Bring Your Crash Helmet !



I can remember bits and pieces of childhood. Great times with family, different toys that I loved, pets I grew up with, and times of terror.



That's right - terror.



You see the child's world and their understanding of it is full of holes. There's so much that they do not know, imagination has to fill in the blanks. So you get monsters under the bed, fixations about flying monkeys (okay, maybe that was just me), and all manner of fears.



But you know, I never feared God.



God, in the person of His Son Jesus, loved me. I knew that because the people who I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt loved me - told me so. We sang "Jesus loves the little children" with all our hearts in Bible School, because He did. When we sang, we were sitting under pictures of Jesus with children in His lap and hanging all over Him. Most adults I knew would freak out if that many kids were that close, so I figured Jesus must be real special.



Later, I realized just how special He is. He is God! All powerful God!



None of us can put a box around just how powerful God is, really.



Annie Dillard writes, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews."



It sounds dangerous.



And yet... there is Jesus. Is He dangerous?



Well, in a way, yes. Friday we'll stop and remember His death by the hands of people who were so afraid of His power to change people's hearts they had Him crucified.



Many people, including some of the Jewish leaders, believed in him. But they wouldn't admit it to anyone because of their fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue.

43 For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

John 12:42-43 (NLT)



Something changed in a lot of my friends growing up, maybe in yours too. Growing up in church, believing in Jesus and loving Him as children, even trusting Him as Savior and Lord, but later - in their teens or young adulthood, they drift away. Why?



Because getting too close to Jesus can be dangerous. He'll change your life.



Jesus is in the life-changing business, and if you don't want your life changed - if you still want control of your life - don't get too close. As a child, you loved Him without reservations. He loved you the same way.



He still does. Do you?



Do this - take a vacation from running your life. Come to a Good Friday service somewhere and see how much God thinks you are worth. (Hint: John 3:16)



Then come to church Easter Sunday seeking to get as close to God in worship as you can. Oh and get ready for earth-shaking news. In fact, better bring your crash helmet!



Grace!



David Wilson



This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.