A friend of mine told me he was going to another nation to teach English and share his faith. He said he was still working on his language skills but he has his testimony memorized.

Sharing your story is an essential way to share the Good News; after all, the Good News is all about the Story! I wonder if, sometimes we are too “back then” focused on our story. I met Jesus in…fill in date here…when I was living in…fill in location here…and I was burdened by…fill in sin here…but He forgave me by dying on the Cross. It’s all true and worth sharing.

I wonder if our culture is too “now” focused. Oswald talks about how important today is in our story. He writes, “Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, ‘Once, a number of years ago, I was saved.’” Don’t let my story from then, he says, not be reflected in the grace and power I walk in today.

My story should be real and powerful today! Yesterday’s light can’t replace choosing to “walk in the light as Jesus is in the light” today.

I think I’ll begin my story with “Can I tell you who Jesus is to me today? He is light to me in a dark and confusing world. He gives me mercy so today, I don’t have to try to live with guilt and shame. He takes my harsh and unkind words and attitudes I have with my wife and kids and neighbors, and he gives me the strength to ask for forgiveness and choose better words next time. He leads me and is in charge of my life today, and I don’t have to wander, without direction or hope.”

“He can do the same in your life today. And it started when Jesus came, and paid for the guilt, shame, and sin when he died on the executioner’s cruel instrument of capital punishment, the Cross.”

Walk in the light today, and share the Story through your story.

I think about the Cross in different ways: where I found mercy, how I am saved, what moves me to consider His great love. But the Cross is that place where I pray, because it is where His answers are found and where I am most connected to Him. The Cross is where He bridged the desperation of Earth to the aspirations of Heaven.

I can walk in freedom. I need no one’s approval. I find healing for the brokenness I often carry. Most importantly, His mercy is there…and I need His mercy poured onto my life.

Chambers says this: The Cross represents only one thing for us—complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ—and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.

My identity is there, at the Cross; I’m most fully human where He was most fully God. No posturing, no poseurs, no presuming. It is fully His invitation, His mercy, and His embrace at the Cross.

I don’t think I understand, but that’s not the goal. I may not find every answer like I want, but that’s not why I go. It’s so I can know Him, fully, and receive from Him, mercy, and find my identity in Christ Jesus. To the only true God who became man, who gave Himself to the pain and death it took to invite me to join His prayer and call out to Abba, Father.

“God’s grace produces men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not pampered, spoiled weaklings.” Chambers, July 7

Chamber’s words ignite a longing to be like Jesus, walk like him, be both humble and bold like him. The church today needs to embrace both the discipline and the willing heart to be rejected.

A visiting professor not too many years ago was speaking to a class about discipleship and discipleship-making. He kept going on and on about wanting to live like Jesus and go through life like Jesus. The professor stood up and in front of the young man and promptly hit him on the head. Then he slapped his face and spit on him. He sat down and said “there is how Jesus faced life.”

I am so protective of my feelings and my safety that it stops my words from having the bold tenor that Jesus, the one of whom I bear “a strong family likeness,” had when on earth physically.

Today, I might be rejected, or face ridicule, but I will not be ignored. Let your voice be heard through my life and actions and words, oh Lord.

“It is one thing to say ‘do not fret’ but something very different to have a such nature that you find yourself unable to fret…fretting rises from our determination to have our own way.” Chambers July 4

Oswald says that worrying always leads to sin. Each time I worry, I am exerting my will over God’s desire. Be careful sanctifying worry and making it a virtue. If I’m not careful, I will worry, be fearful, fret, and lose sleep as if I was in control and my will is more important than God’s.

How can I grow so that my nature is not fretting because it is not the default anymore? I want my default to be “God’s got this. His will is best. I trust Him.”

Maybe this is why Paul tells us to pray instead of worrying.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all He’s done. Then, you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand.” Philippians 4:6-7

July 1 “There is no heaven that has a little corner of hell in it.” Chambers.

These next posts will aim for my utmost in a devotional time with the Great God and Father. Oswald and Biddy Chambers will be in on the journey.

God is committed to making me pure, holy, fully His; I, on the other hand have a knack for sullying my words, my attitude, and yes, my mind. My work is to participate with the Holy Spirit who convicts me of wrong, empowers me to overcome by emptying my life of my own goodness and effort, and embraces me in the journey. Give in to His nudge toward right today; it matters. 

I spend more time chasing and affirming (and asking others to affirm) the identity and calling I want. Maybe this week, I will ask God to let me be identified as His, for Him, and all about Him. Let me align my calling and my identity with what Jesus sees in me – Himself living through me, and me living in Him.

My friend Chip Holt taught at North Beach Vineyard this Sunday about our identity aligning with what God says and wants. He used words that resonate today: our identity needs to be compatible with our Creator and Boss. We’ve all tried to plug in the wrong adapter to the wrong device; we have had apps and software that weren’t compatible with our OS. 

God’s calling and how we identify compatibly are vastly diverse. If I’m stuck on an elevator with someone, I give him the big one: a husband who loves his wife, a father with three kids who’s proud of each, a teacher at the university level, a writer, and on and on. But if I don’t really do these things my identity has compatibility issues. Or if I identify as a Christian as well as a scammer or embezzler, everyone gets it – that’s incompatible.

Ask today, am I pushing my identity on God or am I running after what He says I am?

“May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.” Philippians 1:11 (NLT)