Jason International

Was ist ein Jünger?

 

Kurz gesagt ein Schüler oder ganz einfach jemand, der dem Beispiel eines Lehrers folgt und sich dessen Lehren zueigen macht.

 

Jünger gab es auch schon im Alten Testament, wo sie Propheten gefolgt sind:

“Ich will diese Warnung sorgfältig bewahren und die Lehre in meinen Jüngern wie mit einem Siegel verschließen.” (Jes 8,16 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Auch in 2 Kön 2,7 lesen wir von “Prophetenjüngern”.

In ähnlichem Sinn sind auch Verse wie Sprichwörter 4,1 (Einheitsübersetzung) zu verstehen:

“Ihr Söhne, hört auf die Mahnung des Vaters, merkt auf, damit ihr Einsicht lernt.”

Wenn wir ins Neue Testament sehen, so hatte zum Beispiel Johannes der Täufer Jünger:

“Am Tag darauf stand Johannes wieder dort und zwei seiner Jünger standen bei ihm.” (Joh 1,35 – Einheitsübersetzung)

 

Aber auch die Pharisäer hatten Jünger:

 

“Sie veranlassten ihre Jünger, zusammen mit den Anhängern des Herodes zu ihm zu gehen…” (Mt 22,16 – Einheitsübersetzug)

Die Phaerisäer wiederum nannten sich Jünger des Moses:

“wir aber sind Jünger des Mose” (Joh 9,28 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Meist jedoch wird mit dem Wort “Jünger” im Neuen Testament ein Nachfolger Jesu Christi bezeichnet. Dies kann etwa ganz allgemein gehalten sein:

“In diesen Tagen, als die Zahl der Jünger zunahm…” (Apg 6,1 – Einheitsübersetzung)

 

Oder aber bezogen auf einen der zwölf Apostel:

 

“Dann rief er seine zwölf Jünger zu sich und gab ihnen die Vollmacht, die unreinen Geister auszutreiben und alle Krankheiten und Leiden zu heilen.” (Mt 10,1 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Dann sagte er zu ihnen: Geht hinaus in die ganze Welt, und verkündet das Evangelium allen Geschöpfen! Wer glaubt und sich taufen lässt, wird gerettet; wer aber nicht glaubt, wird verdammt werden. Und durch die, die zum Glauben gekommen sind, werden folgende Zeichen geschehen: In meinem Namen werden sie Dämonen austreiben; sie werden in neuen Sprachen reden; wenn sie Schlangen anfassen oder tödliches Gift trinken, wird es ihnen nicht schaden; und die Kranken, denen sie die Hände auflegen, werden gesund werden.” (Mk 16,15-18 – Einheitsübersetzung)

 

Mit “Jünger” koennen aber die 72 Ausgesendeten bezeichnet werden:

 

“Danach suchte der Herr zweiundsiebzig andere aus und sandte sie zu zweit voraus in alle Städte und Ortschaften, in die er selbst gehen wollte.” (Lk 10,1 – Einheitsübersetzung)

 

In der Apostelgeschichte wird mit “Jünger” jeder Gläubige – Mann oder Frau – bezeichnet.

Zumeist finden wir den Begriff “Jünger” in den Evangelien und der Apostelgeschichte und zumeist bezeichnet er die zwölf Apostel. Paulus etwa war ein solcher Juenger: Er haette ein respektierter Rabbi werden können, dies sah er aber als wertlos an, verglichen mit der Nachfolge Jesu Christi. Er nahm das Kreuz auf sich und ertrug bereitwillig Verfolgung, körperliche Gewalt und schließlich sogar den Märtyrertod. Er war der Schüler des berühmtesten Rabbis aller Zeiten – Gamaliel – und hätte mit seinem Talent Ruhm und Geld bekommen können. Stattdessen verzichtete er auf Reichtum und predigte lieber das Evangelium. Im Gegensatz zu so manchen heutigen Fernsehprediger vermied er nicht die schwierigen und unbequemen Worte Jesu, auch und gerade, was Sünde anging, sondern hörte, liebte und befolgte sie.

Jesus ist nach Seiner Auferstehung in eine besondere und direkte Beziehung mit Seinen Jüngern getreten: Er hat mit Ihnen gegessen und hat sich sogar von ihnen berühren lassen. Er ist die Mitte und ruft uns durch Sein Wort und Seine Zeichen. (KKK 542, 645)

Jesus hat Seine Jünger angehaucht und somit den Geist gespendet (vgl. Joh, 20,22). Die Sendung Christi und des Geistes wird somit zur Sendung der Kirche: “Wie mich der Vater gesandt hat, so sende ich euch.” (Joh 20,21 – Einheitsübersetzung) (KKK 730). Der Heilige Geist wird bei und in den Jüngern sein und sie “in die ganze Wahrheit führen” (Joh 16,13 – Einheitsübersetzung). Der Heilige Geist wird zuerst von demütigen Menschen aufgenommen – so etwa von den ersten Jüngern (KKK 725).

“Dazu seid ihr berufen worden; denn auch Christus hat für euch gelitten und euch ein Beispiel gegeben, damit ihr seinen Spuren folgt.” (1 Petr 2,21 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Jesus will diejenigen an Seinem Erlösungsopfer beteiligen, denen Sein Erlösungsopfer zuerst zugute kommt, vor allem etwa Seine Mutter (vgl. Lk 2,35). (KKK 618)

In Seinem Namen haben die Jünger Wunder gewirkt (vgl. Mk 16,17), da Gott Vater Ihnen alles gewaehrte, worum sie um Jesu Namen gebittet haben (vgl. Joh 15,16). (KKK 434).

 

Was bedeutete es nun aber, Jünger Jesu zu sein?

 

Es hat mal jemand gesagt, dass das Christentum bedeutet, zum Fuß des Kreuzes zu kommen. Jüngerschaft aber bedeutet, das Kreuz zu umfassen. Dafuer müssen wir Ihm aber unser ganzes Leben geben.

Jünger sein bedeutet auf jeden Fall weitaus mehr, als nur ein Schüler oder ein Anhänger zu sein. Damals ging es nicht darum, einem normalen Rabbi nachzufolgen – Jesus war weitaus mehr als das.

Er hatte nicht Theologie studiert und braucht auch keine Erlaubnis, um zu lehren:

“Die Juden wunderten sich und sagten: Wie kann der die Schrift verstehen, ohne dafür ausgebildet zu sein?” (Joh 7,15 – Einheitsübersetzung)

So wie Jesus lehrte, hatte noch nie jemand zuvor gelehrt:

“Als Jesus diese Rede beendet hatte, war die Menge sehr betroffen von seiner Lehre; denn er lehrte sie wie einer, der (göttliche) Vollmacht hat, und nicht wie ihre Schriftgelehrten.” (Mt 7,28-29 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Jesu Jünger kamen nicht einfach nur zu Ihm, um belehrt oder unterrichtet zu werden. Er rief sie mit eigener Autoritaet zur Jüngerschaft:

“Da sagte er zu ihnen: Kommt her, folgt mir nach! Ich werde euch zu Menschenfischern machen.” (Mt 4,19 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Auch in anderer Hinsicht unterschied sich die Jüngerschaft, zu der Jesus Seine Anhänger rief, von der Jüngerschaft anderer: Es ging hier nicht darum, dass Seine Jünger danach trachteten, eines Tages Jesus gleichgestellt zu sein, so wie dies etwa bei den Pharisäern der Fall war. Er war nicht einfach nur ein weiser und schlauer Lehrer, dem Seine Jünger andächtig lauschten. Jesus rief Seine Jünger zu einem völlig neuen Leben – und Er lebte ihnen dies selbst vor!

“Darauf sagte Jesus zu seinen Jüngern: Wer mein Jünger sein will, der verleugne sich selbst, nehme sein Kreuz auf sich und folge mir nach. Denn wer sein Leben retten will, wird es verlieren; wer aber sein Leben um meinetwillen verliert, wird es gewinnen. Was nützt es einem Menschen, wenn er die ganze Welt gewinnt, dabei aber sein Leben einbüßt?” (Mt 16,24-26 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Wenn dich deine Hand zum Bösen verfuehrt, dann hau sie ab; es ist besser für dich, verstümmelt in das Leben zu gelangen, als mit zwei Händen in die Hölle zu kommen, in das nie erlöschende Feuer.” (Mk 9,43 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Wer Vater oder Mutter mehr liebt als mich, ist meiner nicht würdig, und wer Sohn oder Tochter mehr liebt als mich, ist meiner nicht würdig. Und wer nicht sein Kreuz auf sich nimmt und mir nachfolgt, ist meiner nicht würdig. Wer das Leben gewinnen will, wird es verlieren; wer aber das Leben um meinetwillen verliert, wird es gewinnen.” (Mt 10,37-39 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Das ist eine harte Botschaft: Wir sollen Jesus mehr lieben als Vater und Mutter, wir sollen unser Kreuz auf uns nehmen, Ihm nachfolgen und all unsere Besitztümer aufgeben. Um in Sein Königreich zu kommen, bedarf es einer schweren und folgenreichen Entscheidung unsererseits. Ein radikaler Ruf nach ebenso radikaler Nachfolge – selbst wenn der Preis hierfuer unser eigenes Leben ist! Ein Ruf zu wahrer Juengerschaft!

Viele Menschen heutzutage erkennen nicht, wie radikal und wie ernst gemeint dieser Ruf ist.

Wie war das aber nun: Einerseits sollen wir Vater und Mutter ehren – zumindest steht das so in den Zehn Geboten – andererseits sollen wir Jesus mehr als Vater und Mutter lieben, sie sogar für Ihn verlassen und Jesus auch dann nachfolgen, wenn das einen Keil in unsere Familien treibt! Widerspricht sich da die Bibel nicht? Ebenso sollen wir Ihn mehr als unsere Ehegattinnen und Ehegatten lieben – wie passt das alles zusammen?

Wir sollen Vater und Mutter gar “hassen” (in Lk 14,26 heisst es etwa in der Einheitsübersetzung: “Wenn jemand zu mir kommt und nicht Vater und Mutter, Frau und Kinder, Brüder und Schwestern, ja sogar sein Leben gering achtet, dann kann er nicht mein Jünger sein.”)??

Um all dies zu verstehen, muessen wir uns auch bewusst sein, dass sowohl im damaligen Hebräischen wie im Aramäischen keine Komparative wie im Deutschen gebildet werden. Wenn wir also jemanden mehr als einen anderen lieben, wurde das damals so ausgedrückt, dass man den, der einem am wichtigsten ist, “liebt” – und jeden, der danach kommt, “hasst”.
Jesus sagte tatsächlich, dass es in unserem Leben nur eine absolute Priorität geben dürfe. Nur einer vierdiene absoluten Gehorsam und absolute Zuneigung: Gott.

Diese Verse sollen uns dazu bringen, unser eingenes Gewissen zu erforschen: Lieben wir Ihn wirklich mehr als alles und alle anderen? Lieben wir Ihn mit ganzem Herzen, Geist und Verstand? Mit allem was wir haben? Jesus kann nicht einfach nur ein Teil unseres Lebens sein, eine Art Zutat zum Hauptgericht. Er muss das sein, was Er ist: Gott.

Wie oft haben wir uns entschuldigt, wenn es darum ging, Verantwortung in der Gemeinde zu uebernehmen, an Veranstaltungen teilzunehmen, aktiv unseren Glauben im Rahmen der Evangelisation zu verkünden, anderen Menschen zu helfen – mit Ausreden wie “Ich habe keine Zeit”, “Ich muss arbeiten”, “Wir bekomen Besuch”, “Das Thema liegt mir nicht”, “Ich komme mit dem Priester nicht zurecht”, “Ich will noch ins Fitnessstudio”, “Wir haben nur eine gemütliche Männerrunde – fang’ bloß nicht wieder mit deiner Evangelisation an!” usw. War uns da Gott wichtiger als alles andere? Wohl kaum.

Wie oft haben wir Kompromisse geschlossen, wenn es um Sünde ging, um Entschuldigungen dafür zu finden, dass wir etwas tun können, dass Gott nicht gefällt. Ein Motto der frühen Heiligen war: Lieber sterben als sündigen! Wenn sie die Wahl hatten zwischen Gott und etwas, das Gott missfallen koennte, wählten sie immer Gott. Ein wunderbares Beispiel hierfür sind die Märtyrer. Sie opferten ihre Verpflichtungen Gott gegenüber nicht einmal, wenn das ihr eigenes Leben kostete! Das ist wahre Jüngerschaft!

Was bedeutet es nun, dass wir unser Kreuz auf uns nehmen und ihm nachfolgen müssen, um sein Jünger zu sein?

Vergessen wir nicht, dass Er vom Kreuz sprach, bevor Er gekreuzigt wurde und Seine Jünger diesen Hinweis wirklich völlig verstehen konnten! Wie seltsam muss sich das für Seine Jünger damals angehört haben!

Unser Kreuz auf uns zu nehmen bedeutet mehr, als nur ein wenig mehr Gewicht auf unsere Schultern zu laden. Der zentrale Punkt beim Kreuz ist ja gerade, dass wir auch sterben könnten! Wir selbst müssen sterben, unser altes Ich, unser eigener Wille, unser Ego muss sterben, damit Jesus leben kann! Im äußersten Fall müssen wir sogar bereit sein, unser eigenes Leben niederzulegen!

Was meint Jesus nun damit, dass wir all unsere Besitztümer aufgeben sollten?

Jesus sagt dieser Worte nach der Analogie vom Turmbau, für dessen Planung erst überprüft werden müsse, ob die Mittel ausreichen und vom König, der gegen einen anderen in den Krieg zieht und sich erst hinsetzt und überlegt, ob die Zahl seiner Männer ausreicht.

Dann sagt Jesus in Lk 14,33: “Darum kann keiner von euch mein Jünger sein, wenn er nicht auf seinen ganzen Besitz verzichtet.” (Einheitsübersetzung)

Genauso dumm wie es waere, einen Turm zu bauen, ohne die nötigen Mittel hierfür zu haben oder in den Krieg zu ziehen, um hierfür gerüstet zu sein, wäre es auch, Jesu Jünger sein zu wollen, ohne all seine Besitztümer vorher aufzugeben! Wir würden ganz einfach nicht durchhalten als Seine Jünger! Warum? Sehen wir uns hierfür Mt 6,24 an (Einheitsübersetzung):

“Niemand kann zwei Herren dienen; er wird entweder den einen hassen und den andern lieben, oder er wird zu dem einen halten und den andern verachten. Ihr könnt nicht beiden dienen, Gott und dem Mammon.”

Jesus meint nicht zwangsweise, dass wir all unsere Bankkonten auflösen sollen. Er meint vielmehr, dass wir ALL unsere Besitztümer Gott übergeben müssen und für den Dienst an und für Ihn verwendet werden sollen. Wir sind nur Verwalter, nicht aber Eigentümer von den Dingen, von denen wir denken, dass sie uns gehören. Alles, was wir haben, hat Gott uns gegeben – und es ist mit einer Absicht und einer Verantwortung verbunden. Unsere Familien zu ernähren ist offensichtlich Teil dieser Verantwortung. Ebenso ist es Teil dieser Verantwortung, für die eigene Ernährung, Ausbildung, Kleidung und Unterkunft zu sorgen. Wir werden hierfür auch zur Verantwortung gezogen werden (vgl. Mt 25,14-30). Besitzt das, was wir haben, uns – oder besitzt es Gott? Hängen wir an diesen Dingen, oder haben wir ein gelöstes Verhältnis dazu? Jesus sagt uns sehr deutlich, dass wir nicht Seine Jünger sein koennen, wenn wir daran hängen!

Jesus hat eine Menge Fans heutzutage – wieviele Jüngerinnen und Jünger sind aber darunter?

Wer Sein Jünger sein will, muss mehr tun, als einfach nur ab und an von oder über Ihn zu hören, auf christliche Veranstaltungen oder in Gottesdienste zu gehen (so wichtig das auch ist!). Er muss all das auch in die Praxis umsetzen!

Wer Jesu’ Jünger sein will, muss brennen, wenn es darum geht, Seine Lehre jeden Tag mit voller Leidenschaft zu leben, sein Kreuz auf sich zu nehmen, Jesus immer an die erste Stelle zu setzen und Ihm absolute Priorität enzuraeumen sowie für Seinen Ruhm und für den Dienst and und für Ihn alles zu geben!

Maria war so eine Jüngerin. Sie sagte Ja zu Gott – auch wenn es ihren Tod bedeutet haette (sie hätte unter dem Gesetz Mose für ein Kind, das außerhalb der Ehe gezeugt wurde, gesteinigt werden können!). Sie sagte Ja, auch wenn das ihre Ehe zu Josef zerstören hätte koennen (wenn Gott Josef nicht im Traum erschienen wäre). Sie nahm ihr Kreuz jeden Tag auf sich und folgte Jesus nach bis zum Ölberg. Ihr Herz wurde unzählige Male durchbohrt – dies aber vereinigte sie noch mehr mit Jesus. Außerdem war sie arm und losgelöst von irdischen Besitztümern – so arm sogar, dass sie in einem Stall für Tiere gebar und ihr Kind in eine Krippe legte. So arm, dass sie und Josef sich nicht einmal ein Lamm im Tempel bei der Vorstellung Jesu leisten konnten, sondern zwei Tauben nehmen mussten. So arm – und doch so reich, da Gott ihr einziger Schatz war.

