Part 2: The Truth

I will start off by saying that I absolutely did NOT want to write this post; and as always God had other plans. Let just say writing this has humbled me in ways only God can….

“But there is a spirit within people, the breath of the Almighty God within them, that makes them wise” ~Job 32:8
God’s spirit, His breath, is within me. It is what fills every inch of my heart. It is what gives me the ability to love and serve and most of all it is what speaks through me (or writes). My source of strength and wisdom comes from the Almighty God. I totally understand what Corrie Ten Boom is felling when she said, “Sometimes I get a headache from the heat of the halo that people put around my head”. People continue to believe that somehow everything I do is something out of my own strength or ability. Or that every convicting blog I write is from my own wisdom.

Well…let me tell you what the REAL Heidi Johnson is like. She absolutely HATE’s when things do not go the way she plans them in her head. Everyday she struggle with these verses…
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails ~Proverbs 19:21

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD ~Isaiah 55:8

“Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will” ~Mark 14:36

The REAL Heidi Johnson would rather wake up early to go to Starbucks and depend on her grande peppermint mocha to give her the energy to get through the day instead of waking up early to do a morning devotion to trust and depend on Jesus to give her all the energy and strength she will need.

The REAL Heidi Johnson knows that there are TONS of innocent children that are dying due to sever malnutrition and eating out of dumpsters. Children who don’t know the Gospel or that they have a Heavenly Father that so deeply loves them. Children who are unloved and are longing for a forever family. Children that have to grow up way to soon in order to take care of their family because their parents died of AIDs. Children who are forced into sexual slavery or child soldiers...

At the end of the day, even though she know all of this, the REAL Heidi Johnson wonders if these children are really worth leaving a comfortable lifestyle, a life where she has every worldly thing going for her, a life where she is living the “American Dream”. These children’s situations break her heart but she is too selfish to give up her “perfect” worldly life to pour out love and share the Gospel with these children. But, it does sound nice to talk about giving up her life for them. However, deep down she knows she doesn’t have the courage to actually do it.

The REAL Heidi Johnson is lazy, selfish, and has a massive ego. The good news is that Jesus Christ IN Heidi Johnson is the total opposite of all of these things. Jesus in Heidi Johnson knows what to do with her shortcomings and sins. She knows when you confess them to God, Jesus Christ washes them in HIS Blood that He shed on the cross. They are forever cast into the deepest sea. And Heidi Johnson gets to stand before God as white as snow.
Jesus in Heidi Johnson stays up all night to pray on behalf of the atheist man she met at Starbucks; begging God for a second chance to get to meet him again and share the Gospel with him. Jesus in Heidi Johnson can say and write things that even leave her in awe and inspired. Jesus in Heidi Johnson gives her the confidence to trust that God works everything out for the good of those who love Him and that she doesn’t need to worry or even make plans.
Jesus in Heidi Johnson reminds her that there is energy and strength that He longs to fill her with that no sugary $4 mocha can ever give her. Jesus in Heidi Johnson knows that it doesn’t matter if everyone thinks she’s crazy and has lost her mind because she is always posting “Jesus Blogs”. Jesus in Heidi Johnson tells her that her life is only completely full, joyful and fulfilled when she gives it up for the least in the world. And finally Jesus in Heidi Johnson tells her that in her weakness, she is made strong through Him.

My friends, hear me out, we are ALL sinners who need to understand the most powerful and beautiful love that was EVER shown on this earth. Jesus Christ died to lift us out of this horrible, ugly and dead life of sin, selfishness, and ego and instead into His wonderful LIGHT!

For you are a chosen people, belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light ~1 Peter 2:9

The bible calls the REAL Heidi Johnson self or flesh…
“Jesus said to them, if anyone wants to be my follower, he must deny self, pick up his cross daily and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake *(like say…to love on broken, unloved children)*, you will save it. ~Luke 9:23-24 (the * part added by me)

This 5 part series is called Answering the call to embark on the Set Apart Adventure. The Set Apart Adventure is following Jesus. Honestly, it is the adventure of a lifetime. But Luke 9:23-24 says that in order to answer this call and start embarking on this adventure we MUST deny self (in my case the REAL Heidi Johnson), pick up my cross daily (notice that it says daily…this is a conscious decision we must make every morning) and only then can we follow Jesus and embark on the Adventure.

“God rescued me from the grave and now my life is filled with LIGHT” ~Job 33:28

God rescued my soul from an eternal death and has given me the gift (seriously, it’s a gift…I did absolutely nothing to deserve it) of a forever life with Him in Heaven. Not only that but He has saved me from living a “dead” life on earth filled with darkness and only focused on self. He instead has OVERFLOWED my life with His wonderful light! This light comes from Jesus living in your heart. He teaches you how to truly be alive! Jesus wants to live in your heart. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” He says, “If anyone opens the door, I’ll come in”.

Will you open the door of your heart and let Jesus come in, change you, and fill you with His wonderful light??