Books! Books! Books!

I've discovered some of my favorite authors on complete accident.

Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry. The husband and I cruised to Alaska, and on the ship they had a "take one/leave one" book bin in the ship library. I'd read everything I'd packed by day five of our trip, so I thought I'd dig through there. People who travel to Alaska ought to have interesting reading material just by default (yielding to the adventurer's spirit and all of that jazz). I pulled this book out of the pile and chose it because it featured a big old truck on the cover. Reading this book reminded me how ignorant I am. If you ever need a good kick in the intellectual pants, pick up a Perry book. He's so clever and well written (although it feels more like "well spoken") and down to earth that it's humbling. It was a slow read written in a series of essays about his every day life and the people in it.

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. I show this book to people for the first time and their eyes roll back in their heads. It's like an old fashioned hard backed Encyclopedia Britannica. I hand it to anyone, everyone and say, "Just promise me that you'll go fifty pages before bailing out." That's because I know that it takes fifty pages to get deep enough in the quicksand of Kvothe's story that you're a goner. And the sequel Wise Man's Fears that's longer by almost a hundred pages? Well, the waiting list to borrow it out of my high school classroom is five deep and counting. And I think it exceeded the first. Rothfuss has done the unthinkable: he has made fantasy writing accessible to everyone, even people who pooh-pooh fantasy as the red-headed step child of the book store.

So, if anyone has good summer reads to recommend, I'm game.

Disaster: An Essay to the Christian Community

Matthew 25:36-40 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

In light of the unprecedented tornadoes that swept through my home state of Alabama, I would be remiss in not commenting on the state of our present suffering. My home and our community were spared, but all around us are people without homes, without power, without water, without hope. Their homes and communities and schools are literally flattened to the ground. There is so much to do that it's sort of like standing in the middle of a war zone without a clear clue as to what to do first or how to start. These are our neighbors, our friends, our people. We must do something.

Here are a few harsh truths that Christians need to remember when helping those in overwhelming need:.

People who have just lost everything don't give one rip about your God. They need to mourn. They need to wail. They need to grieve. Then, they need practical things: food, clothing, water, shelter. Once those needs are met, a person will listen to everything else you have to say. But until that moment when hope is restored, you are confirming their deepest hidden suspicion that it is your God of Love who has visited this wrath directly on their home, their family. Keep your mouth shut until the Holy Spirit moves you to speak.

We need to work WITH other organizations not against them. God didn't come to Earth for a hostile take over. Don't do anything to damage God's reputation by showing your rear when you don't get your way. Be at peace with all men. Cooperate. Share your toys. Be patient and kind even if you don't feel like it.

Keep in mind when you are talking to people who have been hurt, that human beings are very attached to their physical belongings. Having them ripped away is like losing a limb--not something that can be easily replaced. And even if you get the very best, most expensive prosthetic, it's not the same as having YOUR arm back. Not the same at all. Never forget that you aren't replacing someone's belongings. You are allowing them the ability to start over, but nothing will ever change the loss. Be sensitive to this issue.

And finally, expect lost people you encounter in a community to behave like lost people. Do not hold them to your standards of behavior. Love them anyway. That's what God did for you before you were saved. It's the  very least you can do for others.

Love does indeed cover a multitude of sins. Thank God!

Psalm 119:50 My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

Stage Fright

Lord, help me, I get so sick before speaking engagements.

There was a time when I printed out my standard material, had fun, enjoyed the crowd and the process, just told the stories, had a big time (as did everyone else), oh, and collected my check.

What would I give for it to be that way again just one time...

Now I wallow in my indecision--panic about the topics. I roll around in the muck my fear generates. I taste it on the back of my tongue. Roll it around in my mouth like bad medicine, dreading the swallow. My stomach is sour. My head aching. My nerves on edge. I smell panic on me like truth.

I avoid giving a commitment to speak until the last possible minute, allowing churches to back out on their invitation and hire someone else. I don't respond to emails in a timely manner. I let the phone go to voicemail. I keep trying to avoid, but it's always the same. No, we haven't even thought of asking anyone else. No, we've still got the date. No, we understand how busy you must be and totally understand.

Drat.

I'm not sure what changed between the Then and the Now unless it's that I actually have something important to say. Something that I hesitate to call 'from God', but it definitely didn't come from me. And the responsibility of that is like drowning slowly in thick paste. I am sick for days before the date. I struggle with preparing my material, waiting until the last minute to put anything on paper, sometimes not until the day of the event. I don't prepare or primp or gather my thoughts. There's nothing to gather. I am empty except for this feeling of dread.