Auch die Apostel waren wahre Jünger. Alle ausser einem wurden auch tatsächlich gekreuzigt. Sie “freuten sich, dass sie gewürdigt worden waren, für seinen Namen Schmach zu erleiden.” (Apg 5,41 – Einheitsübersetzung) Auch sie waren losgelöst von der materiellen Welt, arm im Geiste und fanden ihren wahren Schatz in Gott. Sie folgten Jesu’ Gebot: “Steckt nicht Gold, Silber und Kupfermünzen in euren Gürtel. Nehmt keine Vorratstasche mit auf den Weg, kein zweites Hemd, keine Schuhe, keinen Wanderstab; denn wer arbeitet, hat ein Recht auf seinen Unterhalt” (Mt 10,9-10 – Einheitsübersetzung). So arm, dass Petrus dem Gelähmten beim Tempeltor, der dort um Almosen bettelte, antwortete: “Silber und Gold besitze ich nicht. Doch was ich habe, das gebe ich dir: Im Namen Jesu Christi, des Nazoräers, geh umher!” (Apg 3,6 – Einheitsübersetzung).

Auch Mutter Theresa zeigte uns, was es heisst, Jüngerin Jesu zu sein. Sie gab sich Jesus ganz und voller Vertrauern hin – und war gleichzeitig immer frohen Mutes und voller Liebe! Sie liebte Jesus ueber alles und vertraute sich Ihm bedingungslos an. Sie nahm Sein Kreuz täglich auf sich und stellte dabei fest, dass es nicht so sehr ein Symbol des Schmerzes, sondern der Liebe war, die sogar den Schmerz der Kreuzigung erträglich machte. Was weltliche Besitztuemer anging, so lebte sie selbst in völliger Armut, losgelöst von all dem, was sie von Gott trennen koennte.

Gott ruft uns zu einer ähnlichen Jüngerschaft. Wir sollen Ihn an die erste Stelle setzen, uns aufopfernd und voller Liebe Ihm und anderen hingeben und alles, was wir haben, zum Dienst an und für Ihn zu verwenden. Um das aber zu tun, brauchen wir einen Plan – so wie man einen Plan braucht, um einen Turm zu bauen. Angesichts der ungeheuren Aufgabe, die Gott uns gegeben hat – Seine Jünger zu sein – muessen wir uns hinsetzen und einen Plan entwerfen, wie wir dieses Ziel mit Seinen Vorgaben erreichen können. Alles andere wäre ganz einfach dumm.

 

Was sind also wesentliche Bestandteile davon, Jünger zu sein?

 

Das Gebet. Tägliches Gebet hilft uns dabei, in der Liebe zu Gott zu wachsen. Wie seltsam und befremdend ist es doch, hören zu müssen, dass Menschen keine Zeit zum Beten finden! Wohl aber zum Fernsehen oder für andere Vergnügungen! Die Form ist hierbei nicht so wichtig – solange wir das Gebet zum Bestandteil unseres täglichen Lebens machen. Das Gebet hilft uns auch, Entscheidungen zu treffen, die uns von Gott geschenkten Gaben am besten zu nutzen, demütig zu werden sowie unser tägliches Kreuz zu tragen.

Tägliches Bibelstudium. Unerlässlich für jeden Christen!

Der tägliche Gottesdienstbesuch. Hier hören wir Gottes Wort und können uns von Ihm durch Sein Fleisch und Sein Blut in den Gestalten von Brot und Wein ernähren lassen. Dies wird uns stärken, wenn es darum geht, die täglichen Kämpfe im Zusammenhang mit der Jüngerschaft zu bestehen. Ja, es erfordert tägliche Opfer, dies zu tun – aber ist es all das nicht wert, um Gott selbst empfangen zu dürfen? Außerdem können wir Gott so zeigen, dass wir nicht jeden Tag nur dem Mammon dienen, sondern zuallererst Ihm.

Regelmäßige Beichte. Jeder von uns wird gelegentlich fallen. Lassen wir unsere Wunden von Jesus heilen, bekennen wir unsere Sünden und lassen uns von Ihm vergeben, lassen wir uns von Ihm die Kraft für den Neuanfang schenken! Die Beichte hilft uns auch, zu erkennen, ob wir Gott wirklich mit unserem ganzen Herzen, Geist und mit unserer ganzen Kraft geliebt haben. Auch schenkt sie uns Klarheit, wenn es darum geht, auszumachen, ob wir an irgendetwas mehr haengen als an Gott. Hierzu gehört auch ein System von gegenseitiger Rechenschaft. Wir muessen anderen die Chance geben, uns zu ermutigen, aber auch zu ermahnen, falls erforderlich – und dasselbe für sie tun.

Die bedingungslose Aufopferung. Andere zu lieben, wie Jesus uns geliebt hat, notfalls sogar sein Leben fuer andere hinzugeben sind Kennzeichen Seiner Jüngerinnen und Jünger. Jesus ruft vielleicht nicht jeden dazu, Maertyrer zu werden, gleichwohl sollen wir alle in aufopfernder und demütiger Liebe dienen – Gott und den Mitmenschen. Wir müssen uns zum Wohle anderer selbst verleugnen. Diese aufopfernde und selbstlose Liebe hilft uns dabei, unser Ego zu überwinden, ebenso unsere Bequemlichkeit und unser Hängen an irdischen Besitztümern – und stattdessen mehr so wie Christus zu werden. “Jetzt freue ich mich in den Leiden, die ich für euch ertrage. Für den Leib Christi, die Kirche, ergänze ich in meinem irdischen Leben das, was an den Leiden Christi noch fehlt.” (Kol 1,24 – Einheitsübersetzung).

Nicht zu vergessen: Das Eingebundensein in eine Gemeinde und in eine Familie sowie in ein Netz von engen christlichen Freunden, die unser Innerstes kennen und uns bei Bedarf auffangen können. Letztlich gehört hierzu auch die Sorge um das eigene leibliche und psychisch-/mentale Wohl. Unser Körper ist der Tempel Gottes – und wir sollten pfleglich mit ihm umgehen. Auch die Sorge um unser geistiges Wohl gehört hierzu: zum einen der Kontakt zu, einem geistlichen Ratgeber, zum anderen das tägliche Verweilen im Heiligen Geist, das Erfülltsein von Ihm und das Hören auf Seine Stimme:

“Jedem aber wird die Offenbarung des Geistes geschenkt, damit sie anderen nützt. Dem einen wird vom Geist die Gabe geschenkt, Weisheit mitzuteilen, dem andern durch den gleichen Geist die Gabe, Erkenntnis zu vermitteln, dem dritten im gleichen Geist Glaubenskraft, einem anderen – immer in dem einen Geist – die Gabe, Krankheiten zu heilen, einem andern Wunderkräfte, einem andern prophetisches Reden, einem andern die Fähigkeit, Geister zu unterscheiden, wiedem einem andern verschiedene Arten von Zungenrede, einem andern schließlich die Gabe, sie zu deuten.” (1 Kor 12,7-10 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Die Frucht des Geistes aber ist Liebe, Freude, Friede, Langmut, Freundlichkeit, Güte, Treue, Sanftmut und Selbstbeherrschung; dem allen widerspricht das Gesetz nicht.” (Gal 5,22-23 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Werden wir uns dafür entscheiden, die Saat, die Gott in unseren Herzen gesaet hat, wachsen zu lassen? Werden wir wahre Jüngerinnen und Jünger Jesu werden – anstatt nur Fans? Jüngerinnen und Jünger, die ständig danach trachten, zu lernen und zu wachsen, um Jesus ähnlicher zu werden? Jesus, der uns als Seine Jüngerinnen und Juenger ruft, wird uns auch all die Hilfe geben, die wir hierfür brauchen. Sagen wir Ja zu Ihm wie Maria dies in Nazareth tat, oder am Fuss des Kreuzes, damit wir die Chance haben, einmal fuer immer Amen zu Ihm im Himmel zu sagen!

Eine weitere wesentliche Aufgabe der Juenger war und ist die Weitergabe des christlichen Glaubens, die Verkuendigung Jesu Christi. Durch sie sollen Menschen zum Glauben an Ihn gefuehrt werden (KKK 425).

Die Apostel brannten förmlich danach, dies zu tun:

“Wir können unmöglich schweigen über das, was wir gesehen und gehört haben.” (Apg 4,20 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Was von Anfang an war, was wir gehört haben, was wir mit unseren Augen gesehen, was wir geschaut und was unsere Hände angefasst haben, das verkünden wir: das Wort des Lebens. Denn das Leben wurde offenbart; wir haben gesehen und bezeugen und verkünden euch das ewige Leben, das beim Vater war und uns offenbart wurde.” (1 Joh 1,1-2 – Einheitsübersetzung)t

“Meine Botschaft und Verkuendigung war nicht Überredung durch gewandte und kluge Worte, sondern war mit dem Erweis von Geist und Kraft verbunden, damit sich euer Glaube nicht auf Menschenweisheit stuetzte, sondern auf die Kraft Gottes.” (1 Kor 2,4-5 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Er muss wachsen, ich aber muss kleiner werden.” (Joh 3,30 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Gott will nicht nur unsere Fähigkeiten, Er will vor allem unsere Verfügbarkeit – uns selbst.

Vielleicht haben wir Angst oder denken, wir sind nicht geeignet dafür, Jünger zu werden. Sehen wir uns den Propheten Jeremia im Alten Testament an, wie er auf die Berufung Gottes voller Zweifel reagiert und wie Gott ihn beruhigt:

“Das Wort des Herrn erging an mich: Noch ehe ich dich im Mutterleib formte, habe ich dich ausersehen, noch ehe du aus dem Mutterschoß hervorkamst, habe ich dich geheiligt, zum Propheten für die Völker habe ich dich bestimmt. Da sagte ich: Ach, mein Gott und Herr, ich kann doch nicht reden, ich bin ja noch so jung. Aber der Herr erwiderte mir: Sag nicht: Ich bin noch so jung. Wohin ich dich auch sende, dahin sollst du gehen, und was ich dir auftrage, das sollt du verkünden. Fürchte dich nicht vor ihnen; denn ich bin mit dir, um dich zu retten – Spruch des Herrn.” (Jer 1,4-8 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Wir können Gott immer trauen. Er wird immer an unserer Seite sein und uns nie verlassen. Manchmal ist vielleicht alles dunkel um uns herum – dann bedarf es einfach ein klein wenig Glauben und Vertrauen in Seine Macht, Stärke und Weisheit.

Fuer die Jünger Christi war es wesentlich, den Glauben zu bewahren, aus ihm zu leben, ihn zu bekennen, mutig zu bezeugen und weiterzugeben (KKK 1816). Alle müssen “bereit sein, Christus vor den Menschen zu bekennen und ihm in den Verfolgungen, die der Kirche nie fehlen, auf dem Weg des Kreuzes zu folgen”  (LG 42 – vgl. DH 14).

“Wer sich nun vor den Menschen zu mir bekennt, zu dem werde auch ich mich vor meinem Vater im Himmel bekennen. Wer mich aber vor den Menschen verleugnet, den werde auch ich vor meinem Vater im Himmel verleugnen. (…) Denn ich bin gekommen, um den Sohn mit seinem Vater zu entzweien und die Tochter mit ihrer Mutter und die Schwiegertochter mit ihrer Schwiegermutter; und die Hausgenossen eines Menschen werden seine Feinde sein.” (Mt 10,32-33.35-36 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Werden wir uns kühn zu Jesus bekennen? Werden wir die Wahrheit verkünden – ohne Abstriche und ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste? Oder werden wir zu einer einer Art liberalen Christentums, wie es der protestantische Theologe H. Richard Niebuhr vor 70 Jahren beschrieben hat:

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” (Source: http://insightscoop.typepad.com. Taken from a column that originally appeared in the September 9, 2007 edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper in a slightly different form).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer hat derartige Auffassungen als “billige Gnade” bezeichnet. Derselbe Bonhoeffer, der von den Nazis umgebracht wurde, weil er sich weigerte, seinen Glauben an Jesus Christus zu verleugnen.

Wie weit sind wir bereit, zu gehen?

 

Gehen wir noch einmal zurueck ins Alte Testament:

“Sucht den Herrn, solange er sich finden lässt, ruft ihn an, solange er nahe ist.” (Jes 55,6 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Es wird also eine Zeit geben, in der der Herr nicht mehr nahe ist und sich nicht mehr finden lässt!

“Sät als eure Saat Gerechtigkeit aus, so werdet ihr ernten, wie es der (göttlichen) Liebe entspricht. Nehmt Neuland unter den Pflug! Es ist Zeit, den Herrn zu suchen; dann wird er kommen und euch mit Heil überschütten.” (Hos 10,12 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Jetzt ist die Stunde! Jetzt ist der Tag! Eine zweite Chance werden wir nicht bekommen!

“Bittet den Herrn um Regen zur Regenzeit im Frühjahr! Der Herr lässt Gewitterwolken entstehen, er füllt sie mit Regen und gibt den Menschen das Grün auf dem Feld.” (Sach 10,1 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Bereiten wir unser Feld vor – und überlassen es dem Herrn, wann Er den Regen sendet!

Werden wir zu Kriegern Jesu!

“Und schliesslich: Werdet stark durch die Kraft und Macht des Herrn! Zieht die Rüstung Gottes an, damit ihr den listigen Anschlägen des Teufels widerstehen könnt. Denn wir haben nicht gegen Menschen aus Fleisch und Blut zu kämpfen, sondern gegen die Fürsten und Gewalten, gegen die Beherrscher dieser finsteren Welt, gegen die bösen Geister des himmlischen Bereichs. Darum legt die Rüstung Gottes an, damit ihr am Tag des Unheils standhalten, alles vollbringen und den Kampf bestehen könnt.” (Eph 6,10-13 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Satan ist eine Realität – auch wenn das heute viele icht mehr wahrhaben wollen. Er steckt hinter jeder Art von sündhaften Emotion und Absicht: Hass, Lügen, Gewalt, Lust, Gier, Wut und Neid. Ebenso entwickelt er neue Mittel und Wege, sündhaftes Vergnügen zu suchen und zu bekommen – etwa stärkere Drogen oder Pornographie über das Internet. Für seine Absichten benutzt er alles Mögliche: Musik, Sex, Essen, Sport, Geld, Kunst, Kino, Medien, Krieg, Internet und vieles mehr. Nichts ist ihm zu schade, um die menschliche Rasse anzugreifen!

Und was tun wir?

Vielleicht haben wir ein spärlich besuchtes Gebetstreffen einmal wöchentlich. Oder wir helfen ab und zu mal bei einer Suppenküche für Arme aus. Vielleicht organisieren wir einmal jährlich eine Veranstaltung oder stellen uns mit einem Stand auf eine jährliche Großveranstaltung. Oder wir starten ein oberflächliches Programm, um unsere Jugend bei der Stange zu halten. Dazu noch ein wenig Fasten ab und zu – und wir denken, wir sind die großen Glaubenskämpfer!

Das sind wir aber ganz bestimmt nicht. Eher kleine Kinder, die mit Spielzeugsoldaten spielen und hölzerne Häuserblocks anstatt wirkliche Häuserblocks erobern. Das muss sich ändern, wenn wir eine wirkliche spirituelle Revolution starten wollen! Wir müssen zu den Waffen des Glaubens rufen!

Satan ist ein Meister der Lügen – und eine der Geheimnisse psychologischer Kriegsführung ist es, feindliche Truppen zu überzeugen, dass Aufgabe süss schmeckt, dass es besser ist, zu kapitulieren als weiterhin zu kämpfen, dass die Niederlage unvermeidlich ist.

Wie oft haben wir diesen Lügen geglaubt, anstatt den Kampf aufzunehmen? Wie oft haben wir uns mit Kompromissen zufriedengegeben oder uns biblische Wahrheiten, die uns nicht schmeckten, schön geredet? Wie oft haben wir uns eingeredet, dass Jesus nicht wirklich gemeint hat, was Er gesagt hat – dass man das nicht wörtlich nehmen dürfe, was da in der Bibel steht, sondern mehr oder weniger als schöne Geschichte des Glaubens sehen soll? Wie oft haben wir resigniert, anstatt zu kämpfen?

Wenn Satan einmal seinen Fuss in der Tür hat, wird er auch versuchen, reinzukommen.

Er versucht uns zu erzählen, dass die Dinge doch gar nicht so schlimm sind. Wir sollten uns nicht so viele Gedanken wegen der Sünde machen und dass ein Kompromiss doch besser sei als ein Konflikt. Wir müssten doch nicht auf diese radikalen christlichen Fundamentalisten hören – warum nicht einfach vernünftig sein? Man darf doch nicht gleich so übertreiben! Was ist schon so schlimm dabei, wenn zwei Erwachsene, die sich lieben, aus freiem Willen Sex miteinander haben, auch wenn sie nicht miteinander verheiratet sind? Was ist schon so dramatisch daran, wenn man sich einen Drink gönnt, um die Nerven zu beruhigen? Was ist so falsch daran, wenn ein Mann mit einem anderen Mann intim wird – schließich sind sie doch so geboren und können nicht anders! Was ist schon so sündig daran, wenn eine Frau mit einer anderen Frau Sex hat, wenn sie doch für Männer nichts empfinden kann? Sei doch kein Fundamentalist – es reicht doch, wenn du dich von den wirklich schlimmen Sachen wie Mord, Diebstahl oder Vergewaltigung fernhältst – und ansonsten lernst, tolerant zu sein! Und warum gleich in die Luft gehen, wenn sich jemand auch mal woanders umsieht – schließlich gibt es Schönes in allen Religionen zu entdecken! Natürlich sind deine Überzeugungen wahr – Jesus ist tatsächlich der einzige Retter und Erlöser! Aber man muss ja nicht gleich so fanatisch werden wie diese Verrückten, die die Abtreibungsärzte umbringen oder sich in entlegene Gegenden zurueckziehen und auf das Ende der Welt warten! Es reicht doch, wenn man ein gutes Leben führt und sich um seine Familie kümmert – eine höhere Berufung als das gibt es nicht! Du kannst doch auch dein Christsein zeigen, ohne so viele Worte dabei zu verlieren. Spende was an die nächste Kirche und halte dich ansonsten mit deinen Überzeugungen etwas zurück  - ist doch Privatsache und hat in der Arbeit nichts zu suchen! Im übrigen brauchst du dich auch nicht so aufregen wegen der paar Sünden ab und zu – Gott versteht das. Er kennt dich doch!

