Are you at work? At choir practice? In school? At home with your family? Commuting between activities? Wherever you are, I’d like you to ask yourself this question…. WHERE IS JESUS?
If you’re an owner of a company, and you don’t know if Jesus is even on staff at your organization, I’m guessing that there is often a culture of stress, competition, tension between workers, and frustrated clients. If you’re sitting in choir practice and don’t know where Jesus is, then you’re probably facing some frustration about practice running long or not being able to get your notes right. If your marriage is one of conflict, misunderstandings, and arguments, then I would assume that Jesus is not the base of your foundation.
So again, I will challenge you… WHERE IS JESUS RIGHT NOW?
Like so many others, I always thought that Jesus was found at church, in the Bible, and that he would show up when I prayed, and maybe that’s you right now. I lived that way for nearly 50 years… calling myself a Christian, going to church, joining Bible Studies, wearing a cross necklace and surrounding myself with Christian friends. I thanked God for the blessings I received and tried to be a good person, and life was pretty good for the most part. There were good days and there were bad days, sometimes I did the right thing and sometimes I did not.
But then I finally reached my rock bottom. We all have a rock bottom where we finally realize that we can’t go on as we had and we finally FULLY SURRENDER. At my lowest point and in complete despair, I cried out to God to remove me from this life on earth. That was the worst day of my life… and the first day of my new one.
Do you know who I FINALLY realized had been there all along? JESUS! He was right here the whole time, but my eyes had refused to see, my ears had refused to hear, and my mind had refused to understand. Up until that point, I had thought that I was in control of my life, and that my future was up to me. By believing that, I was choosing to keep Jesus in a box. All that I truly had to do was let him out of that box in my spirit, and let him work in my life.
Jesus is within each one of us that believe that he was sent by God to live a life as a man, and he willingly allowed himself to be crucified on a cross so that we would not have to die for our sins. He came back to life after three days, overcoming death like no one has before or since, and then he was taken back into heaven to have authority over everything and everyone.
EVERY knee will bow to Jesus Christ. And yet he chose to live in this messy world filled with sin and hate so that we could have Holy Spirit within us and around us at every moment!
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11 KJV
In case you skimmed over that verse like I always used to in my “normal Christian” days (which were before my “Crazy Jesus Freak” days of today), then I want to draw your attention to the part of the verse that says that even the things under the earth will bow to Jesus. You’ve heard about that Satan guy that lives under the earth in hell, that is who the Bible is referring to. Satan knows that Jesus has way more authority than he does, and as you can probably imagine, that doesn’t sit well with him.
Since Satan is NOT a good being, his go-to is to throw a tantrum, create havoc, make trouble for people, spin things into confusion, whisper lies in people’s ears to get them to question the truth, divide people into groups that fight and argue, add fuel to hate and anger, cause chaos to destroy our feeling of peace, and remind us that we are a mere human who messed up yet again.
“Who are YOU to think that you can make a difference in this world of sin and hate?,” Satan says.
“Who am I?,” I boldly throw back at him. “I am a daughter of the King. I am chosen by God the Father. I was bought and paid for by Jesus’s blood, and my sins have all been washed away. I am holy, and I am redeemed. And in the name of Jesus Christ, you, Satan, have to take a knee. You have no authority or place in my life. I command you to leave, and all peace, kindness, and joy will resume. Jesus walks with me and I carry the power of the Most High within me.”
~ Signed, Steph… a born again “Jesus Freak” (After all, who wants to be a “normal” Christian when you can feel that kind of freedom?)