The Imitation of Christ
Greetings once again to all the people out in cyberspace. That sounds cheesy but I am in a good mood and feeling reenergized after some rest from our week of work at the cold weather shelter. Looking back, that was a great week of serving. It is now something that is on the LIFEhouse west calander that we are going to do one evening per month. It is just one of the ways that as a group we can demonstrate the love of Jesus by simply giving the Kingdom of God away to someone else.
That being said, I want to move on to other things. I have begun reading a book by Thomas a Kempis entitled "The Imitation of Christ." Just in the title there is enough for me to preach but I think that it does bear some commentary. The title captures another of the values that I want to be plainly evident in LIFEhouse West......
To be honest though, this one is a hard one because it is personal. It begins with me. It is my duty to imitate Christ in all that I do. To be gut level honest, I do not hit a home run on this one every day. I don't know anybody who does. What I can say is that I feel a strong burden to live this out, not for anyone else, but for me. This is why this one is hard; one, because I can be my own worst enemy sometimes. Two. because it is my opinion that everyone must do this for themselves.
I feel strongly that the question of whether or not we imitate Christ is one of the fundamental things that we as individual followers of Jesus must deal with on a daily basis. I feel that we do this by:
1. Asking ourselves, and being honest, if we are actually committed to living out the revolution of Jesus in our lives. Does this idea come into our minds at all during our day? Are we conscious of our role in the revolution?
2. Are we striving to do it? Not are "we perfect at it", but "we are striving to live like Jesus." are we taking steps to do that? Are we ready and active in developing the characteristics of Jesus in our lives? It there improvement? Can we, and others, see a difference in our lives?
The differences do not need ot be huge, although there are times when they will be, just that we see a difference. Before we do anything we must "own the revolution" personally. I am working at it and I trust that you are as well.
PJ
That being said, I want to move on to other things. I have begun reading a book by Thomas a Kempis entitled "The Imitation of Christ." Just in the title there is enough for me to preach but I think that it does bear some commentary. The title captures another of the values that I want to be plainly evident in LIFEhouse West......
To be honest though, this one is a hard one because it is personal. It begins with me. It is my duty to imitate Christ in all that I do. To be gut level honest, I do not hit a home run on this one every day. I don't know anybody who does. What I can say is that I feel a strong burden to live this out, not for anyone else, but for me. This is why this one is hard; one, because I can be my own worst enemy sometimes. Two. because it is my opinion that everyone must do this for themselves.
I feel strongly that the question of whether or not we imitate Christ is one of the fundamental things that we as individual followers of Jesus must deal with on a daily basis. I feel that we do this by:
1. Asking ourselves, and being honest, if we are actually committed to living out the revolution of Jesus in our lives. Does this idea come into our minds at all during our day? Are we conscious of our role in the revolution?
2. Are we striving to do it? Not are "we perfect at it", but "we are striving to live like Jesus." are we taking steps to do that? Are we ready and active in developing the characteristics of Jesus in our lives? It there improvement? Can we, and others, see a difference in our lives?
The differences do not need ot be huge, although there are times when they will be, just that we see a difference. Before we do anything we must "own the revolution" personally. I am working at it and I trust that you are as well.
PJ
posted by PJ | 8:19 AM
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