Derartige Lügen klingen sehr verlockend und so manch einer fällt darauf herein. Öffnen wir den Menschen die Augen! Steigen wir in den Ring! Wir haben einen mächtigen Gegner – lernen wir zu kämpfen!

Wenn wir aber kämpfen, dürfen wir nicht aufhören, bis wir unser Ziel erreicht haben. Ansonsten waren unsere Anstrengungen umsonst – zumindest teilweise. Wenn wir nicht bis zur Erreichung unseres Ziels kämpfen, lassen wir die Tür für Satan offen – und das kann tödliche Konsequenzen mit sich bringen!

Dennoch kämpfen einige von uns nicht – vielleicht weil sie wenig Hoffnung haben, dass sich etwas ändert. Wenig Hoffnung, dass es eine spirituelle und moralische Revolution in unserer Gesellschaft geben könnte. Kein Wunder, dass wir so am Boden sind! D.L. Moody wies einmal darauf hin, dass es einen großen Unterschied gibt zwischen denen, die kämpfen, um zu gewinnen – wenn sie können – und denen, die ganz einfach käempfen, um zu gewinnen!

Ein feiges Herz und ein zweifelnder Geist werden im Kampf nicht bestehen können, wie C.H. Mackintosh einmal festgestellt hat!

Che Guevara und mit ihm die kubanische Revolution waren unter anderem deshalb erfolgreich darin, das Regime von Batista zu stürzen, weil sie die gefährliche Einstellung mancher Revolutionäre und Möchtegern-Revolutionäre überwinden konnten, die inaktiv blieben und sich hinter dem Vorwand verstecken, dass man gegen eine professionelle Armee sowieso nichts unternehmen kann, die schließlich abwarteten, bis in irgendeiner Art und Weise alle notwendigen objektiven und subjektiven Bedingungen gegeben waeren – ohne jedoch selbst daran zu arbeiten, dass dieser Fall eintritt.

Viele Gläubige haben genau diese Einstellung. Sie hoffen, dass sich die Dinge irgendwie und irgendwann zum besseren wenden. Oder sie warten einfach voellig ziel- und planlos darauf, dass der Herr wiederkommt. Bis dahin wird ja eh alles einfach nur schlechter.

Wir müssen handeln! Wir sind gerufen, in die Welt zu gehen und die Gute Nachricht zu verkünden sowie Menschen zu Jüngern Jesu Christi zu machen! Worauf warten wir noch?

Die Dunkelheit ist dunkel genug. Was haelt uns also noch zurueck? Warum haben wir noch keinen Handlungsplan entwickelt?

Wir vertrauen immer noch auf die Politik – darauf, dass jeder Politiker, der sagt, er sei ein praktizierender Christ, auch tatsächlich einer ist. Man müsse ihn also nur wählen und darauf vertrauen, dass es dieses Mal nach der Wahl doch anders ausgehen wird als beim letzten Mal!

“Gottesfurcht verlangt, Böses zu hassen. Hochmut und Hoffart, schlechte Taten und einen verlogenen Mund hasse ich.” (Sprichwörter 8,13 – Einheitsübersetzung

“Eure Liebe sei ohne Heuchelei. Verabscheut das Böse, haltet fest am Guten!” (Röm 12,9 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Unser Kampf richtet sich nicht gegen Menschen. Wir kämpfen mit dem Teufel selbst, mit seiner dämonischen Armee, mit seinen hinterhältigen Plänen. Dieser Kampf wird mit Gebeten gekämpft, mit Aufopferung, Taten, Gehorsam, Glauben und Gottvertrauen – gestützt auf den Empfang der Sakramente. Er wird in unseren Koepfen geführt, in unseren Wohnungen, in unseren Schulen und an unseren Arbeitsplätzen, in unseren Kirchengemeinden und in unserer Gesellschaft.

Manchmal ist es ein Kampf Mensch gegen Mensch, ein Leben nach dem anderen, eine Entscheidung nach der anderen, ein Gebet nach dem anderen, eine Tat des Gehorsams nach der anderen. Wenn wir uns aber weigern, aufzugeben und Kompromisse zu schließen, werden wir den Sieg des Herrn sehen. Natürlich werden wir nicht erleben, dass jede Seele gerettet wird oder jede Stadt sich – oder gar das ganze Land sich ändert. Wir können aber mit Sicherheit davon ausgehen, dass eine spirituelle Revolution uns nach vorantreiben wird. Millionen werden gerettet werden und viele Staedte werden sich ebenfalls ändern. Ein Großteil der Nation wird erneuert werden.

Teile mit uns diese Vision!

Der Grund warum unsere Gesellschaft heute in einem derart dramatischen Zustand ist, liegt nicht so sehr bei korrupten Politikern oder vom rechten Weg abgekommenen Schauspielern oder Rockstars. Das Hauptproblem dürfte bei der Kirche selbst zu suchen sehen, die oft zu viele Kompromisse eingegangen ist. Den Weg, den die Kirche geht, geht auch die Gesellschaft! Wollen wir die Gesellschaft ändern, müssen wir erst einmal wieder zurück zum Altar!

Unsere Revolution muss eine Revolution der Liebe sein – eine selbstlose, aufopfernde, übernatürliche Liebe. Wenn unsere Feinde uns vefluchen, segnen wir sie. Wenn sie uns Böses antun, tun wir ihnen Gutes. Wenn sie uns verfolgen, beten wir für sie. Wenn sie uns hassen, lieben wir sie. Wenn sie uns töten, werden wir leben! Alle reden über Radikalität - was könnte radikaler sein als das?

Wenn wir Menschen mit gleichgeschlechtlichen Neigungen die Gute Nachricht verkünden wollen, müssen wir zuerst einmal ihre Füße waschen! Wenn wir Müttern, die abtreiben wollen, davon abbringen und sie von der Sündhaftigkeit ihres Vorhabens überzeugen wollen, müssen wir uns zuerst einmal um ledige Mütter und ihre Kinder kümmern! Wenn wir den Frauen beistehen, die gerade eine Abtreibung hinter sich haben und die geistigen und emotionalen Wunden davon mit sich tragen!

Henly nennt das “militante Liebe”: Bei dieser Art der Liebe greift das Leben den Tod an, das Licht den Tod, die Wahrheit Lügen. Militante Liebe fügt anderen kein Leid zu, sondern ist sogar bereit, Leid für andere auf sich zu nehmen. Militante Liebe nagelt ihre Feinde nicht ans Kreuz, sondern ist bereit, sich für sie ans Kreuz nageln zu lassen. militante Liebe wäscht die Füße derer, die sie betrügen und verraten.

“In allem erweisen wir uns als Gottes Diener: durch große Standhaftigkeit, in Bedrängnis, in Not, in Angst, unter Schlägen, in Gefängnissen, in Zeiten der Unruhe, unter der Last der Arbeit, in durchwachten Nächten, durch Fasten, durch lautere Gesinnung, durch Erkenntnis, durch Langmut, durch Güte, durch den Heiligen Geist, durch ungeheuchelte Liebe, durch das Wort der Wahrheit, in der Kraft Gottes, mit den Waffen der Gerechtigkeit in der Rechten und in der Linken” (2 Kor 6,4-7 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Vergessen wir unser Selbstmitleid und unsere Ausreden und gehen wir das an, wozu uns Gott jetzt berufen hat! Wenn jetzt nicht die Stunde ist, wird die Stunde nie kommen!

J. Hudson Taylor hat einmal gesagt, dass wir bei unserer Konzentration auf Methoden und Mittel vielleicht zu wenig auf die Quelle der Kraft selbst geachtet haben: das Erfülltsein vom Heiligen Geist!

Wir wurden von Gott damit beauftragt, die Gute Nachricht zu verkünden und Menschen zu Jüngern zu machen. Haben wir dabei vielleicht vergessen, dass wir dafür auch einen Handlungsplan brauchen?

Reicht es denn nicht, sich auf den Heiligen Geist zu verlassen?, mag manch einer fragen. Hat der Heilige Geist aber keinen Plan? Verlässt Er sich bei der Durchführung Seiner Absichten nur auf den Zufall? Auf keinen Fall! Es ist kaum möglich, die Evangelien und die Apostelgeschichte zu lesen, ohne darin einen Plan zu erkennen, eine göttliche Strategie. Die Tatsache, dass Gott uns manchmal überrascht und anders handelt, als wir uns das vielleicht vorgestellt haben, bedeutet nicht, dass Er nicht weiss, wo Er hin will oder wie Er dorthin gelangt.

“Plaene kommen durch Beratung zustande. Darum führe den Kampf mit Ueberlegung!” (Sprichwörter 20,18 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Denn durch Ueberlegung gewinnst du den Kampf, viele Ratgeber verhelfen zum Sieg” (Sprichwörter 24,6 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Da uns eine solche Wolke von Zeugen umgibt, wollen auch wir alle Last und die Fesseln der Sünde abwerfen. Lasst uns mit Ausdauer in den Wettkampf laufen, der uns aufgetragen ist, und dabei auf Jesus blicken, den Urheber und Vollender des Glaubens; er hat angesichts der vor ihm liegenden Freude das Kreuz auf sich genommen, ohne auf die Schande zu achten, und sich zur Rechten von Gottes Thron gesetzt.” (Heb 12,12 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Ein Punkt, den wir oft vernachlässigen: Evangelisation. Missionare wie Oswald Smith haben uns daran erinnert, dass die Kirche, die nicht evangelisiert, zum Fossil wird und dass eine der wichtigsten (wenn nicht die wichtigste!) Aufgabe der Kirche die Evangelisation der Welt ist! Aber – wie F.H. Henry sagte – das Evangelium ist nur dann die Gute Nachricht, wenn sie auch rechtzeitig bei den Menschen ankommt!

Worauf warten wir also?

”Hört das Wort nicht nur an, sondern handelt danach; sonst betrügt ihr euch selbst.”
(Jakobus 1,22 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Wir gehen vielleicht regelmässig in den Gottesdienst, singen die Lieder mit – und denken, wir tun damit schon viel und sind deshalb gute Christen. All dies ist natürlich nichts Schlechtes, aber wenn es dabei bleibt, sind wir einfach nur ein mehr oder weniger passiv konsumierendes Publikum und täuschen uns somit selbst. Jesus hat uns aber nicht erlöst, damit wir nur ein passives Publikum sind!

Passive Zuhörer verändern die Welt nicht. Sie beginnen auch keine Revolutionen. Genausowenig bringen sie das Königreich Gottes voran oder erfüllen das grosse Gebot (zu allen Völkern zu gehen, alle Menschen zu taufen und sie zu Jüngern Jesu zu machen sowie sie zu lehren, alles zu befolgen, was Jesus den ersten Jüngern geboten hat). Ein passives Publikum macht dem Teufel keine Angst. Nicht im geringsten. Wir müssen diese passive “Zuhörer-Mentalität” zerstoeren. Das wird ganz bestimmt nicht leicht in einer Kultur, die ganz auf Unterhaltung und Superstars hin orientiert ist (was auch an der Kirche nicht spurlos vorübergegangen ist!).

WIR müssen aktiv werden – und nicht nur irgendjemand in der Kirche, der dafür bezahlt wird! Jeder einzelne von uns! Frank Viola hat bereits deutlich darauf hingewiesen, dass Paulus sich immer (abgesehen von den Pastoralbriefen, die an einzelne Menschen geschrieben waren) an die Kirche insgesamt – also alle Gläubigen – gewandt hat und nicht nur an ihre Leiter! Die gläubige Gemeinde als ganze ist gerufen, sich selbst zu organisieren, gefallene Glieder in geschwisterlicher Liebe zu disziplinieren, die zu warnen, die vom Weg abkommen, die Schwachen und Traurigen zu trösten und zu unterstützen, Werke der Liebe zu verrichten, einander zu ermahnen und zu ermutigen, einander zu lehren und voneinander zu lernen, einander zu dienen, die Lasten der anderen zu tragen, füreinander zu sorgen, einander die Füßße zu waschen, einander zu lieben, Güte und Mitgefühl füreinander zu zeigen, einander aufzurichten, einander zu ertragen, einander zu guten Taten zu ermuntern, füreinander zu beten, Gastfreundschaft füreinander zu zeigen und einander unsere Sünden zu gestehen, füreinander Mitleid zu zeigen, aber auch andere zu fuehren, materielle Güter zu teilen und andere zu heilen.

Jesus fordert von Seinen Jüngern einen radikalen, absoluten Gehorsam. Ein Gehorsam, der so extrem ist, dass er für einen Großteil der Welt – und einen grossen Teil der Kirche – als fanatisch, ja fast wie ein Kult erscheint. Jesus ruft uns alle als Seine Jünger. Wissen wir wirklich, was das bedeutet?

Wir sollten nicht nur ein “Christ” oder ein “Gläubiger”, sondern vor allem ein “Jünger” sein – ein Begriff, der mehr als 260 Mal im gesamten Neuen Testament verwendet wird (einschliesslich mehr als 230 mal in den Evangelien und 28 mal in der Apostelgeschichte). Wie können wir den Ruf nach wahrer Jüngerschaft herunterspielen oder gar ignorieren, wenn er doch ein derart wichtiges Thema in der Bibel darstellt?

Zum Vergleich: Das Wort “Christ” etwa kommt nur drei mal im gesamten Neuen Testament vor (Apg 11, Apg 26, 1 Ptr 4) – das Wort “Gläubiger” oder “Glaubender” nur 26 mal!

Was bedeutet das?

Was sagt uns das, wenn viele von uns kein Problem haetten, sich als “Christ” oder “Gläubiger” oder “Glaubender” zu bezeichnen, sehr wohl aber, wenn es darum geht, sich “Jünger” zu nennen? Alleine das Wort laut auszusprechen, zwingt uns beinahe dazu, unser Gewissen zu erforschen, ob wir den wirklich Jünger sind!

Denken wir an die Kultur des Neuen Testaments:

“Rabbi” war nicht ein formaler Titel oder ein klerikales Amt zu dieser Zeit. “Rabbi” war vielmehr ein Ehrerntitel, den besondere Lehrer und Führer erhielten. Ergebene Studenten folgten diesen Rabbis nach. Rabbi Yohanan (Johannes der Täufer) hatte seine Anhänger, ebenso Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus) (vgl. Joh 4,1; 31).

Ein Schüler wurde mit seinem Lehrer in Verbindung gebracht. Sein ganzes Leben drehte sich um seinen Meister (Lk 6,40; Mt 10,24-25). So blieben auch die ursprünglichen zwölf Jünger Jesu stets an dessen Seite. Sie waren Ihm sogar näher als Seine eigene Familie (Mt 12,48-50). Er teilte Seine Geheimnisse mit ihnen und sandte sie auch aus, um Ihn zu vertreten (Mt 10,40) und um Seine Mission auszufuehren (Mt 10,7-8).

In den Evangelien ist aber nicht nur von den zwölf Aposteln die Rede. In der Mehrzahl der Fälle ist sogar nicht von den zwölf Aposteln die Rede, wenn es “Jünger” heisst, sondern von den vielen Männern und Frauen, die Jesus nachfolgten. Und Jesus hat es ihnen bestimmt nicht leicht gemacht, Ihm nachzufolgen!

“Ein anderer aber, einer seiner Jünger, sagte zu ihm: Herr, lass mich zuerst heimgehen und meinen Vater begraben! Jesus erwiderte: Folge mir nach; lass die Toten ihre Toten begraben!” (Mt 8,21-22 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Das New International Dictonary of New Testament Theology betont, dass die Nachfolge Jesu als Jünger das bedingungslose Opfern seines ganzen Lebens bedeutet. Matthäus unterstreicht besonders, dass Jünger sein bedeutet, an Jesus und an Gottes Willen gebunden zu sein (Mt 12,46-50; vgl. Mk 3,31-35).

“Wieder ein anderer sagte: Ich will dir nachfolgen, Herr. Zuvor aber lass mich von meiner Familie Abschied nehmen. Jesus erwiderte ihm: Keiner, der die Hand an den Pflug gelegt hat und nochmals zurückblickt, taugt für das Reich Gottes.” (Lk 9,61-62 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Als Jesus von dort wegging, sah er einen Zöllner namens Levi am Zoll sitzen und sagte zu ihm: Folge mir nach! Da stand Levi auf, verließ alles und folgte ihm.” (Lk 5,27-28 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Als Jesus am See von Galiläa entlangging, sah er zwei Brüder, Simon, genannt Petrus, und seinen Bruder Andreas; sie warfen gerade ihr Netz in den See, denn sie waren Fischer. Da sagte er zu ihnen: Kommt her, folgt mir nach! Ich werde euch zu Menschenfischern machen. Sofort liessen sie ihre Netze liegen und folgten ihm.” (Mt 4,18-20 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Er rief – und sie ließen alles zurück und folgten Ihm. Das ist Kurzform die Vorstellung von Jüngerschaft, von wahrer Ergebenheit. Das ist die Norm des Neuen Testaments.

