"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me.” Isaiah 65:1, NIV
This was the case in the Jesus movement of the late 60s and early 70s. It was also my experience. In 1970 I set off for Toronto, Canada by way of Jacksonville, Florida. I was headed to a rock festival, not Jesus. But thank God, I ended up in him! He wooed me and revealed himself too me. I wasn’t asking for him. He made himself known to me.
Many have a sense that is beginning to take place today, in a similar fashion. Another part to this is that he is also wooing and revealing himself too many who are trapped in the talons of false ‘religion’. He is calling forth ‘Jesus People’ out of the streets and ‘religion’. Even those who are in Christ are sensing a drawing to a simplified faith journey with him.
Jesus people create Jesus culture! Jesus culture creates healthy vibrant community. They are also Kingdom of God people-‘the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ’. A switch of focus is also taking place, even as the essence of the revelation is simply the person of Jesus, not buildings or church bureaucracy.
Many start their faith journey by asking for some kind of ‘help’. This has and is giving rise to a ‘recovery’ movement in the church. This so-called ‘recovery’ movement is now morphing into a fresh Jesus movement. My local church and I are watching this take place. And for me it is down-right exciting! The journey to Jesus begins with comfort, forgiveness and grace. And his self revelation provides a road map for the rest of our journey.
Comfort for God's People
“Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone
and her sins are pardoned.
Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over
for all her sins.”
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!” (Isaiah 40, NLT)
Jesus people are not attracted to a fairy tale or a made over Jesus. He does not reveal himself as handsome and winsome. He enters our journey as one who knows our failure ridden baggage and loves us anyway.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.[b]
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.[c]
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave. (Isaiah 53, NLT)
And from that grave he arose victorious seeking to save those who are lost and beaten down by culture. Aren’t you glad, Ron Ross
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