Please Come Home

A mother and her daughter lived in a little village outside of Rio de Janeiro. They didn't have a lot of money. Their floor was dirt. The mother scratched a living by knitting and repairing worn out clothes. And the mother's greatest fear was that one day, her daughter, who was very, very beautiful, would leave home and go to Rio de Janeiro to get a life for herself. The mother knew what would happen to her if she did that.

Well one day the mother came home from work. Her daughter was gone. There was a note left that read "I have gone to Rio de Janeiro to make a life for myself." The mother knew what was going to happen. So the mother took all the money that she'd managed to save. She went to the bus station and bought a ticket to Rio de Janeiro. When she got there she went into a photo shop and spent a great deal of her money making pictures of herself.

The mother found a place to stay for a while and for the next few weeks she went all over the city. She visited every nightclub, bar, disco-tech, and hotel where she thought her daughter might be. And she left a picture of herself every place she went to look. Eventually she ran out of money and went home.

One night, the daughter was walking down the stairs of a hotel. She was with a man. She had become a prostitute. And as the daughter walked down the stairs, she felt like she was dying inside. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw with horror that she seemed to have aged fifteen years. Her image looked so tired and beaten down and haggard. But then something caught her eye on the side of the mirror. She went over to look closer and was astonished to see a picture of her mother. She picked it up and cleaned it off and then turned it over. On the back, she read these words: "I don't care what you have done. I don't care what you have become. Please come home."

Man. Woman. If you are out there and you are sick to death of yourself and your life, if you are worn out and beaten down and so discouraged that discouraged doesn't even begin to describe how you feel inside. If you feel like you are dying, listen to this. The message God wants you to hear is "I don't care what you have done. I don't care what you have become. Please come home." If you cannot keep going this way and you are more lonely than you ever thought possible. If you are considering ending your life. If you think there is no HOPE for you, LISTEN! COME TO JESUS! He is SUCH a MIGHTY SAVIOR! "...the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out." He is MIGHTY to save! Come to Him! Trust in Him! And He will save you from everything you need saving from.

Pursue Christ

What is the Christian life about? In the end, what does it all come down to? Going to church? Saying your prayers? Having a quiet time? Serving and loving both Christians and non-Christians? None of these is the answer. The Christian life isn't even primarily about being forgiven or sanctified or going to heaven! These are all very important things... but they're not the point of Christianity. Let me ask you a question that will direct you to what I believe is the right answer; WHY do you need forgiveness? What does it achieve? What was God aiming at in offering forgiveness to anyone who believes? I'm forgiven... so what... now I can sin more than ever because I'm forgiven?! NO! You were saved FOR GOD!

Brothers and sisters, the point of salvation isn't to make you good people! It's not a bargaining chip God put down to get you to behave yourself! Jesus didn't die to make you respectable and make you get your life together! The point of EVERYTHING is knowing Jesus Christ! How much do you desire Christ? To what lengths are you willing to go to know Him? Is your pursuit sluggish or lazy? Or is it your all-consuming passion? Do you think that Jesus Christ is "pretty cool" or does the very thought of Him make your heart start beating faster?

Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God, this kind of desire can't be produced in the human heart... any more than a person with dead taste-buds can determinedly sit down to a jar of honey and say "This is GOING TO taste sweet to me!" So what do you do if you DON'T feel this intense yearning and desire for Christ?! This almost brought me to tears recently! What do I do if Jesus Christ isn't deeply desirable to me?! Do I despair? Do I try to blame-shift? Do I just sit down and cry? Or do I pray?

Friends, let this note be a catalyst to pray like you've never prayed before! God is highly, highly honored by this prayer because it calls Him to move his sovereign fingers to fulfill a promise He made to you. "I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Beg with God. Don't put on a show. He'll see right through it. As you're praying, don't try to produce desire in your heart. Just read. Trust God to speak to you. And if He doesn't speak right away, don't despair. God is not obligated to move at your whim. He is God. You are not. Your praying is not a bargaining chip to get God to move. When He moves it will be a gracious, beautiful gift. Maybe it will take a day... or a month... or a year... or ten years. Don't... give... up! Devote yourself to prayer and Scripture. And see how precious He can become. He is worthy to be pursued!