Way of The Master

After having a conversation with someone, I was led to ponder many verses that I've read and try to make sense of them as they relate to the Life of a Christian; someone who is supposed to follow in the steps of Christ. It is an issue that has truly vexed my spirit in the many years since I have begun living for Him. It's not that I consider myself as "having it all together", or knowing the right thing to do in every situation, but it is my goal in life to try and walk as I believe Jesus would, according to what's written in the Word of God. I have seen and experienced the ineffectiveness, and sometimes damage, that the body of Christ can do, when they do NOT. It grieves my spirit so much; I can only imagine what my Lord and savior must feel. I realize there are many different reasons for all that goes on, or doesn't for that matter, but I just want to think about a few verses.

The first verse that comes into mind is, Luke 9:23 "Then to everyone He said, 'If anyone wants to come after me, let him say 'no' to himself, take up his cross daily and keep following me.'"
As I consider this verse and compare it to how most people are introduced to "becoming a Christian", I see a great contrast. Most people hear something like they need Jesus so their life will be better; Jesus will make everything new; God has a plan for you; God wants to bless you; you need Jesus so you can go to heaven; or Jesus can fill the emptiness in your heart. Right from the start, we expect something. We begin our spiritual pilgrimage with wrong thinking; with self-centered thinking. Now while there is some truth in each of these statements, they cannot be the reason we decide to follow Jesus, and walk in His footsteps. We need to know right up front there will be a cost, there must be sacrifice. In fact, the more I live it and the more I seek Him and the truth, the more I realize that the "emptiness in our heart" will stay, and the "newness of life" never comes, UNTIL we say no to ourselves DAILY, and are willing to sacrifice ALL to follow Him. Furthermore, we are not truly following Him if we are not living a life of daily sacrifice.
The next verse that I think of is John 15:18-20, which I will paraphrase for the sake of saving space. Jesus tells us that we are not of this world, He has picked us out of the world and because of this the world hates us. Most Christians are trying to avoid being hated, persecuted, or feeling "left out" or as if they're "missing out" on whatever the world is doing, and they stop following Jesus, in every aspect of their life. The first step to following Him, is to deny ourselves, but most choose to compromise and rationalize to please self, or feel accepted by others.
Another verse closely related to this issue is 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, then love for the Father is not in him." James shows us how this wrong thinking affects even our prayer life, "you pray and don't receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires." Then he calls us "adulterers" and says that "loving the world is hating God, and choosing to be a friend of the world's makes us an enemy of God's. (James 4:3-5) That's a powerful statement that should cause us, as disciples, to examine our hearts and our lives.
Never in scripture are we told to "blend in", or to become like the world. We are told to be salt and light (Mt 5:13-16) ; for what good is salt if it loses its saltiness? and what good can a light do if it is hidden? We are told to come out and separate ourselves from everything that is unclean; to not enter into relationships with unbelievers for their is no fellowship between dark and light. (2 Cor 6:14-18).
Now the verse that started me thinking about the life of a believer; one who proclaims to follow in the steps of Jesus, is 1 Corinthians 9. Paul is talking about his passionate efforts to reach all people. He makes this statement "With all kinds of people I have become all kinds of things, so that in all kinds of circumstances I might save at least some of them." In the Jewish bible the terminology is "put myself in the position of". To put our self in the position of someone is to try and understand where they are coming from, so as not to pre-judge them or look down on them. I've heard of people who use this verse as an excuse or justification to do things that would not line up with the word of God, such as "Be holy for the Lord your God is holy." In everything we do, if we make it a practice to ask (with all sincerity) What would Jesus do? We would know, for instance, that we do not become drunk to "reach" the drunkards. We do not need to get high, to relate to people who are addicted. We do not need to dress the way the world dresses so that they will listen to us. We do not have to watch all kinds of movies and try to put a "christian twist" on them. We do not have to get tattoos and piercings, or mark our bodies as the pagans do, before they will understand what we want to share with them. We don't have to join a gang, commit murder, lie, steal or go with them to their "place of worship" to be able to share with them the Truth. We don't have to make our music sound like the "world's" so that they will want to worship the One True God. Our only responsiblity as a disciple of Christ is to walk in His steps, deny ourselves daily, and be filled with the Spirit of God; living a surrendered life waiting for Him to tell us what to do.
This became very clear to me as I watched a video clip of a spontaneous witnessing done by someone who was willing to cross cultural barriers, without changing how he dressed, looked and acted, to show compassion and concern for the lost. The result was two saved souls:

I like how Mario tells Kirk right off the start "we're from the ghetto", but Kirk doesn't care.

The Light of the World

When I was a little girl I had a light, and I loved my light a lot.
I wanted to show it to everyone. I thought everyone would love it.
But, people made fun of my light; they didn't like it at all.
I didn't understand why they hated my light so much.
Soon, they started to be mean to me, and push me around trying to make me drop my light. So I would hide my light, and only let it shine when no one was around. But, it made me so happy that I would forget that others didn't like it, so I would show my light again. One day, my light was gone. I became confused and lost in the darkness. I couldn't find my way.

I wandered around for years; seeing glimpses of my light now and then but it would always fade away. Living in the darkness was overwhelming, and I was growing weak, tired, and cold. I was dying. I knew I needed to find my light again, but part of me resented the pain that my light had brought me.

As I was slowly dying, empty and alone, someone came into the darkness to find me. They had enough light for both of us to find our way. I received a new light, even better than the first! I was so excited! I was filled with life again! I couldn't hold back. I had to show others this beautiful light that filled my life with joy and warmth and peace. I began to tell people about my journey and how important the light was; how horrible the darkness had been. I was so glad to have a light again.