God, what will you  have me say? God, will these people be angry when I tell them the truth? God, will anyone listen? God, what if I say it wrong? God, I am so inadequate. God, can I say 'no, my schedule is full' next time? God, please, please.

I  know I'm supposed to be crying, 'send me, I'll go', but I really want to put my head under the covers and hide. I am spoiled and difficult and not at all a willing servant. I am completely unprepared and inadequate. I can only guess why God keeps putting opportunities in front of me.

So, I find myself going to another church tonight that will be full of nice women expecting a nice evening of nicely decorated tables and catered food. They think I will take the podium wearing my nice clothes and tell a nice story about nice things that God has done in my life. When I rare back and unload both barrels full of righteous anger about all of the useless nice things we are doing as Christians, myself at the top of the list of offenders, I wonder if this is what they expected when they called me. It isn't nice at all. It's humbling. And horrifying. And  messy. And full of unmet expectations and toe-stomping truth.

I liked my little 'pocket god' much better when He let me just be Nice. Now we have a real relationship fraught with all sorts of demands and expectations, much like the ones I have with my husband and my children. He's moved me, taught me, lifted me, protected me, and trusted me. Now He's ready for the payout. So, I'll take the stage and will tell the truth as I understand it from the Word of God. The beauty of that is then I'm free of the sickness. I can again get back to the basics of daily living and not crumble under the weight of these unbelievably heavy expectations.

Until next Saturday when I'm due at the next church.

Lord, Jesus, all of you and none of me.

Duran Duran

Andy, Simon, Nick, John, Roger

I had the most amazing experience this month. When I was 13 years old, just on the cusp of turning 14, my father loaded me and three of my dearest friends in the world into our family Buick and drove us from Urbana, Illionis to the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago to see The First Band I Loved: Duran Duran. Holly Herman, Erika Laberteaux, and Shannon Archey were in on that collective experience. (Funny the things that never leave you.)

We played their albums over and over on the way to the show (an hour and a half one way), then fought through crowds of screaming pubescent girls to sit through a terrible opening act and a brilliant concert by The First Band I Loved.


Being that band, they were sort of like my first kiss. Something that you hold all other experiences up to in measurement. They maintain the standard of what makes a good show. I had every album, every 12 inch and 45 they produced, posters covering every single part of wall space in my bedroom (and that was considerable) including the ceiling. I owned band clothing, a fedora, magazines, and pictures. I followed them religiously in teen magazines and interviews. I watched MTV on a continuum hoping, praying at the television altar in our living room that one of their videos would come on. I waited for world premieres until all hours of the night and made scrapbooks. I was obsessed in the wonderful, powerful way that only a 13-yr-old girl can be obsessed.

John on bass, Roger on drums, Simon on lead vocal

My father was career military, so we moved every 18 months or so. I can't recall most of my elementary school friends at all and have no collective experience of being in the same schools with the same classmates my whole life. I constantly re-invented myself with each move. Molding, remaking to fit the new "in" and in order to make friends as quickly as possible so that I wouldn't be alone. (One of the reasons I was always such a great and proficient liar pre-salvation.)

My first crush--John Taylor

Holly is the one friend I never lost touch with in all of these years. The only one. We wrote letters, called, sent packages. She even flew from Hawaii one summer and visited me in Alabama. We are still friends to this day. So, when I saw that Duran Duran was going on a small, intimate tour of the US to support their new album (All You Need is Now, which is brilliant, by the by), I immediately set things in motion to go see D2 with Holly. (This is quite possibly my version of a mid-life crisis.)

John, Roger, Simon, and Nick on keyboards

Last Tuesday I flew to Denver and stayed with my girlfriend and her son, Alex, who were too much fun. We ate good food, talked for hours, drove into the mountains, and generally had a great time. But the completely surreal highlight of the trip was standing the small Ogden Theater and watching The Boys take the stage. Smoke, lights, small stage, perfect view, standing directly behind a girl who had been at the exact same show we had been at in Chicago 28 years ago (and had on the T-Shirt to prove it), holding Holly's hand as the band took the stage. Nick first, Roger, John, Simon (and that new guy who took Andy's place whatever his name is), it was absolutely like seeing an old flame again. Bizarre and strange and wonderful all at the same moment. It took my breath away. Then as the first sounds of Planet Earth came through the speakers I was back in that moment so clearly. What a gift to be able to hold a memory like that so close in one's hand! I was thirteen again with the entire future sprawled out in front of me as so much unexplored territory. Never yet kissed or hurt or broken or failed, but completely in love nonetheless.

