The chatter is beginning to pick up about the comment that Oprah made on her web cast about Jesus being her way to God, but not the only way!  Oprah is a very smart and talented person – she would have to be, to enjoy the success that she has experienced.  I think that she has and continues to do a lot of good things, but she has missed it on this one!

Jesus says of Himself in John 14:1-6 “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but by me!” 

JESUS IS THE WAY!  The world would have you believe that there are multiple ways to God.  I think that there may be a million ways or more to know about God, but there is only one way to know Him and that is in a personal realtionship that is comes through our belief in Jesus Christ His Son!  There may be a lot of different ways to God, but they all have to ultimatley go THROUGH Jesus!  Jesus said in John 10:9  “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come and go and find pasture!”  Play around with this truth and your are playing with fire!

JESUS IS THE TRUTH!  Truth is absolute, not relative!  Truth is based on fact and fact is provided by our Creator and Sustainer!  John 1:17 says:  “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  God has given us His law, which teaches us how to live our lives for Him and in blessing.  And for the areas where we all fall short and there are many He has given us His Son Jesus, Who provided grace which forgives and restores and truth which sets us free!  We don’t make the truth – the truth makes us!

JESUS IS THE LIFE!  This is not just some abstract concept to get us through another day.  Jesus really is life and when we live in a real, meaningful and personal relationship with Him, it changes everything!  Jesus is our way of life, through a personal relationship we have a reason to live and find fulfillment through that reason.  We need to stop chasing life and start chasing Jesus.  There are a lot of people out there who have religion – I’m not talking about religion – I’m talking about relationship!  Jesus came so that every person, not just those that you and I deem worthy – every person, those that look and act like us and those that don’t, might have a real, personal and meaningful realtionship with God, Who created us, loves us and has an amazing plan for our lives.  When you really get to know this Jesus, you wll GO the WAY, KNOW the TRUTH and LIVE the LIFE!

I guess that one of my all time favorite sayings is:  God Is Good!  I believe it, because I experience it again and again and again!  Lately, I have had a hard time accepting how ugly, mean spirited and negative some people in our world can be, especially church people.  I often think to myself:  “If they could just realize how they are being, then there is no way that they would be the way they are!”  But there is the rub – they can’t realize how they are being, they refuse to realize how they are being and the result is they miss the opportunity for personal growth and the ability to be a blessing.

I have had some encounters with some of these kinds of people over the past few months and have always had in my heart a desire for all of us to go together to the amazing and incredible places that I know that God has for us.  It burdens my heart to realize that not everybody wants to go to that place and not everybody will go to that place.  I sometimes get so burdened that I beat up on myself – thinking there must be something else I can do, there must be some better way or there must be something I can do or say that I am not doing or saying!

The reason God is so good to me this week is because He has set me free from a jail of my own making.  He has shown me that I can’t take anybody anywhere.  I can show them the way, but I can’t make them travel and I can’t travel for them.  God has confirmed in my life again and again in recent days that I am doing a good job of showing the way and I need to stay with it and not get distracted!  Thank you to so many of you for letting God speak through you to me in such a positive and beautiful way.

God is good in your life too!  Because if you are paying attention – He is telling you some things about yourself and your relationship with Him.  I hope you hear Him and respond to what you are hearing!  God Bless, Keep It Real & Press On!

Our world has warped Jesus!  So many of us have made Him into what we want Him to be and taken way from all that He really is.  There are so many different pictures of Jesus today and the big problem is that most of them are wrong!  The problem with our distorted view of Jesus is that our picture of Jesus influences the action of our lives.  Take just a minute to think about your picture of Jesus and the kinda influence that it has on your life! 

We need more than ever to really see and hear from Jesus!  When we get our picture right – we will get our lives right!  My picture of Jesus matters, because it influences everything else!  When my picture is right, it centers my life and helps me to really live according to His purpose and not my own self-generated and often defeating interest.

One of my favorite pictures of Jesus comes from John 4:1-29 when Jesus encountered the woman at the well.  Three things jump out of this passage and grab my attention about who Jesus really is! 

First,  I noticed that Jesus went where He was needed!  Even when He did not feel like it – He was looking for an opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life.  He could have just went home and went to bed, but He knew that there was someone that needed what He had to offer and so He went to a place that others avoided.  (Samaria)

Second, Jesus stepped out of the circle that others had drawn for Him!  He not only went to Samaria, but had the audacity to have a conversation with a woman of all people.  This conversation with this woman was about so much more than a drink of water.  Jesus was reaching into her life to bring about change that would bless her and others.  Jesus reached into her life before there was any change on her part.  That’s because real change can only come through the power of a right relationship with Jesus!

Third, Jesus ministered to the real need!  Jesus knows the truth, even when you think you’ve got the rest of the world fooled!  A lot of people think that they know Jesus, but fail to recognize Him when He is standing right in front of them!  We need a real relationship with Jesus, a relationship that allows us to see Him and recognize Him at work in our lives!

We are the body of Christ!  If others are going to see Jesus, they will see Him through you and me!  Where are you needed?  Stop doing what is only comfortable and pleasing to you.  We are not here on this earth to be satisfied – we are here to be empowered!  Where does God want you to go and what does God want you to do?    We’ve got circles that we’ve created and that others have created for us.  These circles are holding us back from being what God created us to be and from doing what God created us to do.  Bust out of the circles that are holding you back from God’s wonder working power.  Think about this:  If it’s not God’s idea, then what’s the point?  How will you meet the real needs of others?  Show them Jesus – the real Jesus!  Look past the surface and to the heart and you will discover that we all need the love, forgiveness and restoration that only Jesus can bring.  Find God’s right direction for your life and make a commitment to share that right direction with others!