Dieser Ruf nach wahrer Jüngerschaft beinhaltete aber immer auch den Ruf nach dem Dienen. Der messianische jüdische Gelehrte Dan Gruber meinte einmal, anstatt jemanden zu fragen: “Bist du gerettet”, sollten wir lieber fragen: “Wem dienst du?”.

In Lk 14,33 sagt Jesus: “Darum kann keiner von euch mein Jünger sein, wenn er nicht auf seinen ganzen Besitz verzichtet.”

Tom Skinner wies darauf hin, dass dies einer der härtesten Verse in der Bibel sei und viele Menschen wünschten, er wäre nicht da. Solche Menschen sagen, Gott wolle doch nicht wirklich, dass wir alles aufgeben. Man könne doch Christus nachfolgen und sein Ding durchziehen, ohne alles aufzugeben! Sie führen dann oft an, was die Bibel wirklich damit sagen will, ist, dass wir dazu bereit sein sollten.

Sieh dir selbst diesen Vers an – siehst du hier irgendwo den Ausdruck “bereit sein”?

Wir tendieren manchmal dazu, unseren Verstand abzuschalten, wenn wir bestimmte Abschnitte in der Bibel lesen. Der Jesus der Evangelien ist ja immer so offen und direkt in Seinen Forderungen! Es sieht fast so aus, als bedürften Seine Lehren immer eine Erklärung oder Abänderung unsererseits. Denken wir nicht manchmal – bewusst oder unbewusst – genau so?

Vielleicht versuchen wir uns einzureden, dass all das vielleicht für die ersten Jünger Jesu gegolten haben mag. Sie konnten ja wirklich alles verlassen und mit Jesus gehen, sogar bis zum Tod. Bei uns ist das aber doch ganz anders! Sie waren Jünger – wir sind doch nur Gläubige, Glieder einer Ortskirche!

Unser Glaube ist doch sehr bequem und kostet uns wenig, geschweige denn dass er uns irgendwie in Schwierigkeiten bringen koennte. Unser Glaube ist doch eher “vernünftig” als radikal. Die Dinge sind doch heute anders. Alles hat sich geändert. Oder?

Nicht, was Gottes Wille und Wege angeht. Nicht, was Seine Forderungen und Ansprüche betrifft. Ein Jünger ist ein Jünger, und dieser Begriff bezeichnete am öftesten die Glieder der Kirche, des Leibes Christi, in der Apostelgeschichte. Wenn man ein Gläubiger war, war man ein Jünger – und Jesus machte unzweifelhaft klar, was das bedeutete.

Jetzt einmal ganz offen: Welches Buch, welcher Theologe, welcher Mensch hat das Recht, uns sagen zu wollen, Jesus hätte nicht wirklich gemeint, was Er da gesagt hatte, als Er davon sprach, was es bedeutete, Sein Jünger zu sein? Dass Seine Aussagen nur für einige wenige Auserwählte zutrafen? Auserwählte, die aus anderem Stoff waren als die Gläubigen des 21. Jahrhunderts? Auf welcher Grundlage verfälschen wir die Aussagen unseres Herrn?

“We're called to be the Church militant, not the Church mush!”
Fr. Bill Casey, Superior of the Fathers of Mercy

Als Christinnen und Christen ist es nicht unser Ziel, um jeden Preis Menschen gefallen zu wollen, sondern Gott. Wir gehorchen den Gesetzen des Landes, in dem wir leben; wenn diese jedoch Gottes Gesetz widersprechen, dann müssen und werden wir Gottes Gesetz befolgen. Hierfür bedarf es aber viel Weisheit und Vorbereitung, was mögliche Konsequenzen angeht (siehe Apg 5,25-29).

Auch sollten wir ständig vom Heiligen Geiste erfüllt sein. Keinesfalls sollten wir Seine Stimme ignorieren. Auch sollten wir unsere geistigen Gaben trainieren und ausüben (siehe 1 Kor 12,1-11).

“Nicht ihr habt mich erwählt, sondern ich habe euch erwählt und dazu bestimmt, dass ihr euch aufmacht und Frucht bringt und dass eure Frucht bleibt. Dann wird euch der Vater alles geben, um was ihr ihn in meinem Namen bittet.” (Joh 15,16 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Eine wesentliche Quelle unserer Jüngerschaft: Das tägliche Gebet und Bibelstudium. Nehmen wir uns Jesus als Vorbild: Er wusste, wo Er herkam und wo Er hinging. Auch wir sollten das wissen. Auch Mutter Theresa betete täglich und ausgiebig.

Gott hat uns mit vielen wunderbaren Gaben ausgestattet – die wenigsten unter uns nutzen jedoch dieses ungeheure Potential! Was wir doch tun und erreichen könnten, wenn wir nur mutig und furchtlos voranschreiten und Unbekanntes wagen würden!

Wenn wir behaupten, Christinnen und Christen zu sein, uns aber weigern, auch so zu leben, wie Jesus es uns aufgetragen hat, verleugnen und entehren wir Ihn. Geben wir Ihm also unser uneingeschränkt und für alle sichtbar unser ganzes Leben!

In einer Zeit, in der sich Menschen vom christlichen Glauben abwenden, ist es umso wichtiger – ja lebenswichtiger! -, diesen offen und furchtlos sowie in Liebe und Demut zu verkünden!

“Haltet in eurem Herzen Christus, den Herrn, heilig! Seid stets bereit, jedem Rede und Antwort zu stehen, der nach der Hoffnung fragt, die euch erfüllt; aber antwortet bescheiden und ehrfürchtig, denn ihr habt ein reines Gewissen. Dann werden die, die euch beschimpfen, weil ihr in (der Gemeinschaft mit) Christus ein rechtschaffenes Leben führt, sich wegen ihrer Verleumdungen schämen müssen.” (1 Petr 3,15-16 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Papst Benedikt XVI. hat kürzlich in “Ubicumque et Semper” einem Apostolischen Brief in der Form eines Motu Proprio daruf hingewiesen, dass es einer neuen Evangelisierung zur Vertiefung des reinen und festen Glaubens bedarf. Eine Evangelisierung, deren wiederbelebende Kraft vom Heiligen Geist sowie von einer tiefgehenden Gotteserfahrung kommen muss. Als Instrumente empfahl er ausdrücklich auch die neuen Formen sozialer Kommunikationsmittel, aber auch die Verwendung des “Katechismus der Katholischen Kirche”.

Eine derartige Evangelisierung muss von allen Gläubigen getragen werden. Wir alle haben von Gott Gaben und damit auch Aufgaben bekommen. Nutzen wir sie!

In diesem Zusammenhang ein Verweis auf das Sakrament der Firmung (vgl. Joh 14,15-21):

Durch dieses Sakrament und die damit geschenkte Gnade des Heiligen Geistes werden wir zu Soldaten Christi, zu Zeugen des Evangeliums für die Welt. Jesus versprach, den Heiligen Geist zu schicken, was dann an Pfingsten geschah (Apg 2,3-4): Der Heilige Geist kam auf die Apostel herab. Diese wurden von Ihm verändert und verwandelt:

“Mit großer Kraft legten die Apostel Zeugnis ab von der Auferstehung Jesu, des Herrn, und reiche Gnade ruhte auf ihnen allen.” (Apg 4,33 – Einheitsübersetzung)

“Alle wurden von Furcht ergriffen; denn durch die Apostel geschahen viele Wunder und Zeichen.” (Apg 2,43 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Sie zeigten auch die persönliche Heiligkeit des christlichen Lebens:

“Es gab auch keinen unter ihnen, der Not litt. Denn alle, die Grundstücke oder Häuser besassen, verkauften ihren Besitz, brachten den Erlös und legten ihn den Aposteln zu Füssen. Jedem wurde davon so viel zugeteilt, wie er nötig hatte” (Apg 4,34-35 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Die Firmung setzt diese Gnade, die Die Apostel an Pfingsten erfahren durften, fort.

In Samaria sehen wir die Firmung als eine sakramentale Handlung ausserhalb und getrennt von der Beichte: Petrus und Johannes besuchen eine Gruppe von Gläubigen, die im Namen Jesu getauft worden waren, aber noch nicht den Heiligen Geist empfangen hatten. Die Apostel legten die Hände auf die getauften Gläubigen und der Heilige Geist kam über sie (Apg 8,14-17). Auch heute noch wird durch dieses Handauflegen seitens der Bischöfe der Ritus der Firmung vollzogen (KKK, 1285-1321).

Durch diese Gnade des Heiligen Geistes wurde uns auch eine ganz persönliche Berufung als Jünger Jesu Christi aufgegeben! Wir sind Soldaten Christi – also handeln wir auch danach!

“Seid also standhaft: Gürtet euch mit Wahrheit, zieht als Panzer die Gerechtigkeit an und als Schuhe die Bereitschaft, für das Evangelium vom Frieden zu kämpfen. Vor alem greift zum Schild des Glaubens! Mit ihm könnt ihr alle feurigen Geschosse des Bösen auslöschen. Nehmt den Helm des Heils und das Schwert des Geistes, das ist das Wort Gottes. Hört nicht auf, zu beten und zu flehen! Betet jederzeit im Geist; seid wachsam, harrt aus und bittet für alle Heiligen” (Eph 6,14-18 – Einheitsübersetzung)

Amen.

 

Quellen:

u.a. Scott Hahn, “Catholic Bible Dictionary”, Doubleday Religion, New York 2009. ISBN 978-0-385-51229-9
Michael L. Brown, “Revolution – The Call to Holy War” Regel Books. Ventura, California, USA, 2000. ISBN 0-8307-2640-3
Michael L. Brown, “Revolution in the Church. Challenging the Religious System with a Call for Radical Change.” Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 2002. ISBN 0-8807-9310-2 (pbk.)
Fr. Roger J. Landry on www.cuf.org
Katechismus der Katholischen Kirche. München (R. Oldenburg Verlag) 1993.
http://insightscoop.typepad.com
Our Sunday Visitor
Matthew Bakholer, “Mission Preparation Training”, ByFaith Media, Great Brittain 2006, ISBN 1846851653 (978-1-84685-165-0)
Papst Benedikt XVI: “Apostolischer Brief in Form eines Motu Proprio Ubicumque et Semper des Obersten Hirten Benedikt XVI. mit dem der päpstliche Rat zur Förderung der neuen Evangelisierung errichtet wird” (Quelle: www.kath.net / Dr. Alexander Pytlik)

 

"Ich kenne deine Werke. Du bist weder kalt noch heiß. Wärest du doch kalt oder heiß! Weil du aber lau bist, weder heiß noch kalt, will ich dich aus meinem Mund ausspeien."
(Offb 3,15-16 - Einheitsübersetzung)

 

Ist ein Jünger jemand, der den Lehren eines anderen folgt, den er als Lehrer akzeptiert, wie ihn das Oxford American Dictionary definiert?

Aus säkularer Sicht bestimmt. Aus christlicher Sicht muss jedoch angefügt werden, dass das Prinzip Jüngerschaft noch weitaus weiter und tiefer geht.

Laut Joel C. Rosenberg und T.E. Koshy gibt es drei Charakteristika eines Jüngers:

1) Er hat eine persönliche Beziehung zu Jesus Christus.
2) Er hat eine Beziehung zu einem älteren und weiseren Gläubigen.
3) Er hat eine persönliche Beziehung zu jüngeren Gläubigen.

Ein Jünger ist jemand, der ganz bewusst dem Leben und Verhalten eines älteren und weiseren Gläubigen folgt.

Sehen wir uns Jesus und andere Beispiele aus der Bibel an: Jesus folgte dem Vater (Johannes 5,19). Er forderte Seine Jünger auf, Ihm zu folgen (Matthäus 9,9, JOhannes 1,43). Der Apostel Paulus forderte seine Jünger auf, ihm zu folgen (1. Korinther 11:1). Paulus trug Timotheus auf, andere zu lehren, ihm zu folgen (1. Timotheus 4,12.15).

Wie sieht es damit in unserem eigenen Leben aus? Haben wir eine persönliche Beziehung zu Jesus Christus? Haben wir jemand, der spirituell in uns investiert und gibt es jemand, in den wir investieren? Haben wir Jesu' Auftrag, hinaus zu gehen, Menschen zu taufen und sie zu Jüngern zu machen, erfüllt? Dieser Auftrag gilt für alle, die an Jesus glauben. Gibt es jemand in deinem Leben, zu dem du eine Jüngerschaftsbeziehung hast?

All das mag für manche fremd klingen, jedoch macht es das Wesen des Christentums aus. Jesus begründete keine Mega-Church mit einer Publicity-Abteilung, sondern machte einfache Menschen zu Jüngern, die wiederum andere zu Jüngern machten und so die Gute Nachricht über die ganze Welt verbreiteten!


Empfohlene Literatur:


The Invested Life: Making Disciples of All Nations One Person at a Time
Joel C. Rosenberg (Author), T. E. Koshy (Author)
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (August 17, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414376375
ISBN-13: 978-1414376370

The dawning of the 21st century finds the church of America in a moral and spiritual crisis. Decades of self-centered living and worldliness have taken their toll. Years of compromise and toothless gospel preaching have had their effect. And now we have reached the moment of truth: Either we wake up, stand up, speak up, and act up, or we run the risk of becoming a mere historic curiosity, an irrelevant religious sideshow, an entertaining, harmless spectacle. Something must change, and it must change now. There is no other choice.

Forty years ago, a counterculture revolution swept through America, resulting in a sudden, steep moral decline. Since that time (from the early ’60s until today), the divorce rate has doubled, the teen suicide rate has tripled, reported violent crime has quadrupled, the prison population has quintupled, the percentage of babies born out of wedlock has risen six-fold, and couples living together out of wedlock has risen sevenfold. And the end is not in sight.

The last generation’s counterculture of rebellion has become this generation’s establishment of revulsion, and what was unthinkable forty years ago – daytime talk shows celebrating adultery and incest; homosexual love scenes on major network TV; eleven year-old multiple murderers; massacres in our schools and houses of worship – is a matter of course today. We need a revolution!

But this revolution will be different than other revolutions – including the revolution that birthed our nation more than 200 years ago. This revolution will not be fought with earthly weapons of destruction – not with guns and knives and bullets and bombs. It will not be fought with hatred, anger, intimidation, or brute force. No. It will be fought with the message of the gospel, with the love of God, with the power of the Spirit, with radical holiness, with sacrifice, compassion, and courage. It will be a Jesus revolution, an intense clash between two spiritual kingdoms, a heavenly attack on the enemy’s strongholds, a no compromise stand for morality and truth. And it will impact society in a lasting way. It must!

Revolution means upheaval. Revolution means the overthrowing of the status quo. We dare not downplay the significance of the word. Revolution is a matter of life and death, and our revolution flows from the blood of the Savior to the blood of the martyr. We put down our sword and take up our cross, overcoming Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by not loving our lives so much as to shrink from death (Rev. 12:11). Nothing can stop a revolution like this!

Our revolution is fueled by the power of the gospel, and the gospel does violence to the forces of hell. We must recover the fullness of the gospel of Jesus! It is nothing less than a direct assault on the kingdom of Satan, a frontal attack on hostile, spiritual powers, a mortal confrontation of light against darkness. It brings about the ultimate counterculture conflict.

That’s why Jesus said to His disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also” (John 15:18-20).

That’s why Paul explained that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12), reminding the disciples that, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). God’s people march to the beat of a different drummer. God’s obedient people will always offend the world, no matter how much we seek to be peacemakers and to walk in compassion and love. Our very lifestyles are a reproof to the ungodly.

That’s why Joseph Parker could say more than a century ago, “The man whose little sermon is ‘repent’ sets himself against his age, and will for the time being be battered mercilessly by the age whose moral tone he challenges. There is but one end for such a man — ‘off with his head!’ You had better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven.” The gospel means conflict and confrontation, and all who stand for righteousness will be resisted.

That’s why Jesus was accused by his own people of being “a Samaritan and demon-possessed” (John 8:48), why Paul and Silas were accused of “throwing cities into an uproar” (Acts 16:20) and “causing trouble all over the world” (Acts 17:6), why Paul himself was mistaken for being an “Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert” (Acts 21:38). The gospel is subversive. The gospel is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The gospel is revolutionary.

We’re in a war, and war means conflict, hardship, and sacrifice. As Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “When a nation calls its prime men to battle, homes are broken, weeping sweethearts say their good-byes, businesses are closed, college careers are wrecked, factories are refitted for wartime production, rationing and discomforts are accepted — all for war. Can we do less for the greatest fight that this world has ever known outside of the cross — this end-time siege on sanity, morality, and spirituality?”

Satan’s strategy is to institutionalize the Church, to turn the Body of Christ into a powerless religious system. If that tactic fails, he tries to desensitize us and lull us to sleep until we lose our convictions and our sense of outrage is gone. And he is always seeking to seduce us into sin until we become just like the world, enslaved by its passions and lusts. And when he thinks he has succeeded, when he no longer feels threatened by the people of God, then he gets aggressive and brazenly puts forth his agenda. He’s doing it today. We need a revolution!

The cat is out of the bag. The secret is no longer a secret. Anti-God forces are after the soul of our nation, and if we don’t wake up now, if we don’t take a stand now, if we don’t repent and pray and rise and speak and act now, then instead of this great country being “the land of the free and the home of the brave” our nation could become “the land of sleaze and the home of depraved.” We need a revolution!