The show was great; the Boys were On; the music was tight; the experience lacked nothing. And holding on to Holly's hand while the band played is one of my most precious memories, because we are connected by our experiences. By our friendship. By 28 years of continuous knowing. And Duran Duran is definitely the soundtrack to that entire portion of my life. I am so amazingly blessed by the people I have loved and been loved by that it defies explanation. I've failed more people than I can possibly count, owe apologies, and will continue to fall short, but I've loved madly, deeply, passionately, and I'm all the better for it. I hope that the soundtrack of your life is as rich as mine has been.

Not Preaching, but a Second Cousin by Marriage

I was invited to speak at North Shelby Baptist Church a couple of months ago. Basically, I took the stage and yelled at them about service (or lack thereof) for 45 minutes, and now I can't stop getting phone calls to come yell at people in this church or that church. Evidently, people want me to yell at their women too, which is all fine and good, but there's this one little problem.

See, I've been doing this Andy Stanley study about getting more margin in my professional life--having more time to devote to the things that I am actually good at instead of flailing around doing things that don't add to my personal "bottom line". In order to do this, I've been saying 'no' a whole lot more, and clearing my personal time out to have more rest. This is not going along with the whole "come yell at our people" offers that keep pouring in.
What's a girl to do?

One thing has become abundantly clear to me in this life: Christian people are tired of having their ears tickled. They are tired of eating pablum. They want to dive deep in the Word and hear the truth of God, even if it's personally uncomfortably. Now, it doesn't hurt that I'm sort of funny while yelling. (Folks will tolerate a whole bunch of truth if it's funny and said in love.)

So, if you wanna come hear me say some stuff this spring or summer (God only know why you'd want to do that, but here it is anyway):

April 30th Alabaster First Baptist Tablescapes "Seasoned for the Journey".205-663-3531 for tickets

May 7th Bluff Park United Methodist Church Tablescapes and Ladies Day Out "Friendship" 205-822-0910 tickets are $15.00 and include worship, snacks, workshops, and luncheon. Party starts at 8:30 with table viewing (I speak during lunch at 11:30)

May 9th Open Door Baptist, Tuscaloosa 6:00 p.m. Banquet  "Following God's Will" 205-349-1580 for tickets
 
July 23rd First Baptist Sylacauga, brunch event. More info to come.

NYC Johnsonstyle

I couldn't wait for the Wonder Twins to get old enough for us to do some special Mother/Daughter things. I took my girls to NYC for Spring Break. The Husband stayed home with the other two Shorties (he has his own superhero cape and costume). While we were gallivanting in the Big City, he took The Little Flower and The Number One Son to McWane Science Center and to the B'ham Zoo by himself. (Whose your daddy? Eh? I know who my man is.)

We did everything in four days that one can squeeze in the Big Apple

Day one: we left for the airport at 3:30 a.m. Our flight was at  6:00 a.m. First for the girls, so they were super jacked up about it. We flew to Baltimore and then stayed on the plane while they added and subtracted some folks. At 11:00 a.m. we were out of the plane and getting into our first taxi ride. We checked into The Manhattan Hotel at Times Square. Excellent view, excellent room, excellent staff. The first thing the girls wanted to do was EAT! We were starved and hunted up some real NYC food. Some food items that made the short list to try in New York:

Pizza, brisket, deli, potato pancakes, cheesecake, hot dogs from a street vendor, and something decidedly foreign.

First to check off of the list was pizza. We went into three places until we found people speaking Italian, then ordered. Crispy, cheesy, perfect!

We wandered around Times Square for awhile, because, let's face it, it's pretty awe inspiring. Like a shrine to over indulgence and neon.

Then it was time for Madame Toussads' wax museum. Too cool. The Wonder Twins were a little bummed that the Justin Bieber figure wasn't quite ready yet, but there was still a ton to see. It was a major awakening about how little my kids know about pop culture (thank goodness). I had to explain who over 3/4ths of the folks were. :-)



Chinatown



We shopped and people watched and gawked just like the tourists we were. It was fabulous. One of the big highlights of the trip was being able to swim indoors, since we're bad ready for it to be summer in Alabama. I miss the sun and the pool! That was a little side treat. We ate at the Carnegie Deli, which was an experience in and of itself. Unlike here, were you get a whole table to yourself, they just keep filling the table up with people. So, we ended up eating with four people at our table who weren't "with" us. That freaked the girls out. Then went back to the hotel by 8:00 to swim and relax for our next big day.



