On Becoming Like Jesus – Page 2 – Pressing On In His Footsteps

On Forgiving My Enemy

Matthew 5:43-48 MSG ^43-47“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. ⁴⁸“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Luke 23:34 MSG Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Observation

The Word of God was given to us not for what it would mean to us (trying to rationalize through human experience), but, rather, for what it would mean for us in revealing the Lord’s perspective. In other words, His words are not to be interpreted from my “humanly possible” perspective, but, rather, to give me insight into His “nothing is impossible” one. These passages are a perfect example of how God’s perspective challenges me to be less human and more supernatural – trusting in Him and allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to make me more like Jesus so I function as He intends in the Body of Christ.

So, returning love to those who hurt, attack, despise and use you (or someone you care for) seems impossible from a human standpoint. It is incredibly difficult to look past the face and actions of an enemy to see the chains that bind him or her. But Jesus did just that on the Cross. “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” Jesus said this about the man who drive the nails in His hands, the man who held the whip, Pontius Pilate, the religious leaders, those who yelled, “Crucify!” and all of us who were yet to come.

Loving our enemies does not mean submitting to physical abuse or enabling them to avoid the consequences of their actions. “When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves.” Loving them requires us to forgive them and pray for their healing and deliverance – a nearly impossible feat without choosing to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s perspective in our most human moments and choosing in His strength to journey in that direction. The road may seem long, steep and treacherous, but it is worth the taking.

Impact on Me

I confess that there are people that I find hard to forgive because of the wounds they have created by word and deed. I have rationalized wishing harm on someone who hurt me (or others for whom I care dearly) and clothed it in my mind as justice. I am sure there are people that feel the same toward me. We are none of us without fault. But, if we want to be more like Jesus, then we need to see others through God’s perspective. “He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. “

So, I want to learn to look past the visible or invisible wound to me and attempt to see the soul, gaining compassion for those so wounded that they would choose to attack or harm another – verbally or physically. I want to be to others as Jesus has been to me – so gracious and generous when I did not deserve it. “Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” I have not yet arrived at this place, but I sincerely want to go there.

Prayer

Good, gracious, generous, loving God, how easily I forget the undeserved grace I received when I am wounded by another. How difficult it is for me to forgive those who make themselves my enemy and spitefully use me, but You say this forgiving, this grace and mercy, makes me more like Jesus, more effective in His Body, more beneficial to Your kingdom. So, I ask You to search me and find those ungracious and stingy thoughts, those wounds that need to be healed, so I may allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in me so I can fulfill Your will and purpose in my life. Make it so, in Jeus’ name.

On a Life of Substance & Purpose

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 12-14 MSG Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? … ^12-14Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 NIV The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: ²“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” ³What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? … ¹²I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Philippians 3:7-9 MSG The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

Observation

Ecclesiastes is believed to be the writing of King Solomon (“Questor” or “Teacher”) and represents his philosophical outlook on the world and on life in general toward the end of his life. He had everything the world could offer in abundance – worldwide renown and respect, wealth, wives, a palace or two, horses and chariots and so on. He was the wisest man of his time, but he had fallen into the very human trap of allowing his acclaim, pride in his accomplishments, material possessions and his wives to turn his heart away from remembering God’s part in it all. All that he possessed was suddenly purposeless and meaningless.

He starts Ecclesiastes by stating that all you can gain in this life by your own efforts is “hevel” (smoke, vanity, meaningless). It is like “Spitting into the wind” or chasing after the wind, which is defined as wasting time doing something totally pointless, fruitless or futile, without substance or value. For King Solomon, despite his riches and fame, the joy was gone from his heart and all that he possessed and did was hevel.

On the other hand, then we have Paul, a man who gave up everything – status, power, authority, recognition among his peers – to know and serve Jesus. “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung.” Like Solomon, Paul recognized that all earthly accomplishments and acclaim are hevel, but, unlike Solomon, Paul was willing to trade it all in to fulfill God’s will and purpose in his life. “I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.”

