We can’t meet each others needs, really. But as we’ve become more connected to Jesus individually, we’ve become more independent, more steady regardless of each others situation or what’s going on around us. The real bonus has been that as we’re more intimate with Jesus individually, the more energy and confidence and health we bring to the table when we’re together.

Experiencing this with Katy has taught me something else. I don’t have relationship problems with people. That’s really not the issue. Tension with a co-worker, pastor, friend, or family member isn’t the source of my problem. The source is my connection to Jesus. He’s the Vine and I’m a branch. When I’m connected to him intimately and constantly, life naturally flows to me from him and ultimately through me to others, regardless of what they say or do. But cut off that daily, intimate relationship with Jesus and I’ve got nothing for anyone, except myself, which is a frightening thought.

If I’ve seen anything that I have lacked as a man and that most men lack, it’s intimacy: the emotional and spiritual capacity and desire to be dangerously close to and vulnerable before God and other human beings for the sake of relationship. For the sake of loving and being loved. John Eldrige talks about the primal “wound” from our fathers, the wound with which we are all inflicted because of this fallen world and the broken relationships that have resulted. For us guys, that wound has kept us guarded, stoic, walled up, performance-minded, and a host of other things.

What about you? How’s your intimacy meter? How intimate are you with Jesus? How intimately have you known your spouse or your family today? Do you know what speaks to their deep desires and longings? Do you know what they’re really afraid of or hoping to see happen? When you see another believer, is it a handshake, a socially acceptable hug or a true embrace?

Our fear of intimacy, of getting hurt, causes us to create acceptable substitutes for true intimacy. I fear that we have so easily traded true Jesus-like intimacy with others, the kind that’s both passionate and pure, for connections that are more socially comfortable, more guarded. This is dangerous stuff, dangerous to the very intimacy Jesus died to give us and dangerous because it leads to far greater problems than the ones we’re trying so carefully to avoid.

And then I began to see what he sees and feel what he feels: today in the perspective of eternity. Pain that is so temporary, and life that is so lasting and solid. I was overwhelmed by his hope. Hope for me, for the lost, for his bride, for the earth. He sees the end.

I could feel a presence behind me, so I turned my head and, out of the corner of my eye, caught a glimpse of someone who I knew was Jesus. I have to be honest, I turned my head back around and the first words out of my mouth were, “God, I don’t even know him. He’s a mystery. Would you please introduce me to him.” I’ve believed in him since I was 3 years old, and I’ve spent the majority of my life serving and obeying him; but I’m telling you the truth as plain as I saw it that day on I-75. Compared to who he is, my knowledge and experience with Jesus is so small, it’s as if I don’t know him at all. What he has done for me that I’ll never know or realize in this lifetime. What he’s been through, giving up his glory in heaven like he did and becoming a servant…for me, for the undeserving, for the lost! I was speechless, and all I wanted was an introduction.

These days that’s what I’m asking for. It’s pretty much all I want. Just to have an introduction to Jesus. Apart from this man, I don’t have anything. Everything else is unstable. But this man, he’s solid and true.

I have to be honest. I’ve gotten a little glimpse of Jesus out of the corner of my eye and I’m struck. And the more I do life with other people and read what they have to say, the more I realize I’m not alone. I’m just one struck person in a much larger body of people who are completely caught up in Jesus.

Our Pensacola family goes to the park tomorrow to join Jesus as he casts a really big net over thousands of hearts. Gang members, prostitutes, homeless, at-risk teens, children, city officials, police, firemen, business owners, church goers. The park will be full of people who are going to hear the Gospel of Jesus and feel the love of God in a new way. Join us in prayer over the next two days. God is doing the work, and we can cooperate with him as we declare his love over the city, pray for people’s hearts to be softened, and take authority over the strategies of Satan to keep people from coming, to keep them from hearing while they’re there, and to steal the seed of the truth after they leave.

I can’t tell you how hard it is to be here in Tulsa and not there. I miss my Pensacola family so much that most days it physically hurts. There’s Kingdom work going on there, destruction to the kingdom of darkness, and we’re all a part of it through our encouragement, prayer and support. I can’t wait to hear the reports from Saturday. And I can’t wait to see what God is bringing to pass in the city of Pensacola, in the church as a whole there and in the lives of tens of thousands of people who are lost.

I felt led to ask her about her salvation experience, so I said something to the effect of, “Describe the moment you encountered God personally and felt the presence of Jesus in your life.” She blinked twice and just sat there for a second. “Well,” she started, “I’ve always known God loves me, and I’ve tried to be a good person. I believe in God and I pray.”

“Tell me about your relationship with Jesus. Give me some specifics about how you’ve experienced him.”

She couldn’t. I realized she was confused about her own salvation. You see, God is a God of specificity and detail. Just look at nature or the Bible. Everything God does is full of exquisite detail. He’s no different in his relationship with us. When he reveals himself, it’s not vague or general.

I didn’t tell her she wasn’t saved. Honestly, I didn’t know where she was at, except that she needed to hear the gospel again. So we started in Romans 6-8 and I shared a very basic gospel message. What it means to know Christ, to be baptized with him in his death and united with him in his resurrection. About sin and grace and the cross. When I finished 10 minutes later, she sat back and said, “I’ve never heard that before. It’s so clear.”

The group prayed for her at that point and God began to melt away fear and insecurity in her heart. She cried and cried as different group members prayed and encouraged her. Months later this woman left town and moved back home. But before she moved, she was filled with joy. She was a completely different person.

