Today begins a journey of daily transparency in front of all that God would lead to these words as I share my thoughts, convictions, questions, and truth as I believe it revealed to me as I strive to walk as my Lord Jesus Christ walked, perfect in obedience to His and my Father's will, now that we are both His children.
As the days go by, hopefully, we will learn and grow in what I believe it means to Do What Jesus Did, or DWJD, which I believe can be our daily guide for living, so that we are perfect as Jesus was perfect, and in our life see that we can choose to walk perfectly, always giving God glory, revealing who God the Father is, lifting up and proclaiming His name, showing the people He brings into our daily life something that relentlessly draws them to the Christ in born again believers.
One of my former pastors, Bro. Jonathan Pedersen, shared a truth one morning that again challenged me as I had been challenged after reading a Christian classic written by Charles Sheldon, "In His Steps".
Several years earlier, I became aware of Sheldon's book, and was greatly moved and challenged as I read illustrations of how different people in society, religious and non-religious, viewed each other, and themselves. The concept of simple obedience to the call of Christ, to make moment by moment decisions consciously asking ourselves to imagine Christ facing our world and situations, and to imitate Him regardless of the consequence, as we encounter life on planet Earth, seems too easy. I heard God throw out a challenge to me, "pleasure or obedience?" The idea of seeking daily, moment by moment, what it means for a modern disciple of Jesus Christ, asking " What would Jesus do?" before making any decision in my private or business life, really made me ponder who am I, in thoughts as well as words and actions, and whether I had taken every thought captive to the mind of Christ as we professing Christians are challenged to do in II Cor. 10:5. One morning, either during a personal devotion time, or a sermon at my home church (as my notes were not dated, I cannot positively state which), I thought another question is required to get to WWJD, and that was simply "do I glorify God in this?"
In that moment I realized Jesus never failed to give glory to God, never quenching the Spirit, never grieving the Spirit, and always having the Fruit of the Spirit perfectly manifested in the human life He lived. Knowing that we are told that Jesus was in all ways tempted as we are, but without sin(Heb. 4:15), I realized my pastor had shared a huge truth, it is my choice anytime I sin, as Flip Wilson's character Geraldine said so many times, "the devil made me do it, honey!", might be side splitting humor, but had no place in our Christian walk. The consequence of this realization has come to be humility, as the Holy Spirit convicts me of all the sin I commit, I realize that I am the man who put Jesus on the cross, he died for this or that particular sin of the moment, and that I could truly choose to walk in His steps, it is my choice.
I have two precious children, both girls, and in my efforts to be a good Christian father, am always asking them to do simple things that repetitively do not get done. I have patience behind the wheel of my car, waiting on traffic, driving the speed limit, driving the people nuts that say " I just can't drive the speed limit" all the while with a fish or cross bumper sticker on their car, while I meddle in their walk by pointing out we are not pointing to Christ by not obeying the local laws of the land, regardless of the top speed or fun of wrapping out to the redline that 2nd to 3rd shift, but let me have multiple failures by my children of what I rightly identify as simple requests that are for their benefit, and the dad amp's volume gets cranked to 12 with overdrive (yes, I do play guitar, as we get to know each other, you will hear about the Sonrise Jack Band and my walk these last 18 years with my brother in Jesus Mike Casey, one of the best songwriters and guitarists many of you have not yet had the pleasure to experience). I get loud, to ensure attention is paid and immediately, and get a good rant going that often brings tears to these dear children.
Normally, within 15 minutes, if not 5, God has brought me to my knees, showing me that my children are just like their father, choosing not to do the simple task given, rather finding pleasure and taking time to put myself on the throne of my life, taking a can of spray paint ( apologies to Tony Nolan) to my Father's to do list given personally to help me grow into His image, and say "not today, not now, maybe later if I think about it after I get my priority taken care of".
My God is so faithful to show me my sin, so I can confess, agreeing with Him what His standard is that Christ walked and talked and lived 24/7 while on this earth that we walk now, 2000 years later, but still nothing has changed, do we glorify God in this?
This maybe your speech, it may be your thoughts, it may be your actions, it may be internal, it may be external, it may take money, it may take time, it may take painful physical effort, or it may be humbling yourself, choosing to submit your will and always seeing Christ in the least of these around us, and esteeming these least of these above ourselves, so that God can give us a seat of honor, and reward us later, when no one else sees, but we know that goal, to have "well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the glory of the Lord" the sound that hits your ears, as you knees and face are on the ground, thankful to be in the presence of our Creator, knowing that the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone makes us worthy to be called Children of the King, and the brother's and sister's of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment