The Implications

Let's just say, for a moment, that it's all true.

Seriously, what if it really is?

...That a man named Jesus from Nazareth really was, in fact, the Son of God...That this bible book people carry around for years and pass through generations really carries truth...That the Christmas we celebrate each year actually means something...That the Easter our country likes to deem important is really so much more than just another Sunday?

What if?

Some would say, So what?

I'd like to examine, What if?

First, it's easy to say that the implications are grand. They're grander, in fact, than any decision you'll make for the rest of your life. The implications are so great that men who knew Jesus personally refused to recant their belief in His deity when threatened to be murdered. The implications are profound enough that His own brother believed Jesus is God after the resurrection. His own brother! Really? Just imagine that.

If true, such large implications of this Man dying and rising from the dead are worth exploring.

Right?

Forget the "So what?" and let's just for a moment examine the "What if?":

If He truly did rise on the third day, if He really is God, if He truly conquered death--the one thing always unconquerable by man lifetime after lifetime--then truth must have reigned on His lips. Then the words He spoke while here must be the most important words ever spoken. Then His words carry more weight than President Obama's, Oprah's, Katie Couric's, Dan Rather's, Chris Berman's, Stuart Scott's, and the Supreme Court's words combined. (Think I hit relevant for everyone there.)

What. If.

If so. Then I want to know! I want to know it all. I want to know what the Creator of the mountains and volcanoes has to say. I want to know what the Creator of love and relationships has to declare. I want to know what the King of desire, pleasure, and emotion has to reveal. I want to know what the Lord of the climates, the Controller of the planets, the Ruler of ALL rulers

Has

To

Tell

Me.

Seriously. Who wouldn't? (If you say no at this point, just stop reading, your stubbornness and pride are in the way. A certain humility--one that admits that we are not the center of the universe--is the prerequisite for stepping as children into the presence of an outrageously beautiful God. The second prerequisite is believing that such a God actually has something to offer me, that I actually might like, enjoy, or find pleasure in what He has to give. That's next).

So we want to know what this One has to proclaim, what He would dare come to a tired, laboring, twisted, broken world to tell...

You ready?

Seriously.

Brace yourself:

"I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." (John 6:35)

"Follow me." (John 1:43)

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:38)

"If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)

"Everyone who drinks of [earthly] water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming; when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am HE." (John 4:26)

"I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and find pasture." (John 10:9)

"Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)

"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made FULL." (John 15:11)

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies." (John 11:25)

What if? What if all the words above carry truth with weight weightier than any word ever spoken? If so, then the life He carries must be

Richer,

Denser,

And more glorious than anything this place could ever offer.

What if trying to satisfy ourselves with more of what we already have--wealth, fame, relationships, comfort--is our downfall? What if the answer is simply more of Him?

What if we actually believed His words, that His name brings more life than anything here? What if the life and joy He says will fill us, actually will?? What if the peace and pasture He declares trump any physical or emotional pleasure we could ever experience?

Then I want it.

I want HIM.

I want more of Him. Not more of this world, it's already failed me many times. I've seen good times, many of them. But they always end... I want TRUE life, the unfleeting kind. The kind He says is eternal, the hope that doesn't waver because He has conquered death, conquered the world.

"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.

---Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.---

BUT if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done-kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love. I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature." (John 15:5-11--MSG)

If it's true,

Let's just say,

There are major implications.

The craziest of all loves is on the line.

And I want it.

Don't you?