Given Much

Dear Sammy,

What a cliffhanger!
I can hardly wait to read the rest.

Thank you, dear son in the Spirit.

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to your blog. Thank you for coming into my life and for allowing God to use you to teach me so very much. Thank you for the incredible gifts you have offered to your hundreds of readers -- openness, clarity, honesty, vulnerability. Thank you for seeking to align your mind and heart with the truth that resides in Christ.

Thank you for seeking to encourage hearts through your story and struggle. Thank you for praying that your story might "impact an audience that is in need of Christ's love and compassion."

You are right.
You are so right.

People need Christ -- His unfailing love and His great compassion. They need to sense His weeping over you as well as His rejoicing over you. They need to hear His gracious voice calling you out of the darkness and into the light of His face. They need to see how that 7-year old boy who met Jesus while attending "church, church camps, VBS, and all kinds of other events" has become this amazing man who has been given much for the cause of Christ.

Yes.
Given much.
You have been given much.

And "from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Lk 12:48).

You have been given much -- you like so many things, as you said so eloquently. The desires you have carried within are not yours to hoard but to release so that others may catch a whiff of Christ's fragrance in you.

So, remember that persecutions will come. There will be days you will wish that you could rescind your disclosure. There will be moments you will be tempted to hide.

Don't.
Stay the course.
Be strengthened and be not dismayed. The Lord your God is with you.

Others may be mad.
Others may be glad.
Others may be proud of you.
Yet others may be ashamed of you.

But I am well pleased in you, my son in the Spirit . . .
. . . because I, too, am learning that the Father is well pleased in His Son -- Jesus, the One who took away your sins and mine and that of all who believe in Him.