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In church this morning, we sang an old chorus that I love. “I have decided to follow Jesus,” it begins. Each of the three choruses ends with this resolve: “No turning back, no turning back.”
Jesus knew that many would turn back, and he encouraged us to endure to the end: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12, 13).
“The love of most.” Goodness.
My husband and daughters, and now their children, the five old enough to make such a commitment, all love Jesus dearly and have gladly accepted him as their Lord and Savior. But I tell you, if they someday lose their minds and harden their hearts—may it never be!—I pray I’ll still profess the words of that final chorus: “Though none go with me, still I will follow; No turning back, no turning back.”
There are several things that would help us to “remain in him,” as John put it. One is to make a conscious effort to remember when we first gave our hearts to Jesus.
Do you recall it? For me, it was long ago, but I remember coming down that aisle to him as though it were yesterday. I remember, as a child of 10, sobbing out that Good Confession: “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I could hardly stop crying. And it wasn’t from sadness or some sort of ecstasy. It is almost beyond explaining, though you may know what I mean. Maybe I cried because my child’s heart knew this was the most important statement I would ever make. This acknowledgement was the key to living. I knew it.
And I knew, too, that because of that confession, I was his and he was mine. I didn’t know, of course, all that would mean, but I cried because I knew, intuitively, it would mean everything. And so it has.
I think it would help us finish if we would make a practice of going to the privacy of our rooms and making that Good Confession again, and in those moments recommit ourselves to all it means: “I believe that you are the Christ.”
And this table, too, helps us remain in him. Jesus knew it would. We are to recall his sacrifice—his blood that was shed, his body that was given for us: “Do this,” he said, “in remembrance of me.”
We eat and we drink and we say, “No turning back, no turning back.”
Jackina Stark has written two books that were released this year by Bethany House (www.bethanyhouse.com): Tender Grace and Things Worth Remembering.
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