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Here's to Christ Jesus in Whom there is no shame!

The shame of Adam, at the knowledge of his sin, caste a shadow of shame over all and closed the door to constant communion with our Heavenly Father. However, in Jesus, the Door is now wide open for who so ever will come in. There is no more joyful endeavor than reaching into one's own heart and digging out those closeted and stinking skeletons that have long been rotting in the dark. There is no more gratifying splendor than watching them as the darkness of death begins to fade and fall away and those old bones begin to sparkle in the Light of the Son. It is a spectacle so grand as to erase the desire to again play in the dark, an activity that was once delicious delight (even though by it, more skeletons to hide are created)soon loses its appeal in comparison to the easy kinship with God that is experienced in Christ. This is the true testimony of the power of Jesus Christ in the life of a woman or a man.

Beware of those among the religious crowd. Those who toil beneath heavy burdens, building their prideful and ever illusive testimonies to the holiness of man. Don't fall to the attack of Satan in a religious disguise of light that seeks to cover the true testimony of Jesus in your life by recasting upon it a shadow of religious shame. They will take from you your freedom; and time in their religious prison includes forced labor. An impossible labor of daily beating your flesh into a shape that can't by the effort of mankind be maintained. They'll point toward your checkered past and tell you that a holy man or woman must never speak of such a past again! They themselves however, being special holy men, will never let you forget that past that they've coaxed you into hiding again. By the power of shame, truly their own shame, that shadow they have caste over you, they will control your every move. They'll tell you what to wear, what to listen to, what to watch, and who is a suitable friend. They'll fill your time with special meetings that glorify a special holy few as in you, they hope to be fully formed. They will glory in your flesh when they trot you before the crowd as they relish in how sharp you look, with your hair cut right, and in your new and proper attire. When they come for you, don't walk, run! For in them, the lion crouches at the door.

If this warning comes too late, don't fret. Remember your first love? Jesus? Ah, in Him there is no shame and as you caste off the shackles of religious shame and add them to the bony pile, there is renewed joy sweetened by heightened appreciation of the Power that is His Name. This Name that actually becomes, Jesus in you and in me. No shadow of shame can dwell long over a heart in which dwells, Jesus. Such a heart can't help but break forth in lasting refrain, "Jesus!" and at the sound of His Name, all deadly shadows, including the shadow of religious shame, are vanquished.

Here's to Jesus and His precious, Holy Name! May this new year hasten the coming day of the fullness of His Kingdom, when all will be drawn into the fullness of Life that is only Jesus. In that day, all men and women will know true freedom as with us, He once again drinks from the fruit of the vine in a celebration that will never end. On that day, the shadow of Death, in all of its deceptive forms, will be wholly forgotten.

Cheers to, Jesus and God's blessings to all!