For more than 30 years, I’ve been involved in the ministry of the local church.
I’ve worn many hats trying to be a faithful pastor, but my supreme role has been to teach the Word of God to the people of God. Because I can’t teach what I don’t know, I had to intensely study the Bible for myself. And in doing so, I came to know a God Who is very different from the God I had found in church or in seminary.
As I studied, the Holy Spirit graciously opened my eyes to see a God I had always hoped would be there but had never been able to find. He opened my eyes to many wonderful truths that exploded in my heart and mind with great excitement, wonder, and thanksgiving.
Sometimes, the precious truths He showed me would leap off the page as I read. But other times, I had to mine those nuggets of truth through serious study, as I poured over the original biblical languages and wrestled with commentators’ words in meditation.
AS THE HOLY SPIRIT GRANTED ME THE POWER TO UNDERSTAND, MY EYES BEGAN TO SEE A GOD WHO LOVED ME FOR FREE.
The foundations of carefully laid ‘churchianity’, which I spent so many years developing in my life, began to crumble, and a new foundation of Jesus Christ appeared in its place.
I found a Person Who intimately loved and cared for me…yes, FOR ME!
As I bathed in His love, I came to embrace that it wasn’t so much what I was doing for God that mattered, but what God had done and wanted to do for me, in me, and through me. As I received what He was saying in His Word, the significance of Who God is to me changed my thinking radically. And with that, the way I was living changed radically too.
I found that Father was more interested in me living from Him than me living for Him. That living from Him was in fact the only way I would be able to live for Him. I learned that He wanted to be not only my Savior and Lord, but my very LIFE as well. He wanted to be all He is to all I need. Said another way, He wanted to be God to me! Isn’t that a novel idea?
Then, as I saw Him as God to me, I found that I didn’t have to be ‘god’ anymore. I didn’t have to be strong. I didn’t have to have all the answers. I didn’t have to be in control. All I had to be was a simple human being who lived in dependent trust on another, on a God Who is always strong, always right, and always in control. On a God Who has my best interests at heart. And that brought me great freedom in so many areas. I found freedom from guilt and condemnation, freedom from my past, and freedom from the control and manipulation of people…especially religious ones.
THE GREATEST FREEDOM I FOUND, HOWEVER, WAS FREEDOM FROM MYSELF.
I found that I no longer had to take myself so seriously in this life, that the world didn’t revolve around me. I learned that God really didn’t need me but He wanted me. And to my amazement, I learned that He wanted to graciously include me in what He was doing, not out of need but out of privilege. He wanted my participation in reaching others. His design was for me to experience His LIFE so that I could then express His LIFE to others, a blessing far beyond what I could ever earn or deserve. Wow!
That is the heartbeat of Our Resolute Hope. In John 4, Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He was the gift of God to man. And His words to her are true to me, too. He has been and continues to be, the greatest gift I’ve ever received. In everything, my supreme desire is to present Jesus to everyone who’ll listen, so that they too can experience Him as their greatest gift.
Thank you for partnering with us through your prayers and financial gifts. Your support enables us to share far and wide the glorious gift of God to mankind – Jesus!
May the Lord Jesus bless you as you seek to bless others.
