What a friend we have in Jesus ...

Yesterday, I drove down to David Balzer's office for my first GodTalk production meeting. It's been a pleasure working with David: his missional vision, media expertise, and confident humility is right on. (Check out the latest entry in David's blog, where he tells you how he feels about getting naked.) After our production meeting, I had to fill out one of those obigatory forms that the GodTalk people make you complete when you work for them. I'd been putting it off for weeks, so I finally forced myself to do it.

Of course, the form asked the obligatory question: "Please describe how you came to know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. How would you describe your relationship with Jesus Christ today?" I copied and pasted in some bits from an earlier post on this blog. Then, I added the following:

Since 1981 ... my relationship with Jesus has been just that -- a relationship. As such, it has involved times of miscommunication, frustration, and disappointment. However, at a particular low point in my life about 15 years ago, I realized Jesus was the best friend I've ever had (sorry for the cliche), and that my troubled times were problems of my own making and/or those around me, not his doing. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants, but friends". I trust in his friendship, and I value that friendship. That means I step into unknown ventures with confidence in Jesus, but I do so with the desire to prove myself a faithful friend to him.

As it turns out, today's Gospel reading was the passage that inspired my comments. Here's an excerpt:

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. -- John 15.15,16

Are you merely working for Jesus, toiling away at your "Christian duty"? Jesus offers us friendship, not servitude. It makes a world of a difference ... and it makes a different world.

From the Rock 'n' Roll Preacher's sermon notes:

"When I changed my name back to Prince, I went into an intense study of the bible with my friend Larry Graham. It gave me a sense of the world that I didn't have before. ... Any musician who learns everything about their instrument will only know who they are if they spend the time to know God. That's why I don't like to talk about gear. People will go out and buy that stuff thinking it's going to make them sound like me, and it's not where it's at." Prince, in an interview with Guitar Player magazine (July 2004).