Some people spend their entire lives never hearing the name Jesus. Some have heard it all of their lives and never know what it means. There are those that reluctantly avoid it. Then there are those that have heard it, known it, considered it, reconsidered it, walked away, came back to it, cried out for it, spoke it, lost it, failed it, clung to it, walked away again…only to find out that the name Jesus Christ is the most important name, the most amazing man to ever walk this earth. I fall somewhere in between.
I am a child of God. I am a sister in Christ. I am a sinner forgiven by the man they call Jesus. I am one of the individuals who had been hearing about him most of my life and I am blessed to be one that was exposed to His True face at a young age. I am also one that has walked away several times, only to return because I knew there was no other way. I have spent so much of my twenty-six years trying to understand it all by my own interpretation. But then I am reassured that this life is His and He will reveal things to me time and time again when they are meant to be known. I believe we have made it much more difficult for others to hear and accept the name than God ever intended because of the fabrications that are tied into the human error which we know as “the church” and what it means to be a follower of Christ. It is because of my own self-conflict and hypocrisy that I have learned about the “lordship” of Jesus and I prayerfully write this with the desire of giving Him all of the glory that is rightfully His.
“Jesus is Lord,” means several things to me. The first is that I know He truly has control of the situation. He sets up the blueprints, He lays out the foundation, builds the walls, invites me in, keeps me warm and fed and prepares me for what is to come. Even when I leave the house and fall into the ditch, (which I am fully aware of), He brings me out a ladder to pull me up. He doesn’t even come with an, “I told you so.” He simply brings me back to solid ground, dusts me off and offers more support than before. Another way the Lord leads as the Master of mine is displaying His power, mercy and grace to others…all others. No partiality-everybody. All of the time!
It is so common for us to pick and choose who and what we will give our attention to. Subconsciously, we often consider why we should do something at all for anyone because it just doesn’t make much sense or it’s not fair or they don’t deserve what we have to offer. I have spent much of my life sitting back and watching how the Lord works in this world and I know this without a doubt…none of us deserve anything. But, My God, the Alpha and Omega asks no questions. He gives, He loves, He has concern for the way the world is going and He displays pure compassion as to how He can unite us. If I think of a king or ruler or a person of authority I can only pray that they have people’s best interest in mind. I do not mean fulfilling the wants of everyone but their needs as a whole. Someone once told me, “The Lord will not give you a scorpion, even if you ask for one.” That is my God on which I lean.
The timing in life always unfolds appropriately whether we feel certain of that or not. I was asked the question, “What does Jesus is Lord mean to you?” Until now I have put the answer off. I don’t believe that I couldn’t answer before but that I wasn’t meant to quite yet. In the last year of my life I have seen many changes. I have experienced many spiritual highs and spiritual lows. I am constantly realizing that things are not what they seem but they are what they are and that God’s hand is in all of it. Jesus’ face is everywhere and His power still and always will reign. My eyes have been opened to more spiritual warfare and miracles in the midst of it all. Jesus has given me the strength to understand things I chose not to see. He has lifted me up so that I may turn my focus on His other children and not on myself. He has also granted me the free will to fall so that I might know where my place is among all nations…and that is right along side of them.
My recent days and weeks and months have consisted of the Lord presenting Himself in many forms: sounds, shapes, colors, emotions, events, people, words and writings. Quite possibly it was that I wasn’t aware of what His lordship truly meant. It would not be hard to believe that I was convinced it looked like sunshine but instead it was a hurricane. Either way my perception of the Lord is most definitely not meant to be a box that I build in my mind. The truth of the matter is that I could never explain in words the authority Jesus has in this life because it is unexplainable, astronomical, unlike any other “king” or “master” or “lord” to rule the land. He not only has dominion over all nations but He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He is the only person to walk this green earth in pure, sinless perfection that suffered pain, experienced persecution, catered to the masses, obeyed God, portrayed pure sacrifice, was sacrificed, crucified, resurrected and ascended into Heaven. He changed the coarse of history before it began. He sat next to sinners of all sorts and he loved them and healed them. He saved them and He has saved us.
To this day, to the end of time, even departed from the earth, Jesus still remains the same. He exists on a daily basis fighting to help us see where Heaven and Earth collide. We see as much trial as we do triumph to comprehend the life we are to imitate and the story always returns to looking towards Him and leaning on each other. If any man has power of a group of people I would pray he lives by those standards. Jesus Christ is the mirror image of Lord.
“As Christians we know, in theory at least, that in the life of a child of God there are no second causes that even the most unjust and cruel things, as well as all seemingly pointless and undeserved sufferings, have been permitted by God as a glorious opportunity for us to react to them in such a way that our Lord and Savior is able to produce in us, little by little, his own lovely character.” -Hinds Feet on High Places
Jesus is Lord. Amen.