E. Stanley Jones said: “Jesus was crucified because He wouldn’t conform to a system.” (Jones was an American Methodist missionary to India in the mid-twentieth century.) True freedom in Christ is much more than a system, form, or formula. A conjectural idea about Jesus is nothing like a heart-to-heart relationship with Him.

Systems of self-protection
Harden our heart
And entangle us
In self-bondage.
Self-surrender
To the living God
Makes our heart tender
And sets us free
To joyfully hear
And obey Jesus.

A heart of stone
Is a heavy load
To try to carry
Along life’s road.
Hiding behind
Our heart’s hardness
It’s easy to
Block out God’s light
And live in inner darkness.
We need to continually
Surrender our heart
And let the risen Jesus
Shine brightly inside
So we can reflect His glory
Like a broken geode
That sparkles
In God’s tender sunlight.

Hard hearts
Look to systems,
Forms and formulas.
Tender hearts turn
To “Christ in you,
The hope of glory.”

You can’t prove your consciousness but you know it exists because you continually surrender to and experience it. I can’t prove God but I know He exists because I continually surrender to and experience Him.