Aha!

"If any of you wants to be my follower," he told them, "you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.35 If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. Mark 8:35 (NLT)

They call them aha moments.

Maybe you've had one too.

I remember reading about Hank Aaron,who grew up just west of me in Mobile, AL. Seems when Hank was a little boy, he picked up a baseball bat. (And the rest is history... yes, I know... don't jump ahead of me.)

He picked up the bat and put his right hand at the bottom and the left hand on top. Then he proceeded to learn to hit the baseball far and often. But not as far as he did when one day a coach convinced him to try the more conventional way of left hand on the bottom, right hand on top. Aha! (Okay, now you can say "and the rest is history.")

Today, I was explaining to a little girl about Jesus and His love for her. Haylee is a bundle of energy wrapped in a determined little girl. She's a red haired, freckled example of the kind of work God does when He wants to show us just what kids are supposed to look like. And Haylee wanted to know Jesus "in her heart."

So my wife, (the incredible Miss Bunny) and I made plans to meet with Haylee and her mom this afternoon and try to explain the mysteries of God. I was well into that explanation (after Bunny had laid the groundwork), when I looked down at Haylee and she looked up at me, and I worried for a second that in spite of all the efforts our family of faith had done or would do, Haylee might not understand what it meant to follow Jesus.

So I asked her if she loved Him.

She said yes.

Friends, it was as if a flashbulb illuminated my soul. Aha!

We need to teach people how to fall in love with Jesus, and help them learn what will help them make their love for Him grow!

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that far too much of what we do in our gatherings is rehash the same facts we've known for years, and rarely if ever speak of our love relationship with Jesus. The danger in that, is we wind up knowing an awful lot of Bible, but miss the author, or if we do meet Him, we regard Him as one would a learned professor, rather than someone whose passion caused Him to die well before we ever even noticed He existed.

Then we give people guidelines on what to do each day - how much to read, how long to pray, what to listen to. We teach them self-discipline. Well, I'm pretty disciplined, but I fall off the exercise wagon regularly, because I don't like to exercise - I just know it's good for me.

But love - love will make you want to do whatever it takes to make the object of your affection happy. You want to give them joy. So you forget about yourself, and every day you do whatever it takes - go wherever you need to go.

" 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.'

Can you do that?

If you can, then following Christ will be as natural as breathing. And the pressure, the guilt, the anxiety - will be gone forever.

It's called,

Grace!

David

This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.