CAN YOU?

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 15 April 2012

Hi all,

Many Christians have a habit of not wanting to listen. Why should they? They are usually so busy telling other people what to do; they can’t spare a moment to listen. I know I do that more often than I should!

One of the things we all seem to forget is that Christianity is a lifestyle, not a panel debate on TV. We tend to sit around discussing what we should do as Christians. But we seldom get down to the business of actually doing what we talk about. I suspect it’s a bit like a male gynaecologist. Lots of theory; can even tell the ladies what to do. But no actual experience of doing it himself!

In today’s meditation, I’ve tried to address the question of being a genuine Christian. The emphasis is on being a Leader in a Christian Church. Can we do what is required of us in the Scripture? James, the half brother of the Lord Jesus put it like this: ²² But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. Jas 1:22 NLT

I suppose it’s a question of establishing whom we serve. Are we serving Jesus Christ or ourselves in our own ministry? The question is an easy one to ask. But can we be truthful with our answer? Very often we think that our Christian based activity is being a doer of His Word. It isn’t! We all seem to have the ability of having double standards. Is our Sunday behaviour the same from Monday to Saturday? Many of us are inconsistent in this. I’ve struggled with this more times than I dare admit. Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow Him.

Essentially we are faced with a confrontation between what we want and what the Lord has said. Our ambitions in the ministry drive us. Thus our Christian lifestyle is compromised. Even when we find this to be true, more often than not we deny it vehemently. Matthew puts it as follows: ²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. Mat 16:24 NLT

Most of us have exchanged the cross for a mobile sofa. We don’t have to pick it up. Just sit there and allow it to go anywhere Jesus would like! We no longer see the cross as an instrument of an exquisite and agonising death for ourselves and our desires. It’s been exchanged for a seat in a theatre where we can watch other people performing and convince ourselves this is being a good Christian.

Am I being unfair? I would be if I wasn’t including myself amongst the accused. How do we change? I’m not advocating self-flagellation. I’m not asking for the return of the Inquisition. What I would like to see in myself and in my fellow Christians is living the way Christians have been shown in God’s Word. In particular I would like to see this in Christian leaders.

Today’s meditation asks a number of testing questions. Don’t give me your answers. I’m struggling with my own.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Can you?

Contrition for ambition is what the Lord requires.

Devotion to promotion is not what He desires.

Does it really matter, if you are tucked away,

Taken from the limelight and told you cannot stay?

Will it make a difference if Jesus Christ has said,

“You must be the rearguard, and not be up ahead?”

Will it be a burden, if He tells you to wait?

Can you face the prospect of such a lowly state?

Must you be the leader? Can you be number two?

How do you think you will cope, if that’s required of you?

Can you spend a lifetime holding someone else’s coat?

Are you an obedient sheep or just a headstrong goat?

Can you take the pressure of being put aside?

Can you be the bridesmaid and never be the bride?

What will be your answer if God says, “sit and stay”?

Do you think you’ll do it, or will you run away?

Does it really matter if He makes you the least?

Could you be the altar boy and never be the priest?

Can you sit in silence when you can make things right?

If you think that things are wrong, will you stand up and fight?

Can you let a brother make a very big mistake,

Or will you go and interfere and say, “For Jesus sake”?

Can you be a Joshua for almost forty years,

Waiting til your Moses quietly disappears?

This is Christianity. Promoting other men;

Seeing them as better, time and time again.

Never seeking favour or popularity,

Only being what the Lord has said that you must be?

It isn’t very popular. In fact it’s very hard.

Sitting under someone else and acting as his guard.

But there’s no alternative. If things are built by me,

Jesus is the person others will not ever see.

Can you let your teaching fall upon deaf ears?

That’s what Jeremiah did from many, many years.

He was never popular, except perhaps with God.

Can you bear the suffering or will you think it’s odd?

Can you face a giant with his huge and mighty sword?

Will you overcome him in the Name of Christ the Lord?

Will you be contented when all the ladies sing,

Praise to your assistant and to you not a thing?

When you’re made the leader, What action will you take,

Against your opposition, when your leadership’s at stake?

Will your people follow you voluntarily?

Or see how big a bully that you can really be?

If you can face all of this and never turn and run.

You will be a man of God who’s following His Son!

Jim Strickland – Written Sunday 15^th April 2012