the TRUTH about MY AGE

Thank you for all the Birthday wishes……but truth be told, I am not really 32 years old.  At least not in physical freedom time, because if you do the math, I am only 2 years past twenty-five.  You know me and my riddles, but that’s just the way I viewed my incarceration; like a time machine that granted me preservation.I know some would have rather I did my time and rotted away, but when the peace of God is your prison, then time becomes nothing more than the Lords day. “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” And when you see each day as the Lords day, no matter where life has you tucked away, then you know the day is the Lords and it’s easier to allow Him to have His way.That’s my Birthday reality.Ok, enough rhyming and riddling….I recently delivered a message about being unashamed of your faith.  The majority of the stories were from times in my own life where I was unashamed to do things that brought shame; or even unashamed to do things that brought self-assurance or self-satisfaction.  And with all of the ways we can be unashamed in our living, I wonder why it is so hard to be unashamed in our faith?How many times do we keep silent or politely nod our heads in agreement with another person’s philosophy -- even though it runs completely counter to our knowledge of God and eternity. Ever have someone ask you, “What were you in your last life?” And instead of telling them about your hope in an after-life because of Jesus, you joke around and tell them you were a flower or even better, a butterfly. I think we laugh to keep our souls from crying.Let us be unashamed to claim the only Name that took away our pain and shame.  Let us be unashamed to talk about Jesus and our faith even if the world around us thinks it a disgrace.  I’m thinking the more we talk about Jesus to others, the more He talks about us to the Father. I’m thinking it’s the highest calling of all, to live unashamed of the One who was willing to give us His all.You see, the gospel proves that God was unashamed of us, for He was willing to come and be shamed by His own creation in order to buy us back from destruction. Jesus was unashamed to grant us redemption and He was unashamed to make us the target of His affection.So no matter where you have once been or will be and no matter what you have once done or will do, please know there is a God that desires to be identified with you. And since He is unashamed of us, let us be a people who put to shame any shame that would keep us from standing wholly for His name.