DNA tests to find out who fathered the baby are here. (In fifteen of our nation’s largest cities, more than 90% of the babies born to teens are illegitimate.) Legalized same-sex “civil unions” are here. Children’s textbooks encouraging adolescent fornication are here. School hallways splattered with teenage blood are here. Bans on using the name of Jesus at our graduations are here. Topless, feminist “worship services” on our college campuses are here. We need a revolution!

We live in a time of ethical madness and social uncertainty, a time when talk of a moral revolution should be everywhere. Instead, the best-selling “revolutionary” books are books about new diets. What does this say for us as a people? When we need to be talking about the call to die for the gospel, we are talking instead about the call to diet for good looks. What a sad indictment! And what does it say of our self-deception and lack of discipline when we are at one and the same time the world’s best-read nation on diet and nutrition and the world’s most obese? Even our pets are overweight. We need a revolution!

The United States boasts the highest percentage of professing evangelicals in the industrialized world, with more than 36% of Americans – meaning more than 90 million people – classified as born-again. Yet America has:

• The highest percentage of single-parent families in the industrialized world
• The highest abortion rate in the industrialized world
• The highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the industrialized world (the rates of syphilis and gonorrhea transmission are almost 500% higher than the highest rates in the other industrialized nations)
• The highest teenage birth rate in the industrialized world (by far!)
• The highest rate of teenage drug use in the industrialized world

We need a revolution!

Our society is deteriorating all around us and even non-believers sense that something is wrong. Why? It is because we, the people of God, the army of the Lord Jesus, the messengers of liberation, the ambassadors of reconciliation, have been sidetracked by the love of this world and distracted by the cares of this age. As a result, we have not changed this generation. This generation has changed us!

Rather than seasoning the world like salt and brightening the world like light, we now smell and taste like the world, and its darkness is snuffing out our lamps. Rather than setting captives free by the power of Jesus’ blood, many of us are being ensnared and enslaved, making a mockery of that sacred blood. Rather than making disciples of sinners and teaching them the ways of God, many of us are being discipled by them, learning their ways, imitating their lifestyles, and conforming to their values.

A 1997 survey conducted by George Barna used 152 different items to compare the church and the world. He found virtually no difference between the two. In fact, the divorce rate today among evangelicals is higher than the divorce rate among atheists. We need a revolution!

Communist educators visiting America have been shocked by the materialism and worldliness of many of our Christian young people, while Islamic leaders are appalled by the rampant sexual sin and shameless immodesty among many who profess Christ as Lord. The ideals of the unsaved are often more lofty than the ideals of the saved. We need a revolution!

Just consider how far things have fallen, despite decades of 24-hour gospel radio and TV, hundreds of Bible colleges and seminaries, thousands of Christian schools and bookstores, and churches and ministries too numerous to count. Forty years ago, men having sex with men and women having sex with women was considered perverse. Now it is considered perverse – homophobic, hateful, mean-spirited, and bigoted – to call such behavior wrong. We need a revolution!

Forty years ago, not even science fiction writers would have predicted that American companies would be making money off the sale of the skin and brains and limbs and spinal chords of aborted babies. Today, Congress will not even pass legislation to make this thriving practice illegal. We need a revolution!

Jesus rebuked the leaders of his day who said of themselves, “If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets” (Matt 23:30) – and then they took part in shedding the blood of the greatest Prophet of them all. How hypocritical! Yet we do this very thing, saying, “If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in the detestable sin of slavery. We would never have tolerated such evil. We would surely have done something about it.”

Yet on our watch, in our day, we have tolerated an even more heinous sin: the slaughter of forty million babies in their mothers’ wombs. In what way have we been better than our forefathers who tolerated slavery – or better than the European “Christians” who tolerated the Nazi extermination of six million Jews? How much have we really done to stop this generation’s holocaust?

Bloodshed pollutes the land (Num 35:33), and the blood of these helpless victims – oceans of blood of these aborted little ones – has been crying out for justice for decades. What will our God do? We need a revolution!

In 1960, only 2.3% of percent of white women had children out of wedlock. By 1997, more than 25% — a ten-fold increase! – were having children out of wedlock (despite millions being aborted before they ever left the womb). In the African American community, that number rose from 23% percent to more than 68%. We need a revolution!

In 1962, the Supreme Court outlawed organized, public prayer in our schools (without citing a single historic precedent to back its decision), and we complied with that ruling. In the year 2000, the Court has banned voluntary public prayer in our schools. Why have we complied with this ruling too? At what point do we say, “We must obey God rather than man”? At what point do we say, “Enough is enough”? We need a revolution!

On April 12, 2000, at Pearl River Central High School in Carrierre, Mississippi, the Spirit of God fell upon the students attending a voluntary, pre-class assembly led by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. As students lined up fifty deep to confess their sins and get right with God and one another, the principal, Lolita Lee, herself a Christian, decided to let the meeting go on through the day. Civil libertarians were outraged, but, as Time magazine reported (June 5, 2000, p. 61), “The school received hundreds of congratulatory e-mails. ‘Thank you for your courage,’ wrote an Ohio man to Lee. ‘You have done the equivalent of not moving to the back of the bus.’” Isn’t it time we follow suit? If not now, when? What more needs to happen?

For more than two hundred years, the Bible was commonly used as a textbook in our schools, and generations of children learned the ABC’s with a Scripture truth for each letter. But in 1963, the Supreme Court banned required reading of the Scriptures from our schools, and once again, we complied with the ruling. Why? By 1980, the Court had ordered the removal of the Ten Commandments from public view in our schools and by 1985, it outlawed benedictions or invocations in formal school activities. Some lower courts even ruled against students praying out loud over their cafeteria meals. We need a revolution!

When the governing authorities seized the apostles and charged them not to speak in Jesus’ name, Peter replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). And they kept speaking! As a result, they were arrested, whipped, and strictly ordered not to speak any more in Jesus’ name. But, Scripture records, “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 5:41-42). Can we learn something from this?

Christians around the world today are severely persecuted because they refuse to obey oppressive, unjust laws. Many of them are model citizens in every way, obedient, respectful and peace loving. But when the government – or religious establishment – forbids them to read their Bibles, forbids them to baptize, forbids them to share their faith, forbids them to gather together, forbids them to make disciples, then they say with the apostles, “We must obey God rather than man.” At what point does this apply to us?

Our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world have been discriminated against, deprived of their livelihoods, imprisoned, tortured, and killed, all because they refused to render to Caesar that which does not belong to Caesar. Yet we are afraid to take a stand for Jesus if it would threaten our income, or cost us a scholarship, or make us unpopular. Why this double standard? Why do they refuse to comply – even when threatened with imprisonment and death – while we willfully comply, even when there is no threat? We need a revolution!

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were commanded to worship an idol or be subject to a fiery death, they refused to bow down (Daniel 3). But today, with no one commanding us, we freely worship the idols of our society, bowing down to the gods of unclean entertainment, sensual fashion, and unbridled materialism and greed. Our obsession with sports is idolatrous as well, to the point that many churches throughout the land make sure their Sunday services end in time for the afternoon football games, canceling their meetings entirely the night of the Super Bowl. We need a revolution!

When Daniel was told that an edict had been passed declaring that “anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to [the] king, shall be thrown into the lions’ den . . . he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10-12). It’s time that we follow his lead. Godly defiance spells triumph while retreat spells defeat. We need a revolution!

Year by year our religious freedoms have been taken away, while special rights and freedoms have been given to those whom the Bible calls “unrighteous” (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; in the Scriptures, homosexual activity is classified along with adultery, fornication, theft, drunkenness, hatred, anger, greed, and hypocrisy, and all who practice such things are called “unrighteous”). Thus the Supreme Court ruled that a school full of Christians cannot choose to have prayer before a school sporting event since it would offend and exclude the minority who don’t want to pray. But when homosexuals introduce children’s textbooks into our schools outlining in graphic detail the intricacies of gay sex, the offended majority is told to accept it. Right is now wrong and wrong is now right, and the will of the godless is imposed on the will of the godly. We need a revolution!

When a gay man is beaten to death because he is gay – this is a reprehensible, despicable act that every decent person should abhor – it causes a national uproar, with loud voices in the government calling for new legislation against hate crimes. And we should speak out against such deplorable crimes. But when Christians students are shot to death as they profess their faith in God, the government raises its voice to forbid the placing of memorial crosses on school property. The handwriting is on the wall. The strategy is clear. We need a revolution!

Teachers in our public schools can give condom demonstrations to our teens and use books like “Heather Had Two Mommies” to teach our kids to read, and we are required to support this with our own tax dollars. But let a teacher read from the Scriptures to a seeking, needy student, and that teacher could be out of a job – all because of the First Amendment’s so-called separation of Church and State.

But that is not what the First Amendment intended. It simply stated that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” meaning, first, that the government could not form a national denomination (like the Church of England of old) and require all Americans to be part of it, and second, that there would be religious freedom for all. As emphasized by Stephen Carter, professor of law at Yale University, “The wall of separation of church and state is not there to protect the state from the church; it is there to protect the church from the state. It stands as a divide to preserve religious freedom. And one needs to protect the church from the state because the latter will utilize its enormous powers to do what the state has always done – either subvert the religion or destroy it. If we continue our slide toward a state that breaches the wall of separation whenever it is convenient, then I worry about the great risk to religious freedom. In the end, such a breach could destroy our ability to form the communities of resistance that are crucial if we are going to have a chance to transform the nation.”

Our forefathers wanted to ensure that the government would not be able to impose its will on the church. For more than one generation now, this has been totally reversed and stood on its head, and the price has been very high, with skyrocketing crime rates and plummeting rates of morality and literacy. And what has become of the First Amendment’s guarantee of “the free exercise” of religion when the courts tell us that we cannot use religious symbols on public property, cannot post the Ten Commandments in government buildings, and cannot use the name of Jesus in public school events? We have lost our religious freedom. We need a revolution!

In 1999, a bill was brought before Congress that would have required businesses – which by implication could have included churches and religious institutions – to hire gays and lesbians if they were qualified for the job in question, despite their sexual preference. And the bill failed by only one vote! Even more distressing is that if the bill did pass, there was another bill ready to follow, calling for a ban on even speaking against a person’s sexual orientation. (A similar bill has now been passed in Canada.) Such speech would be deemed hate speech, punishable by law, and potentially meaning that a pastor simply expounding the Scriptures to his flock could be arrested. Yet this is the very thing from which our Founding Fathers were trying to protect us. So much for the First Amendment and religious freedom! The fact that such laws could even be crafted for Congress proves that we have long since passed the breaking point – yet some Christian leaders would have felt obligated to obey these laws if they had passed. We need a revolution!

We have gone from debating a woman’s “right to choose” to sucking out the brains of third trimester babies (with the backing of the courts!), from arguing about the medical definition of death to legalizing physician-assisted suicide, from needing metal detectors at airports to needing metal detectors at schools (and soon at houses of worship?), from tracking down absentee fathers to trying to figure out who the father is, from the outlawing of mandatory school prayer to the outlawing of voluntary school prayer. We need a revolution!

Without a holy, counterculture revolution, America could become a society where candid religious expression is outlawed, a society where it is almost impossible to keep our children free from the pollution of the world, a society teetering perilously close to the thunderous judgments of God. Such things have happened to other nations, and such things could happen to us.

But all is not lost! The gospel has changed societies before, and the gospel can change societies again. For countless centuries, India engaged in the practice of widow-burning, where the widow of a deceased man was sometimes burned alive with her husband’s corpse. This horrific practice was outlawed through the tireless efforts of missionary William Carey. Both slave-trading and unjust child-labor laws were abolished in Britain through the fearless work of the Christian political leader William Wilberforce. And this followed on the heels of England’s transformation through the sacrificial labors of John Wesley and his Methodist followers, saving the nation from the anarchy and violence of the French Revolution. Around the world today, whole communities are being impacted by united prayer and evangelism, and here in our land, there is a rising momentum of concerted, twenty-four hour worship and intercession not seen for decades.

There are pockets of spiritual renewal throughout the country, and the tides of a radical youth revival are rapidly rising. Another Jesus people movement could be near, a heaven-sent revolution far greater than the worldwide Jesus movement of 1967-1975, when hundreds of thousands of hippies and radicals were swept into the kingdom. Even now, it is at the door. And not only will multitudes of lost sinners be truly saved, but multitudes of casual church goers will also be truly saved. Just think of what would happen if even one-quarter of America’s professing believers got totally and uncompromisingly right with God – and then each of them touched just five or six other people. It would quickly reverse our nation’s moral decline. Despite our perilous condition, it’s still not too late!

If our nation could be changed for the worse in one decade – this is what happened in the 1960s, despite progress in Civil Rights and some other social areas – it can be changed for the better in one decade. If angry student protests on college campuses could help stop an international war (Vietnam), what could holy student “protests” on our campuses accomplish?

America can be impacted for the good, and as followers of Jesus, we are called to make that impact. We do it by walking in the light, as He is in the light; by calling the lost to turn back to God in repentance; by preaching the gospel and making disciples; by proclaiming liberty to the captives; by pursuing righteousness in every area of public and private life; by acts of kindness, mercy, and compassion, overcoming evil with good; by prayer, fasting, and the power of God; by living holy lives and setting holy examples; by being a prophetic voice and a moral conscience to society; by Spirit-led community involvement and godly political action; by non-violent resistance of injustice and oppression.

What else should Christians do? Should not the presence of tens of millions of believers be felt in a nation? Should we not make a difference for God? Should we not be a force for spiritual and moral reformation? Should we not actively extend the kingdom of God? Should not the Great Commission leave tangible results in its wake?

This is our sacred moment, our solemn time for action. If we will unshackle ourselves from the love of this world – from our lusts, our addictions, our obsessions – and give ourselves wholly to the purposes of God, we can shake this nation. If we learn the principle that to save our lives is to lose our lives, while to lose our lives for the Lord is to save our lives, then we can really live. As Martin Luther King declared in 1965, “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right; a man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice; a man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” It’s time we take our stand!

The counterculture revolution of the 1960s began when people said, “Something is missing. Something is wrong. There must be something greater than this.” And they were right! There must be something greater than eating and drinking, working and sleeping, existing. There must be something greater than the American dream. There must be something greater than simply getting a good education so that you can find a good job and have a good family so that your kids can get a good education and find a good job and have a good family so that their kids can a get a good education . . . . Is this really it? Is this why God put us here on this earth? There is more!

Our goal is revival, not survival, the transformation of the human race, not the preservation of the human race. There is a divine purpose and destiny to our time here on earth. Even atheistic revolutionaries understand that there must be a higher purpose to life, and they give themselves for their cause, freely dying for their revolution so that their families can live in what they hope will be a better world. And they do this without the promise of heaven or eternal life. How much more should we give ourselves to the cause of our Master? How much more readily should we hear the call?

Nate Saint and Jim Elliot, martyred as missionaries in 1956, understood this well. They recognized that life was far more meaningful, far more rich, far more significant than most of us ever realize, even if we live to be 100 years old. As Nate Saint wrote, “People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget they too are expending their lives and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”

Yes, everyone’s bubble will burst one day. The dust will return to dust and the spirit will return to God who gave it (see Ecc. 12:7). On that day, only one thing will matter: Did we fulfill the purpose of God? Did we make a lasting impact for Jesus? Did we leave behind a blessed legacy for the generation to come? All the silly little things that seemed so important to us during our few years here on earth will seem utterly insignificant when they are viewed in the light of eternity.

How wise it was for Jim Elliot to write these now-famous words: “That man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And how wise it was for him to lift up this petition before the Lord as a young man in college: “God, I pray, Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” Oh, that all of us would lead truly full lives!

Columbine martyr Rachel Scott was not wrong when she wrote in her journal, “I have no more personal friends at school. But you know what? I am not going to apologize for speaking the name of Jesus. I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything, I will. I will take it. If my friends have to become my enemies for me to be with my best friend Jesus, then that’s fine with me.” Jesus is worth it to the end!

Fellow-soldiers, holy servants of the risen Lord, blood-bought disciples of the Master, heed the call. It’s now or never, time to put up or shut up. Either we take a stand once and for all or forever we hang our heads in shame. History is eagerly anticipating our next move. This is the hour we have been waiting for. So, on with it – by life or by death. The revolution won’t wait.

 

*The Jesus Manifesto: A Call to Revolution (Copyright © 2000, 2005, Michael L. Brown) is distributed jointly by FIRE School of Ministry (www.fire-school.org) and ICN Ministries (http://askdrbrown.org/). It may be reproduced and distributed freely in any form, provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its entirety, and with proper attribution, and is not sold or distributed for profit. Some material in The Jesus Manifesto has been adapted and excerpted from Michael L. Brown, Revolution! The Call to Holy War (Ventura, CA: Gospel Light, 2000).

(Source: http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/the-jesus-manifesto/)

 

I love the analogy of the root and the vine used by Jesus in His describing what the kingdom of God is like. I have in the past work in orchards and vineyards and on occasion still do some work on apple trees and vineyards. It is so important that the trees and vines be pruned, thinned, fertilized etc. For when these things are done, there is a wonderful, plentiful crop produced. But if we do not, the crop eventually withers and the produce grows small and eventually the tree and the vine dies.
 
Likewise, we to need a spiritual pruning etc to grow stronger and closer to Him. For if we do not, we to fall, and eventually will grow away from Him.
 
Thanks for hanging in there and allowing us along with Him, in His leading, strength and direction to be vessels to help you to grow.

