A lifestyle for a lifetime...
It's
not about people loving motorcycles together. It's not about people loving
horses together. It's not about people loving praise music together. It's not
about people loving secret clubs together. It's not about people loving
dressing up together, or not dressing up together. It's not about everyone
loving the organ and a choir together. It's not about loving sports together.
It's not about loving race cars or old cars or campers or tents or beaches or
mountains or lakes together.
As
disciples of Jesus Christ, what we ought to hold in common is loving Jesus
together. The gospel is not a call to separate into our hobbies and
preferences. It's a call to be separate from our hobbies and preferences and
surrender wholly unto Christ.
Red,
yellow, black and white, precious and gathered in Jesus' sight! Rich and poor,
Jew and Gentile, from every stripe, all sorts of trades and professions, young
and old, scholars and laborers, city, suburban, and rural people, walking with
Jesus together because HE is what we hold in common; this, beloved, is the
disciples life!
Just
look at Jesus' basic description of discipleship: "Now great crowds
accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and
does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and
sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not
bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you,
desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether
he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is
not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ''This man began
to build and was not able to finish.'' Or what king, going out to encounter
another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able
with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And
if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks
for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that
he has cannot be my disciple.'" (Luke 14:25-33 ESV)
We
love our distinctions. However, Jesus calls us to make Him our number one
distinction and to forsake all other distinctions.
If
Jesus had posted the above on Facebook, He would not get many likes. Jesus
demands that HE be number one in our lives. He demands that He become our life
and our lifestyle; His will must become our way because He is the Way, and no
one comes to the Father except through Him.
The
glory of walking with Jesus is that we've counted Him more worthy than ANY
other thing AND also more worthy than EVERY other thing.
The
beauty of the church is that she is gathered because of Jesus, not because of
hobbies and preferences.
Walking
with Jesus is meant to define a disciple’s life, not be an additive to it.
Being a disciple is supposed to be our lifestyle simply because Jesus is our
life, and we are to pursue Him for our lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment