What it means to follow Jesus

Found this snippet from an article by Francis Chan pretty humbling. "Try to be completely honest with yourself right now. Is the following true of you?

You passionately love Jesus, but you don’t really want to be like Him. You admire His humility, but you don’t want to be that humble. You think it is beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that is not exactly the direction your life is headed. You are thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you. You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you are going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.

In short: You think He is a great Savior, but not a great role model.

Many of us have abandoned the most simple and obvious truth of what it means to follow Jesus: You actually follow His pattern of life."

Holiday

Had a great couple of day with the kids in Yzerfontein, but Pippa became a little bit overwhelming so we decided to head home.

Pretty Cool!

According to 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” It does not say that God loves, though he does love with a perfect and unconditional love. The Scripture says that God’s very nature is love. God can never function contrary to His own nature. Never in your life will God ever express His will towards you except that it is an expression of his perfect love. He can’t! God’s kind of love always seeks the very best for a person. Therefore, He can never give you second best. His nature will not let him.

Henry Blackaby

Childhood faith versus Mature Faith

I found this comparison in a book earlier today. Pretty challenging.

CHILDHOOD FAITH	MATURE ADULT FAITH
Good Christians don’t have pain or disappointment.	God uses our pain and disappointment to make us better Christians.
God helps those who help themselves.	God helps those who admit their own helplessness.
God wants to make us happy.	God wants to make us into the image of Jesus.
Faith will help us always explain what God is doing (things always work out).	Faith helps us stand under God’s sovereignty even when we have no idea what God is doing.
The closer we get to God, the more perfect we become.	The closer we get to God, the more we become aware of our own sinfulness.
Mature Christians have answers.	Mature Christians can wrestle honestly with tough questions because we trust that God has the answers.
Good Christians are always strong.	Our strength is in admitting our weakness.
We go to church because our friends are there, we have great leaders, and we get something out of it.	We go to church because we belong to the body of Christ.

Food for Thought

Some thoughts provoking thoughts that I read recently:

'How can we ask his help without being with him? And how can we be with him without often thinking of him? And how can we often think of him without forming a holy habit of doing so?'Brother Lawrence (17th century monk)

I am like an oarsman rowing against a current. My will-pressure must be gentle but constant, to listen to God, to pray for others incessantly, to look at people as souls and not as clothes, or bodies or even minds. The moment the pressure on the oar ceases, i drift, and downward... "Let go and let God" does not fit my experience. "Take hold and keep hold of God" is what it feels like to me. There is a will-act, and I can feel the spiritual muscles growing from rowing! - Frank Laubach

Praying like Jesus - Hebrews 5:7

Heb. 5:7 ‘During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.’

Even for Jesus things didn’t come easily.

‘During the days of Jesus life…’

• This wasn’t a once of event, but the way he lived from day to day.

‘He Offered up…’

• Present something for acceptance or rejection.

‘Prayers and Petitions… ’

• An appeal or request to a higher authority or being.
• A demand for Action.
• He Prayed and Pleaded (GW)

‘with loud cries and tears…’

• Fervent cries (MSG)
• Strong crying and weeping (BBE)
• Cry = Shedding tears as a result of strongly felt emotion… to call our shout out loudly.

‘And he was heard because of his reverent submission…’

• ‘Because he was Humble & Devoted…’ (GNB)
• ‘Because he Honoured God…’ (MSG)
• Because he ‘feared’ God (KJV)
• Reverent = Feeling or expressing profound respect or awe.
• Submission = A willingness to yield or surrender to somebody.

Man I would love for this to be said of me…‘During the days of Werner's life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.’

This has certainly been an interesting week. Over the weekend I have somehow hurt my back, which has basically left been bed ridden. Today is the first time that I have sat in a chair for a week (and it hurts).

I have been trying to force my recovery, but to no avail. Every morning I would get up and say, today is the day that I am going to get back into action, to only find myself worse off than the previous day. You cannot fight or speed up nature’s natural healing process.

What have I learned (so far) from this? God is the one that is in control of our physical and spiritual lives. We cannot make it grow or heal, the only thing that we can do is create an environment in which healing and growth can take place. For me at this stage, that environment seems to be flat on my back. This has been a pretty humbling experience.