André

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I often ponder one of the most important questions, that we as individuals will ever need to ask ourselves on this side of eternity. And that question is; "What is it precisely that gets me into the portals of heaven, and not into the doors of hell.?" I recall watching a play many years ago at a church in Kelowna British Columbia Canada. It was called Heavens Gates, Hells Bells, or something like that. The play was about how two different groups of teens spent their Saturday night, and the consequences of what they did that night. One group did what many of us have done in the past on the weekend. They partied hardy, got thoroughly liquored up and then left the party Foolishly the driver of the car was drunk and as can be expected the car was involved in a crash, killing the driver and a few of the other passengers. Before crashing, none of them had ever given much thought or consideration as to their eternal destiny, or of God.

Before or after this sequence, we see a different group of youths who belonged to a youth group in a church . This group of kids spent the night studying scripture, playing games etc at church. They to were involved in a car crash in which some of them were killed.

Within this same play we see the eternal destiny of these two different groups of youths. The church group were led to heavens gates. On the other hand, the partiers, who were drinking and whom had died in a car crash were received into the welcoming arms of Satan’s demons through the portals of hell, forever in pain, forever in thirst.

So, hat or whom determines the direction of ones eternal destination? Why should some fun loving, party hardy kids be destined for the dark pits of hell, while the other group of kids, who were not partying, be destined and welcomed into the arms of God’s angels in heaven? Is it fate, is it the luck of the draw, the roll of cosmic dice that determines our eternal home after we flat-line, drawing our last breath? What is the separating factor, or question that will put us in one place or the other for all eternity?

Many have pondered and asked these same questions over the centuries. Many have written books. Many have different ideas and theories. Can there be many different answers that are true? Is there an absolute truth to this most important question? Or does our may different beliefs really matter, do they differ as to what one book says is true as compared to another? Is ones truth equally right as another? Or is there only one true answer?

Part of the Holy Bible was written hundreds of years before any other faiths of man were ever thought of. Do these ancient writing explain and tell us who or what determines our eternal destiny, if indeed there is one? If I believe another answer, does that negate the scriptures of God? Is my different belief more true or just the plain truth, as compared to the Words of the Holy Bible? If I believe one thing, does it mean that what I believe is right and all other beliefs are wrong?

If Bob is nearly completely blind, and colour blind on top of that, and if he says that the sky is green, does that mean that the truth of the matter mean that the sky is indeed green, and not blue? If I say that 2+2=4, but Tom says that 2+2= 9, is Tom’s answer right, or as equally right as mine? Is my answer wrong? Can there be more than right answer to the same questions as these?

It would be absurd to believe that the answer to 2+2=4 is anything but 4. And yet many would have us to believe that just because they believe that God does not exist , He therefore does not exist, He therefore is not ! That is just as absurd as to believe that 2+2=5. And that anyone else’s belief is also wrong.

God has proven Himself in Scripture quite thoroughly. Rom. 1:19-23. Ps. 14:1;3:1 says "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”." New International Version, ©2010 (NIV)


Therefore if scripture is true, and if the words written with are true, and if the Bible says that there is only one way to heaven and God, then it must be so. And if that is correct then what God says is true about who or what determines our eternal destiny, if there is one, then that also must be true. So what does the Bible say?

Eph. 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 is a good starting place to search out this most important question. Please read them.

Hmmm, well I see through these verses that nothing I can do on my own will get me to heaven. Being good or good enough will not se me through the portals of heaven. Attending church will not get me there, giving all my money to charity will get me there, or any other thing which I can conceive in my mind will ever get me through those heavenly portals.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Then what is the standard to get me there? Rom. 3:23 tells me ; "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (King James Version). We all miss the standard, we all miss the mark that God alone has set as the way to Him. Oh My! Paul tells us in Rom. 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (King James Version). Again going by the words of Eph. 2:8-9, there is nothing I can do on my own to get me into heavens gates. Oh Ohhhhhhhhhhh!

So How then can I ever get there? Is there any way? Am I eternally doomed to the darkness of hell eternally?

If we were to take time to study further into scripture, we will find that like it is here on earth, God also has laws by which He wants us to live. So, perhaps if I were to simply obey God’s laws, I would be ushered into heaven. Rom. 3:19-20 says: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." (New International Version, ©2010)

So therefore, it is by the knowledge of the Law that I can know what sin is. His laws tell me what sin is and that if I do not obey them, I am a sinner, still outside of heavens portals, knocking unable to get in. 1 John 3:4 clearly confirms what sin is. Again Rom. 7:7 tells me that I can know what sin is because of God’s Laws.

We are given in the Old Testament 10 Basic commandments (Laws), revealing exactly what is right and what is wrong by way of these 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:1-7 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

And if we read elsewhere, we learn that we can be free if mwe follow and obey God’s Laws. Free that is, because if we obey them, then we find that God’s Laws protect us from harm in many ways. But if we disobey them, then we find that our obstinate behavior will lead us to harm, perhaps to sickness or maybe even death.

For example we are told not to commit adultery. That is that we are to have sex only within the confines of marriage between one man and one woman only. To do otherwise is to face the possibility of getting sexual diseases and perhaps even death. So if we stay within the parameters of God’s Laws, we are free to live a life free of harm. God’s Laws therefore keep us safe and free to enjoy life without harmful consequences. Traffic laws do the same for us.

As I read through all 10 commandments, I must admit that I have broken nearly all, if not all of them at least once in my life and therefore according to these laws, I am a sinner, not worthy of entering into the eternal joy of heaven.

We can try to hide our sins, but God who knows all and sees all is not fooled. Numbers 32:23; Heb. 4:13. All of our sins to God are as a stench in His nostrils. Isaiah 64:6

Perhaps you think that I am okay, I am pretty good because I have maybe only broken one law ever. Therefore I am good enough to get into heaven. NOT !!!!!!!!!! James 2:10 tells us otherwise: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (King James Version)

Oh Myyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!!! It seems like I will never get to heaven because I cannot abide and obey His laws on my own.

Be good, religious etc. doesn’t cut it neither. Matt. 7:21-23 It does not get us into heaven.

How surprised many will be on judgment day when Jesus judges them and condemns them to enter the gates of hell. We have learned that being good, nor our good deeds will get us into heaven. Nothing we can do on our own merit will get us there no matter how good we think we are. Is. 64:6 tells us that all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags to God. They just don’t cut the mustar.



A pair of street evangelists in the U.S. have a unique way pointing out that we are all sinners, and that not one of us, including myself is worthy according to God’s standards, of entering into God’s rest, into the eternal gates of heaven. They approach folks in big city U.S.A. on the street, and engage them in to conversations regarding this question as to where does one go on the other side of eternity. How do I get there, am I good enough, does my good works out weigh my bad deeds? Am I good enough to get into heaven by being good/
They eventually bring their questioners to the 10 commandments. And then they will have them state categorically whether they are a thief, a liar, adulterer etc. by stating the 10 commandments alone. By these standards each individual if being honest, will yes I have lied, stolen committed adultery etc. And by Gods written word, we also have to admit that if we have committed any of these sins even once, we are guilty as charged and are therefore not worthy of entering into heaven. Each one of us has at one time or another committed each and every one of these sins. I myself would have to admit, that according to God’s standards, that I too have at one time or another committed each and everyone of these sins at least once in my life. Therefore I to am a liar, a thief, adulterer etc. Sorry guys, I too am a sinner, not worthy of entering into God’s glory. That’s a fact. For all have sinned …. Rom.3:23 KJV

So am I doomed for all of eternity into the pits of hell? Is there a way out? Is there a loophole I can use, a lawyers trick I can use to wham-doozle the Lord with?

Please allow me to suggest that God has made a way of escape Himself.

It is purported that W.C. Fields, just before he died, was found by a friend to be flipping through the Bible. This friend asked him what he was doing. W.C. Fields answered "I am looking for loopholes." He knew full well God’s standards, because God has placed His laws within all of our hearts. We all know truthfully that we are all sinners worthy of being sent to hell. Yet, so many think that they can find a way out, a way to by-pass God’s judgment and making it safely to heaven, just like the runner who rounds 2nd basement on the way to home base as he slides in on his belly, stretching out his fingers and touches home plate just in time from being tagged out.

Sorry Pal, it ain't gonna work.There is one way and only one way to heaven. No loopholes. Well what then? Is. 45:22 begins to put the final piece in the puzzle.

God tells us there is only one name by which we may be saved. Acts 4:12 "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (King James Version) And what is that name ? 1 Tim. 2:5 tells us. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (King James Version). Those who reject Jesus Christ as the only way will not be known by the Father God, but they that accept and acknowledge Him, the same will see the Fathers face. 1 John 2:23

The life is found in no other but the Son. 1 John 5:11-12

Them that believe are not condemned to hell, but them that do not believe are already condemned. John 3:18

We are told explicitly that , if we do not believe we shall die in our sins. John 5:24:b

There is only one way to the Father and that through Jesus John 14:16

What makes Jesus, and Jesus alone the only way to the Father into heavens glorious gates? It all boils down to something that sounds detestable to our 20th century minds. It is by way of a blood sacrifice that Jesus and Jesus alone is the only way.

God used in Old Testament times the blood of animals to atone, to cover, to pay the penalty for the sins of the people of the day. An animalsmshed blood was the replacement for the payment of sins. God has determined that by the shedding blood and by blood alone sins can be forgiven. Lev. 17:11

Remember the Exodus, when God told the people to paint their door posts with the blood of an animal to cover for the sins of the people. Because He was going to pass over Egypt that night and pass judgment on the Egyptian people, especialy on Pharoh, for not obey His command to let His people go and go to worship out in the wilderness. This was a foreshadow of what Jesus would do by the shedding of His blood on the cross in the New Testament, to atone for the sins of the people of all time. This is the reason that Jewish people celebrate The Day of Atonment ( Yom Kippur) once a year. This celebration looks back to the exodus when God freed His people from Egyptian bondage. It looks back to God showing that freedom from sins is only gained mby the shedding of blood. It is sad that many Jews today do not see the connection between the exodus and what Jesus has done.

John upon seeing Jesus approach the Sea of Galilee, knew whom Jesus was when he said ; "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29 (New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Jesus is the perfect blood sacrifice for the atonement of sins.

This is confirmed by Peter 1 Pet. 1:18,19; "knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.)


The writer of Hebrews attests to this, that it is by the shedding of blood, that without out, there is no remission, no atonement, no payment of sins.

Peter again points to Jesus as the Lamb of God paying the penalty of sins with His shed blood. 1 Pet. 2:24-25

God demanded a perfect sacrifice. If Jesus were but a sinful man, like us, His blood would not have been good enough  to pay the penalty of our sins, and therefore if that had been the case, He too would have been sent permanently to the grave with no possibility of having His sins forgiven, and we to would none to have paid for our sins, thus we to would be forever condemned to hell.

Yes, He to was tempted to sin, as we all are, Yet, He did not sin. Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22,23

Jesus was the perfect, sinless Lamb of God. He never sinned, not once. This is how He could be the perfect, blameless Lamb of God. He alone is the perfect atonement, paying the price for our sins.

Several Old Testament passages written hundreds of years before Jesus was born in a manger, pointed ahead to this testimony. Read for yourselves Ps. 22; Jer. 31;31-34; Daniel 9:24-27; Prov. 30:4 and many more.

Knowing this truth, and believing it fully in your heart and mind Jesus said would set you free.

There is only one truthand He is the Truth. That is Truth. John 14:6. There is no other way by which we can be received into the Fathers loving arms after we draw our last breath.

Jesus, and Jesus alone is the only pathway to heaven. Any other attempted way is fruitless. Matt. 7:13-14 There is only one truth, and only one truth. There is no ther, no matter what any other may say, or believe.

There are a lot of wrong answers and beliefs, but only one true path, only one true Messiah, only one true Jesus, only one way of salvation, only one true way to the Fathersom in heaven. Jesus and Jesus alone is the one and only true way. He paid and paved the way for you and me.

If we wish to get there, we must walk in His light. 1 John 1:7

Only His blood and His blood alone can cleanse us from all of our sins.



Stop now and consider all of this. Stop and reason says God, and see if you will not also believe and allow Him to cleanse you from all of your sins. Is. 1:18

Charles Spurgeon said; "The heart of Christ became like a reservoir in the midst of the moutains. All tributary streams of iniquity and every drop of the sins of his people, ran down and gathered into one vast lake, deep as hell and shoreless as eternity. All these met, as it were, in Christ dear heart and He endured them all."

Again Charles Spurgeon said; "The marvel of heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation.”

That my friends deserves a BIG KING SIZED AMEN.

Again there is nothing, nothing at all that we can do, to be good enough to make our own way to heaven.

Read the account of the crucifiction and see if this not fit and fill in the last piece of the puzzle. Luke 23:33-49

Each one of us is like one of the thieves on either side of Him o the cross. Which one are you? One threw insults and was condemneed that day. The other asked to be remebered that day. He entered into paradise that day.

Repentance and placing our faith and trust in the works of Jesus Christ on the cross is the only way to get to heaven. These are not my words. These are the words of scripture.

We each have a choice to make before we draw our last breath. No one can make that choice for you. However, whatever you choose to do with Jesus will determine where you will spend eternity.

Once you choose to believe and accept His shed blood as the only way to have your sins forgiven, then your sins are forever blotted out as if they never were. Your sins debt then is once and forever paid for, in full by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

This is a free choice, a free gift with no strings attached. It's yours to accept or reject.

By believing and accepting this wonderful free gift, we have the promise, that as He was raised from the grave to glory, we to have the promise of resurrection to life eternal because of what He has done for us. 1 Cor. 15:1-19


Blaise Pascal, the great mathematician and philosopher suggested that if we live as if as if there is am God, it ia s better wager than living as if there is no God. Here is the full written statement.

If you live as if God doesn't exist and you are right, you just die and go to the grave. But if you live as if God doesn't exist and you are wrong, you go into eternity in hell and misery. Conversely, if you live as if God does exist and you are wrong, then you would die and go to the grave. But if you live as if God does exist and you are right, you have just hit the jackpot for an eternity in heaven.

That's a wager worth pondering on. It's a gamble perhaps wrth betting on. Think about it!

So, gamble if you wish and behave as if God does not exist, and live a hellion life and see if you a winner or not. It will take only your very last breath to know forsure if you are wrong or right. Take a chance if like on this most important lottery.

It is said that 100 % of people die. Thus far to this date it has never been proven false. We all die. What is your choice? Will you take a chance by rolling the dice, by playing Russian Roulette?

We never know for sure when we will die and draw our last breath. It could happen right now, 10 seconds from now, tonight, tomorrow, next week, next year. Will you wait and gamble mthat perhaps God does not exist and live as if He does not? Will you not at least taste and see?

One of my brothers once said that he will wait and check it later. Well, he died a few years later in a car crash. Whether he accepted Jesus's free gift or not I will not know until Christ takes us home. But my guess is he gambled and lost. Will you?

So gamble if you wish. What is your decision? Hells gate are wide open awaiting for you to come on down. But the only other alternative is heavens gates and the waitng arms of Jesus in heaven.

Your last breath awaits your answer! What will you do with that most important question? What will you do with Jesus.

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick,-------------------------------------------!

P.S. John 3:16 is a short version containing the Gospel message. Look at it, study it out Word for Word and see.



Now the time is running out. You have just used up several more minutes of you life. Your last breath is amfew more minutes closer than it was a little while ago.

The time is running down towards eternity.



TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, ---------------------------------------------------------------


André

CK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, ------------------------------------------------------------------

All throughout scripture we are admonished to discipline ourselves to live a godly life, not a worldly life. Yes, we live in the world, but the ways of the world, (the ways of the ungodly), are not the ways of God. They lead to destruction. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23 KJV

The author of the Proverbs reminds us that, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 14:12 KJV

In fact the proverbs are replete with comparisons of the ways of the righteous and the ways of the unrighteous. They are replete with the ways of good and evil.
We would do well to meditate upon the scriptures. To meditate on the scriptures is to stop. To consider, think, weigh in the balance of its words, upon the Word of God.

To meditate upon scripture is not trhe same as the pagans who meditate in a trance like state, in an attempt to reach a higher state of consciousness, which in fact are doing nothing more than making contact with the Demon Spirits, whom fill their minds with the contrary ways of God. Thus these adherents to occultic or not, meditations, do the will of Satan rather than the will of God.

In contrast to those who meditate on scripture, on the ways of God, they do not go into a trance like state, filling their minds with ungodly thoughts, but instead consider and fill their minds with the ways and Word of God. Those who do so consider and balance the rewards of following and obeying God, rather than following and obeying Satan. The reward of those who meditate on God and His ways is eternal life with Jesus Christ. On the contrary, the gift, the reward for those whom follow after the ways of Satan is darkness, separated eternally from God, with Satan, with no chance of ever crossing over the chasm from darkness to light.

Jesus spoke more on hell in our scriptures than on heaven to give us a warning of what will befall those whom follow after Satan, rather than Himself. Jesus uses the story of the rich man and of Lazarus to contrast and show us what is the final destiny of all of us. We have one of two choices to make before we draw our last breath here on earth. We have the choice to either follow the ways of God, or the ways Satan. Whichever choice we make, will determine our eternal destiny, either heaven or hell.

The choice is simple. To follow the ways of God leads us to and eternity living in the presence of God eternally, with a renewed heavenly body, to no more suffer pain, sickness, death and misery. The opposite choice is to suffer an eternity forever banished from the presence of God with no chance to ever cross the chasm between heaven and hell. To live in eternal darkness, in pain of agony, thirst and discomfort.

