Stnking Woodpeckers - Don't Be Irritated with Jesus Christ

Stinking woodpeckers. They don’t even have any respect for the church (the church building to be more precise). And of all the walls to peck on they have to pick the one my office is on. No sooner do I sit down to work and the pecking starts. So I bang on my metal desk, yell “Get out of here!” But these acorn woodpeckers are stubborn, inflexible, a one track mind kind of bird, so I also have to get up and open my window and rattle the blinds. Then I watch to see if a bird actually flies away. I can’t tell you how often this little routine replayed itself the last couple of weeks. At this point I just want wring those little hammer-beaks’ necks. I‘ve invited them to take a look at the baptistery but I think they deciphered my intentions.Many feel about Jesus Christ as I do about woodpeckers. They are annoyed the moment they hear his name. They roll their eyes (if not outwardly then inwardly) and shift into a shooing off routine.Granted, Jesus Christ is invasive. He will peck holes into your world view, your philosophy, your spirituality, and your religion. He will expose your sinfulness and mortality.  He will ask you to follow him, to deny yourself, to devote yourself to live for his kingdom. He will demand of you to live a life of faith and love. He will relentlessly remind you that he is the Son of God, God in the flesh, who holds in his hands life, judgment, forgiveness, and salvation. He wants you to remember that he died to pay for your sins, that he conquered sin and death, and that he will return. He makes no excuse for telling you the truth that he alone can reconcile you with God, that he alone can keep your feet out of hell, and he alone is the way to heaven.Although I hope not, maybe your thinking “peck, peck, peck!” Maybe you’re kicking yourself for reading this far, for not chasing off this pesky preacher earlier. “These relentless Christians, always putting Jesus into my face.”You’re not the first person who wanted to get rid of Christ. Someone beat you to it. They thought a cross would silence him, a tomb would put him far out of sight and out of mind. They thought their lives were just fine without him. But God didn’t think so, because we are not just fine without him, we perish without him, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. …He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" John 3:16, 36 (NASB).If someone kept knocking on house because it is on fire would you be annoyed with them? Maybe, at least until you realized your house was on fire. Jesus doesn’t knock on your door for the heck of it, to irritate you, or to annoy you, but because your house is on fire and ignoring him will cost you your life.Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NIV) Then he (Jesus Christ) said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” Luke 9:23-26 (NIV, parenthesis mine) To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans