{"product_id":"because-jesus-loves-you-no-matter-what","title":"Because Jesus Loves You. No. Matter. What.","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eThis is a true story.\u003cbr\u003eNot the best story. Not the worst story.\u003cbr\u003eBut, \u003cb\u003eit’s my story\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eIt was 2004, and, for the first time in many years, I was attending Creation alone. Creation is a 4-day festival at Agape Farms in central Pennsylvania. Everyone camps and enjoys headliner music performers and speakers who bring the Good News. My wife Beth and our girls couldn’t join me, and since I wasn’t involved in a youth group (like Beth and I had been for so many years), I took off for a couple of days on my own. I had a fabulous time with the teaching, the small groups, and certainly the music. I volunteered and one of my privileged duties was the prayer tent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eStanding in the prayer tent, sweat rolling, I met some of the Creation staff who oversee the prayer portion of the ministry. Boy, I’ll tell you, teens and adults, touched by the teaching, praying, and singing, came to the tent for prayer. Their needs were many and their issues were serious. I witnessed firsthand just how powerful an event like Creation is.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eOne memorable young lady, about 17 years old, came in with her friend. She was clearly distraught. Her makeup was running with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her friend, choking back sobs, was holding on to her. She appeared weak and weighed down by the stress of whatever she was coming to off-load. At this time, many others came into the tent, so I was the only one who was not directly involved in prayer with anyone at that moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAs soon I saw the young lady heading toward me I realized, “Whoa! Whatever is causing these tears is serious, and maybe it should be a female to console her when she is in such an emotional state.” It turned out that I had made an accurate assessment. Thankfully, as the young woman came close, I saw one of the staff ladies and got her attention and waved her over. This woman was trained and experienced, so I backed off and just prayed for God’s help. I learned later that, sure enough, the young girl had been abused for years. I didn’t get details but was grateful that she acquired help and was referred to some qualified folks for follow-up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAfter a while, the tent cleared out and slowed down. I began chatting with Julio, one of the other gentleman who was a volunteer there. I told him about the young woman and we prayed for her. He also saw some very important decisions being made and lives changed by God that day. We marveled at how God was moving among the tens of thousands of people there on that hillside near Mt. Union, PA. God was healing physical ailments and emotional problems—breaking through to folks who had previously resisted the love and friendship of Jesus. Much of this happened through ordinary people like us serving an extraordinary God.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eDuring our conversation, Julio and I talked about how God had moved in our own lives. I said, “Well, for me, it was how I got saved.” He asked me to tell him the story, so I did.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHere’s my story:\u003c\/b\u003e After I got divorced, I went from being a problem drinker to a full-fledged alcoholic. My life was going right down the drain to a point where my bosses required me to attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings with a co-worker as my sponsor. I tried. Sort of.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI am in favor of AA now, but I sure wasn’t then. I didn’t warm up to it at all. I understood what they meant by a “higher power.” It was code for God, and I wasn’t going anywhere near a church then. And how dare they suggest that I was powerless over alcohol—that my life had become unmanageable. Like most addicted people, I was in denial, which sounded a little like, “I got control of this. I can quit anytime I want.” And I didn’t want all of the religious mumbo jumbo. Well, it turned out that later I realized that I did need all of that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eIn the midst of my downward spiral, I met Beth. One day I was talking to her (flirting?) and she told me that she was having a tough time because she was recently divorced. Bingo! In all honesty, I viewed this as an opportunity—like an open door for me to pursue my interest in her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAlthough I liked her a lot, she didn’t care for me at all. She was a church-goer. I hated church. She was a teetotaler. I was a drunk. She sang in a choir. I sang next to the juke box. You get the picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI gave the old line, “Oh no. That’s got to be tough. I understand because I’ve been divorced and remember the pain. But, it’s important to have a friend who can commiserate with you. Call me because I’d love to talk to you and be a good listener during this tough time.” (A little “I’ll be your Huckleberry” pick-up strategy!)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThen she says, “Thanks, but I already have someone I talk to.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eMy thought was, “Who is this guy she is talking to?” She didn’t seem like the type of woman who would have a guy as a close confidant—sharing intimate feelings. What’s going on here?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, I asked, “Who’s this guy you are talking to?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAnd she says, “Jesus.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eJust like that. Matter-of-factly. Right out in the open. It wasn’t Sunday, and we weren’t in church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWell, I say, “What?!” because I’m flabbergasted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAnd she says, “Yes. Jesus is my best friend, and I talk to him anytime I want to.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eMy jaw dropped. I didn’t know how to respond. I’d never heard anyone ever say anything like that—even though I’d been to church as a child and teen a thousand times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThen she just smiled and walked away!