Read for yourself the account Jesus gives of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Here we see in detail the eternal rewards of the choices we make while we still draw breath here on earth, on this side of eternity. At death we read that Lazarus whom we can infer was a righteous man, was lifted up to the bosom of Abraham ( representing eternity in heaven) Jesus says that now, Lazarus is comforted (Luke 16: 25). That is that, whereas, Lazarus while on earth suffered from pain, sickness and disease, from persecution, and bad treatment from the wealthy of the world. But at death, he was immediately taken to the Bosom of Abraham, to heaven, to live eternally with his reward in the everlasting presence of God, of Jesus.

However, the rich man whom sought the ways of the world, who sought to reap the riches and pleasures of life on earth, upon his last breath was rewarded eternally to Hades upon his last breath. Luke 16:23. Here, he is no longer in comfort, but is in eternal torment of pain and agony, thirsty forever, unable to have his thirst quenched. This is the reward of those whom seek and lust after the ways of the world, whom seek after the pleasures of the world. These are the rewards of those whom meditate on the ways of Satan, rather than the ways of God.


1 Tim. 4:7-16 shows us also so clearly that those whom follow and obey the teachings, the doctrines of God, will be eternally rewarded to, not a hope, but a promise of everlasting life with God. 1 Tim. 4:7 says: “But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness." (KJV) If we were to turn this on its side we would read; "Have nothing to do with the ungodly ways of the world."

Following this verse are instructed to discipline yourselves for godliness, for we are told that if we discipline ourselves following the ways of the world, seeking after it’s temporary pleasures, it profits us but for a short time. Whereas if we discipline ourselves for godly living, it holds a promise for things (eternal) things to come in heaven.

Therefore my brethren, may I implore you, may I beseech you to meditate daily on the ways and things of God. And once you understand, and obey there teachings therein scripture, know this, that your eternal reward will be alongside of Lazarus, forever comforted.

So, what is your choice? "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 KJV

André

Or: What’s wrong with a but(t)?

Wouldn’t that be a topic to preach on? Imagine the announcement in the Church bulletin: This Sunday Rob is going to preach on but(t)s…LOL! So move your butts to the Church and – well, you get the picture…LOL


So what is this all about?


1) “God loves you, but…”


Haven’t we all heard or used Christian commonplaces like this one before: “God loves you, but He loves you too much to let you stay this way”.


Is there anything wrong with that statement?


Well, yes and no. First, we might think about the attitude of our heart when we say things like that. How do we really feel towards that person and why do we hide it behind a “but”? What problem are we ourselves having with accepting God’s unconditional love? Why does there have to be a “but” attached?

Remember the woman caught in adultery (John 8). Jesus stood up for her, saved her life and told her He did not condemn her, and from now on she should go, and stop sinning. All of that before (!) she even said that she repented of her sins! Yes, changing your ways is part of repentance, but [there you have it again…lol] God’s love comes first – and He loves. Even more so: He is love. If we want to reach out to the lost, we need to first convey the message that God loves them. Period. Everything else comes next, as soon as they come to the point that they can accept God’s love. However, if we attach a “but” to it, we sound pretty self-righteous (we have it all together and tell them what to do, something they have probably heard quite a lot already). This kind of love does not lead us - and them - anywhere. Yes, love needs to be tough love sometimes and we do not help people if we do not tell them the truth. Actually, it is not an “either/or”, but a “both”. First of all, however, we all need to learn that God’s love comes before everything else – with no attachment at all. He even gave His Son to die for us – without any “but” attached. Jesus did not ask those He died for before He came down if they repented and changed their ways. He first showed us His unconditional love – even and especially for those who were against Him. Let’s love other people like Jesus and make the Christian faith so attractive to them through our own example that they would like to have it as well.


2) “We love the sinner, but hate the sin!”


Even though I used this statement as well in the past, I grew to dislike it a lot in the course of time. Again: At first look, there is nothing wrong with it. If you think about what might be behind it, however, things are different.

Let’s start backwards: “We hate the sin”. Again: this sounds really self-righteous. The good Christians and the bad sinners. What about the sin in our own lives (I have heard a 100 % of Christians are sinners as well!)? Would we be just as thankful and would we feel blessed if other people confronted our sins much the same way? Ah right, there are sins and sins. And, of course, our sins are different. They are not as bad as the sins of that other dude who really sinned big time. Are they not?

If we “hate the sin”, what does that exactly mean? Do we take the necessary steps to get rid of all of our own sins as well? How do we help other people not to sin? Do we confront sin in the Church or do we think it is none of our business what other people do with their lives? How do we approach sinners and how do we help them to repent, change their ways and come back to Jesus?

So we “love the sinner”. Do we? When have we shown a sinner (again: who is not a sinner?) the last time, that we loved him? How did we do that? What does “love” mean to us? If it is true that our love for others should reflect the love that Jesus has for us (unconditional and self-sacrificial), have we ever (!) really loved anybody like that? Have we ever shown through our own example what love for a Christian is all about? Have we ever made Christianity so attractive others would want it as well? Have we ever loved others so much that we put them with their bad deeds to shame? Have we made a point to show those that we do not get along well with, those who do us wrong, those who are not nice to be around with, that we love them – REALLY love them? With no “but” attached? Or have we been “smarty pants” or “I know it all”-folks who have it all together and tell others what they need to do? Not that there is anything wrong with exhorting people (we even need to do that!), it is more the attitude of our own heart when we do that what I want to point out here. Has our motivation, has our heart really been at the right place when we said things like that? Was our intention more to stand out as the good Christian who says nice things to those bad sinners (even though there might not have been any practical consequences following those nice words), to sound super-spiritual and extra-Christian? To use Christian commonplaces without much practical meaning? Was our motivation really to humbly love others as Christ would or to soothe our own nagging conscience with nice-sounding words?


3. “I am a Christian, but…”


Another version of the “but” attached to some statements. Usually used in the context of compromise. Like: “I am a Christian, but I do not believe that divorce is against God’s commandments” or “I am a Christian, but not a fanatic. You need to have some fun sometimes, right? Sure God understands that.” or “I am a Christian, but you can’t take all what’s in the Bible literally. There has to be some common sense and modern science has shown us that we have to see what’s in there with a different point of view now. Sure the writers of the Bible would write something else today, had they known what we know now”.

Sounds familiar?

It is always good to “be a Christian”, but when it comes to the point that this might have practical consequences for our lives, that’s another story. We always find good excuses why we can do whatever we want to do – even though this clearly is against God’s commandments. If the Bible does not fit our ways, we interpret it so long it does. Or we build up our own moral standard and put together our own spiritual “package”, mixed with different believes (sometimes even from different religions) and our own wishes and preferences.

Fr. Bill Casey once warned His congregation in a sermon to watch out for those “buts” and to not go to hell on their “butts”!

He sure had a good point there!


So let’s check our own heart and make sure we follow the Lord and His commandments – with no “but” attached – and love others as He does – also with no “but” attached!

Sure, we are all members of one body, yet we don’t need to be the “butts”, right?

Rob

 ¹⁵I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  ¹⁶So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16, King James Version)

Let this verse be your daily motto as you wake up in the morning till your last waking moment of the night as you fall asleep. If you heed by this verse, it may well help you not to back slide and fall into sin.

 
Andre

 
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Romans 12:2 (King James Version)

What does it mean to walk the “Christian Walk”?

You have probably heard it said; “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk as well.” This phrase is common in many areas of society, whether it be in our jobs, at school, in sports, or whatever. What it means is if you are going to participate in such and such, do whatever it is you are going to do in such a manner that you bring honour to whatever it is you are involved in. Don’t go at it half way, give it your best shot, do the best you can do at whatever it is you are involved in. It is all well to talk big saying I am real good at….. But do your actions back up your mouth? As a youth I often heard it said that talk is cheap, which is another way of saying something like, your actions don’t back up your mouth.

In the Christian life, we also should back up our mouths with our actions. There are many nominal Christians out in the world who are good at talking “Christianese”. But their actions, their day to day behaviour says they are not Christians, because they behave like the world. They behave just the rest of the secularized world. Others looking at them would never recognise them as Christians.

What would you think for example of a guy who goes to church every Sunday, all dressed up to the max, and then when he goes to work Monday through Friday he drinks like a fish at night in the bars, swears like a sailor, and gets into bar room brawls on Saturday night? The outside world would never associate him as being a Christian, would they? But, sadly that is how many nominal Christians behave. What is a nominal Christian you may ask? It is one who is a Christian in name only, but in reality is really not a Christian. Those who profess to be Christians, but behave like the world, give the name of Christ a bad reputation. How can we blame unsaved people from not wanting to become a Christian if they see called Christianity behaving like drunken sailors, cheats, thiefs etc.? They have every good reason to call us hypocrites.

A story is told by an un-known writer, about an elderly man who retired after many years in the British army. One day a man who knew about his long history and distinguished military career decided  to play a prank on him. As the old soldier walked down the street with his arms full of packages, the jokester sneaked up behind him and shouted, “Attention!” Without hesitation, the military man dropped his arms to his side, and every package went tumbling to the sidewalk. Without a conscious thought, the veteran was doing what comes naturally to a soldier.

Similarly, as believers in Christ, our behaviour as Christians should mirror, and correspond to the new life in Christ which has been granted us since we gave our lives over to Him. Our lives should mirror more the example of Christ living in us. Though we are still dealing with sinful flesh on this side of eternity, we need to exemplify the kind of person that God wants us to be. When an athlete is performing in the Olympics, he behaves as an Olympian. If he does not he is often disqualified, and he is shamed. A soldier also in training behaves like a soldier or he is discharged, or perhaps put into military prison. As a Christian we likewise need to put into practice the deeds of a Christian and we should not in any way be seen to be behaving in any manner that puts to shame the name of Christ.

By faith in Christ, we have become children of God, who are empowered and enabled to walk the walk of a believer by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. To walk the walk of a believer is to put into practice the teachings and ways of Christ, so that the world may see Christ living in us.

Richard W. De Haan writes an analogy likewise showing how some do or do not walk the walk. A new Christian was reading through the Gospels. After she finished she told a friend she wanted to read a book on church history. When her friend asked why, the woman replied, “I’m curious. I’ve been wondering when Christians started to become so unlike Christ.” What a testimony that is to Christianity. Whether the story is real or not, it is a true statement of what the church has become. It is said, if you want to know what the world is like, look at the church. Why? Because if the church is strong, standing up to its beliefs, being the standard bearer, being in a sense the judge of the world, setting the moral example, the world will be in line with the church. But sadly, the mainline churches have slacked off; have allowed immoral standards to creep into her midst and the consequences are not hard to see. The world has slipped into a slimy pit of immorality, mirroring the days before God flooded the earth because the whole world had become corrupt and immoral.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 5:5 KJV

How can we blame a new believer as above to wonder what has happened to true Christianity, when it would appear the majority of Christian churches have slipped,  appearing to be no different than the world.  We have become so un-Christ-like. Rather than trying to behave as true believers, imitating the life of Christ, many so called Christians are imitating the world, rather than Christ.

Roughly 2,000 years ago the name 'Christians' first appeared on the earth. (Acts 11:26) It is true that many today still bear that name, but how many bear the image of Christ? In other words, when he comes back to call His own home , will He find any true Christians? What a sad state of affairs that would be for Christ to come to call home His elect, and to find none but nominal Christians!

Paul writes; “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10 KJV

This tells us that we are saying unto the world, we are following Him, who is Christ Jesus our Saviour.

How dare we then, who bear His glorious name, foul the name of Christ, bring shame to Him, dishonour what He has done for us on the cross by behaving as the world, indulge in every fantasy, in every sinful act that God has decried as evil, as an abomination, doing the same shameful deeds as they who Jesus will one day say; Depart from me into everlasting fire to the pit of hell created for fallen angels.?

Should we not be more like the Master, should we not, live and grow, love as He has loved, showing the world the love of our Master? Should we not deny our self-indulgences, like the Galilean? Should not our motto be;  'More like the Master I long to be!’

A true story is told of a missionary who was once captured by rebels and they held a gun to his head. They told him to renounce Christ or die. He replied;” Pull the trigger.” By God’s providence and mercy, the trigger was pulled, but it jammed. Shortly others came to his rescue and the rebels escaped. Can you picture in your mind, to be at church the following Sunday to hear this missionary say;” Friends, we must be faithful, even unto death.” Would his listeners not have heard him in a different more profound, powerful way than by one whom had not had a gun pointed at his head, and been told to renounce Christ? His message would have been; if it is important enough for me to die for Christ, should you also not live for him, being ready to die?

Paul likewise, when he was imprisoned for his undiminished testimony and stand for Christ wrote to his fellow brothers, telling them of his imprisonment and stand, and also telling them that what he was doing, he was doing so that they would also follow his example and live for Christ; to live as Christians, and if need be to die as a Christians, standing up boldly proclaiming Christ not only in word, but in-deed also.

Paul was telling them, to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk also.

One of the biggest barriers we have to reaching the world for Christ is our witness to others by our walk. We are being witnessed every day by others, seeing how we live, how we behave. Do we portray a Christ-like life in our everyday words, deeds, behaviours? The world sees these so called Christians, these nominal Christians, and they see that they, like many of us are hypocrites. They see the office worker who goes to church on Sunday, but behaves like scum the rest of the week. So why, tell me why would they want to become Christians? Sunday morning pulpit preachers and teachers and parishioners are, found in adultery; found viewing pornography, found molesting kids, found in adult book stores, found smoking dope, drinking to excess, etc. Are they a true testimony to the world of what it is to walk the walk? Is it no wonder we are unable to reach the lost of the world for Christ with that kind of testimony? Our words have no power when the world sees us behaving the same as they are. The truth of the gospel is small talk; it is cheap talk to the eyes of the world, when so called Christians do the same as the world.

What does Paul say in Romans Chapter 2 regarding the likes of those who talk the talk, but do not walk the walk, doing the same as the world? “Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever that art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” KJV Rom. 2: 1

Do you? Are you condemning yourself?

Is this not the hour to manifest once and for all true Christ-likeness? Shall we continue to debase the name of Christ? Shall we profess the name of Christ one moment and slander it at the next moment by our witnessed walk? True Christianity must not only be witnessed with the mouth, it must also be believed in the heart, and lived in  our daily lives as we walk among the heathen, among our fellow workers in banks, in malls, bowling alleys, in the parks, down the ski slopes,  and not only in the church alone.

The book of Ephesians is a strong commentary of the Christian life, both in the here and now and in the coming promises of eternal life. One of the main themes of the book of Ephesian’s is “the mystery” of the wonderful truth revealed now to both to the Gentile and Jew. Both believing Gentile and Jew are now one in Christ, being fellow members of the Body of Christ awaiting our redemption where we will be transformed into our new glorified bodies.

Chapter one called the mystery, looks forward to the time, (a dispensation,) when all things shall be brought under control, under the leadership of Jesus Himself. (Ephesians 1: 9,10, 21-23) and all believers shall reign with Him.

Chapter 2 describes the process of salvation by the grace of God, by which believing sinners are reconciled to Him, becoming one with Him as new creations, where God dwells in the human temple, by way of His Holy Spirit.

Chapter 3 continues to explain the mystery of Christ (verse 4) whereby all believers become fellow heirs, partakers of God’s promise (verse 6)

And now we look a little closer at what it is to be true walkers of the Christian faith emphasizing also unity of the body of Christ.

Read Ephesians 4:1-3 to see if we can get an idea what it is to “Walk the Christian Walk,” not to just talk the talk.

Remember this first though, to walk the Christian walk is not a Fire Insurance to make sure you get to heaven. Many so called Christians have taken on that attitude. They want a simple easy Christian life, getting that “Fire Insurance “to heaven, without the added responsibility to live as Christ would have us to live. They do not want to “Walk the Walk” but merely to just be good at “Talking the Talk.” Is this the life Christ has called us to? They may find at the time of reckoning that they will be surprised when God sends them in the opposite direction, of what they expected. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth, that he shall also reap.’ Galatians 6:7 KJV

In the opening verse of Ephesians Chapter 4, there are two very important words which we should take notice of. They are the words, “therefore and beseech.” First of all, when you see the word “therefore”, in scripture you have to keep in mind that the writer is about to move from an important precious thought, idea, ready to expand on it to another dimension. In the previous chapters Paul wrote of the Spiritual Blessings of the Christian, both now and future, and now moves to the practical aspects, the importance of “Walking the Walk.”

The Apostle Paul, also uses the word “beseech”, when he says, “I, (...), beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” (Eph. 4:1 NKJV) The word “beseech” means to “ask earnestly, to plead, to implore.” It is an “appeal” to walk worthy of the calling of the life we now have in Christ. In other words we are to behave at all times, in all ways, in all manners as Christ would in all situations.

To be called of Christ is a calling which carries with it an honour, a prestige, nobility. To be called means that we are ambassadors for Christ. What higher honour can there be than to be called of Christ, to be followers, resembling His life in us? We are to walk “worthy” of that calling.

I submit to you that the walk of the believer according to these first three verses includes not just a calling, but a correct attitude, and an endeavour to live up to an expectation worthy of what we have been called to as ambassadors, representatives and followers of Christ. In the King James 1611 the word used instead of calling is: “vocation.” The word vocation literally means “a calling, to which you have been called.” What is this calling we are called to? In the secular world, we think of the word vocation, or calling as a job, i.e. banker, teacher or whatever. In church we often think it means our calling, perhaps to become a missionary, a music leader, pastor, Sunday school teacher, or what have you.