Impact on Me

So, now I face the uncomfortable question of which of these two do I most resemble? Am I, like Solomon, chasing after the wind, looking for the praise of my culture, doing what will increase my wealth, status, authority, power over others OR am I willing to be like Paul and submit all I am and have to fulfill God’s will and purpose? Is knowing and serving Jesus enough for me? Do I secretly crave the praise and adulation of people or am I willing to let the Holy Spirit be my promoter – setting me where I need to be doing what I need to do at the precise moment God needs me to be obedient regardless of the cost to my reputation, financial position, comfort, perceived abilities? Am I willing to appear a failure, if necessary, to accomplish God’s will and purpose?

Jesus was willing to do all these things. His obedience, His sacrifice, provided us with righteousness that cannot be gained on our own. “I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.” Do I trust God enough to give it all? Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!

Prayer

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, All-Wise, All-Knowing, Gracious and Merciful Father, You know my heart. I am human, fallible, inconsistent, selfish, unfaithful, but the Holy Spirit lives within me and is working on changing me so I can be more like Jesus. I pray that You will give me insight, wisdom, knowledge, understanding and strength to believe in You when what You ask me to relinquish seems too hard to do, too much to give up. May I stand before You on that day and know that I lived a life of substance and purpose in Christ. May I remember that all I have is Yours and You are the rewarder of the faithful. I am safe and secure in Your hands. Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Setting Things Right

John 3:16-17 MSG “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Luke 11:1-4 MSG One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” ^2-4So he said, “When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

Observation

The last few years have made everyone recognize that things are not right with the world. This pandemic has disrupted whatever was considered normal on a worldwide basis. All that once seemed stable, secure and reliable are now not so much. These verses above bring us the only secure hope that withstands every challenge of the ages – knowing that God is in the process of putting the world right again. “Set the world right” is also translated as “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

The people of Jesus’ time understood living in an insecure world. Their history was a sad story of Gentile and homegrown kings and kingdoms that came and went – Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Rome and a series of evil rulers from Judah and Israel itself. Even the religious leaders gave them no hope of fulfilling the intricate and burdensome rules for righteousness before God. If you were poor or sick, God hated you and was punishing you. Jesus says, “Not so!” “He came to help, to put the world right again.”

He is saying the same thing to us today. His kingdom is still the only truly safe place that cannot be breached or conquered by any enemy – man or devil. We can get confused and discouraged when we don’t experience that same promised stability, security and safety in our temporary physical lives. Jesus said we would have trouble in this world; He certainly did. The promise of stability, security and safety are eternal and sure in spite of the circumstances we encounter. Unlike other human kings, Jesus’ first concern is for our eternal welfare, not His personal gain. Setting our hearts in His kingdom will produce righteousness, peace and joy in the midst of what this world turns upside down.

Impact on Me

I have a choice of what kingdom I choose and which king I serve. The last couple of years have drawn a striking border between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God. In all of the confusion and conflict created by dueling authorities touting their information as correct, there is one source that has not wavered or been shaky. God’s plan is to set the world right using anyone who will seek His direction, listen and obey His calling, serve His eternal Kingdom goals rather than be distracted by the havoc caused by any earthly one.

I confess that I am impacted emotionally by wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, floods, political infighting, greed that disregards the lives of others and all the other things that seem to turn the world upside down. How can I be stable, secure and safe in the midst of the swirling chaos? I must choose who and what rules me. If I am first a subject of the Kingdom of God, I must have faith in and follow His plan, walk in my calling, set myself as a servant to fulfill His will and purpose. In this way, I will be assisting in setting the world right according to His plan, not mine. I will trust that my obedience to Him will contribute to His ultimate result, even if I don’t see that result with my own eyes. I will allow the Holy Spirit to give me insight into the eternal so my focus will not be distracted by the temporal. I will know that whatever I suffer here on earth is less than the sacrifice made by Jesus to come as a Man to redeem me and whosoever will come.

Prayer

Lord, I do pray for Your kingdom to come and Your will be done – beginning with me. Jesus, You said that Your Kingdom is within us when we are in You. I want to be remodeled by Your presence, working with me to become all that You desire me to be and do all that You desire me to do. Change me from someone rooted in the worldly and temporal to someone who is fruitful because I am rooted in Your eternal Kingdom soil. I want to be part of Your setting the world right regardless of the cost to me and whether I ever see the result of my obedience and sacrifice. May I willingly serve as You ask. In Jesus’ name, I pray.

