Follower of Christ? (Part #1)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 (NASB)

We know that following Christ is not a sprint but a marathon. We know that following Christ takes much effort on our part. We know that following Christ means we will go to heaven some day… But do you know that following Christ means great sacrifice on our part? Followers of Christ will suffer, be persecuted, have to endure hardship and will be hated by the world? "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12 (NASB). I am amazed at how ignorant people who claim their allegiance to Jesus Christ are when it comes to the call to sacrifice, suffering, persecution and at some point even death for our faith. We don’t like hearing the truth, but we can’t escape its presence or grip. Do a word study some time on one of those words and see how we are to be connected with them.

James let’s us know that we are going to experience trials, testing various difficulties that will provide us the opportunity to step up and stand tall for our Lord. These difficulties challenge us to go deeper, be stronger, and to live our lives more biblically.  What is the “perfect result” you ask? We will be more and more like our Lord Jesus. So often we forget what we signed up for when we decided to follow Jesus. We started off well and aflame for the things of God, but some time later we gradually melted into a pool of  “cultural consumer Christianity”.  Not all swim in such a pool in fact, many choose to deny themselves take up their cross and daily follow Jesus.  Jesus Himself said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB).  It is easy to think that Jesus is referring to the flat out pagan not realizing that those who claimed a religious affiliation are also referenced. Then one of the passages that still haunts my mind and keeps me attempting to walk the straight and narrow is Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB). "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

I guess one question to ask yourself… does my life look more like the Jesus of the bible, or the Jesus of cultural Christianity? How would you know? I think one way is to look at the true fruit in your life. Are there spiritual things happening in and through your life or merely behavioral changes that you are making? Who is guiding your changes, your culture, your church, your Christian peers or the Holy Spirit? Still another way is to look at your prayer life, how much is about your comfort and blessing and how much is praise and adoration or an awe of the God of Heaven? Is your time with Jesus a short read of a titled devotional or a basking in His holy presence? Does His holiness convict you of sin and lead you to repentance or do you play the “cheap grace” card and carry on as if nothing ever happened? What about your times in His word? What do those look like? Do you see the correlation between time in the word and when Jesus says,  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:6 (NASB). Are you hungry for more of God resulting in His righteousness in and through your life?  What is satisfying you? Is it work, T.V., family, church programs, toys, projects, etc.? Really?  

How you respond in your heart to the passages above and to some of the things I have written may be a litmus test to where your heart truly is. May the Holy Spirit awaken us all to think, speak and walk in all His ways. Amen!

What Am I Missing?

The past two months we have been working on landscaping our backyard. This has been no small task anywhere from removing old grass, an overgrown wall vine from Hell (roots intertwined both above and underground), sprinkler removal and laying a new sprinkler system, in addition to lots of planting and bark spreading. I believed prematurely that I had completed the trench digging, PVC laying and sprinkler installation until I took a stroll in the backyard just to admire my handwork and to plan out my next backbreaking tasks. I noticed on my stroll that the original sprinklers on the back flowerbed, the ones I didn’t think I needed to change out were pointing directly towards the proposed sitting area and fire pit. In other words, if we were sitting around the fire pit and the sprinklers went on we would be soaked and very irritated.  I realized that though the obvious was right in front of me for the past three months it didn’t dawn on me that my sprinklers needed to be rerouted. Rerouting not only meant removing the old sprinklers and their pipes, but it also meant I had to dig a new fifty plus foot trench to accommodate the new sprinkler system. Ugh! Just when I thought my tired body was about to take a break from the action, I had to re-engage with my shovel, mattock and heavily rooted flowerbed.

This is preciously what took place when the Pharisees encountered Jesus. Jesus healed many in their presence, but they couldn’t recognize who He really was. The person they had long to see as a fulfillment of God, spoken by the prophets stood right in front of them, healed right in their midst, spoke the word of God to the masses in their hearing and yet the obvious wasn’t registering. It is so easy to miss the obvious.  We experience God working in and through us and we label it as a result of hard work or happenstance. Jesus answers our prayer and we forget we had even made that particular petition. In other words, God is placing before us what should be obvious to us, but for many distracting reasons we can’t equate those things as been from God or we miss Jesus when He stands in front of us.

Like my sprinkler system, there is a need to stroll and examine where we are in our life journey. What is my life purpose or mission, how am I doing in pursuing it and what is clear or obvious that I need to tweak or engage in? We can get so caught up in the details, those issues that life throws our way or those areas we enter ourselves that prevent us from staying the course as prescribed.  I miss Jesus when I hear of a person’s life change and I write it off as “I’ll wait and see if it is legit”. I miss Jesus when I avoid eye contact with a person asking for money. I miss Jesus when I tell someone I will pray for him or her and not do it right then and there. I miss Jesus when I am too busy to really pray and engage in His word. I miss Jesus when…you can fill in your own blank. The overarching question is: what is Jesus doing right in front of you that you are currently missing?  Ask for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to see Jesus in ways that you may not have been accustom to.  When He reveals that particular area be willing to do the hard work it will take to accomplish what it is He has you doing.