Likeness

If you were to reflect on your life up ’til now, would you say you are proud of who you’ve become? Is who you are now the person you want to be? I’m not referring to whether you have the job, family or popularity that you’ve been striving for. I’m talking about your inward man or woman; who you are as a person. I would guess that for most of us, the answer would be “no, we are not the person we’d like to be”. The first step in taking the journey of reinventing or modifying yourself is to consider who want to be like. Who do you currently respect? Who do you want to emulate? My hope is that your answer is Jesus. He is our teacher and our master. He modeled how we are to behave, how we are to think and how we are to live. None of us will be carbon copies of Jesus, but we can take what we know about him and pattern our lives accordingly. We can choose today, and make efforts tomorrow, to be like him. Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 10, verses 24 and 25:

“The student is not above the teacher, nor the servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!” 

Who is the head of your household? It is typically the father who sets the pace in most homes. But each and every one of us can decide which teacher and master to follow. Even if Jesus isn’t modeled by those in your house, you can still take on his likeness in your life and your heart. So, who do you want to be? Who is your role model? Jesus said that, “it is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters.” I hope and pray that your teacher and master is Jesus himself, and that it is your goal to be like him. Because when referring to Jesus, God the Father said, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Do you want to please God? If so, the simple answer is to be like Jesus.

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Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” If Jesus is the way, then we should follow his path. We should follow his example. We should be like him. Because in Matthew 10, Jesus explained that, “it is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters.” What does it look like to be like Jesus? Step one is to find out who he is. Read the Bible, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the first four books of the New Testament, and examine the words and deeds of Jesus, himself. Because to be like someone, we must first get to know them. Step two, is to ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be transformed into his likeness. It is counter-culture and counter-human to be like Jesus. We can’t do it on our own. That is why Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit, to help us in our journey to be like our teacher and master on this earth. So I would encourage you to take steps to becoming like Jesus. For you, the first step may be allowing the Holy Spirit to birth that desire in you; to show you that a life in Christ should be the end goal for all of us. Because each and every one of us, whether we are a believer or not, would like to hear the words the Father spoke when referring to Jesus when he said, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

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Eyes on Jesus

When calamity strikes it is so easy to focus on the problem, to worry about the outcome, and to stress over things that are out of our control. For some reason, many of us forget that control is, and always has been, an illusion. Jesus is our only true constant; our only true rock. Even still, when problems arise, we often take our eyes off of Jesus, which is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We lose faith, when we should be exercising our faith. A good analogy of this dichotomy can be found in the Bible when Jesus was seen walking on the water. You may be familiar with this story because it is often shared in Sunday school, Bible studies and from the pulpit. It is when Peter, along with the others in the boat, saw Jesus miraculously walking toward them on very rough waters. Then Peter said in Matthew, chapter 14, verses 28 through 31:

“‘Lord, if it is you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’.” 

As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he had faith enough to believe in the miraculous. It was only when he took his eyes off of Jesus, and focused on the situation, did his faith waver and he began to sink. Likewise, when we going through rough waters, our best course of action is to keep our eyes on Jesus. As long as we place our faith and our focus on him, our true security, we come to realize that he is our strength in weakness. We understand that he is the source of our deliverance, our true hope, and the peace in the middle of our storm. But when we allow what we may call, “reality” to set in, when we focus on what our eyes can see, and when we allow the fear of the natural world to overtake us, we falter and sink. Mature believers remember that God is greater than any circumstance. We understand that trails, struggles and persecution are bound to come in this world, but that he has overcome the world. The truth is that whatever situation you face in this life is, and has always been, in God’s hand. Our job is to cry out to him and to trust him; to keep our eyes and our faith on him, not our circumstance. Then, we will find a peace that passes all understanding and a faith that will keep us above the waves instead of letting them overtake us. Peter had faith enough to step out of the boat, but even still, Jesus said, “you of little faith”, because his faith did not persist through his circumstance. Let us learn from this story. Let us put our full and complete faith in Jesus when things are going well, and also, when the waves of life want to overtake us.

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Life is uncertain. As humans, we don’t know what the future holds. It is in our nature to put our trust in what we can see with our eyes and understand with our reasoning. But God is the author of life, and the architect of our reality. To place our trust only in what is seen is like an infant placing their trust in their crib. Their crib may seem to protect them, to give them comfort and to fit within their immediate reasoning. But it is their parents who are their real sustainer. However, with infants, it doesn’t take long for them to realize and embrace their dependence on their parents. Why, then, does it take a calamity for us to realize our dependence on our Heavenly Father? So I encourage you to always remember that there is a truth beyond what we can see with our eyes and understand with our minds so that when the waves of life try to overtake us, we are able to keep our eyes on the rock and do not doubt.

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Authority Given

Divine power, wisdom, and authority are God’s and God’s alone. It is by his power that everything we know came into being. It is by his wisdom that he is able to know everything that there is to know. And it is by his authority that he is able to decide what will happen, when it will happen and how it will happen. If you are a mature believer, you may know that, at times, God may even allow his people the privilege of experiencing some of his divine power, tapping into some of his divine wisdom, or even directing some of his divine authority. In Matthew, Jesus granted a level of his divine authority to his disciples. He gave them the authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. It says in Matthew, chapter 10, verse 1:

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” 

From their own lips, and by their command, impure spirits obeyed them and disease and sickness left the bodies of those inflicted. This happened through them, only because God gave them the authority. Not one of us can perform a miracle on our own. Nor can we conjure something out of nothing or know the future. We don’t even have the power to save someone’s soul. These things fall under the power, wisdom and authority of God and God alone. Though this is true, we can appeal to him that he may exercise his power, wisdom and authority on our behalf. Have you ever asked God for a miracle? Have you ever asked him for wisdom in a situation? Maybe you’ve asked him to heal someone through you, to save a lost soul through you, or to use you in a mighty way. If you have, and if he has granted your request, then in that moment you were like one of his disciples in Matthew 10:1. He granted you access to the miraculous and the divine. I’m not sure how often God gives humans blanket authority to perform miraculous like he did with is disciples in Matthew, but I do believe that he is still in the business of allowing a level of divine power to flow through his people if we would ask, if we would have faith, and if he is willing. So I would encourage you to have the faith of a disciple; to know that God is able to grant you the authority to do the miraculous. If you are able to do this with humility and the right heart, then maybe God will use you as a vessel for his mighty work and power.

