"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to our own way;" (Isaiah 53:6)
Somebody once said you will hit it every time if you aim at nothing. As a leader in the church, I often am forced to sit back and analyze if we (the church) were seeking the right things. It is incredible how fast we can lose focus and chase after the flavor of the month that dances by and entices us. The Bible contains stories of people with just this problem who lost their way and wandered away from God.
Perhaps that is a warning to all of us to keep our eye on the ball and to make the main thing the main thing. So, what is the main thing for us as individuals and the church? The Bible gives us an almost infinite amount of things we should do. So, how do we choose what is the main thing?
The scriptures have a common theme, a red thread, a complex main character, and a singular person of grand importance. Perhaps Martin Luther said it best, "The Bible is the cradle that brings us JESUS." Our job is to bring Jesus or to even be Jesus.
In our midwestern humility, it seems a little grandiose and maybe arrogant to think of ourselves as Jesus in the world. Who am I that I would claim to be Jesus? Good question, except it is not your claiming to be Jesus in the world that makes you Jesus in the world. It is that you have been claimed to be Jesus in the world. Read on…
"But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me."
"I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
"My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you."
"That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith."
"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Now, you are Christ's body and individual members of it.
You are Jesus in the world, NOT by effort, accomplishment, or self-appointment. You are Christ in the world because God has made it so. As such, it should be our highest goal to fulfill this calling. Being Jesus in the world is not one of the many jobs a Christian has to do & NOT some exercise that somehow makes us a better disciple. It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing to the world if it does not offer Jesus. 2bjesus4u – our highest calling and our true identity.
TheOnlineChaplain
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