Day 4: Come As You Are!

What if?

I remember sitting there one day and picturing something.

What if JESUS was KNOCKING at my door?

So I closed my eyes and imagined it.

KNOCK.KNOCK.KNOCK.

There was SOMEONE at the door.

And suddenly, I panicked.

My house was a mess.

I was a mess.

I wasn't ready for A VISITOR.

Now,

picture this with me.

Imagine that you hear

A KNOCK at your door.

You slowly walk toward it.

You look through the peephole.

And there

HE IS.

JESUS.

What would you do?

Would you immediately open the door?

Or would you do what I pictured myself doing?

Because when I imagined seeing

JESUS

standing there,

HE had a smile on HIS face.

But I didn't.

My first thought was,

OH NO. IT'S JESUS.

And then,

I CAN'T LET HIM INLIKE THIS.

Suddenly I started rememberingeverything I had done the day before that wasn't very

JESUS-LIKE.

I looked at myself.

I looked at my house.

I looked at my life.

And all I could see was

THE MESS.

I hadn't been a good steward of my body.

My home.

My time.

My life.

And then I imagined hearing it again.

KNOCK.KNOCK.KNOCK.

And tears filled my eyes.

Why the tears?

I love JESUS.

HE IS my everything.

So why, even in my imagination,was I hesitating

to

OPEN THE DOOR?

Now picture yourself standing there.

What would be going through your mind?

Would you think?

Would you open the door with great expectation

because JESUS WANTS to be with you?

Or would you be thinking,

"WAIT, JESUS...!"

Let me clean the kitchen first.

Let me straighten the house.

Let me change my clothes.

Let me fix myself.

Or maybe your mess isn't something anyone else could see.

Maybe you would start remembering

what you said yesterday.

What you did.

What you didn't do.

The prayer you didn't pray.

The Bible you didn't open.

The promise you didn't keep.

The attitude you had.

The sin you repeated.

The person you haven't forgiven.

The thing you wish you could take back.

Would you suddenly think~

I'M NOT READYFOR JESUS TO COME IN?

That's what happened to me.

And it startled me.

Because I began wondering,

where was this

CONDEMNATION coming from?

This SHAME?

This GUILT?

These LIES?

Why was I afraid to open the door to the very

ONE I loved?

And then I realized that I wanted to give

JESUS

MY BEST SELF.

There it was.

MY BEST SELF.

I wanted everything cleaned up

BEFORE 

I let

JESUS come in.

Oh,

the

MARTHA

in me immediately appeared~

WAIT JESUS, 

because

 FIRST...

I have to do this.

Then I have to fix that.

Then I need to change this.

Then I need to get myself together.

THEN

I'll open the door.

And in my imagination,

JESUS waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Yet, still smiling.

KNOCK.KNOCK.KNOCK.

And that's when the question hit me:

WHY AM I AFRAID OF JESUS?

Was I afraid HE wouldbe DISAPPOINTED in me?

Was I afraid HE wouldbe ASHAMED of me?

Was I afraid HE wouldlook around at my mess

and then look at ME?

And maybe,

you would feel that too.

Maybe you would hear a familiar whisper~

YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

YOU SHOULD BE FURTHER ALONG.

YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER.

JESUS DESERVESA BETTER VERSION OF YOU.

And there it was.

The lie hiding underneathmy hesitation:

I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGHFOR JESUS.

But wait,

wasn't that exactly why I needed

JESUS?

I had somehow turnedthe GOSPEL upside down.

The GOSPEL was never:

GET GOOD ENOUGHAND THEN COME TO JESUS.

The GOSPEL is:

COME TO JESUS.

“Come to ME, all who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest”(Matthew 11:28),

There was the word~

COME.

An

INVITATION.

And I remember thinking that who invites someone to

COMEif HE has come only to shame her?

Why was I afraid of the

ONE

who had already gone to the

CROSS

for the very things I was trying to hide?

“For GOD did not send HIS SON into the world to condemn the world,

but to save the world through HIM”(John 3:17).

Oh...

HE DIDN'T COME TO CONDEMN ME.

HE DIDN'T COME TO CONDEMN YOU

HE CAME TO SAVE US.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in CHRIST JESUS”(Romans 8:1).

NO CONDEMNATION.

And suddenly I could see what was happening.

SHAME was saying~

HIDE THE MESS.

GUILT was saying~

LOOK WHAT YOU DID.

CONDEMNATION was saying~

LOOK WHAT YOU ARE.

But GRACE was saying:

COME.

MERCY was saying~

 I ALREADY KNOW.

And TRUTH was saying~

THERE IS NOW NO CONDEMNATIONFOR THOSE WHO AREIN CHRIST JESUS.

So picture the door again.

JESUS is standingon the other side.

And HE already KNOWSwhat is behind it.

HE KNOWS about yesterday.

HE KNOWS about the mess.

HE KNOWS about the failure.

HE KNOWS about the shame.

HE KNOWS about the thing you don't want anyone else to know.

And yet...

JESUS IS STILL THERE.

Now ask yourself~

WHY WOULDN'T I OPEN THE DOOR?

Maybe because, like me,

you've been trying to give

JESUS

YOUR BEST SELF.

But JESUS isn't waiting for you to manufacturea better version of yourself

before you come to HIM.

You simply bring HIM YOU.

And HE continues HIS workof making you NEW.

“If anyone is in CHRIST, the new creation has come:

The old has gone, the new is here!"(2 Corinthians 5:17).

And there it is.

I thought it was about

my house,

my behavior,

my yesterday,

my failures,

my appearance,

my ability to get everything ready for

JESUS.

But it wasn't.

It was about HIM.

HIS GRACE.

HIS MERCY.

HIS FORGIVENESS.

HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

HIS LOVE.

JUST JESUS.

So in my picture, I finally stopped tryingto get everything ready.

I stopped hiding.

I walked toward the door.

I put my hand on the handle.

And

OPENED IT.

Because I realized

I didn't need to get the house ready

FOR JESUS.

I needed

JESUS in the house.

And maybe,

that was where the real cleaning could begin.

Oh how

I had been trying to clean everything

BEFORE

I let

THE LIGHT

in.

But how do you cleana dark room without

THE LIGHT?

Now,

picture yourselfstanding at your door.

KNOCK.KNOCK.KNOCK.

Would you try to clean up everything before you open THE DOOR?

Would you be afraid of something that JESUS will see?

Is there something that you would be trying to fix

before you would

COME?

BUT because

JESUS IS THE DOOR~

“Let us then approach God’s throne of GRACE with confidence, so that we may receive MERCY and find GRACE to help us in our time of need”(Hebrews 4:16).

"IN OUR TIME OF NEED."

Not after we've fixed everything.

Not after we've cleaned everything.

Not after we've becomeour

BEST SELF.

IN OUR TIME OF NEED.

So

picture JESUS again.

Standing there.

And instead of looking at everything behind you,

look at

WHO IS STANDING IN FRONT OF YOU.

Maybe the question isn't:

AM I READY FOR JESUS?

For it isn't about our

GETTING EVERYTHING READY FOR JESUS.

It's about letting

JESUS

into every room of your life.

KNOCK.

KNOCK.

KNOCK.

Chalk Talk 101"

"COME AS YOU ARE"

(listen to the song below)

https://youtu.be/yjgioXrnEME?si=WFnolqnjoHDsRNeP

COME AS YOU ARE

TO

"THE PEARLS OF CHRISTMAS~ GRACED FOR LIFE"

Women's Event.

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