A funny thing happened to me after I came to the Lord. I had hung out with
hookers, bikers, guys who sold drugs, guys who used drugs, thieves, and others
of high repute. But in some strange way we trusted each other, as if we knew
what each was capable of being trusted with, and not to push the envelope with
that person any further. One guy in particular was a charmer with the women and
a best friend, so I did well when with him, while others only saw he was too
much the party animal and brought the cops...stay away from him. I didn’t, and
we never did see a cop. It seemed each person had a reputation that within it a
trust factor would evolve. Then there were the “good people,” and if you were
referred to as good people, you were like an A lister to go to parties, and a
higher class of people, at least that was the rumor. I had many friends who
were good people, I learned it meant they accepted everything and anything, and
couldn’t be trusted. Just the opposite of my peer group. Somehow being trendy
doesn’t make you trustworthy, but a common trait of sin and fear of jail does.
I still don’t get that one...
But an even stranger thing happened after I was saved. Not one of my old
friends, good or bad people, wanted to hang with me. I became the guy reading
the Bible, and they started to stay away. I was told that I couldn’t be trusted
now that I was a Bible boy, that somehow because my position in Christ had
changed, it made me less desirable to my old friends. I had once been
threatening, now I was a threat to them. I stopped doing drugs and using
people, and my social status dropped. My new set of real morals in my old world
made me untrustworthy, I still don’t get that one. But what they failed to see
was my new peer group of real Christians, not the church type who hated us, was
made up of people like them and me. The only difference was Jesus, and now we
had life. We didn’t need drugs, alcohol, or free sex, strangely we changed and
didn’t even desire those things anymore. So they became suspicious of me and my
friends, they kept an eye on us hoping we would fail, so they could jump on and
remind us that religion doesn’t work. Not knowing that Jesus came to prove that
religion doesn’t work.....if only they had listened....
But one man who did listen after 38 years of non-walking did when he met
Jesus. Jesus simply told him to pickup your mat and walk. Something for 38
years he had not been able to do. And he did, and he walked as Jesus said to
do. No great theological battle, not a question of faith, but of obedience and
trust, transferring his faith to Christ, in Christ and doing it. He was changed
and it showed. It wasn’t got rehab and build your muscles up, it was “stand and
walk.” The power and strength is there. And in telling him to take up his mat
or pallet, he tossed it away, he wouldn’t need it again. No “I might be weak
again, I’ll just hang onto it,” or other excuses to slip back, he burned his
bridge behind him, so he couldn’t go back, he wouldn’t need to. Maybe that was
why I wasn’t to be trusted, I had burned the bridge, I didn’t want to go back,
and the spirit guided me so I wouldn’t and took away the desire to go back. I
couldn’t be trusted because my morals had become a threat to their lifestyle, it
wasn’t me, it was the spirit working on them. I had risen up and walked, and
still walk with Jesus 43 years later. No pallet needed!
When Jesus tells you to walk, he expects you to do it. You are healed, you
don’t need the crutches of the world to hold you up. Jesus is not a 12 step
plan where next week you can do this, only after you complete the previous step,
his is two step, stand and walk. Take a stand for him by your commitment, and
show your commitment by your walk. Only he will give you the strength to walk
everyday. As for your old friends, keep your eyes on Jesus and not them or
yourself. They will be looking for you to fail, Jesus is looking for you to
succeed. And you can do all things in him when he strengthens you. From bikers
to hookers to druggies to businessmen to good people, Jesus is saving them all.
Even church types. But you cannot walk with him until you first stand. Get rid
of your pallet, you will never need it again. And when your doubting friends
tell you “you’ll be back,” remind them in love “so will Jesus.” And if they
hated him the first time, they really won’t like him the second. But you
will.....for when you meet Jesus, just like the man who couldn’t walk, at once
you will be healed. And saved. Trust me on this one, better yet, trust Jesus.
Or are you still looking both ways when crossing a one way street.....
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com