That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10: 9 - 10 NKJV
I remember watching a movie about a high school football team in Alabama in the 1970's. The movie centered around the racial divide and hatred which was all too present in the south as government mandated desegregation was instituted. Up until this point, white and black students were educated separately. As you might expect, hatred and violence ensued. However, this particular school, Woodlawn high school, became the example of how the Lord can sew the seeds of healing. For in the midst of all of the hatred, a young man struggles with the teams coach that he might be able to speak to the team. His message? The gospel of the Lord Jesus. What follows is almost the entire team accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior. One of the most inspirational scenes I remember is that of the coach speaking to the young evangelist and telling him that he wanted to be baptized. Now, I was never a huge fan of the 1960's. With the protests, the war and all of those long haired hippies walking around it was like a totally different country to me. Recently I've began comparing the era of the 60's with what we are experiencing as a nation today. Is it the same? Not really. One thing is missing, a Jesus movement. There was a time back in the 1970's when young people across the country were abandoning the traditional churches they had grown up in for something radically different. No longer did they desire to simply adhere to the theology of the church and "hear" about Jesus. No, they wanted to KNOW the man Jesus. The Jesus movement was born. I can recall watching tv back then and seeing actors portraying the long haired hippy kids who simply wanted to know Jesus. Here was a entire generation seeking a personal relationship with their Lord and Savior. As far as traditional church practices go, this was pretty radical. How could these kids, sinners all, ever even hope to be in the presence of Jesus? As it turns out, this was the same question which I asked myself a few years ago as I struggled with the realization of Christ Jesus in me. I wasn't a young hippy, but I wanted a relationship with Jesus.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4: 10 - 11 NKJV
I used to laugh at all of those young hippies who would go around proclaiming "Peace and love, man." Then I began to wonder, where did they get that message? Well, they got their message from the same place I received mine...the Lord Jesus. I guess that I can say that it is Jesus who transcends generations that His message would be revealed to all. Long haired cultural deviants joining congregations of Christians in proclaiming Jesus? Don't laugh, I've seen it with my own eyes. What Christians of today need to stop and realize is that we have perpetuated the idea that Jesus is unreachable. Jesus is seated in heaven and we are here on earth trying to make it through life. That is the message of the Christian church. Well, what does that mean to someone who simply desires to know Jesus? For one thing, it means that He cannot be found where we thought He was...in the church. I didn't find a closer relationship with Him in the church. Where I did discover a closer relationship with Christ is through a good friend who introduced me to the revelation he himself had discovered. What was his revelation? The same revelation which the apostle Paul received on the road to Damascus. Paul was a changed man after that experience. It is Paul who speaks to Christ Jesus in us {Galatians 2:20}. This is where we will discover the relationship with Jesus that we desire. It is not something which is taught in the church, but the realization given unto us by God that it is Jesus who we now live as. We are now one with Jesus and the Father. Sometimes I think about how radical Jesus must have seemed back in His day. The message which He taught certainly went against the grain of the old school Jewish teachings. However, it's the same message He relates to us today. I might not be a hippy...but I know Jesus.
~Scott~
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