Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is: Proverbs 8-9, John 21
Happy Monday Everyone!! Sorry I've been out of the loop lately, our internet was down since last Monday. I must say I've missed you all and our daily reading/commentary!
Today I want to focus on the John reading, although there was much in the Proverbs reading that caught my eye. I love the story in John about Jesus and the disciples. I have this picture in my head of Jesus standing on the shoreline with a huge smile on his face watching his disciples fishing. I imagine him praying to His Father in that moment for those men and the affect they would have on the current and future generations. I imagine Jesus in heaven right now, watching us from the shorelines of Glory with a huge smile on his face, watching his disciples - US - interceding on our behalf to His Father in every moment for how we will affect current and future generations.
At the end of Chapter 21 Jesus give specific instructions to Simon Peter on exactly HOW he will affect current and future generations to love Christ. John MacArthur has a great message on John 21:15-25. I'm going to highlight some points in this post, but for the whole message go here. In his message on this portion of scripture, John MacArthur talks about Jesus' conversation with Simon Peter and highlights 4 Characteristics of a Committed Christian as the HOW on living out your love of Christ into others.
#1: His work is compelled by love. A real committed Christian operates on the basis of his love for the Lord.
#2: His way is controlled by God. He has learned how to give his life totally to God and trust Him for it.
#3: His will is content with following. He's happy to do what Jesus leads him to do.
#4: His words are concerning Jesus.
I love these 4 points, and I love the detail MacArthur gives on each of them in his message - I encourage all of you to go read the whole thing. We can reach the pinnacle of our own relationship with Christ and our outreach to the unsaved by working at building these characteristics in our lives. In closing, John MacArthur writes:
What John says is true...it's true. Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of God, He does give life and by faith you can have that life. It's all true. Everything John said is true and he's the guy that keeps going around talking about it and talking about it. Boy, that would be a wonderful comment on my life, it would be a wonderful comment on your life if at the end of our lives somebody could say, "Oh yeah, you remember them, they were the ones that always went around talking and testifying about Jesus."
What's the topic of your conversation? What is it? A committed Christian is preoccupied with Jesus...with Jesus. Trumble(?) made a...came to a crux in his life and he made a decision, I want to give it to you, it's absolutely fantastic and a long time ago I learned this principle. He said this, "My life changed when I prayed this prayer one day." He said, "I said to the Lord these words, "God giving me the power, every time I have the opportunity to introduce the topic of conversation, it will always be of Jesus.'" Is that something? God giving me the power, every time I have the opportunity to introduce the topic of conversation, it will always be of Jesus.
My friends, if that were true of us, things would happen in a revolutionary fashion. What do you talk about? A committed disciple, so full of Jesus Christ that it's on his lips all the time. And John said there's even more I can't say. Verse 25, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself couldn't contain the books that should be written. Amen." Jesus did so much, His person is so far beyond captivity that we couldn't reduce Him to writing. And John says there's more that could be said, an infinite number of books couldn't handle the infinite love of Christ, the infinite character of His person.
Penciled on the wall of an asylum, said to be written there by a man demented, were these words, discovered after they found his dead body in this little room in a mental asylum. Here were the words that he had scratched on the wall. "Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stock on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky." He wasn't too crazy, was he? He just was saying you can't write about God's love, the whole universe couldn't handle it.
And so, John spoke words concerning Jesus and left much unsaid. I hope you know Jesus so well that you can speak about Him all the time and still leave much unsaid. Some Christians could give their testimony in five minutes and have shot their wad. That's it. That's all they know. I hope you can testify of Jesus all the time and still have much that you haven't said.
There it is. There's the pattern of real discipleship, a work compelled by love, a way committed to God, a will content with following and words concerning Jesus. And I say what John said, "So let it be."
Tomorrow's passage: Proverbs 10-12, Acts 1
4 comments:
A friend of mine said her prayer every morning was, "Lord, make me a dry and thirsty sponge to soak up your Word today. Saturate my heart and my mind so that when I am squeezed by my circumstances or by the pressures of this world, YOU are all that comes out."
Excellent thoughts here. I wonder, is there such a thing as talking about Jesus too much before someone is ready to hear it, or is that just a convenient excuse we've told ourselves so we don't have to take that risk?
It might be a bit of an excuse, but I think maybe there's a fine line between "preaching at" someone non-stop and just having Christ so central to life that He just naturally surfaces in every conversation. I think that might make a difference to the hearer. I've seen and heard of a lot of people who are ridiculed for their hypocrisy because they preach one thing but seem to live another, but I've also seen non-Christians forgive the constant "Jesus-talk" because that's just the way someone IS. It's a part of who they are ~ and clearly their lifestyle and way of speaking reflect that.
I think it's hard to admit that other people see us differently from how we see ourselves. We may know our motives (though sometimes even we try to lie to ourselves about them), but no one else really does. We may feel like we're living out what we preach, but no one else really sees it that way. I think we really need to ask the Holy Spirit to check our hearts and our motives and to help us make sure our actions line up with what we WILL say. I think the actions, the lifestyle, should precede and evidence the words; the words should merely be confirmation.
(And boy, I just have to say, that sermon was UNCOMFORTABLY CONVICTING!!!)
Great thoughts. I agree that when our "talk" is the same as our "walk" then people are less likely to be offended by our witnessing. It the focus on gap between that makes non-Christians unwilling to listen or be receptive to the message.
I loved your imagery of Jesus watching the disciples fishing. It must have been such a great day to be reunited with Him on that shore and to share a meal like they had so many times before.
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