All this is good and true, but we have a prior, higher calling, and that is to be saved. 2 Tim. 1:9 tells us God “…has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” KJV

This is the greatest calling that we could ever have, to be called and saved by God. Remember, it is not us who calls upon God, but He calls us. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, convinces us of the sufficiency of Christ and causes us to be drawn near to Christ and to be saved. (Phil. 3:14)

Therefore, now we have been called to the highest calling, we are to live a life worthy of the name of Christ and to be called Christians. We must not do anything that will bring shame or dishonour to the name of Christ, by the things we say, do, dress, act, think, work etc.

Our walk, the Apostle Paul says is to include a right attitude. Our attitude, he says, is to be "with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love" (Eph. 4:2 NKJV).

Lowliness means to be humble. We are not to be prideful. We are to be conscience of our nothingness, to esteem others better than ourselves. Lowliness is the opposite of conceit and arrogance.

We are to walk in gentleness, or as the King James 1611 says, in meekness. Meekness is not weakness as some would have us to believe. Meekness however is to display the qualities of kindness, mildness, gentleness, and to be teachable. Jesus Himself said to take His yolk upon him, and to learn from Him for He is gentle, and lowly in heart. For you will find rest in your souls when you allow Him to be your all in all, to allow Him to take control of your life. Matt. 11:29

The Christian attitude is to be one of longsuffering. Longsuffering is to endure trouble, pain or injury brought on by another, and to be patient with others. Longsuffering means to be able to put up with insults criticism etc. without lashing back and getting angry. Longsuffering means to take the punishment meted out to you, without defending and avenging yourself. Rom. 12:19 tells us,”Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” KJV. See also Deut. 32:35; Lev. 19:18

Jesus gave us the example when He was abused and taken to the cross and crucified, though He did no wrong. Also before the cross, he said,”To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.” Luke 6:29 (NKJV)

Longsuffering also means to patiently bear the faults of others. After all, which one of us is perfect? Just think how much happier would be our homes, churches and places of work if we learned to patient with one another, excusing each other’s faults and shortcomings.

Thirdly Christians are to walk with an attitude of love. What does Paul say about the subject of love in 1 Cor. 13:4-7? He says love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.  Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, and thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, hopes in all things, and endures all things.

Why are we as Christians able to put up with each other despite all our quirks and faults? It is because we have the love of Christ in us. How does that song go? “They will know that we are Christians by our love, by our love.” (written by Peter Scholtes additional words and music by Carolyn Arends. © 1966 by F.E.L. Publications, Ltd./ASCAP (1925 Pontius Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90025)). This is how we ought to treat one another, with love.

If you truly loved your neighbour, would you be doing anything to offend them, or cause them to be upset with you? Of course not! Yet we all do from time to time don’t we? It is a good practice to think before we speak. That way when you are tempted to say something that is not nice to another, you will think twice before doing so and say something nice instead.

In years past it was common to see some folks wearing a bracelet with the initials; WWJD. It stood for 'What Would Jesus Do'. This was a constant reminder to act as Jesus would in all situations. Would Jesus purposely insult you, cut you down? Would Jesus pick on you? Would Jesus swear at you? Would Jesus go out of His way to defame your character behind your back? So why do we?

In verse 3 of Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says that we are to “Endeavour” to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The key word of course is endeavour. What does the word endeavour mean? It means to try hard, to attempt earnestly, to make an effort, to strive towards a goal of action.

So Paul is saying here that we are to try to make an earnest effort at maintaining unity. We are to work hard at, or strive diligently and apply ourselves earnestly at maintaining a unity, a oneness, a harmony in the spirit of peace with our fellow man. This follows well what Paul has been appealing for us to do already, doesn’t it? It is hard work for many to keep the peace no matter where you are at, whether it is at home, at work, at church, or even in your marriage.

Most of us want to do things our own way, rather than making an attempt at being agreeable, working in unity with one another. We cringe at the thought of compromising or agreeing with one another, when in reality we would rather do the opposite. To get along with others is hard work. We have to work hard at it.

Here are some examples of what it is to “Endeavour to Keep the Peace in Unity. “ Sometimes you need to bite your tongue when you want to speak out if you feel wronged. Sometimes you need to do what others are doing rather than doing things your own way. You must be careful not to spread rumours. You need to avoid gossip, slander and dissing someone. Don’t cut others up. Avoid sarcasm. Do not be negative with one another. Do not assume things about others until you have all the facts.

What do you think are the biggest problems in the church today? Division and disunity are probably the biggest problems in many churches today. Jesus said in Mark 3:25, ”And if a house is divided against itself that house cannot stand.” (NKJV).

A divided church you see, is a dying church. In many of the bigger churches they find it difficult to accomplish maintenance projects because of all the infighting among themselves. Everyone has his or her own opinions on how this or that should be done, what colour, what wallpaper to use etc. And no one’s opinion is right except your own. That unfortunately is the prevailing attitude in many churches today.

Unfortunately also there are those within the church whose sole ambition seems to be to cause disunity, to sow the seeds of disharmony, rather than to do the opposite. Some unfortunately thrive on controversy. Some go out of their way to sow seeds of discontent, to catch the preacher at a mistake, always looking for a way to cause division.

In every church you’ll always find those who are critical of everything that goes on within, criticizing leadership, or the way things are done, often dissuading change. God says in Prov. 6:19 that He hates the one who sows discord among brethren. If this be so, then we must work hard at guarding our tongues, our thoughts, our words and our actions.

Division is just not common in the church. Division is alive and well also in the home as well. It is just as important to keep unity and peace at home as it is in the church or at work or at play.

For example someone may want and insist on having the biggest piece of pie at supper time. Another may make certain that they get the most comfortable chair in front of the television. You may push your way into the bathroom first thing in the morning. Kids especially will fight to sit beside the window in the car. At play you may argue to be the captain of your 'pretend' ship. An older bigger kid may insist on being the captain of the 'throw together' baseball team. Adults and kids fight to have the best seat on the boat. The list goes on and on.

The same problems are found at work. Why do you think there is so much trouble at the work place, why are there so many strikes? There is always someone who wants to be top dog, to get their own way.

Is this a new phenomenon? It surely is not.

Disunity and disharmony began way back even before there was time on earth. Let us read briefly Isaiah 14:12-15.

“How are you fallen from heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning? How are you cut down to the ground. You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” NKJV

Do you see it? He wanted the best place in front of the T.V. He wanted the best seat in the ball park. He wanted to be top dog. He was not satisfied with the position and place God had given him in the universe. He basically had it all, yet he was still not satisfied. Greed and pride go hand in hand.

Greed and pride also breeds disharmony and disunity. Greed and pride breeds division.

Do you now see why it is important to endeavour to be at peace with one another? Do you now see why it is important to have an attitude of humbleness, meekness, longsuffering and love?

What is the fate of those who strive to do otherwise? Let us return again to Isaiah 14:15. To Satan, God says, “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” KJV This is a solemn warning. This may not be the destiny of all, especially believers, but Jesus makes it plain to those who want to be first that they shall not be first, but they shall be last. Matt. 19:30 And Mark says in 9:35,”If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and the servant of all.” KJV

So where is your heart? Pray and ask God to show you where your heart is at.  It may be a scary thing to do, because you may not like what you see. But is it worth your while to continue your life with an unclean heart? Or will you strive to be a better person and follow the desires and commands of God.

What kind of a Christian are you? Do your desire to strive forward and accept the calling of salvation as God has laid it out for you? Do you desire to strive forward and work hard to have an attitude of lowliness and longsuffering and love? Are you endeavouring to work hard at maintaining unity and peace with not just your fellow Christian, but also with your fellow man?

Have you been “Walking the Walk”, or are you just “Talking the Talk?” If you have just been talking the talk?  Pray now that God will change you from the inside out. And obey the commands to walk the walk, endeavour to work hard at being the kind of person that God wants you to be, so that others will see a difference. Do others when they look at you see someone who is different, or do they just see another person of the world?

Are you a man or woman of God?

Are you “Walking the Walk?”


andre

Unless otherwise mentioned: Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Romans 12:1-2:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
(King James Version)

When I think of the word transformed, I am reminded of Transformers, the kid’s toys which can be twisted from one form to appear as something else.

For example a humanoid looking robot can be twisted and transformed to look like a fighter jet or a car.

Metamorphosis is another word which conjures up the image of transformation.

We are all familiar with the metamorphosis of the Monarch Butterfly which goes through a few transformations from the egg stage to the adult butterfly.

Another transformation is the complete change of a tadpole which eventually loses its tail, grows legs and no longer breathes with external gills.

The last stage of a tadpoles transformation of course is an adult frog.

The word Transformation comes from the ancient Greek word “Metamorphosis.” Which means a transformation, a marked change in appearance, character or function.

Turn to Rom. 12:1-2 and let us read what Paul wrote about the word Transformed.

From the New King James Version we read; ``Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. “

From this reading we see that Christians are involved in a kind of metamorphosis.

The difference however is that we do not change outwardly in appearance once we believe, but rather our transformation begins the moment we believe the gospel message.

What happens at that moment is a miracle which involves the Holy Spirit and is called Sanctification.

You are at that moment changed in a moment and are set apart as a child of God into His Kingdom.

That is not all that happens at that point.

At that moment you are born again, the Holy Spirit begins an inside job in you.

He begins a cleaning within you, changing you, transforming you gradually to become more and more like Jesus.

That is, your old ways begin to change. Your way of thinking begins to change. You are no longer concerned for the things of the world but thinking more and more of the things of God and our eternal destiny with Him.

A character change in other words begins and continues until we are perfected and taken home to be with Jesus.

As Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:17,”Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (King James Version)

The prophet Ezekiel likewise wrote regarding the Jewish nation, that God will one day:

Eze 36:26-27: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (King James Version)

God is likewise doing the same thing to us.

He gives us a new heart, He puts a new spirit within us, He takes out our old sinner’s heart of stone and replaces it with a new heart, one which is in harmony with His ways.

We no longer desire to be conformed with the ways of the world, but desire to be transformed and following and obeying His ways.

Instead of being conformed to the ways of the world we are gradually being conformed instead to the “image of his Son.” (Rom. 8:29 King James Version)

Paul again reminds us of this gradual transformation in 2 Cor. 3:18 "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.“ (King James Version)

Though this metamorphosis is a work of the Holy Spirit working in us, we have our own part to do as well.

Just as your muscles will not grow if you do not exercise them, our spiritual growth also needs a spiritual workout.

We do this with daily with time spent reading and studying His Word and meditating on what we are learning.

This is also accomplished in our talking with Him in prayer and in associating and spending quality times with other fellow believers, not only here in the church building but in other situations as we gather together in fellowship through various other get-togethers.

We grow closer to God as well when we put into practice the things we have learned through His Word and as we listen to His still soft voice speaking to us, guiding in our day to day living.

Listen to this quote from Oswald Chambers: QUOTE
The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of Sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God`s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God. The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakeable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us? When I pray, Lord show me what sanctification means for me, he will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me; it is Himself in me….Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life. Sanctification means the impartation of holy qualities of Jesus to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy, it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness “kept by the power of God. “ 1 Pet. 1:15
END OF QUOTE

God in His awesome power created some creatures to undergo a metamorphosis. In so doing we are witnesses to His almighty power and awesome beauty in creation. It is said in Romans that the heavens display the glory of the Lord.

Unlike the creatures of the world in their awesome beauty, God did something very special with us that He did not do in any other of His creations.

God created you, you, you, you and all of us whom are called of Him and have answered that call to bear His very image.

He loves each and every one of you with an everlasting love that is un- measureable to our limited mindset.

He has put within us all His very image and His very image includes the ability if we but grasp it and allow Him to work within us a transformation, a metamorphosis to change us from convicted sinners doomed to eternal death, to everlasting life, made perfect in His image to dwell eternally with Him.

If He can make creatures transform from one stage of life and cause them to be transformed into another awesome beautiful creature, what do you think He wants to do to your life whom He loves more than any other of His creations?

Are you ready to be morphed more and more into His image?

Then if so, take time each and every day to spend more time with him in his Word, in private one on one time with him in prayer, studying and immersing yourself in His love letter to you.
David when he wrote one of His Psalms wrote: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps. 51:10 King James Version)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence O Lord
Take not Thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation;
And renew a right spirit within me.

(Lyrics: Keith Green)

LET US SING “Change My Heart O God” page 654 in our hymnals:

Change my heart, O God

Make it ever true

Change my heart, O God

May I be like You

You are the potter

I am the clay

Mold me and make me

This is what I pray

(Written by Eddie Espinosa)

Is God making a difference in you? Are you being transformed daily being morphed into His image? If not it could be that you are not spending any quality time with Him, or perhaps you are Grieving the Holy Spirit.

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph 4:30-32 King James Version)

Now is the time, the day of salvation of redemption, of transformation. Again,

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence O Lord
Take not Thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation;
And renew a right spirit within me.

(Lyrics: Keith Green)

God Bless

Andre

 

 

Mat 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (King James Version)

Matthew 20:25-28; John 13:1-17

(Song to listen to: “The Servant King” by Graham Kendrick. Copyright © 1983 Thankyou Music/PRS (adm. worldwide by worshiptogether.com Songs except for the UK and Europe, which is adm. by Kingsway Music).

START

Before class starts, go in and dump trash around the room, upturn tables and chairs.

When the kids come in, comment on the mess.

“Let’s clean up this mess before we begin our lesson for today.”

Watch for their attitudes, verbally and bodily.

After cleanup

Do you think that a prime Minister, a president or a King would do what you and I have just done?

No, they would think that they are too important to stoop down and do the work of a cleaner.

They would call someone in who is either a slave or someone who earns maybe little money to come in and clean up the mess wouldn’t they.

In their way of thinking, they would be too important to stoop down and get their hands dirty.

In the days of Jesus we know that there were no cars, and maybe only a few horses to get around.

Some perhaps if they were wealthy might have a donkey to move belongings around, or if you were really rich you might own a camel to be able to carry more things.

So to get around from one town to another most everyone walked.

And the roads and trails people walked around was very dusty and often you would have to try to step over and around animal droppings.

So it is safe to say that your feet got very dirty, because no one was wearing boots, or Nike running shoes.

What were the people wearing? Sandals of course?

Now, if you were perhaps a guest, especially an important person stopping in on someone, the owner of the house would have his slave to literally wash the people’s feet when the guest entered the home.

Do you think that God would wash someone’s feet? Why should He wash someone else’s feet, after all He is the most powerful being in the entire world is He not?

Why should He lower Himself to the same status as a slave, a servant?

Let’s read Read John 13:1-17 and see what God did one day just before Jesus was about to go to the cross.

1Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
2And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;
3Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
4He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
5After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
6Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
9Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
11For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
12So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
15For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

(King James Version)

Now, we have talked about this before, is Jesus God? Yes He is. We can prove it in the Bible.

So we see from this account of what Jesus did that God does indeed stoop down and wash other people’s feet.

He showed that just because you are someone important, you also should humble yourself and not be scared to get your hands dirty to do dirty work or to serve, help others.

If were to turn back and read Matthew 25:31 -46, you will see what Jesus thinks of people who will not stoop down, humble themselves and serve and help others, and what He thinks of those who do.

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

(King James Version)

And what is the punishment to those who will not humble themselves before their fellow man and ultimately to God Himself? Hell is their destination and punishment.

But to those who get down, get dirty and serve their fellow man in any way, their reward is what? Heaven and eternity with Jesus.

One last question, should you wait to be asked to do something when you can obviously see that someone needs help in some manner?

No of course not. If you see something needs to be done to help someone, whether they are rich or poor you should jump in and do it.

For example if you are at someone’s home and you see that perhaps the dishes need to be done after you have just had supper with them, you should begin immediately to help clean the table at least and offer to do the dishes, and or just start doing them.

So let this verse be a reminder to you to always be prepared to do your best to help others, whether they are rich or poor, whether powerful or slaves.

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. “ (Matthew 25:40 King James Version)

And remember also one other thing, Jesus served us in the most ultimate way, by coming to earth, and serving us by giving of Himself whole heartedly and dying on the cross for you, that you may have eternal life.

Php 2:8 “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (King James Version)

What a better picture of humility and service is this, that we may follow after Him and do likewise and gladly serve others without grumbling about it and do whatever we can for others, knowing that in doing so, we are also pleasing and serving our God.

André

 

 

Mark 10:17-31 (King James Version)

17And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

18And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

19Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

20And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

21Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

23And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

24And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

26And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

27And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

28Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

29And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,

30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

31But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

What if Jesus really meant what He said? What if He wants us to give more than just the scraps, more than just the surplus, but what really hurts us? Many of us are blessed with more than what we really need - not so we possess more, but that we can give more! How many things do we have at home that we don't really need? How much did we spend on things that we could have gotten a lot cheaper as well? Imagine the good we could have done with what could have been saved - if we only had saved it! Imagine if this "if" could become reality and our desires would not be for material possessions or a comfortable life, but for serving those in need!

How many times have we tried to explain those verses away or twist them long enough so they suit whatever is comfortable for us. But, what if Jesus was serious about that? Jesus was pretty radical in His lifestyle (remember - He was homeless himself: "And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Luke 9:58 King James Version.

Why should those who follow Jesus have a bed of roses when the rabbi had a crown of thorns?

This might sound crazy to many of us. Radical. Fundamentalist.

Or Christ-like...

1 Timothy 6

King James Version (KJV)

1Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

2And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.

3If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

4He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

5Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

6But godliness with contentment is great gain.

7For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

8And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

9But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

13I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;

14That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:

15Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

16Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

17Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;

19Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

20O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

Recommended resource:

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

David Platt (Author)

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: Multnomah Books; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1601422210

ISBN-13: 978-1601422217