Be Credible

Words can't express the wonderfulness of my weekend. Beth Moore is even better in person... and to stand in a crowd of over 13,000 singing, "Shout to the Lord" acappella... well, you just haven't lived.  I can't help everytime I am in a big crowd like that thinking that it isn't one drop of what Heaven will be like. 

Beth spoke from 2 Corinthians 5-7.  Her basic message was about being "credible", or believable.  In this world, that is exactly what we need.  It's what I need to do, and what I try at.. being authentic. Being who I say am I, all the time.  It's something we struggle with for varying reasons.  Me, sometimes I don't  necessarily like myself a lot of the time.  I'm too full of insecurities, a big ol' mess.  That's why I needed to hear this, and it's roughly paraphrased.  "God's biggest miracle is you." Not that He created us, which is a miracle in and of itself, but because we are able to go about our business being real, being ourselves, walking the walk... something incredible, impossible without Him.  Living the Christian life, a life with a heart wide open, is IMPOSSIBLE without God. 

I'm learning to like me.  I have all kinds of faults and failures, but I think that Jesus died on the cross to cover those, and that's enough to let go of them.  I'm extremely humbled to think of that.  As I stood and listened to the music swell to "In Christ Alone", I realized (for what is probably the hundreth time, at least... I just need reminders.  Apparently I'm a slow learner...) that Jesus is enough.  I don't have to be anything, because He is enough. As Beth reminded me, with Jesus, nothing is everything, and everything is nothing.  We can have it all together and be the envy of all men, but if Jesus isn't Who we are about, it's all in vain.  His grace is in vain.  And I don't want that to be my case. 

Jesus isn't just a person in a book.  He's not just a bearded man with kind brown eyes and long flowing hair and sandals.  He's a soon returning King, a Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, a Lover of the unloveable.  He's my best friend, a friend who is there when I feel like noone else is.  I don't deserve Him... but that's the beauty of it.  He loves me anyway.

Enjoy Travis Cottrell as he sings In Christ Alone.  May it go to your marrow like it did me... and may we always stay changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0jK5a2WaQ4&feature=related