[1 John Series 5] Our Love and LifeSample

Jesus Christ came for your heart

We all love the rodeo in Houston. This is how the rodeo begins: Everybody comes out in a little parade and circles the arena, carrying flags. Everybody is dressed really nice. The horses are dressed all pretty, with bejeweled horse tack, looking perfect.

Imagine, for just a second, that one of those horses at the beginning of the rodeo—with the sparkles, the pretty saddle, the mane and the tail brushed and everything—is a horse from the bareback riding competition. You can’t get on it. It looks beautiful, but the heart of the horse is one that will not take authority. 

In our lives, when we lie to ourselves, we become like that horse. We have everything happening on the exterior when people are watching and listening, but our heart is really like a bareback bronco. We don’t want anybody to tell us what to do. We don’t want God to tell us what to do. We don’t want to be useful. We want to do our own thing. That is the difference between the horses in the opening parade and the bareback riding horse. The other horses are useful; the bronco is bucking authority. When we don’t do what we say, nor walk according to who we are, we can be lying to ourselves even if we are moral.

Rewind in American history, to a time way back when everybody, supposedly, was a Christian. Remember those days? Everybody was a Christian. But that really wasn’t true, was it? Everybody just kept it together a little bit better, and maybe they were more apt to go to church. But the issue is not the exterior, the issue is the heart. The great news is that Jesus Christ came to change your heart. When your heart changes, it changes who you are. Then you are not lying to God anymore. You are not lying to others anymore. You are not lying to yourself. You are walking with God, and He puts you on a journey of growth, so that what you say and what you do are consistent. I have been on that journey for over 30 years. Even though I am still not perfect, I am a lot further along than when I started.

Where am I in that journey of growth with the Lord? Do my words and actions show that I am increasingly useful to the Lord, or is my heart still rebellious?