"It's Personal!"

 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" (John 10:27 KJV)

  "Then calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."" (Mark 8:34-38 NLT)

 As many of you should be aware, this relationship we have with the Lord is personal; we don't have a club that we join or have some kind of group membership; this is totally about you and Jesus, when it comes to communication and understanding where we stand with the Lord. Having said that, we are also part of one big family of believers; so, we are also watching over others along the journey!  

 In that regard, the relationship is still personal, but it is because we are One Body: each and every one of us belong to the Body of Christ, so the personal relationship steps up to a whole new level: The Good News is that level, because that is what we are meant to be about! Yes, that too is personal, as we hold firm to every precious part of what the Good News is all about; but this personal journey must be made public for it to count and be worth anything at all.

 I hope what I said makes sense; if it doesn't maybe this will help. Pastor Bryan shared something last night that I mentioned before, but he made it seem more personal. He shared about reading his sisters diary, but because it was her diary, based upon her thoughts, much of what he read really didn't make much sense. The parts that really mattered were in her heart, and the things that she wrote down were just highlights of certain events. 

 That is how it is for us, as we were before Christ, we would read the Bible and see the highlights, but not really understand everything else thar went along with what we read. Once we became one with Christ, it all started to be filled in, and we could actually see the message that went with all of the simple highlights. 

 We became part of the message, and the diary was ours too! Now the diary includes us, and everything in it is personal...

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes - the Jew first and also the Gentile. The Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."" (Romans 1:16-17 NLT)