You are loved by Jesus
Before this is a brand, before it is a single shirt or hoodie, it is a message. And the message is the most important thing we will ever say to you: you are loved by Jesus.
Not the cleaned-up version of you. Not the you that has it all together. The real you, on your worst day, with every failure and every fear. He saw all of it, and He chose the cross anyway. He died for your sins and rose again on the third day, and because the tomb is empty, death does not get the last word over your life.
This is not a reward for the good. It is a gift for the undeserving. You do not earn it. You receive it. That is the whole scandal of grace, and it is the ground everything else here stands on.
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
He is preparing a place for you
He did not save you and leave you. The same Jesus who went to the cross told His friends He was going somewhere on their behalf, to get a place ready.
There is a room with your name on it in the Father's house. The story does not end at the grave or at the edge of this hard world. It ends at a table, in a home, with a Father who has been waiting for you the whole time.
“My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John 14:2-3
He sent the Holy Spirit to be with you
And He did not leave you to wait alone. Before He ascended, Jesus promised another Helper, the Holy Spirit, to live in us and walk with us and never leave.
So you are not white-knuckling your faith on your own strength. The very presence of God is with you, comforting you, teaching you, reminding you of everything Jesus said. When you feel weak, you are not abandoned. You are indwelt.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. He lives with you and will be in you.”
John 14:16-17
The Great Commission
Here is the turn. A love this big was never meant to stop with you. The last thing Jesus said before He went to the Father was not a suggestion. It was a sending.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
Witnesses. Not experts, not the polished, not the qualified. Witnesses, people who simply tell what they have seen and known to be true. It starts right where you are (your Jerusalem), then your community (Judea), then the people you might rather avoid (Samaria), and on to the ends of the earth. No one is outside the reach of this.
That is the mission. We want everyone to know what we know: that He died for them, that He rose, that He is preparing a place, that His Spirit is near. Every garment we make is a quiet witness. Every dollar of the ten percent we give is a witness with feet. We are building an army of walking billboards for the gospel, pointing to Jesus everywhere we go.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.Matthew 28:20
A Word to Sit With
The Fast He Chooses
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?”
Isaiah 58:6-7
God is not impressed with religious performance that avoids the neighbor. Isaiah makes this searingly clear. The fast God desires is not about empty stomachs. It is about empty prisons, open doors, and filled tables.
The people in Isaiah's day were practicing religion faithfully and confused about why God wasn't responding. The answer was not more religious practice. It was a different kind of obedience, one that cost them something in the direction of the poor.
The covenant we make is not a spiritual discipline for our own improvement. It is a commitment to the kind of service God actually responds to. When the church loosens chains and opens doors, heaven opens too.
What chains does someone in your neighborhood need loosened today? It may not be dramatic. It may be simply a meal, a ride, a listening ear, a door that stays open.
Today's Prayer
God of justice, forgive us for the religion that makes us feel righteous without making anyone else free. Show us the chains you want us to loosen today. Give us courage to choose the fast you have chosen. Amen.
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