I was mindlessly scrolling through Twitter the other day, when my eyes fell on a quote from someone I’d never heard of. Nate Pyle wrote the following:
“Sometimes I think about those who knew Jesus firsthand - Mary, James, Peter, Martha, Lazarus, Peter - and I wonder, would they recognize Jesus in me? Would they see my life and say, 'Yes. He knows the shepherd’s voice?'”
This is a great question but also an uncomfortable question. While I hope they
(and you)
would see Jesus in me, I can’t say for sure. I have my bad days and my off days. There is sin that I still struggle with and temptations that have loud voices. There are moments when my anger gets the best of me
(just ask my kids)
or laziness wins
(just ask my wife)
. There are times I’d rather do what I want to do, even if God wants me to do something else. There are plenty of times when I sit down to pray or read the Bible and, when I’m finished, all I’ve done is gone through the motions of a religious exercise, and I can’t say that I’ve actually met with God.
I thought about deleting this last paragraph because I’m not sure I want you knowing these things. Why? I guess I want you to think well of me. What’s that called again? Oh yeah ... pride. There’s another one you can add to the list.
I can relate to the words of an old dcTalk song:
The disease of self runs through my blood
It's a cancer fatal to my soul
Every attempt on my behalf has failed
To bring this sickness under control
Tell me, what's going on inside of me?
I despise my own behavior
This only serves to confirm my suspicions
That I'm still a man in need of a Savior
Did you catch that last line?
“I’m still a man in need of a savior.”
The only way the friends of Jesus
(and anybody in our time)
will see Jesus
in
us is if He is at work
within
us. In the quiet and ordinary moments of our lives, do we invite Jesus in and allow Him to do his transforming work?
- In times of celebration, let God do His work.
- In times of loss, let God do His work.
- In times of sin, let God do His work.
- In times of victory, let God do His work.
- In times of confusion, let God do His work.
- In times of average ordinariness, let God do His work.
And maybe, just maybe, those around us will catch a glimpse of the Living Savior in us! And, who knows, perhaps they’ll even ask about that Living Savior.
Learning to live like Christ,
Pastor Kenneth
