Washed...

This week's memory verse:
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:10-11

It has been over a week since I last posted because I went to church camp with my daughter and 47 other teens. I did our Bible study lessons, but had VERY limited Internet service down there in the hills of Kentucky, so I couldn't post them on my blog. 

It is very appropriate that this week's lessons are all about surrendering to Jesus' Lordship...last week we learned a lot about God's plan for the salvation of the humans he created and how Jesus was the center point of that plan. This stuff takes belief and faith...In this life, you HAVE to believe in something...

When it comes to Jesus, there are three groups of people: 1) those who don't believe in him and don't do what he says; 2) those who claim to believe in him, but don't do what he says; and 3) those who believe in him and do the things he says. 

At camp, we talked about this same thing but with chairs. There are 3 chairs on an empty stage. The first chair has a stained and dirty t-shirt on it...we are humans and we sin, we can't help it, we are stained. Some of us know it, but most of us go through life stained and because of that, we never have a relationship with God. The second chair is for those of us who "do church"...we claim to know Christ and we do the right things, say the right things, but we still don't really know Jesus and are still lost, we are still stained; the third chair has a bright, clean and washed T-shirt on it...when we really believe that God sent Jesus to take our sins away and want to make him a part of our everyday life through prayer, study and our actions...when we have a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus...God washes us clean...our stains are gone. When you sit in this third chair, a change happens in you...you are a different person.

It is all about what you believe in your heart. Many claim that Jesus was a good teacher...he was just a good man who taught great lessons. From ancient history, we know that there really was a man named Jesus who lived and taught and had a following of people. But, as C.S. Lewis once said, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the Devil of Hell."

You must decide which you believe...either Jesus really was the Son of God, or he was a crazy man or something worse.

Which chair are you sitting in today?

Jesus demands that we unconditionally hand our hearts to him...why does he have the right to claim our hearts? Read the following verses:

Revelation 4:11

Revelation 5:9

Revelation 19:11-16

Which chair do you WANT to sit in? It all depends on what you believe and who you trust...what is in your heart today? God wants you to be in that third chair...ready to give all your heart, love, trust and obedience to Him and to build that relationship with Him that will get you through each day. He WANTS to wash you clean from all your sins. It is simple: if you want to be washed clean...if you want to be in that third chair...believe, have faith in something real that you can't see...you can have a relationship with Jesus that will make you bright and shiny!