Sadly, though, people began to tell me to turn down my light. They didn't like the glow; it was too bright and they didn't want it shining on them. Some people resented it and hid from it. I couldn't understand why they hated my light so much. I was hurt. Could they not see the beauty of the light that I could see? How could they possibly love the darkness more? Confusion and hurt overwhelmed me once more. I didn't know what to do with my light.

I don't want to keep it to myself; I want others to enjoy it as much as I do. But, if I try to share my light with them, they resent me and rejection soon follows. So I slowly began to keep my light to myself, but that only makes me sad. It seems the more I try to keep it to myself -- the dimmer it becomes. I think I'm beginning to lose my way again, and darkness seems to be closing in...


This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...

Won't hide it under anything, or let anyone blow it out
gonna shine it all over 'till Jesus comes
I'm gonna let it shine!

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don't cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house."
-Matthew 5:14-16

It would appear that I do not think much...

Or, maybe I haven't been thinking about anything that's "blog-worthy".
It's been 6 months since I've posted anything and I know it's not because I have been in a coma.
With so much going on in the world around us, I've probably been thinking too much and my mind went into overload. But a few weeks back, I was brought to a good place in my spirit and I thought good thoughts that gave me peace. Here is what I thought:

The SAME - yesterday, today and tomorrow

In our quest for a perfect life, we can lose site of reality; life is not perfect, life is hard. Sometimes it seems that everything, all at once, is going "wrong". It can overwhelm us if we let it; if we don't have a safe place to which we run. I am so thankful that I know the Rock on which to stand.
As a Christian, I know that my hope is not found in anything that this world has to offer. My joy and peace are not determined by my circumstances. Jesus told us, "In this world you WILL have troubles." (John 16:33), but He also said that united with Him, we will have peace, and be brave because He has overcome the world. How amazing it has been for my peace and hope to grow, year after year; even though my life, in the worldly sense, isn't getting any better. This morning I read something that really encouraged me and renewed my hope, peace, and joy:

"In my mind I keep returning to something, something that gives me hope -- that the grace of the LORD is not exhausted, that His compassion has not ended. On the contrary, they are new every morning! How great Your faithfulness!
The LORD is all I have, therefore I will put my hope in Him.
The LORD is good to those waiting for Him, to those who are seeking Him out.
It is good to wait patiently for the saving help of the LORD."
Lamentations 3:21-26

I know that God is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. He has a plan, not just for me, but for ALL things. He is my source of peace, hope and joy - not my circumstances.

People!

Something has been bothering me for a few days now, and I need to vent and let it out.
I don't usually watch TV, because I feel that most of it is negative, but apparently there's a talk show host named David Letterman who thinks that just because he has a talk show and an audience, he can belittle and make fun of his "guests". I don't know about you, but if I have guests over, I don't treat them with disrespect. I happened to catch the headline on "Yahoo! News"about an incident and was curious enough to watch a small clip. I applaud Joaquin Phoenix for placing his gum under the desk ledge. I think that I would have had a much harder time showing restraint. Who are any of us to mock someone who is obviously dealing with something within himself. If he chooses to dress differently than he used to, and pursue a different career....who cares! I'm not a fan of his but I see him as a person, a human being who should be treated with dignity. As far as I can tell, he did nothing rude to Mr. Letterman to even come close to deserving such humiliating treatment. As for the people in the audience - SHAME ON YOU for laughing. You all should have gotten up and left! If it were any of you sitting there in front of everyone and being made fun of, laughed at and mocked, how would you have felt? David Letterman should apologize, publicly for his actions and words. Life is hard enough without people of influence using their influence in a negative, hurtful way.

The Engine

I love to go places that I've never been, and see things that I've never seen. I am a gypsy explorer at heart. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so responsible because every now and then I just want to yell "ROAD TRIP!" and pile into the truck and go! If I could, I would sell everything I own (except for my clothing and a few other essentials) and just travel. I truly want to see the world! Unfortunately, that is not the life that I ended up with. But, I have been blessed with a few cool trips here and there. Last summer we were in the good ol' lone star state. (That is one big state!) Most of it looked the same, but there were some beautiful spots and interesting things to enjoy. One of the places we stopped in at was this small museum of transportation. There were military air crafts, a stuffed monkey in a space pod, vintage cars, other modes of transportation and some history facts to read. It was fun walking around imagining what it was like, "back in the day". Remembering some of the old cars and when they were first made, how popular some of them were...others, not so much. Walking along, taking pictures and talking, I noticed a block of metal in the back corner of the building with a sign above it which read "This engine was never used for the original purpose for which it was created". As I carefully examined this chunk of metal, which for the most part was just sitting there collecting dust, I thought, "how sad. Someone took a lot of care to make this thing just right so that it could do something, but then it never fulfilled its purpose." It wasn't even recycled to be used another way; most people probably don't even take the time to stop and look at it sitting there. Then another thought occurred to me..."Am I like that? I know that God created me and saved me for a purpose, but have I fulfilled it?" I know that I don't want to end up like that engine; just sitting around because I can't be used by God for the purpose which He created me. I want to know why I'm here. I want to be used for the purpose that He created me.

I've already learned that "it's NOT about me"; I wasn't put on the earth to enjoy myself and have fun. I mean to say, that is NOT the goal of living.

God has a plan for me, but it's my responsibility to find out what that is and just DO IT.

I've learned the hard way, that I can't just do things for the sake of doing "good things" because if I'm doing what He hasn't asked me to do, then I'm just wasting time and energy and probably making things more difficult for everyone involved. I've decided that I'm done making messes for God to clean up.

At the same time, I don't want the "fear of failure" to immobilize me. I guess for now I will take one day at a time. Remembering to thank Him for every new day, and allow Him to lead me moment by moment. I can't wait to see all that He is going to do!