pastorrudytlc

I want to share with you an actual letter written by a young person. It reads,
“I know it sounds silly, but I’m afraid of what other people say and think about me. My Christian friends say what God thinks is the only thing that matters. That’s hard for me to really believe. Can you help me?”

I think if most of us were honest, we would admit that at one time or another- fear of what others will say or think about us has prevented us from attempting something that we believe strongly is right for us to do. We have allowed ourselves to be intimated out of something that could have been such an inspiring moment for everybody! Yet our fear of negative public opinion has prevented us from sharing an idea or passing on a personal belief or going for a position that we know we would be passionate enough to perform! Fear of failure has kept way too many of us from flying to the heights in the way God intended us to soar! Our fear of rejection has kept us glued to the lazy boy of “Comfort Land” rather than being daring enough to set to go off on the launching pad of making an impact with this gift of life that the Creator has so graciously given us!

God never meant for His people to be spectators of life but rather active participants in the process! The gifts God has given individuals are not meant to be used for selfish gain or just to acquire enough creature comforts so that one can retire to await the arrival of death safely, but His gifts to you and to me are to be used on the playing fields of school, work, church and the community. When you actually use what He has given you to impact others in a positive fashion, you are making your Heavenly Father very proud in the process and you are fulfilling His very purpose for you being on this planet in the first place. Contrary to what you may have been told, you are not a random accident and your existence here does matter. Kick the political correct posture that wants to tie you up smack in the can! There are those who would want to steal your life and destroy your life, even take it away but there is a God who wants you to grab life and really live it just because you still can!

The secret to grabbing life is actually in being willing to give it away. Jesus modeled for us what an extravagant love looks like when He gave His own life and all of the very best to us when we deserved none of it at all! We need to sacrificially give our lives back to the God who made us and allow the Author of this masterpiece to direct it and call the shots and set the pace.

When I was five years old, I was given a bicycle for Christmas. I was so excited when I unwrapped the package and there it was- this beautiful blue bike- on the picture sitting in the box in all of its glory right before me. Unfortunately, it had not been put together yet. Santa must have had an extra busy night! Now, how foolish would it have been as a little boy for me to say to my Dad, “Where’s the screw driver and the pliers? I want to put this bike together myself!” What would that effort ended up looking like? Now I could dream on and say it could have resulted in a wonderful eclectic piece of “Modern Art” and I could have made a million! But we all know what a mess that would have been and it would have never looked like a bicycle! It would have totally been a wasted gift. I asked my Dad to put it together and he did! Well how many individuals are wasting their gift of life because they are too proud to ask their Heavenly Father to help? He wants to be involved in the process. He holds our blue prints, He made the plans, why not let Him put it together the way it was meant to be constructed?

Once we realize what a gift life is- and the more you hang around God- the more you realize what a gift it is- you come to know that the best thing to do with a gift is to share it with others. It all comes down to grabbing the truth that your life was given to you by a loving God who is still crazy about you even though He already knows all about you. In spite of our utter failure, God wanted so much to have a relationship with us that He has sent His very Son Jesus to give His life away so that by trusting in Him we may know a quality of life that begins now and never ends. Why would you pass that up for the choice to use your life as a never ending journey to keep on performing to gain acceptance and please a crowd that will always keep you working harder, dancing faster, and fearing that at any time the applause will stop and you will one day be rendered invisible? Why live to attempt to please a society that is so fickle that one week a crowd yelled, “Crown Him King” to Jesus and the very next week the same crowd yelled, “Crucify Him.”

The Bible says that perfect love drives out all fear and God has provided for us that kind of love that gives us the freedom to live out fully the life designed specifically for us. It may be hard to believe at times and even harder to do but I want to close with an old proverb that I pray will challenge us to not let fear prevent us from being who God made us to be. It goes like this, “There are always two choices. Two paths to take, one is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy.”
Let Pastor Rudy know what you think by writing him pastorrudytlc@comcast.net