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThe thought of having Jesus as my best friend just kept repeating—like a song in my head. That nagging thought was in my mind relentlessly from July through August and into the beginning of September before it died down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThis idea of friendship with Jesus intrigued me. A lot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWhen November rolled around, I was still out partying with my buddies. Getting plastered most weekends and even on a few weekdays.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eOn Saturday mornings, I worked part time as a disc jockey at a radio station. One day a local pastor, John Shimko, heard me on the air being a total idiot—saying inappropriate things. I’d been up all night drinking the night before, and I rolled into work directly from an all-night booze party. Pastor Shimko was on his way to the radio station to do his on-air ten-minute devotion. He brought me out a cup of coffee and some donuts. We chatted for a while. He wasn’t beating me over the head with a Bible, or telling me how terrible I was acting on the radio. He didn’t say anything condemning whatsoever. Instead, he related to me. It turned out we both enjoyed the singer John Denver.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAfter he finished up his on-air devotion, just as he was leaving the station, he said, “Hey, you know, we’d love to have you join us over at the Baptist church tomorrow morning at 11:00.” And so I said out loud, “Yea, maybe I’ll stop in there.” But in my mind, I’m thinking, “There is no way I’m going to that Baptist church because there’s a bunch of Jesus freaks who go there.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSaturday night rolled around, so I went out partying again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSunday morning I met my buddies at 10:00 at the Hillcrest Restaurant for breakfast. And, as alcoholics often do, we laughed about how drunk and stupid we were the night before. We thought it was a riot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAt about 10 minutes to eleven, it was time for me to leave the restaurant. Walking out of the Hillcrest, my hand on the front door (it was one of those glass and aluminum doors typical for a storefront), I looked diagonally across the intersection and spotted the Baptist church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eNow, this may sound very strange, but somehow, all of sudden, the front door of the restaurant became the front door of the church. I didn’t remember, or have a conscious awareness, of walking over to the church. I was just like there—inside the Baptist church. I don’t know how to explain it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI opened the door. I walked in. I was in a fog. A few people greeted me. And then I saw a gentleman that I knew from high school who said, “Hey Jim. Glad to see you here.” Just about then the fog lifted. And I asked myself, “Did I just walk into the Baptist church?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eNow that I’m in there, and someone I knew saw me, I couldn’t just run out. He ushered me down to a seat in the pew. I’d never been in a Baptist church before. I had been in other protestant churches for weddings and such, but not for a Sunday service.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, this was all foreign to me. I had no clue what was going on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAfter a bit, Pastor Shimko went to the pulpit to deliver his message for the morning. He looked over and saw me. I could tell by the look on his face that he was as surprised to see me sitting there as I was to be there!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eHe was scheduled to give a message on Noah. And, of course, the sermon title was listed in the bulletin. And then he said to the congregation, “Folks, I was originally going to speak on Noah this morning. I’ve worked hard to prepare this message. But I think I’ll save it for next week. Today I want to talk about something else. Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 3.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI didn’t have any idea where the Gospel of John was in the Bible. I didn’t even know that there was a Bible in the pew in front of me. This little old lady, about 80 years old, picked up a Bible and opened it up to John. She handed it to me and pointed to chapter 3. I thought, “Ok, what am I supposed to do with this?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, the pastor started teaching from John 3:3, about being born again. He worked his way to John 3:16, which I had never heard before. I know that sounds bizarre, especially for someone like me who had spent many a Sunday in church as a kid. I guess I never paid any attention to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eJohn 3:16 and 17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThis was quite foreign to me because my understanding of God and Jesus was rather different than what he was sharing. I thought God was mad at me. Obviously, I was wrong. It was amazing to learn that Jesus loved me, no matter what.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWow. This was eye-opening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003ePastor Shimko also explained that Jesus did not complicate the issue of a relationship with Him. Jesus made it clear in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAt the end of the sermon Pastor Shimko told everybody to bow their head and close their eyes. So we did, because you do whatever the pastor says, right? Stand up, sit down, kneel. So I had my head bowed and eyes closed while he gave an invitation. Now, I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he used phrases common within the walls of the church, but uncommon for folks like me outside the church. I didn’t really know what he was talking about. He was wanting people to respond by raising their hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThere was this kind of uncomfortable silence. As I sat there, I suspected that he was talking to me because everyone else, of the sixty elderly people in the church, were regulars. But I didn’t know exactly what he meant. A few more seconds passed and he gave the invitation a second time. Again, another set of “Christianese” phrases I didn’t get. Only, now I was sure he was talking to me.