Simply Jesus

There’s a lot out there that sounds good to people searching for an answer. And there are a lot of people searching! Whether it is because of a tragedy, financial crisis, illness, or a general disillusionment with this world, once people get to the point where life looks desperate, they want to find something that help them makes sense of things.

I've always heard that a person finds out what’s really inside them once the rubber meets the road, but after having walked through my journey over the past months, this is no longer a cliche. I found out that you can’t hold on to platitudes, traditions, or someone else’s truth to get you through the painful seasons. You have to find what is real.

Enter the greatest controversy of all time: what is truth?

I’m a big believer in KNOWING what you believe and why you believe it—not just parroting off attractive sound bites that you’ve picked up here and there. And the only way for me to be able to do that is to go to the source of everything that I believe to be truth: the Bible. I believe that it is entirely true, beginning to end. Both the portions that fit well into today’s society and the ones that lack a certain politically correct sensitivity. I believe it is all the word of God.

So I’ve read the Bible, and I’ve tried to unpack the message it contains. There is so much that I will never even scratch the surface of, but one thing that I can't miss is Jesus. The Bible is the story of His love for us, shown ultimately through the gift of salvation. The entire book, beginning to end tells me that the answer to life is simply Jesus.

Colossians 1:13-14 says “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Nothing I do (i.e. all of the “good stuff” I try to do or achieve) is ever going to rescue me from the domain of darkness mentioned in these verses. It is Jesus, and Jesus only that can do that!! Verses 19-20 say “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

Paul goes on to say in the next chapter that we ought to strive to understand everything about God’s greatest mystery, which is Jesus! He knew that we have to hold on to the truth found in Jesus “so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.” He nailed it.

The very same persuasive arguments he warned about have encircled our culture today in a python like death grip, making it difficult to differentiate God’s truth from the “truth” that has been created to custom fit our society. So much out there tickles the ear and sounds so good that it doesn’t seem possible it could be wrong. The only problem with all of this is that Jesus is not part of the answer. He is the entire answer. Never has that been clearer to me than it is today.

I don’t know what the rest of my life holds for me, but I know that it has already thrown me some curve balls I wasn’t expecting. The loss I've experienced has caused me to reevaluate everything that I've ever thought to be true. And what I have discovered is that Jesus is enough. I don't need the other "fillers" the culture advertises with such success, because like the food at the fair, the attraction ends by the time everything has had a chance to digest. Jesus was enough during the difficult times. He is enough today. He will be enough forever.