"Here He comes!"
"He must be The One who is to come."
"He will rescue us from the Romans!"

Hours later...

"Who does he think he is?"
"I could have sold those for lots of money!!"
"Who gave him the right to ruin everything like this??"

This was the attitude of the people the day Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey - just a week before his crucifixion. As he entered, his welcome party was boisterous and excited. They laid their coats and big palm leaves to give him the best red carpet welcome that they could afford. They shouted his praises. In that moment, he was their hero.

Everyone knew he was coming to conquer their enemy. Yet they were confused about which enemy he came to defeat. They thought he had come to oust the Roman soldiers from their midst. This is why they were so confused and offended when he immediately entered the temple turning over money tables and cracking his whip at business men (literally!) and yelling, "My Father's house is called The House of Prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!" He was furious that sin had so overrun their lives that even The House of Prayer was merely another business venue to them.

Yes, he had come to vanquish the foe. But this foe was much more oppressive than the Romans. He had come to conquer sin.

So often in our lives, we get excited about the King of Glory entering our lives, but are so offended when he begins to shine the light of truth on our own sin. We want the privileges of being known as God's child, but it too much for him to ask us to clean up and give him 100% of our hearts.

We are a culture so used to popularity charts. We have the Grammys, the Emmys, the Oscars, the Golden Globe, the Golden Boot, the Golden Compass. Everywhere we go, we want to know who is the #1, the chart topper, the first. And we do that in our own lives too. If we are really spiritual, we might give Jesus first place in our lives. He can be #1. But you only have to have 51% popularity to be #1. Jesus wants 100%. He wants to be your everything. He wants you to hold NOTHING back.

So I challenge you, when you so gladly accept the Jesus who comes to conquer, expect a Jesus who comes to cleanse...because he wants to conquer your sin.

With the color palette of my imagination
I expressively begin to paint
Four walls
Four cold walls.
There are no lights on, so everything is dark.
No light is present but that which creeps through
One solitary window in the corner.
Enough light is present to make out the vague forms
Of a few objects in the room.

Four walls.
Four cold walls.
Four cold, empty walls.
Four cold, empty, looming walls.
They remind me how lonely the room is.
They remind me how lonely the figure in the middle is.

He is curled up on the floor,
Gripped by fear,
Thrashed by his own selfishness,
Sucked of life by depression.
He is merely a skeleton of what he used to be.
The stretched skin draped across his ribs
Reveal how thin he has been pulled
By the demands of an image;
An unrealistic image he daily projects upon himself.

This scraggly silhouette raises his shamed head.
He casts his weary gaze to
The corner of the darkened room:
The corner with the only shed of light.
He makes out a small box
Occupying the only illuminated piece of the floor.

During the next few hours,
He slowly makes his way across the floor
To reach the box.
Upon his arrival, he stares at its golden luster.
Until now, he knew nothing of its incredible worth.
This, this golden box could afford him anything.
Everything.
Healing.
Freedom.
Anything he ever wanted to buy.
This box,
His faithful companion in this miserable room
Was the best thing that ever happened to him.
He had all he needed....

Now if only he could find a way out

So he could experience its worth...

 

 

Jesus, even when the lights are turned off,

You are just as shiny.

Even though nothing in the room reflects you,

You are just as brilliant.

 

Even when it's cold in this room,

You are just as valuable.

No shred of heat could compare

To your infinite worth.

 

Even when the walls are caving in,

Even though I am terrified,

Even in the midst of my brokenness,

You are just as safe.

 

 "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 43:5

I wrote this letter to remind myself what my selfish nature can and will do to me if I cease to submit my whole being to Christ everyday. Though it is incredibly detailed and shocking and harsh, it might actually be truer than you are giving your own sin nature credit for. I encourage you to read this as if it were the monster inside of you that is writing to you:

Dear ______,

I am the monster inside of you;

I am here to prey upon your soul.

If you cease to fight me,

I will take you under and punish you to no end. 

I want to eat you alive...slowly.

I hate you with all that I am.

I want to ruin your whole life,

Inside and out. 

If you even give me the slightest pathway into your life,

This is what I will do:

I will destroy your marriage. 

Your wife will learn to resent you. 

She will put all her hopes and dreams in you only to get them smashed and dashed to the ground. 

She will be disappointed in you. 

She will give you up. 

She will even leave you. 

I can already picture her resting happily in the arms of another man...a man who can control himself. 

She will forget about you as quickly as she can. 

I want to destroy your ministry. 

I will let you speak in front of many just so they can find out later that you're a total fake. 

Every kid you speak to will live up to your lousy example. 

No guy will grow up as a pure man. All the girls will think they have to be "more beautiful" because they aren't enough - even to you. 

I will ruin their lives because of you!

But most of all, I want to keep you groveling in the sewage tanks of shame and despair. Every time you build a shred of confidence, I will dash you back to the ground lest you rise to enjoy intimacy with the Hated King. 

Your spiritual demise is my greatest prize. I will suck every last drop of spiritual life out of your veins. 

You will never get close to Him because one thing will always stand in the way: YOU!

I want desperately to destroy every single part of your very existence. 

I hate you so much!

Sincerely,

The Monster Inside of You

P.S. I'm already dreaming of incredibly gory things for your own children. I can't wait!