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI began to ponder that I was pretty interested in John 3:16 \u0026amp; 17. Maybe, I ought to raise my hand because he assured us that he would not embarrass anyone. He just wanted to pray for whoever made this indication. So I thought this might be ok. But, I also got this thought (that I now believe was planted there by Satan), “Don’t you dare raise your hand because if you do, then you’re going to have quit having fun.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eLet’s be clear, the worldly “fun” I was having was disastrous and self-destructive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, I didn’t raise my hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThankfully, Pastor Shimko didn’t give up. He knew that he’d hooked one and wanted to reel me in. The fish closest to the boat fights the hardest. That was me. Only this time when he gave the invitation, he didn’t use the “Christianese” vocabulary. This time, he said, “I know that there is someone here today who wants Jesus as their best friend.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWhoa. Instantaneously, my brain went back to Beth telling me about Jesus being her best friend. Nothing Satan said or did could stop me. I shot my hand up because I was hungry to have Jesus as my best friend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI want to tell you that God was victorious!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eBy the way, later on I looked up this idea of Jesus being my friend in the Bible, and it was there! “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, as I was telling this story to Julio, tears gathered in his eyes (and mine too). We rejoiced about God’s victory in my life. I ask him, “What about you?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eHe said, “My story is a little weird. I was given the message of salvation by Mary.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI said, “Who?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eHe said, “You know, Mary, the mother of Jesus.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI said, “You’ve got to tell this story, Julio.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eHe and his wife were from New York City. They decided to move to south Jersey about 30 miles east of Philly. The first Sunday, they were looking for a church to attend. They saw this nice-looking church building and decided to give it a try. During the service the pastor announced that there was going to be a special program that night. A traveling theater group was coming to put on a musical drama called \u003ci\u003e“Mary: the story of Jesus through His mother’s eyes.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eJulio’s wife, Maria, had always held Mary in high regard, so they decided to return that evening to see the play.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThey loved the music, the story, and the way Mary was presented as an ordinary girl who was obedient to God’s calling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eJulio says, “Basically, Mary told the whole gospel in one play.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAs he told me the story I began to tear up. The more he told, the more I cried. I’m sure he was thinking that this was a much more powerful story than he ever imagined.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThen he says, “At the end of the play, a man got up and encouraged the people in the audience to make the decision to make Jesus their best friend. Please talk to a pastor, priest, or minister that you know or come up here to talk to folks that will pray with you about your decision.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, Julio and Maria go up after the play and chatted with one of the pastors of the church. After some prayer, they gave their lives to Christ.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eBy this time I was just bawling. Tears were streaming down my face.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“Now,” he said, “Whenever anyone asks me, ‘Who led you to the Lord?’, I tell them Jesus’ mother Mary.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI could barely breathe, much less speak, at that point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eFinally, I told him, “Julio that was so powerful. Let me tell you why. That was us.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eJulio asks, “What do you mean?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“That ‘Mary’ was my wife, Beth; and I was the one who came up after the performance to give the invitation.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWell, between cheering and crying and hugging and high-fiving each other, the people around us probably thought the Holy Spirit sure got a hold of those two dudes or we were going crazy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eI was so appreciative that God allowed this “chance meeting” to happen. Clearly God arranged this. With 100,000 people at Creation Festival, I just happened to bump into a guy we ministered to several years prior? Beth and I both needed to know about Julio. During the ten years out on the road in ministry, we would show up to perform Mary, and then a few hours later, we would pack up and hustle off to the next place. We rarely received feedback, so we didn’t know the impact we were having on God’s kingdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eBut Julio confirmed that day that if we are obedient to what God wants us to do, if we get the good news out there, even if it’s not perfect, the Holy Spirit will take that seed and bring it to life. It will multiply.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eMany years ago, Beth’s best friend, Jesus, became my best friend. I never would have imagined that Beth and I would have a traveling ministry where I was inviting people to put their trust in Jesus as a perfect, faithful friend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eAs proof that Jesus loves you, read Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eSo, can we get serious for a minute? You’ve read my story. What’s your story going to be?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWould you like to have Jesus as your best friend? If so, you need to decide to fall in love with Jesus.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e…because\u003cbr\u003eJesus loves YOU.\u003cbr\u003eNO. MATTER. 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