Obey

CHAPTER ONE
Just the Facts
I am not a pastor or a priest. I am not a theologian. The only time I set foot on the grounds of a seminary was in 12th grade, when I took a girlfriend to see a cool look-out spot that happened to be located on one. Someone left nails under my tires. I don’t blame them. But still, I never went back.
I took a religion class in my freshman year of college, but I can’t even recall the name of the instructor, never mind the content of the class. And, apart from a confirmation class I kind of took, premarital counseling (twice), and my kids’ first communion classes, I have received precious little formal instruction about God. Sure, I have attended church for years, listened to countless sermons, and taken part in numerous Bible studies along the way. But it wasn’t these activities that brought me to where I am today – a place where I felt compelled to write this book. Rather, it was three other sources of light, founts of knowledge that had been under my nose all along, but somehow I never seemed to notice. The first is Jesus. The second is the Scriptures. And the third is simply life itself.
How these interact decide everything.
These three are by no means unique to me. Everyone has a life. Everyone can have Jesus. And if anyone is struggling to find Him, there is a convenient map in the Scriptures, and an eager guide in the Holy Spirit, waiting and available to all. Chances are you think you knew that, and I am not going to share with you anything new. Perhaps you’ve heard it all before and maybe you’re thinking this is a waste of your time. If so, you are the very person I wrote this book for. You are me. I once believed I knew just about everything, or at least everything important that there is to know. But on closer examination of my life in the light Jesus provides, I suddenly found I was, well, actually rather clueless. Let me ask you this.
Have you looked closely at what Jesus said? I mean really closely?
Have you measured it against your life?
Have you really come to know Him?
In the most basic sense?
Don’t answer that question just yet. Because, if you are anything like me, you may find the truth is something very different than what you expected. And it will set you free.
*****
As I mentioned earlier, there are three sources of truth I drew upon for this book; Jesus, the Scriptures, and life. On the subject of life, I could probably write a volume on the lessons I have learned solely through mistakes and poor judgment. But I’ll spare you. Two salient facts, however, are that I spent 10 years as a journalist followed by15 more as a lawyer. So my “professional” life largely consists of two careers that some might say are most in need of Biblical correction. Perhaps so, but the larger point is this. Just as Jesus made use of a ragtag and dubious set of fishermen, tax collectors, and a guy totally out to get Him, He also makes use of us, whomever we are and however many warts we bear. Yes, even the members of the media. And yes, even lawyers. And He makes use of us as He finds us. Or so He did with me.
You see, while I don’t have years of training in how the Bible came to be, all the circumstances and all the history, I do have more than 20 years of experience in doing a few things that help one get to the truth; namely finding the facts, analyzing the facts, putting together the story, and making the argument. And when I finally sat down with the greatest set of facts there is, the Gospel, I found something rather startling. Many Christians don’t seem to believe it. We don’t really buy His word. Or at least not completely.
Where am I coming from with this?
It started in 2003, when my wife Amy and I founded our ministry, 25:40, upon a firm calling from God to help suffering children in southern Africa. After nine years of trying to balance God’s call with a career (and largely failing at it), I found myself challenged by the Lord to stop being half-hearted about His purpose for me. So I took a leave of absence from my law practice to focus my time on building the capacity of 25:40, with the hope that we would improve our chances of meeting the ever-growing needs of the children we were serving.
“Feed my lambs” was the only direction I can point to, and “ask and it shall be given unto you” was the sole rationale. That story is a whole book in and of itself (captured partly in our book Give125), but the bottom line is that the Lord told me that until I trust in Him and His call for my life, until I put all the things I felt so responsible for on His altar and into His care, so that I might free myself to care for those He holds equally dear, I would never know Him.
It was during that leave of absence when I found myself on a mission in South Africa, alone with His Word. Just His Word. The red letters of Jesus. I took them in. I studied them. I prayed over them. And I realized in those moments both the enormity and forthrightness of the truth of Jesus. He tells it like it is, really. Just the facts.