Frightening Invitation

Can I tell you something about Jesus?

I asked Him to break out of my stained glass picture and come get up in my business.

He really loved that prayer.

And He moved quickly to answer it. Up in my business and out of the stained glass He was. In all this Jewish, Lion-hearted, human, holy, playful, passionate personality that cut to the center of me in a painfully good way.

And by “up in my business” I’m not talking about a helicopter presence that scrutinizes your every move in the name of sanctification. I’m talking about something else entirely.

We started dancing, even though I was scared. And somewhere in the middle He stopped and approached the lifeless form of all my heart’s desire- I’d taken a knife to its throat years earlier. Easier if it’s dead, you know.

And can I tell you something? He showed more distress about this than I could have imagined. This mattered to Him far more than I realized. Much to my resistance and cries to “leave it alone”, He resurrected everything. And then it was alive again but certainly not well. It hurt again as much as I’d feared, if not worse. I was becoming quite angry. Quite frantic.

And in the midst of all this, He caught me. I had to come away with Him for a while. Years and counting. Still am away, really. Are we to ever not be “away with Jesus”? Our life flows out of our time away with Him. Only He knows how to heal a woman. Speak to her. Or heal a man, and speak to the heart of him.

He’ll take a deep dive into your emptiness. Head over heels. You get all of Him there. And He gets all of you back.

The King of the suddenly and the slowly, He’s ever coming closer to that secret place. The core of you. Man or woman, masculine or feminine nature, the place where the devastation happened, the stuff we won’t talk about anymore. He’ll come for you there and stay awhile. In fact, He’ll never leave.

Do you know Him like this? Do you know He wants to be known like this? Do you want to be known by Him in this way? It's life or death for us.

I asked Jesus to break out of my stained glass picture and come get up in my business.

It's a frightening invitation to offer, but He's inviting you to invite Him. Waiting for you to say you want Him.

Being desperate for Him to come closer is the safest posture your soul can be in.

"All my longings lie open before You,

and my sighing is not hidden from You."

Psalm 38:9

"I waited patiently for the Lord;

And He inclined to me, And heard my cry."

Psalm 40:1

"Your thoughts towards us cannot be recounted...

if I would declare and speak of them,

they are more than can be numbered."

Psalm 40:5 (NKJV)