I am reading a book by Vince Antonucci called I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy t-Shirt. This has been a great book so far. Chapter four is really interesting. He starts out the chapter by lamenting that people have a relationship with Jesus. He wishes that people wouldn't have a relationship with Jesus.
Sounds kind of weird, huh? Well, he explains that a relationship will change through time. But a more appropriate description would be an infant in his mother's womb. Where everything, absolutely everything that infant needs to survive comes from it's mother who he is literally inside of and swallowed up by.
In John 15:4-5, Jesus said that we must ABIDE with Him. That word ABIDE literally means "Live Within."
A baby (that's you and me) lives inside of his Mother (that's Christ). A baby (you and me) can't live without her (Christ). A baby (you and me) is totally dependent on her (Christ) for everything we receive. There is absolutely nothing that a baby (you and me) can do on his own.
So maybe you don't need a relationship with Christ...maybe you need to become utterly dependent on Jesus for absolutely everything and then, and maybe then, will you realize that is the kind of life he is calling you to live.
3 comments:
Hey Mike,
Thanks for reading my book, and I'm glad you're enjoying it! I'm not sure if you know, but there's all kinds of (free!) resources available at www.lousytshirtbook.com if you'd like to do a series on the book at your church (or in the youth group or small groups).
Thanks again!
vince
Wow! Thanks for checking out my blog! I love your book, bro. Me and my buddy Kyle are reading it. Great stuff. I got the free CD from Baker Books some time ago as well. Thanks for putting all this together. Helps out guys like me who are trying to serve the Lord in our little slice of the world.
Wow... we met Tony Morgan last week, and Vince comments on your blog this week. How cool is that?
I'm only in chapter 8 of Vince's book, but one of the things I will take away from this book is this very notion of abiding in Christ. Chapter 4 totally changed my viewpoint on having a "relationship" with Christ.
Post a Comment