Tag: Permanent change

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JESUS DOES NOT TAKE APPLICATIONS

Did you see that high school yearbook featuring the disciples (before they came to know Jesus)? Below each graduation portrait is a class nickname. James, the Son of Zebedee, and John (brother of James) share the title “Sons of Thunder.” The brothers were never quiet and tended to cause chaos. I can imagine their school years, weekly ending up in the principal’s office for getting into fights on the school grounds. But wait, none of the Disciples (except for Matthew) ever had any higher education. No credentials, no hope of a greater future except for carrying on the family business. None of the Disciples would have made it past a leadership nominating committee. They might apply, but their applications would end up in the trash.

JESUS RECRUITS AND SAYS, “FOLLOW”

That is the wonderful, unique thing about Jesus. He recruits. He doesn’t take applications. Jesus says, “Follow”. (Matt. 4:18-22 AMP);

MEANING OF “FOLLOW”

What does “follow” mean? When my sons were little, they loved collecting Transformers, the alien/robot toy that transforms from a vehicle to a powerful, monstrous robot. Transformation means to change from one thing into a different thing. Did the disciples have any idea that following Jesus would involve transformation into the likeness of Christ?

TRANSFORMATION

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul calls this transformation, this act of sacrificial living, true worship. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.”

For the Jews in Jesus’ day, “sacrifice” was only associated with death. That sacrificial lamb on the altar died. As Jesus followers, we are to present ourselves on God’s altar for His exclusive use. It involves death to what comes naturally for our sin nature. This is both the will of God and the sacrifice for true believers.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS?

Rays Stedman asks, “How do you feel about this? Do you regard it as an intrusion, an interruption of your plans and your program? Or do you regard it as an infinite honor that mere creatures may be the full expression of the holy and magnificent life of God? This is what Paul calls an intelligent fulfillment of purpose.

“You can never find the will of God until you start here. Have you ever made an intelligent presentation of yourself, your body, your soul (your emotional and mental life), and your spirit unto God? Have you ever presented yourself as what you are, nothing, so that you may have what He is, everything, and step out into every new day in complete expectation that His life will be manifest in you? That is Christianity. That is the will of God.”

MARK OF A TRUE JESUS FOLLOWER

The mark of a Jesus follower is a transformed life. Christ recruits us to follow Him and to allow Him to change our lives permanently. Jesus does not take applications. He does not search for those who get by without God on their own strength, who are considered the best of the best by this world. Have you ever presented yourself as what you are, nothing, so that you may have what he is, everything, and step out into every new day in complete expectation that his life will be manifest in you? Jesus calls you to follow.

Click to read more about the “Sons of Thunder.”

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THIRSTY NO MORE

IMAGE OF WATER

It was Sarah’s last leg of her bike trip, on her hottest and thirstiest day. With family she bicycled from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC during a heat wave. At times her “vacation” felt like a trip through hades. Thirsty didn’t even begin to describe how she felt.

THE THIRSTY WOMAN

Have you ever wondered about that other thirsty person? The “woman at the well” described in John 4? We don’t even know her real name. A social outcast, she was not going for the prize of reaching Washington, DC. There was no air-conditioning and comfort for her to look forward to. No, every day this woman at the ostracized by her village; only allowed to obtain her water at the hottest time of the day. Exhausted, tired, and exasperated, she sees a man (Jesus) sitting at the well. He has the temerity to ask for some of her water. Then he has the nerve to bring up religion (remember, He was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan). Jesus even says she is missing something.

WATER THAT LIVES

What is she missing? Living water (not the kind sitting in the pot on top of her head). What is “Living Water”? In John 7, Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John further explains, “by this he meant the Spirit.”

KINGDOM PERSONALITY

Are these rivers flowing from you? Is the Holy Spirit bubbling over in your life? This is not self-generated. How does one obtain what is termed “A Kingdom Personality,” a personality fully powered by the Holy Spirit?

NO EXCUSES

To begin with, we don’t make excuses. Dallas Willard writes in “Renovation of the Heart“: We often say, “Nobody’s perfect.” We don’t say this just when someone fails but also when we run up against the Bible’s description of the kingdom personality of “genuine mutual love” that is free of “all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.” We rush to say it because we feel inadequate compared to such love. But what if we don’t make that description about us—focusing on our shortcomings—but instead linger on the beauty of God and God’s kingdom?

THE RADICAL PERSON

Try picturing this hypothetical moment of dwelling on the beauty of God and the kingdom life: Let’s say I confessed to you my disgust with someone who annoyed me and how hopeless I felt about ever loving this person. What if instead of trying to make me feel better by saying, “Nobody’s perfect,” you said you believed in God’s power to transform me into a radical person who pays loving attention to those who annoy me? Will you pray for me about this? What if later that day you encountered an annoying person and, without thinking, treated that person with kindness and attentiveness—partly because of the transforming effect of our conversation about the kingdom personality?

DEPENDING ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

Do you ask others to pray for you to be transformed into a radical believer, depending totally on the transforming power of the Living Water, the Holy Spirit? How about we begin praying for each other the goldmine prayer of Ephesians: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! (Ephesians 3: 17-21) This is a prayer that can bring immeasurable results. Living Water never runs out.

Click for more info on “Living Water”