The Way.

Something has been bothering me.  Weighing heavy on my heart.  It has to do with what Jesus says about Himself in John 14:6.

Here Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

There are those I know, Christ followers, who do not really believe this.  They believe that Jesus is the only way for them, but not for everyone.  This makes me very sad.

Here is my thinking.

If there is any other way to God, any way other than Jesus, then we don't need Jesus. We don't need what Jesus did for us on the cross.  His shed blood was unnecessary. His suffering was needless. If there is any other way to God.

If there are other ways to God then we can pick and choose as we like, and live according to our own desires and wisdom.

If there are other ways to God then what did Jesus go to the cross for? Why do it if there are other options for us?

I don't believe there are other ways.  I believe the fact that Jesus did go to the cross is proof that there is no other way. No other atonement for sin. No other doorway through which we can walk to have intimacy with God.

I believe that Jesus is very necessary. Absolutely, utterly, completely, irrevocably necessary.

I believe Jesus when He says that He is the way, and the truth, and the life. I believe Jesus when He says that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

I have staked my life, and everything I hold dear and true, on this belief.

What about you?  On what, in whom, will you stake your life?

A Letter To Myself As A Little Girl

Dear Little Michelle,

 

I honestly don't know what to say, or how to start, to express my heart.  There are so many thoughts, but after taking a journey through our shared history I think these things are what you most need to hear.

 

I would like you to know, deeply within yourself, that being a girly girl is a GOOD thing. It's not a bad thing. God made you to enjoy frills and twirling skirts and pink and sparkles and magical stories of adventure and beauty. That's part of the beauty in you that God placed there to be enjoyed. But not all. There is so much more beauty that you carry than is seen on the outside.

 

There are forces in the world, bad forces that will use all sorts of voices, to crush you and make you into someone cold and hard and dark. Those forces DO NOT WIN! Not in the end. Hold onto that. It will help you.

 

You were made to love and laugh and sparkle. You were made to passionately and deeply feel and to imagine -- bright castles, towering mountains, soaring hawks, white horses racing across windy fields, a good king and a kind prince who are strong and whose hearts you touch and move. You were made for love and delight. All of the voices that tell you differently are lying to you. Do not believe their lies.  Do not believe HER lies. Do not believe HIS lies.  I know that you have, but you don't have to any more. The good king and kind prince are real, and they say what is true. They say "Do not believe their lies. Believe in the beauty you were made to be, and believe the beauty you have to offer the world." Believe their voices. 

 

I know that nobody taught you these things. You weren't taught that beauty is good; that being sensitive and a person who feels many things deeply is good; that being delighted in is a good thing to desire. But beauty is good. Being sensitive and a person who feels many things deeply is good. It is good to desire to be delighted in. God delights in you and He made you to desire that from Him, and from those He will send whose hearts are good and open and can re-present Him to you. Just as you can re-present Him to them.

 

If I could step through a door in time and space, I would take you away from all of the dark and heavy and angry and mean and hateful things that came into your life and person when you were far, far too young to be able to cope with them. And even that...THAT thing...that awful thing that nobody is every able to handle, no matter how old or grown up they are, because it is just too evil. You survived them. They hurt you and left marks, but you are not destroyed by them.

 

If I could step through the door, I would take you away from all of the bad and we would PLAY!  We would go on adventures! We would run through the fields and pick flowers and wild berries! We would feed the horses and we would stalk the squirrels! We would skip and swing and twirl and laugh and dance!  Oh...how we would dance!!  We would create the good memories so that when dark seasons come - and dark seasons do come in this very broken world - you would have so much good on your insides to hold onto that the dark season doesn't seem as endless and hopeless. Because hope is remembering forward. And you were made for that, too. You were made for hope.

 

Faith, hope and love. These things remain.  You, little Miss Michelle, were created for all three of these.