CHRIST WAS BORN AGAIN

IN THE BARNYARD OF MY HEART!

I faked a drowning death in 1969. My family had a funeral service for me. There was no one to tell me what to do. I didn’t have to worry about what people thought of me. I didn’t go to church, so religious people and hypocrites didn’t have any influence on my thinking. And besides that...I had prayed my last prayer. I told God good-bye.

I picked a name I liked and another birthdate and birth place. From then on, I made up hundreds of lies about myself and my past.

The carnival became my playground for a while, as did the Casino, the night clubs and the streets.

I had a new bible with only one scripture verse in it:

"Thou shalt not get caught!"

And I didn’t For three years I lived out the prodigal life of a downright sinner. And then Jesus came into my heart and life. He talked me into going back to my family and back into the church world.

I got around those lily white saints who didn’t smoke, cuss or chew and I felt terrible. What was I doing - going to church with these kinds of people? My life wasn’t cleaned up yet and I felt condemned. I felt dirty, bad and guilty. I didn’t like feeling that way - but I couldn’t change just because I wanted to or because somebody else told me to. It’s not that easy for a bear to become a lamb and it seemed almost impossible for a liar to become completely honest.

Besides that, immorality had polluted my mind and stained my conscience. My thoughts were sometimes filthy and vile. Even in church, curse words and evil thoughts would erupt in my mind. I felt terrible for being the kind of a person I was.

And then along came Christmas

One day while I was praying, a Christmas song drifted my way.

SWEET HEAD!"

A King was being born, but He chose not to be born in a castle or even in a nice house. He chose to be born in a stable among the animals.

have in common?

I thought about that stable. Sure, there was nice clean hay there. But where there is hay, there are donkeys and horses and cows. And wherever the animals go - they plop their mess.

Everybody knows about the reality of what barnyards are like. When people put a manger scene in front of a church, they are not going to hire someone to make it look realistic. They are going to make it look ice and sweet.

But, God is not religious. He deals with reality - every day! Every single day! He knows every dirty thing that is done in secret.

And He knew me before He consented to live in me. I never did stand up and say curse words in church...but Jesus heard me say them to others. And He knew when I was thinking them, because His Spirit was inside of me. He had His ears on. He knew what was going on.

When I began running the video tape of evil imaginations, Jesus was there. He saw the details of my fantasies. He saw how nasty I could really be in my mind. So why was He sticking around? Why didn’t He just jump ship and leave me in my sins?

Oh, religious people are not going to like to hear me talking about COWPIES AND THE BIRTH OF THEIR SAVIOR—ALL IN THE SAME BREATH! They don’t want me to desecrate their clean scenes of Christmas. They want to believe that Jesus came down to a spotless manger and lived in an antiseptic environment until He died.

But that’s not true and they know it. Even if the manger was clean - the true facts are - my mind wasn’t! Jesus came to live in the manger of my heart - and in the barnyard of my experiences. Was I proud of that? No. It made me feel ashamed of myself. I would picture Jesus going with me wherever I went - and I would look up to see what He thought of what I was doing. He would show up in the middle of my fantasies and I would shut the video scenes off and begin to apologize.

My New Hit Song!

One entire Christmas season. I went everywhere singing a home-made song about: "Christ being born in a manger - IN THE MANGER OF MY HEART!" I’m not a songwriter, but I would love for someone else to take this theme and turn it into a ‘hit tune’. And if someone could come up with a good poem, that would at least be a start.

There are thousands of people who would identify with those words and be encouraged to keep following Jesus in spite of some of their bad ways.

I’m sharing this story with you now, so that you won’t drop out of church or give up and quit trying - just because you can’t seem to change yourself. you’ll never know how many nasty thoughts I took to church with me. You don’t have to tell me the details of your own sinfulness and perversions.

But, you do need to know that JESUS REALLY IS YOUR ONLY HOPE!

So don’t kick him out of the barn just because you can’t keep the stable clean.

The Bible says we are "A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT". That means we are a home for God. Thinking of that, I would say,

"Holy Spirit - I’m your temple, your house. Look at this place! It’s a mess! You had better get it cleaned up. And then I would cry out: "clean up your temple, Holy Spirit! Clean up your temple!"

And you know what...? He did!

Oh sure, little demons come around and track up the place once in a while. But I submit myself to Jesus and start chasing them away. I whisper a rebuke against them and ask God to thunder the same thing against them from the heavens.

I don’t want to see them turning this temple into a barn again. Just because Jesus was born in a barn doesn’t mean I have to make Him live like a pig!

in the Church?

That’s fine. He will just go to prison instead. He will find some hungry person who is willing to give Him a place to stay.

Jesus isn’t particular. He will come live with a whore or a prostitute, (if she is willing to accept Him into her life.)

He will tag along with a psychopath or a pervert, (if they are willing to let Him do His thing in their lives.) He’s not religious! He’s God! He paid for your sins on the cross, but He’s willing to pay again, by living with you on a daily basis. No, He doesn’t want you to keep your sins forever - but how can the janitor clean the building if ho one gives him a key to the place?

How can a mechanic fix your car if you won’t let him touch it? How can a dentist clean your teeth if you won’t open your mouth? How can a doctor keep you alive if you won’t let him operate on you?

You don’t have to heal yourself before you go to the doctor. You call the doctor to do the things you can’t do for yourself.

My wife was feeling pretty bad one day, so I called a lady to come clean house for me. When my wife found out what I had done, she rushed around trying to clean up the place. Why? So the lady wouldn’t see how messy it was. Does that sound silly? It’s no sillier than you trying to save yourself when God already sent somebody to do that for you.

You don’t have to clean yourself up to come to Jesus. You come to Jesus so He can clean you up. Think about it. Jesus isn’t a church. He’s a Savior!