The Story of My Life

I was conceived in sin: My father and mother pleasured in my making.
Although born in sin, God so loved me. I am part of the world He loves.
God knows me well. He knew me even in the womb. I was planned by Him.
My parents planned me not, but without regard of that, I was God's plan.
God knows the hairs of my head. He knows me better than I know myself.
I'm asked to search me so that I know myself as well as God knows me.
When I search, what I find is frightening. I found sin dwelling within me.
Now I know what God knows. I have found the source of evil. It is not good.
Evil dwells within me. There is none without sin. The world and me are one.
God knew that. He had a plan. Because He loved me so, he made the plan.
He desired that I should not perish; he wanted eternal life for me.
God desired that I life forever. Satan that I should be forever dying.
God called me to come to him. He stood at my door and knocked.
God knocked hard to awaken me from my sleep? I was awakened!
God knocked with His own flesh. It was no One else who knocked.
God's own Son beaconed me. He came to awaken me from my sleep.
The hand that rapped was of flesh. The Son of  Man knocked.
Jesus knocked on my soul. There was no welcome mat there.
Jesus so loved me that He knocked anyhow. Time after time he knocked.
"No one is at home!" I said with my silence, but He knew better!
"Answer my call," Jesus said. "You have sinned, and I have seen it!"
I thought no one had. I thought no one cared. Jesus cares when I sin!
"You are going to Hell!" some honest demon screamed from my soul.
It was the soul on which Jesus knocked - my cup which held evil instead.
"I am the Way," Jesus spoke softly. "Please stand beneath my Tree!"
I considered pleasure instead. The other tree was hanging full of it.
That I knew. I saw pleasure, but the other Tree I could not see.
It was there all the time, but I was blind, even as my eyes were open.
When Jesus knocked, I could hear. I heard His knock. It was Truth knocking.
The wind, it seemed, swept the door open a crack. I could see!
Truth was standing at my door. Truth revealed to me my iniquity.
Iniquity is ugly, yet it lived within me. My soul was filled with it.
Sin was revealed, I saw Jesus. I screamed! Never fearing, but relieved.
The demon within me trembled in fear. I had ears but never heard before.
Now I plainly heard what was always there - the gate is narrow.
The narrow Gate is by faith in Jesus. He is the Way that I must walk.
Thus, I came to two paths - my way was one, and His Way was another.
Then suddenly Light shined forth, and I chose my path. I died that day!
In death I lived again! When Truth slapped me hard, I awakened.
The slap killed my old self, but not before I made a living sacrifice.
I died right there on the Cross beside Jesus. I was the thief who believed.
My cross wasn't of wood. It was once on Calvary. My Cross was the Tree.
The Tree of Life bore my sins. All of them! Some as yet to be sinned.
The Tree's juices flowed. He cried. The lashes on the bark bled for me.
The Tree cried real tears. Just as in the Garden, He felt so alone.
Even His Father seemed to have left the Tree all alone!
"Why does no one stand under my Tree?" Jesus thought?
He thought that in the Garden. He thought that on Calvary.
Jesus came home to die. He died in the midst of God's Garden.
Come home. Come home! Jesus died at home - the foundation of peace.
But the Tree ascended as the Garden must have. It stands by the River.
By the River of God the Tree still stands - in the City of God.
Because Jesus died, we are set free. I am free. Jesus blood bought that.
Not because of good, but grace bought my liberty. The Tree bled for me.
I answered His call, and he filled my cup. His spirit flowed into my soul.
God died for me. He was not another. God was nailed to that tree.
It was me who hammered the spikes. You and I hammered together.
I knew not what I was doing, and he blamed me not. He still died for me!
I can hear His Voice. He walks in the cool of the evening.
Jesus walks in His Garden. It's still at the foundation of peace.
He is walking as he smiles on me - from His home in New Jerusalem.
Jesus stops by a golden door and taps softly on the lentel.
"This is your room! I prepared it for you!"  he gleams.
Back home with Him in the Garden. Him and me together again!