I mentioned during our lesson Wednesday night how the Body of Christ is made up of a lot of people who admire Jesus, but fewer and fewer people who are interested in being followers of Jesus. I'd like to chase down that thought for just a minute.
I heard one time a teacher put it this way: “Can you imagine what the Church could do if Christians started acting like disciples?” You see the thing is this: we like Jesus’ teachings. We think they are swell ideas for everyone to follow. We particularly like the ones that don’t require much sacrifice on our part. Jesus says, “Don’t murder” and we respond, “Yes, Lord, I can do that.” Jesus says, “But you shouldn’t hate either or you’re guilty of murder” and we respond, “Well, you see, the thing is this: there is this one guy…” When Jesus starts making demands on our lives we quickly find out those who admire Jesus and those who follow Jesus. There has to be a better way. Nothing short of outright all-ness will do--the willingness to give up anything, turn over any attitude, dismantle any part of our lives that doesn't fit the Way. This is not to be mistaken for some idyllic moral perfectionism or utopia. I’m not naïve. I understand that it is hard. I don’t always get it right. Too often I am simply an admirer of Jesus and his Way. But we far too often ignore or interpret aside some of Jesus’ more difficult teachings. If we are to get serious about following Him, we must be willing to sacrifice, to go, to follow wherever he may lead us into whatever place he may want us. Will we follow or will we admire?
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6 comments:
you couldn't be more right about what you said. 100% right on the money.
following Jesus isn't safe.
actually you say things better than you realize. plus, you rarely teach something that you haven't first thought over and put down on paper. so, you're good either way. stop being so self-depricating, you're better than you realize.
"to express disapproval of", in this case, yourself.
okay, now you can stop it.
would i ever expect that? i can't do it, why would i expect you to do it overnight?
we don't like patience very much and we expect people (and I do this too) to "get it" overnight. i don't know why really, we are just humans I suppose. all you can do is give everything you are to Jesus.
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