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What did Jesus mean when he said things like, “you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”? or “until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”? or “truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven”? I believe that these, along with several other examples, are Jesus explaining to us that he is willing to exercise for us a little of the authority that he granted his disciples. We may not have blanket authority to command sickness to leave by our will. But God may choose to honor the words that Jesus spoke many times in the Bible; that if we ask anything of the Father in his name, then he will do it. We are never in a position to command God, but he has given us permission to appeal to him. So I encourage you to have the faith to believe that God can, and will, do the miraculous through you. Not for your glory, but his. Not by your will, but by his. And not by your power, but by his. Allow him to filter your appeal through his divine holiness and, like a Father who knows what is best for his children, trust that he will use his divine power, wisdom and authority on your behalf.

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Good, One Less Thing

After coming through a natural disaster where homes may have been destroyed or the city infrastructure may have been shakened, often times, in the aftermath, you may hear someone say that “we should focus on what is important in life”? Usually meaning that we should focus on those things that money can’t buy like family, love, joy, and peace. If you are familiar with the iconic movie, “Forrest Gump”, you may remember my favorite line from the title character that also highlights this point. It was when Lieutenant Dan shared with Forrest that they were able to make millions from their shrimping business because a major storm virtually wiped out the competition. Forrest’s response was “good, that’s one less thing”. In that moment, Forrest realized what many of us forget. Not only is money not everything, but it is only one of several things that make up life. It should not be our sole pursuit, nor will it bring us what really matters in life. Jesus helps to put this truth in perspective in Matthew, chapter 6, verses 24 through 26 where he says: 

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink; about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?” 

“Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” Yes, money serves a purpose, and yes money is important. But it shouldn’t drive us. It shouldn’t be our primary pursuit. Jesus reminded us that we can’t serve both God and money. So we need to ask ourselves; is money our pursuit or is God? In a strange way, Forrest Gump also helps us to put things in perspective. For those of us who have been blessed with enough money so that food, clothes and shelter isn’t a daily concern, we realize that this provision is only “one less thing” - one less concern; that life is comprised of more than what money can buy. Though this is true, every believer should take heart in the rest of what Jesus said; “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?” If we are able to truly put our faith and trust in God; if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, Jesus explains that God will take care of the things that money can provide as well.

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I believe that we can all learn something from Forrest Gump. Because upon learning that he had been blessed with enough money that all of his physical needs were met, he responded by saying, “good, that is one less thing.” To mature believers, having enough money to take care of our physical needs is only “one less thing” to concern ourselves with. In fact, that shouldn’t even be a concern because Jesus explains that God will provide for us. But in truth, God will likely use money to meet our physical needs. However the provision of having our physical needs met is only one less thing because Jesus reminds us that life is more than that. So I would encourage you to pursue God, not money. Either one may serve as a source of security. But money is only an illusion of security, and God is true security. Dependence on God is the only way for a mature believer to live. Because when we have him, not only will he take care of our physical needs, but he will be the source for all of our other needs as well.

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Be Perfect

Are you familiar with the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”? It is a phrase that is often used when a child shows behavioral similarities to their parent, usually the Father. And it is something every believer would love to have said of us in relation to our heavenly Father. But is it possible to be like God? As it so happens, Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent when he explained that taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make them like God. But to aspire to have the same power as God and to aspire to model his character are two different things. One is done out of envy and the other is done out of admiration. In any case, I would argue that in some ways it is possible to be like God. In Matthew, chapter 5, verse 48, Jesus even said that we are to be like God. He said: 

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

The goal of perfection sets the bar quite high. None of us are perfect but, according to Jesus, that is the goal. The context for this verse is when Jesus mentions in the Beattitudes that we are to love our enemies. He said in part, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven”. Consider how honoring it would be to God if we were to take on such a close likeness to him that we would be perfect like he is perfect; that we would pray for our enemies; that it would be said of us that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. As believers, it should be our goal to reflect the nature of our heavenly Father. Often times that would include actions that are counter culture; actions that take us out of our comfort zones; and actions that cost us something as we put others ahead of ourselves. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” If imitation is really the most sincere form of flattery then to truly honor God would mean that we are to strive for godly perfection.

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When you were a child, did you ever want to be like your father? Did you put your little feet in his big shoes? Did you mimic his mannerisms? Did you try to talk like he talked, walk like he walked and act like he acted? In the same way, we are to try to emulate our heavenly Father. We should desire to think like him and to feel like him. Our thoughts should agree with the word of God. And what breaks his heart should break ours. We should want to please him, to make him proud of us, to honor him, and to obey him. It should be our mission to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. I would challenge you to consider what adjustments you might need to make in your life to better align yourself with the perfection of our heavenly Father. What would godly perfection look like for you? The first step in knowing the answer to that question is to get to know the Father. Read his word, pray to him often, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal how you can make this verse true in your life. In doing so, I can think of no better way to please the Father.

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