Day two: we got up early and headed to Ellis Island on the Circle Line Ferry. We also go to go by the Statue of Liberty. We opted not to get out. I didn't want to hear the complaining up 208 stairs, plus the place was packed. So, we cruised on by and got out at the museum. The girls were not impressed. Evidently, a three-story building full of M&Ms was enough of a testimony to freedom and living the American Dream. Who needs dusty luggage and passenger logs?









After Ellis Island, we went shopping again (because we have our priorities in complete order). We went to The American Girl store, Aeropostle, and China Town. This was the biggest culture shock of the trip. We got out of the subway at Canal Street and were for several minutes the only white Americans in sight. All of the signs are in Chinese, unidentifiable foods are everywhere, and the smell is overwhelming. We were there to buy chopsticks, slippers, umbrellas, and of course, knock-off purses. Since the garbage is brought out the front of the buildings for hauling away, the girls were convinced we were in one big back alley. Someone asked if I felt even remotely guilty about "robbing" from Louis Vuitton when I bought me and Elise purses. Um, no, since I'm not stupid enough to pay what Louis wants for a real purse in the first place. It's money he never would have had either way. Hard to feel guilty about that.



Subway ride



After China Town, it was time to go back to the hotel and clean up for the first of two Broadway shows. We had tickets for Wicked, so we ate at Friday's (excuse me, I know it's a chain, but E-1 informed me that it was our only chance to eat at the "world's largest Friday's" so we HAD to eat there.) :-) This was actually a really enjoyable dining experience with lots of laughing and joking and being generally goofy. (Johnsons)

The girls and I ADORED Wicked. I've seen it before, but it's just so clever. Highly recommend. Here we are under the sign holding our goody bag from the show. Everyone had to have t-shirts. Naturally. After Wicked, we caught a cab to the Empire State Building at 11:00 p.m. I wanted the girls to have something special at night--our towns shut down at 9:00 p.m., so I wanted them to have the experience of going and doing at this odd time of night. Every night we ate dessert after our adventure to talk about what we saw and did and discuss what we would want to show The Little Flower and The Number One Son if they had the opportunity to come next time. Dessert at Lindy's:

Day three: we woke up early and headed to the Museum of Natural History (see previous posts). You know what happened there. After that deal, we ate a hot dog on the street (a highlight of the trip for the girls). This cracked me up, but think it over--you can't buy food on the street in Jemison. Well, except for boiled peanuts and watermelons. Not exactly the same.

They girls declared this the best meal of the trip. ha! Think of the money I could have saved! We traveled on the subway again to Rockefeller Center and up to the Top of the Rock. Since we did the view from the Empire State Building at night, I wanted one amazing view during the day. We are up on the viewing deck and I'm pointing out buildings and giving this running account about what we are looking at when Elise asks, "So, where is the Eifle Tower?" Um, Paris? Ha!

We ate dinner that night in the middle of Times Square at the Roxy Diner. Neat building and good food. I ordered a Reuben, one of the twins stuck with the foot long hotdog and the Fashionista ordered a Cobb salad the size of her entire midsection.

After supper, we went to see The Addams' Family. Really cute. A little unnecessary language, but cute. The girls laughed and laughed. After this show, we got frozen yogurt on the street at midnight. (Vacation tradition in Johnsonville.)

What a lovely trip. I am so thankful that I was able to take my girls to do something that they will remember for the rest of their lives! I hope we have the opportunity to travel and go and enjoy this amazing creation together! I can't wait for everyone to get old enough for our next big adventure: a family mission trip! The Little Flower has to mature just a little more for that program. Or maybe I have to mature a little more for that program.

In the Beginning...

I took the Wonder Twins to New York City for four days and three nights on a girls trip sort of a deal. Some fun!  I'm sure that I have tons to blog about from the trip, but I want to focus on the most profound moment of my trip. 

We went to the American Museum of Natural History.

Really amazing place. Life-sized dinosaurs (or a good guesstimate of what some really imaginative folks think they might have looked like anyway). Dioramas full of African wildlife and Asian peoples. It was really interesting. (I especially liked the 12 huge living-room-sized sections on Muslims that discussed how much they love peace (while subjecting their women to unspeakable hardships and cruelties). It was really something compared to that one walk-in-closet-sized area on Christianity that mostly included things like the Crusades. Really good stuff.)

(You can probably see where this whole post is going now.)

To really get the flavor of this post, you have to understand that as evangelical Christians, I believe in a literal creation. God literally spoke the world into creation. Whatever science wants to call that process--dark matter and fusion, stars--whatever label you want to give it, God still did it from beginning to ending.

Genesis 1:1-5 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day."

