Concerned to enter that radiant life we each must ask, "Am I a disciple, or only a Christian by current standards?" Examination of our ultimate desires and intentions, reflected in the specific responses and choices that make up our lives, can show whether there are things we hold more important than being like him. If there are, then we are not yet His disciples? Being unwilling to follow him, our claim of trusting Him must ring hollow. We could never credibly claim to trust a doctor, teacher, or auto mechanic whose directions we would not follow...
pg. 11 The Great Omission - by Dallas Willard
I dont know that following Jesus will ever be as easy and as specific as changing my oil every 3,000 miles. I don't pretend to make that statement. One thing I am certain of is... I dont always love my enemy. I dont live a life that fully entails me loving my neighbor as much as myself. I am pretty good at treating my friends well and I am prolly not the worst husband in the world... but honestly, that stuff isn't that hard.
I am caught asking myself... how much do i really want to be like Jesus. What am I am really willing to live for. Because honestly, it is easy to be a nice Christian. It's easy in our country to not rock the boat, be clean, say the right things, and retire. But I am certain there is more to our faith than just following the status quo. I somehow get a feeling that becoming like Jesus would never be close to the status quo and I fully believe that is our call. Even as a church planter... I find myself stumbling on greater realizations... I have no desire as a pastor or as an apostle to run an organization... I want to see people living in the abundance that Jesus talks about. An abundant life... a life leading to wholeness and the shalom of God.
This idea seems so "ingrained" into the new testament... Maybe we will find it as a church.
I know that no one likes to read a long blog posts (espeacially this person - really no one does, he just mentions it a lot - not afraid to say what others are) so I will digress. I am moving through some tensions in my life as a person, as a husband, as a roommate, as a disciple of Jesus, and as a pastor. Thanks for your support and love. Maybe you too can wrestle in this tension a bit. Feel free to leave some thoughts...
shalom aleichem,
-Jason
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3 comments:
thanks for the honest post Jason and for continue to wrestle with your soul before God and others--- you know that's basically the name, Israel, the one who wrestles with God and overcomes
anyway, keep looking to take the fence off love--- i love your attack of the status quo---we always create a status quo in our livs of what love looks like so that we can know we did it---- jesus invites us to cotinually take down the fence and become a loser for love, to lose our protective instincts, take our guard down, and risk. when the man who wanted to inherit eternal life in luke came to jesus, he already new what the most important command was: love God and love others with everything you have.. Jesus just says do it and you live....it is so simple, but never static and always calls out of to love like him-----
I just listened to a gospels lecture that said the confusing verse about becoming perfect like God is perfect simply means----learn to love with the radical justice and mercy that God loves with, learn to love like God loves, thanks for the encouragement to me to continue to do that
There is always something in our lives that has the wheel. This is driving us towards that. We must be cognizant of what this is and make sure that is really what we want to be headed towards.
Opening up, being "authentic" if you will, allows others to help keep you on track with the thises and the thats. Corey's fence metaphor goes both ways. The more we take down our fences, the more we let people in to love us.
As you continue to be open with your struggles, it provides others an opportunity to join you. To journey with you.
Status quo of Christians in US and A
Jesus
Not Equal
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