If Jesus is the answer, what is the question?

I hear mainstream Christians using the saying, "all they need is Jesus"... or "Jesus is the answer" far too often.  I'm not sure this is a helpful sentence to say to someone who has never heard of Jesus, let alone picked up a Bible to read about him...

It is the most truest of all statements ever to be made, sadly, to some the most irrelevant.

Jesus is no more relevant to people that don't know Him than you or I are... but maybe that's the point...

As light dispels the spirit of despair, and truth disinfects the wounds of a close friend so is the name of Jesus, the Christ, the living God.

"My boyfriend, the father of my child, the man whom I have spent the last 14 years of my life with is cheating on me"... Jesus is the answer.

"I have no food, no heat, and am being kicked out in a week... "... Jesus is the answer.

"My baby boy and husband were just killed in a car accident, I am so alone, I don't know what I am going to do"... Jesus is the answer

"I have stage 4 cancer"... Jesus is the answer.

Although true, cold is the human being that states this to a fellow human without Jesus, with such suffering... suffering... and why is Jesus relevant in our suffering? Why is the human condition showered with suffering?

"You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love. "Papa?" Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. "Papa? where are you? Don't leave me!" And for the first time - and the last - when He spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from his boy. Tears rolled down Jesus' face. The face of the one who would wipe away every tear from every eye." (the Jesus Storybook)

Suffering: Jesus is the answer because He suffered separation from the Father, from God for us. Are we not to share in one another's sufferings? How could I live not knowing God? His love, His plan, the acceptance, significance, and security He holds for me...eternally. Not knowing God is not separation from Him, and yet their separation is not knowing Him. We are to walk through dark places with others and introduce them to the one that has already suffered all there is to suffer for them. Are we not to offer up glimpses of blinding light in dark places? Offer salt to unseasoned conversation, or on wounds that no longer hurt?

Jesus is the answer... but let us first hear the heart of why. There need not be arguing, God can defend himself. There need not be an exchange of intellect, although this can be entertaining. When you listen through the ears of the man that has suffered all things, when you walk amongst the dead, amongst the wounded, and see the carnage of this sick place we live in, it is impossible not to offer hope. Wisdom is known when it is heard. It is either life or death to those that want it.

Offer life with Christ Jesus. Offer it. Don't serve it up with a plate piled so high they have forgotten what they will be digesting, or with so many sides they have forgotten what it tastes like to be wanted, loved, known, open and full of Him.

Simple and pure, strait up not shaken or stirred.

Jesus IS the answer... be sure you've asked the right question.

Back to School Prayer...

Little hands hold mine, little feet with new little shoes, and little minds focused on the next shiny thing that passes before their little eyes.   I Pray...   Holding every precious piece of them from birth until this moment, a sacred ungluing of the heart, a release, for them to be carried in the Fathers hands, Fathers heart into a whole new world. A place I will not be part of. A place where they will discover, learn, unlearn, experience life beyond this home.   I Pray...   Fighting the urge to keep them close one more day, one more snuggle, one more life giving hug...   I Pray...   for minds that know the truth of who God is, and who they are. for hearts that feel Holy Spirits presence, love, grace for self and others. for lips to be bold in proclaiming Jesus Christ our Lord.   for wisdom flowing from the throne room of the Father into the lives of those that lead the minds of the future. For mercy, for patience, for Love that has a name, and has covered a multitude of sin.   for the protection of innocence, from evil, untruth, from the powers and principalities that desire to pervert, steal, kill and destroy that of which God has made to be good, beautiful, light and all that has been, will be, and is being redeemed.   Holy Spirit as a rushing wind filling the void in every hallway, before, beside and behind every child searching for a life made to worship their creator, our God, our Lord, Jesus Christ.   For You, Jesus to be known in every part of this, your world. A beautiful reclaiming of the sacred.   I Pray for the mom, the dad, grandmother, grandfather and guardian to fill this new void with you. To place anxiety, fear, worry, and loneliness at the feet of Jesus. To rest, be renewed, and fill every moment with the awareness of your presence in their lives. To trust a good good Father. To believe the words they read in your word, and the song they sing with their lips in their hearts.   As the bus pulls up, hold my gasp of surrender, wipe my tears, and hush the silent cry of my being to go with them where they are. I release them to you, they have always been yours. Please hold their little hands as they go... they will need you. With head buried in your chest, I feel your heart beat for every child on the beginning of this new journey. Trust. I trust your goodness. Even when I don't want to, when it hurts, when all I want to do is have one more moment. I trust. I pray.

"Find me when you seek me..."

...For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart...
Jeremiah 29:11-13


...more than anything I want to find you... not for stuff, not for anything but for you. I want to find you for you. To find another for stuff, for info, for influence, not for them, is hurtful... and yet you ask your children to curl on your lap, and confide, share, pour their hearts out like water before you.


What does it mean to seek you with my whole heart? My whole being?


The same Spirit that searches the heart of God Searches the heart of man. Searches the heart of this woman. What do you look for? See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I will find you when I seek you with my whole heart.

Holy Spirit search me, search my heart, for only you know how to cleanse me, washing over me with hands that heal, arms that carry, and a heart that is unending.

Search my thoughts, replaced with illumination streaming with laser like focus to the throne of the father.

Reign in my words, the same lips that praise God and curse mankind; tongue with the power to tear down, and build up.

Infuse my veins to the tree you have planed by streams of living water... the ones that do well in prosperity or famine... Until the end.

How can I seek you so you are found?

As you surround me, and are the very breath that I breath, I see there is nothing that is no escape from you. You are in everything, you have made all things in a world waiting to be redeemed.

With every thought and for every thoughtless breath make me aware. Not being a game of hide and seek but rather seeking and revealed.

"Come and see me
come and know me
come and search my heart and make me... like you, like you, I just wanna be like you...

Come and see me
come and know me
Come and search my heart and make me new, make me new, I wanna be just like you..."