"Open up" vs. "Download"

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SYNCing a device is much riskier than downloading because SYNCing switches off all the protections. Our device is at the mercy of whatever we SYNC it with. Data and settings that we have worked hard to acquire and organize can be wiped out in a flash if we open up our device to SYNC with the wrong info source.

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As you consider the teachings of Jesus, do you see them as an app store from which people may download as they wish, depending how religious or how Christian they want to try to be? Lots of people look at his teachings that way.

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Lots of people in Jesus's day did too. They wanted to go halfway with him, downloading as much of his teaching as would fit into their default approach to life. He shut them all out.

 

Jesus wants us to SYNC, not download. That means trusting him enough to open ourselves to SYNC with him and his campaign. Switch our protections off. Let him overwrite any of our default settings or any settings we worked so hard to get just the way we wanted them.

 

That is what "Open up to Jesus" means. The rest of the SYNC site will help you discover what your life looks like when you do that. It will look a little different for each of us, so don't expect us to tell you exactly how it will look in your case. 

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"Open up" vs. "Be good"

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Jesus's main teaching was about opening up to God's restorative power. His message was not what many people think, "Be loving. Be good. Be kind. Etc." His actual message was,

"God is taking over now, bringing his influence to earth in a new way. Open up to that! Forget whatever else you were doing and align yourself with the campaign plan that God is unfolding." 

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Of course, if you do open up to that healing and transforming power, you do end up being more loving, good, and kind, but you realize that you got there because you opened up, not because you tried harder. His Spirit and his influence do what we can't do no matter how hard we try.

 

So the whole point of life is to align or SYNC with his power, to welcome his encroachment instead of seeing it as a threat.

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His encroaching power will restore us to the best we ever were and carry us on to become more than we could ever have become without it. His power plugs us into his campaign, and that opens up a whole new life for us.

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"Open up" vs. "Submit because I say so"

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We are not forced to open up. God has set his goal as winning our hearts like a young man wins the heart of his bride, not forcing us to submit the way a rapist forces his victim. God wants our love not merely our acquiescence. His aim is to fulfill us not to use us or to show off how he can dominate us.

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As we open up freely to him and let the Spirit of Jesus do a friendly takeover of our lives, we get swept up into a new kind of living. God SYNCs us with his grand plan to restore the world to what it was meant to be and can be. He restores us and draws us into his restoration of the world. 

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This powerfully draws every good bone in our bodies to Jesus. Since his campaign is so good, why would we not want to throw ourselves totally open to his Spirit and participate in the restoration he is carrying out? This isn't mere compliance. This is eagerly joining the best thing in the world!

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