A young man, let’s say he’s about seventeen, sits on the bed reading his Bible. Jesus is there. The Bible says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” I think a kid reading his Bible could definitely be considered good.
In comes a friend to invite the boy to a party. He goes with Jesus following behind.
At the party, our trouble-bound young man accepts a beer from the keg. Then something to smoke. Then a kiss with the hint of more from a young lady. With each of these illicit acts, more images appear in the scene. With hammer and nail in hands, they take hold of Jesus. The next sip of beer leads to the first nail being driven home. Jesus looks imploringly at the young man, but to no effect. The next draw from whatever he’s smoking, and BANG goes nail number two. Another kiss and a cuddle bring in nail number three. BANG! BANG! BANG!
This is not a true story. It’s not even my story. It’s an illustration folks so, don’t panic. Seems like it could be real though, doesn’t it? I guess what we should take from this story is that in our relationship with Jesus, we take Him from being extremely proud of us to utter desperation. Yet for the Christian, He’s always there.
Because of His humanity, when we hurt, He hurts. We must accept that sometimes, people no matter age or circumstance of living, will put themselves in a bad place and the outcome is usually not pleasant. The best thing that we can do as Christians in these situations is to use our own experiences to prevent the same things from happening to someone else.
You know, Jesus had a human heart that was most of the time broken. He was sorrowful, troubled, and He cried. The Bible says, “…who, in the days of His flesh, when He, (Jesus), had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,” I looked up the word “vehement”. If the word was important enough that it was used to describe His emotion, I felt that I would need to experience some of that. Listen to this, vehement means passionate, urgent, fiery, strong, powerful, and enthusiastic.
Dealing with trouble is harder for some than others. There’s a reason for that. But a relationship with Jesus can help. Trust Him. And trust me, it’s because of mercy that this wasn’t my story.
Don’t you think that it’s time that you offer up prayers of repentance and ask Jesus into your life? Or prayers of confession for those who are saved and have found themselves in a bad place, crying vehemently to the One who is able to save us in our days of trouble?
Why not today?
Have a great Wednesday!
-Pastor Butch
