, but 365 days a year, every year so long as God gives you breath.

Maybe keeping Christmas well means that you live out daily the Incarnation of Christ in you. Maybe you surrender totally and completely to Christ until all that is left of you is Jesus and all anyone else sees when they see you is Jesus. Your life becomes His life. He reaches out and touches people through you. He blesses and heals through you. He feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, ministers to the sick and comforts the lonely through you.

Maybe keeping Christmas means dying to your own dreams and plans. Laying down your hopes and desires. Maybe keeping Christmas means after giving up all those things, you take up God’s plan for the world, His heart for the poor and needy, His dreams for you, and His desire to see you become all He made you to be.

I want to keep Christmas well in my heart in 2011. Not just December 25, but all the other 364 days of the year. I don’t want to wait until January 1, either. I want to start now, the key word being start, not get it totally and perfectly right all at once.

I pray this is in your heart, too. I pray that you will want to keep Christmas well in your own heart with all the days God gives you, no matter what anyone else says or does. No matter whether it is socially acceptable or not, or whether anyone else around you follows.

God, help me to keep Christmas well in my heart now and always until You return and all the promises of Christmas are totally and finally fulfilled.

AMEN!

I’ve been told lately that girls like men with confidence. Shocker. For most of my life, I was seriously lacking in the confidence department and thus my dating life has read like a sad country song by Patsy Cline. But a conversation with some married friends got me thinking.

Maybe to be confident, I should act confident. You could say pretend to be confident. Do all the motions of confidence until the actions become habits, and the habits become a lifestyle. In other words, I act like who I will become instead of who I am. Make sense?

In the same way, we are called to act not out of present sinfulness, but out of who we will be in Christ. We will overcome, so we act like overcomers now. We will all be full-time worshippers, so we act that way now. We live out of the promises of God like they are already ours.

I don’t create my own reality by thinking it. But when I live out God’s reality, it becomes my own reality. I become the person God has already declared me to be: a completely righteous carbon copy of Jesus Christ. Granted, I don’t get 100% there, but I go a lot further than if I just live out of present guilt, shame, and fear.

Don’t let anyone or anything else tell you who you are or where you are going. Don’t even listen to your own feelings and thoughts, because they will lie to you at times. Believe and live out what God says of you and how He feels about you. Live out of belovedness and son (or daughter)-ship. Live like the victory’s already won, because when Jesus said, “It is finished!”, he MEANT IT!

From now on, no more bowing to the idols of self-doubt and fear and shame. We say to those and other lies of the devil, “You can go to hell!” Satan has no more authority over God’s children any more and he has no right any longer to speak to our minds and hearts. At the name of Jesus, he must LEAVE!

Believe that this Christmas and live out of the empty tomb and the resurrected Christ while you adore the infant Christ in the manger. We have everything and we have what it takes because we have every bit of Christ, and better yet, Christ has every part of us! Christ in you, the hope of glory!

I was thinking today about something I read a while back. I think it was Elisabeth Elliot who wrote about dying to self. She said that every hardship and disappointment is a chance to die to self. Every heartache or heartbreak is a chance to die. I have found that to be so very true.

Every time something I hoped for doesn’t work out is a chance to die.

Every time a person suddenly moves out of my life for no reason is a chance to die.

Every time a dream evaporates is a chance to die.

Every time I feel let down and can choose to lash out or imitate Christ in silence is a chance to die.

Every time I have a friendship where a wall suddenly goes up and the friend goes silent is a chance to die.

Every time I think I’m doing so very well and have it altogether, only to get tripped up over something petty, is a chance to die.

I have a chance to die every day to what I think are my rights, what I think I deserve. I have a chance to die to my need to be constantly approved, applauded, noticed, patted on the back, etc. I have a chance to die to my constant efforts to be liked and to be seen and to have my name look good. And I think I die a little every day in each of these areas.

John the Baptist said that he must decrease, so that Jesus could increase. That’s what I want to want. I want to want people to look at me and see Jesus. I want them to look at my life and instead of admiring me, to be awakened to a longing for Jesus. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating; I am nothing and Jesus is everything.

If no one reads this blog or comments on it, it’s another chance to die. And this time, I’ll gladly take it!

Lately, we seem to miss the point of Christmas, I think. We’ve gotten so caught up in how everyone should be saying “Merry Christmas” as opposed to “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” that we’ve mostly forgotten that Christmas is about seeing Christ. It is His birthday we’re celebrating, and it is all about Him, not us.

When we see Jesus through eyes of faith, two things happen: 1) our world is totally and  completely wrecked and 2) we fall on our faces in the dirt in worship. We can’t help but become undignified and fanatical in His presence. All our plans and posturing fall away to nothing at the feet of Jesus.

All those things we thought were so urgent and important fade away and the One we have taken for granted  takes center stage. All the striving to get that certain someone to like us or to be appreciated or to see and be seen ceases and we are finally able to be still and know that Jesus is God. We find out that we are so much more broken and needy than we ever thought, but Jesus is so much more than we ever dreamed He could be.

We can be disturbed by His presence or indifferent to it. I find the saddest thing about the Christmas story was that the religious leaders who knew their Scriptures and prophecy were reluctant to make that 5 mile journey to see the Christ-child. Truly, knowledge and piety aren’t what it takes. Adoration and worship are.

This Christmas, I want to be an undignified worshipper of the Child in the manger. I want to fall on my face in the dirt and open my treasures and give until it hurts and keep on giving until it feels right again.

What I’m asking for this Christmas is Jesus.