I’ve seen this over and over, and I truly believe the church needs to hear the gospel as much as the world does. If we don’t know what we have in Christ, how will the world have a clue? If there’s not a clear sound on the trumpet, how will the army know it’s time to line up for battle?

Katy and I are walking through this foundational truth with a small group in our home. Last week I wrote them a letter to encourage them in their salvation. I’ve posted a link to this letter below. Perhaps it will encourage you or be helpful to someone you know who is struggling in their faith.

What does it mean to be saved?

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Tiger Woods hits hundreds and even thousands of practice balls each day. He spends hours practicing little movements, just fractions of his swing, over and over to build muscle memory. He makes millions each year, has unprecedented success and still works on the fundamentals of his game. Why? Because he knows that he can never get away from those basic principles. Just because he mastered them at one time doesn’t mean he can quit working on them. The fundamentals of golf are a way of life, a daily thing that he can’t get away from without compromising his effectiveness and skill.

I love the movie Pistol Pete. It’s one of my wife’s favorites, especially because she grew up with a passion for the game of basketball. One of the main impressions I got from the movie was Peter Maravich’s constant focus on the fundamentals of the game of basketball: dribbling, shooting, passing. Everywhere he went as a boy, he was constantly dribbling a basketball. He slept with his ball, ate with his ball. When people saw Pete, they saw him dribbling or shooting his ball. Pete and the ball were synonymous in people’s minds. And did Pete mind? Nope. Where did he learn all of this? From his Dad. Press Maravich was a former pro player who taught his son the basics starting at the age of 7. The result? According to Wikipedia and Dale Brown’s calculations, a career average of 57 points per game.

Most of my life the promise of salvation has been a “foundational” element more than a fundamental, daily necessity. You know the foundation under your house is there, but you don’t have to look at it or think about it much because it’s hidden and it just works. You enjoy its benefits, but you don’t really talk about it or draw attention to it because it’s…well, foundational. It’s a good analogy for salvation, but incomplete (as all analogies are). But something that’s fundamental is daily, constant, something you think about, build from, interact with and always come back to. Like Tiger Woods and range balls or Pistol Pete and dribbling.

Maybe it looks like I’m getting hung up on semantics, but personally it’s a pretty big shift in the way I think and how I begin my relationship with the Father every day. Any day that I don’t get up and thank the Father for what Jesus did on Calvary is a day I’m already off track. There’s no way you could hang around with Pistol Pete or Tiger Woods and not know about their passion for basketball and golf. It would be all around them, even if they didn’t say anything about it. In the same way, can the people around me easily pick up on my passion for Jesus by my life?

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. These (trials) have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. …for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (taken from 1 Peter 1:3-13)

If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? 
If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? 
Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.
(Job 35:6-8)

There is nothing lacking in the godhead. Ok, I’ve known that in my head, but it’s starting to make its way into my gut.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are and always have been perfect in unity, in love and in relationship. There’s nothing anyone can do to add or take away from God. He’s eternally existent and unchanging. My worship or lack of it can’t change him at all. The only thing that changes is me. Whether I enjoy him or despise him, worship him or denounce him, need him or reject him, he never changes. His love is constant, his glory is abundant and his mercy is always available. 

If God doesn’t need anything from me then why am I here? Isaiah 4:6-7 says that we were created for his glory, to showcase who he really is. It’s not that we’re increasing his glory; we’re just reflecting it to others. In other words, I was created to be a unique expression of his nature so that others can see him clearly. He expresses all of the facets of his abundant nature through his creation. I’m here to be a living, breathing, walking, talking expression of him. And when I’m being that, being completely true to what he put in me, I’m happiest. Worship, then, is the expression of my life as it reflects his glory. My work, my play, my talk, my thoughts, they all express his glory. But I can’t bring him glory in my own strength.

We’re conditioned to believe that value comes from productivity, what we can provide for others or what we can give to God through service or devotion or worship. Martha was doing the most work, yet it was Mary who was commended for sitting, listening, receiving and being. Peter couldn’t imagine that Jesus would want to wash his feet. “No, I need to wash your feet, Jesus. You’re God, so I should serve you. I should be the one doing, like the way all good subjects serve their king.” But Peter could not add to Jesus or take from him. It was Peter who needed, who lacked. So Jesus said, “If you don’t let me wash your feet, you can’t have any part in me.”

It’s why the kingdom requires only that I believe, which to me is simply the act of receiving. Jesus said, “Come, eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Yes, at some point I will serve him and do for him, but not before I’ve died with him, received from him, been filled with him, healed by him, hidden in him and know who I am in him.

Activity that doesn’t flow from an abundance of Christ is like trying to cut down a tree with a spoon. Sometimes I feel useless at his feet, like I’m not helping anyone or being productive. But when it’s Christ who lives in me then every little thing I say and do is a true expression, a powerful seed, a light of hope, a healing outflow of his love and character. That’s what the world and the body needs, and it’s ultimately what makes me the happiest.

God, forgive me for my pride and my feeble efforts. I’m ready to receive like a child. To take you in without fear of what I’m not. There’s no shame in my weakness, only glory in being covered by you!

“Celebrate his death and rising. Lift your eyes. Proclaim his coming!
Christ has died and Christ has risen. Christ will come again!”

Also, a Christian production team called The Work of the People just released an Easter video for Mystery. Very powerful. Click here to see it.