On Seeing Clearly

John 9:39 MSG. Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

Observations

Jesus clashed violently with His culture and the religious practices of His time. Jesus, the Light, confronted the darkness promulgated by the religious leaders of His time, such as:

the “necessary compromises” with Roman conquerors to keep the peace and avoid upsetting the status quo of their power over the people of Israel (John 11:45-53 NIV),
the ugliness of greed beneath the surface of rituals in the Temple, which had become more a lucrative business for the Sadducees than a place of worship, prayer and adoration of God (Mt. 21:12-13 NIV),
the increasing burden of religious laws created by the Pharisees that obscured the heart of God toward His people (Mt. 23:23-24 NIV)

The Jewish religious leaders maintained a level of profit, power and control over the people by preaching “peace at any cost” to placate and minimize the intervention of the Roman conquerors who wanted nice, peaceful, obedient subjects across their far-flung empire. Jesus’ preaching and teaching both drew large crowds and exposed the ugliness hidden behind the pretense of the religious practices (impersonal, judgmental, weighted down with ritual, attempting to earn holiness through impossible works).

While the large crowds worried the Romans (concerned about sedition), the largest concern for the religious leaders had to be another sort of sedition – losing influence over the people who came out of the darkness of religion to embrace relationship with Promised Messiah, people who were considered blind spiritually but now could clearly see and know their God, His character, His heart. This new insight resulted from the violent clash of Jesus with the existing culture through preaching true holiness, true worship, true love, true religion.

Impact on me

As I consider the chaos of our times, I am reminded that Jesus did not come to bring peace (lack of conflict and chaos) at any cost; He came to bring truth, grace, wholeness and redemption (shalom regardless of circumstances swirling around us) at any cost. Events of the last few years have exposed to Believer and non-believer alike how little control we really have over the circumstances of our lives. However, believers in Christ know that He is with us in it all.

If I truly desire to be Christlike, I must consider that I, too, am called to be a radical, one who dares, like Jesus, to unite with the Body of Christ in love, grace and mercy to overcome any cultural or religious blindness at the cost of my status quo for the sake of revealing true peace and the heart of our God toward all people. Jesus was one man who seeded the truth into 12 and then 70 and then thousands who embraced His light shining into their darkness so they could embrace the true nature of God and become sighted so that others might also see clearly. Am I willing to trust that He can use me to continue to bring His light into the darkness today?

From this small beginning, Jesus by His Holy Spirit reached out over the ages to find and redeem me, to draw me out of my personal darkness into His marvelous light because He gave His life for His radical beliefs,

no necessary compromises to preserve the temporary peace or even His own life,
being willing to sacrifice Himself to fulfill the Father’s price for us when we were lost in sin,
dying to redeem even the man who drove the nails in His hands or held the whip, those in the crowd who yelled “crucify” or the religious leaders who plotted His death.

Am I willing to do the same? Am I blind or do I really see clearly? What am I willing to sacrifice for my enemies? I have to ask the questions because, if I say I want to be like Jesus, don’t I also have to be willing to submit myself to the Father’s will and purpose for me regardless of the cost? Do I really trust Him enough to go the distance, to step out into the unknown, be willing to be considered a radical, trusting that the light of Christ in me will dispel the darkness – to have the courage to clash with my culture regardless of what I might lose?

My prayer

Lord, I stand before You and ask for any blindness in me to be healed that I might walk in Your light, seeing clearly Your will and purpose for me. I do want to be like Christ, but my heart worries over what the cost might be. Work in me to grow my trust in You so I might have the courage to willingly obey what You ask of me, leaving You to weigh the benefit to Your kingdom of whatever it costs me. Help me to give You the keys to the places within me where I restrict Your access – places of shame, fear, selfishness, sin. Let me see and know You more clearly every moment of every day. I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” when I stand before You on that day. Make it so in the name of Jesus.