American middle class lifestyle

Who Is This Jesus?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

That’s the question of the night from speaker Tyler McKenzie.

Who else’s birthday do we still celebrate nearly 2,000 years later? Who else do we gather together– some risking their lives to do so–to honor, to celebrate, to sing songs about, to worship?

Who else has changed the way we look at history? Literally, there is a before and after centered around this Man.

Some want Jesus to be a nice guy, a great teacher, a grand example. But Jesus’ own words don’t allow that. The best explanation of Jesus comes from the pen of one Mr. C. S. Lewis, who said that Jesus was either crazy enough to be committed to an asylum, a pathological liar on a grand scale, or He was who He said He was. In other words, Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or He’s Lord.

I bet I got a chorus of “Amen”s on that, but how many of us actually live like Jesus is Lord? Like what He did and Who He was (and still is) matters more than anything or anyone else in history?

Jesus is not a board member in your life whose advice you take under consideration. He’s boss of your life. He’s in control. To use a very non-pc term, He’s your Master.

I heard it somewhere and thought it was worth sharing– if someone rejects Christianity, the question to ask is “What version of Jesus was presented to you?”

Was it meek-and-mild Jesus who seemed bored most of the time? Was it the Jesus who just wanted us to all get along and was completely passive? Was it the Jesus who was a white, middle-class Republican who lived in the suburbs and drove a minivan?

Or was it the Ultimate God-Man who beat death on its own terms and emerged from the grave victorious? Was it that Jesus who went through it all for love of you and me?

It’s not about sin management. It’s not about having your doctrines line up like ducks in a row. It’s not about being a good Christian who fastidiously keeps the list of things not to do. It’s about once being dead in sin and now being alive because Jesus died for me and gave me His life so that I could really and truly and finally live.

That’s it.

 

Followship

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

jesus_calls_disciples

“Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.’ They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed” (Matthew 4:18-20).

Today at The Church at Avenue South, Aaron Bryant spoke on Matthew 4:18-22 where Jesus told Peter and Andrew, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

I understand what they gained by following Jesus, but I don’t think I had ever really thought about all that they gave up.

Think about it. They walked away from the only livelihood they had ever known. They even walked away from their own father who was in the same fishing boat. There is no mention of any goodbyes or see you laters. They simply dropped their nets and followed Jesus, leaving everything else behind with no questions asked.

Aaron asked the question: what would you give up that might hinder you from fully following Jesus to wherever He wanted you to go?

He talked about David and Hannah, a couple who sold every bit of their furniture and moved into some friends’ apartment in view of a calling to missions in Northern Italy. They gave up good careers, extended family, and the comforts of the American middle class lifestyle because they felt Jesus calling them to go to a place where less than .1% of the population claims to be evangelical Christians.

I’ve asked myself if I could do that. I hope so. I do love my stuff. I love my family. I love where I live. Above all, I love the familiarity and comfort of where I live.

Still, I hope that I could give it all up if Jesus asked me to. Thankfully, I’m not given strength for the what-ifs and the could-bes. I believe that if the situation arose, Jesus would give me the courage and strength to lay it all down. That’s part what it means when people say that Jesus doesn’t call the equipped but equips the called. Part of that equipping means the ability to press forward and not look back to what you’re leaving behind.

In the end, though, we really never give up anything for the cause of Christ. I remember the words of one of my heroes, Jim Elliott, who said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”