That sums it up the beginning nicely. Now, we can discuss whether a "day" is a year or a thousand or a billion, but it's just conversation since the most important part is the portion where God CREATED. Scientists believe it started with Dark Matter, but they have no idea what was before Dark Matter. Huh. I know something more than all of those brainiacs, and I'm a gonna share it wit youse guys.

JOHN 1: 1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

They have this techological wonder in the musuem--a big globe thingy that depicts some of the very things that the Bible says He did. They said that the Earth was covered by water and then the land rose up right there in living color while showing it on a globe-shaped tv screen. Well, I'll be dogged!

Genesis 1:6-10 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”  So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.  And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.  God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good."


Okay, so fast forward to the section of the Museum of Natural History where they have this amazing planetarium program in, get this, The Big Bang Theater. First, sounds filthy. Second, smells like propaganda. But it's supposed to be a Big Whoop, so we discuss it for a second or two and go in to see what the World is teaching on the creation of the universe. I tell the girls that after the show we'll sit and have a snack and discuss what they are going to teach us about the origins of life and how it matches up with The Word. (Everything in my universe has to be put up against the measuring stick of God's Word to see if it's truth or not. Everything.)

The show starts. Whoopie Goldberg is narrating. (That really explains everything, and I could stop this post right there.) The basic idea they are promoting is that Dark Matter pulled stuff into itself and the sun is in charge of everything in our solar system. According to the program, the sun made the solar system. Doesn't exactly match up with my account...

Genesis 1: 14-19 "And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.  God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth,  to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.  And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day."

Whoopie went on to tell the small children in the audience that a billion gazillion years from now the sun will supernova and we'll all die, but it won't matter by then because, and I quote, "We will have evolved or left the planet by then." Now, they actually got that part right, which might have been the only accurate thing in the entire show, because we will all be "evolved" or rather "changed" by then for sure. We won't be on the old Earth anymore at any rate.

So, all during this 20 minute really impressive program with lights and stuff blowing up and space, Elise and Elaina, who are on either side of me keep poking me and stage whispering, "But, Mom, they are forgetting stuff. But, Mom, where's the part about God? But Mom, why are they saying that the sun made us?" You get the idea. At the very end of the show, the lights came up and Elaina says in a really loud voice. "Hey! Wait one minute! That can't be the end. They didn't even tell about how God made everything yet." (To say I was proud is a gross understatement.)

At the end of the movie, we were dumped out of the theater into the dinosaur part of the museum.

Elise turned to me and said, "Well, they got that part completely wrong." Then she stopped dead still, looked all around taking in the "dinosaur bones" and "rock layers", eyes getting wider and wider, and she said in this completely incredulous, really loud stage whisper, "I wonder how much of the rest of this stuff is a fake too. This is a complete FAKE OUT! I bet this whole museum is just made up stuff!"

Huh.

I quote Randy Alcorn from Lord Foulgrin's Letters, "Look at these scientists who stare into deep space through their instruments and deny what they gaze upon was created. These same fools would think a man insane if he pointed to a painting of a waterfall or a flower and said, 'No one actually painted that--the globs of paint that have always existed formed themesleves on the canvas over milions of years.'"

But that's exactly what happened in that planetarium. Did I mention that there was a two-hour wait for our show? And that thousands and thousands of people were in the museum?

Alcorn: "They teach their children they're the accidental products of time, chance, and natural forces, formed in some primordial soup, different only in degree--not in kind--from trees, tunas, and porcupines. Then--you have to love it--these same adults ask with a straight face why these children don't respect human life, their own or others'.  They type the recipe and lay the ingredients on the counter and they marvel when their children make the cake and eat it."

As I spoke to my daughters about what God's Word teaches us and what that musuem was selling as truth and the enormous gulf between the two, all I could think was, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." How many people are going to die and go to Hell because no one stood up and said this is a complete fake out?

So, here we go. At least now you can't say no one ever told you:

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin's control.
- Admit that you are a sinner.

Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."
Sin has an ending. It results in death. We all face physical death, which is a result of sin. But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people (those who have never accepted Jesus as Savior) will be in torment forever. It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain.
- Understand that you deserve death for your sin.

Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Salvation is a free gift from God to you! You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
- Ask God to forgive you and save you.

Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life. He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us!

-Give your life to God... His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of being a slave to sin. His love is what saves you -- not religion, or church membership. God loves you!

Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10 "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

- If you know that God is knocking on your heart's door, ask Him to come into your heart.

Jesus said, Revelation 3:20a "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him..."
- Is Jesus knocking on your heart's door?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.