With Me and Within Me

I always feel Christ near to me. I feel His presence many times a day. I talk to Him frequently and I read His words every morning.

I'm expecting to be with Him eternally when I'm finished here, and I think that eternal life with Him has already begun for me, only I'm too dim to experience it fully now, distracted as I am by everything being alive in the world involves.

Jesus and I have a relationship and I don't have a relationship more important than the one I have with Him. It’s not the jump up and down, roll on the floor and make a spectacle of myself for the sake of showing others that I’m ‘filled with His love’ type of relationship.

Instead, it’s that warm comfort that you feel when you’re embraced with love, when you feel safe and protected and know, with every fibre of your being that it’s forever. And it's the type of relationship when you know, with such a conviction, that when you share His love and His words, that others have no doubt, whatsoever, that what you say is true.

But I readily admit I don't always know what He thinks. He has surprised me too many times for me to assume anything. I always try to follow Him, but His way is sometimes a mystery, and I stumble frequently, I make mistakes and I’m sure I get it all wrong at times. But it never stops me from picking myself up, dusting myself off and getting on with it.

I read and wonder and sometimes puzzle over His words. I look to see what others have thought about them over the centuries. I absorb arguments about whether all the words we think are His really are, and what it would mean if some of them were not. I accept that through history we have evolved and I believe that Christ would have wanted us to do so.

I harbour no guilt about any of these explorations: we're supposed to explore and wonder about things, including the things of God. We have a relationship with Jesus, and we can trust Him to correct the errors we will certainly make and help us to grow into Him.

And I confess that sometimes our priorities and obsessions get in our way. Occasionally, our mistakes get us into some kind of trouble, and some of it can be pretty serious. We raise plenty of hell right here on earth, without anybody needing to toss us anywhere fiery.

But I know, without any hesitancy or reservation whatsoever, that He is always there with me, beside me, inside me, waiting for me.

And I know that when it's time for me to start the next journey, that I shall not be afraid.
.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being in our lives. Throughout this day, let us celebrate the breath You place within us. Amen

.

The Road to Redemption

How the Other Half Lives

Can You Change a Child's Life?

.Tut Tut Looks Like Rain

.