You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. Psalm 139:3 TLB
If the love of God is universal? And all inclusive? Then I have to believe a “blue couch moment” comes to all of us at some time in our lives.
What is a blue couch moment?
It is the intersection where you, and the God who created you, can meet up face-to-face and heart-to-heart.
My blue couch…
Was actually a very large log arranged with other logs around a campground fire pit.
Right there, at Camp Tehama, I heard about a Jesus who knew me and wanted to come into my heart to live.
That was quite a concept for a little seven year old!
(God had always been presented to me in very scary terms.)
But, this Jesus?
This One who loved me?
I wanted to know Him.
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
I think most people avoid Jesus simply because they have some distorted image of Him in their heads.
They “see Him” as scary, or dictatorial, or harsh, and full of condemnation for them.
In other words, an unreal image of someone, who is to be dreaded or feared–and definitely, not to be trusted.
Perhaps that describes you.
Maybe you look at the mess the world is in, or the harsh events of your life and wonder, “How could these things be if God truly loves me?”
(I used to think just like that.)
Then I met the REAL Jesus…
The Jesus from the Bible.
The One who knew me inside out–and instead of being grossed out?
He loved the real me, just for me–just like I was.
Well… you should get to know Him, because I am certain–He wants to get to know you.
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them… Matthew 14:14 KJV
Google defines compassion as: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
Compassion and the Blue Couch Jesus
In his book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund describes for us the compassion of this Blue Couch Jesus:
Traveling from town to town, “he saw the crowds, [and] he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless” (Matt. 9:36). So he teaches them, and he heals their diseases (Matt. 9:35) Simply seeing the helplessness of the throngs, pity ignites…
Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ’s mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by his enemies’ testimony, the “friend of sinners” (Luke 7:34)…
The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it…
Consider Jesus. In Levitical categories, he is the cleanest person to ever walk the face of the earth. He was the Clean One. Whatever horrors cause us to cringe–we who are naturally unclean and fallen–would cause Jesus to cringe all the more. We cannot fathom the sheer purity, holiness, cleanness, of his mind and heart. The simplicity, the innocence, the loveliness.
And what did he do when he saw the unclean? What was his first impulse when he came across prostitutes and lepers? He moved toward them. Pity flooded his heart, the longing of true compassion. He spent time with them. He touched them. We all can testify to the humaneness of touch. A warm hug does something warm words of greeting alone cannot. But there is something deeper in Christ’s touch of compassion. He was reversing the Jewish system. When Jesus, the Clean One, touched an unclean sinner, Christ did not become unclean. The sinner became clean.
This is the Jesus I know.
He wants to know you, too.
He knows everything about you–everything you’ve ever done…
And yet, still He asks you,
“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.” Matthew 11:28-30 TPT
‘For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God! Ezekiel 36:26-28 The Message
Women With Destiny 