Give me Jesus

It's an old African American spiritual.  Give me Jesus. You can have all the rest, give me Jesus.

You'll never ask for Jesus unless you have some need for forgiveness and grace in your life.

You'll never ask for Jesus if you are convinced that, by your own effort, all good things will come to you.

You'll never ask for Jesus if you stand so deeply in the darkness that you cannot breathe.

Those who truly know the power of a living God of forgiveness and grace in your life, who have walked in the darkness and now see light, who are thankful that someone else is in charge of the big picture of life.....we are called to carry the truth of Jesus to those who do not know.  When our neighbor asks for Jesus, we are to show up and walk with them.

Love God.  Love your neighbor.  That's our calling.

You Can't Go Home Again. Really.

"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ...
 back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ...
back home to places in the country,
back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time ..."  Thomas Wolfe You Can't Go Home Again

This applies to the church.
As powerfully present and spiritually enlightening those days of old might have been, today is today.  When all our effort is given over to re-capturing the past ('going home') we have turned a deaf ear and blind eye to God's work among us: renewing, resurrecting, welcoming, making whole.

God's home in Jesus lies ahead of us.  Come follow where Jesus leads.