Every Day, Jesus

Everyday Jesus. Everyday, Jesus. Every Day, Jesus.

It’s challenging to want to be a “car guy” in a time when it seems all cars look something alike and the individuality of a favored brand is melding into the sameness of all cars. Everywhere. I have favorite cars from the Big 3 of Detroit fame, but in today’s world, these manufacturers have simply become what the remainder of the world seems to be. Generic. Nothing Special. Blended.

It almost seems to be the same with everything. Fashion. Smell’ems. Utensils. Even reading material. One genre or style gets a hold of the imagination of the world and suddenly there are copy cats everywhere!

It’s almost difficult to spot an original. Just as something catches hold, the market floods with look-a-likes! Cheaper in price and quality, but give you the false pride that you can flaunt your image and no one be the wiser!

Influence

We allow things of life to influence us. Every day. Think about it. You drive the car you want to epitomize your identity. You go to a school that will prove you have the heritage and money to become something special. Or even the neighborhood you refuse to live in because others may talk!

I watch folks flock to the marketplace and buy branded clothing just so they can promote the label by saying, Look! I’ve arrived! I can afford this and I’m proud to wear their label for the entire world to see how “great” I am.

Our influence in certain areas influence others who are wannabes. Why? They see you flaunt your choice and think it must be the thing to do.

Consider Christians and living with Jesus every day. I woke recently with the thought of this message. Every Day, Jesus! Living with Jesus every day and in every scenario of life, makes me want to be more like him and less like the world around us.

Let me ask you. What’s your spiritual influence on others? Are you promoting a lifestyle of Jesus in everything you do? That’s where my thinking has been the past few weeks.

Jesus From Afar and Close

Several songs crept into my thinking as I considered Jesus being part of my life every day. Songs that talk about Jesus, what He’s done for me, and how I want to shout about the victory I have from this relationship.

Jesus is in my constant thought process, and he permeates through how I act and react to the world around me. In my thinking processes, Jesus was not political. rather he was a lover of souls. In fact, his entire message revolved around this thought:

But go ye and learn what that meaneth,
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
(Matthew 9:13 KJV)

His entire purpose revolved around reaching the sinners – those separated from God. He did not come to call the righteous, but the lost.

In context, Jesus is responding to the religious leaders, in a house of a recent convert. Matthew. The Tax Collector. When Jesus asked him to, “Follow Me”, Matthew left it all, organized a big feast and called his friends to the table. (Matthew 9:9-13)

Who were his friends? Since he was between the two worlds of Rome and Israel and accepted a thankless job as a collector of taxes that were given over to a conquering army, I would say his only friends were those just like himself.

Caught Between Two Worlds

This seems to be who we are today. We are caught between this world and the next. We have either bought into this world as the entire reward system we claim, or there is a better place we yearn for.

Jesus did not recruit for perfection. In my mind, he called to those who had the best attitude to be apart of the future and who were ready to lose this world for the promise of the next. Yes. Even Judas.

This was Matthew’s problem. He was in transition. We have no clue if he knew anything about Jesus beforehand, or was looking for answers, or even felt lost in his present responsibilities. All we know is that Jesus spoke, Matthew heard and followed.

Have you made up your mind why you are here? Who you are following? What influences your decisions?

Choosing Your Future

Matthew, maybe without even comprehending the future, decided on Jesus. For over three years he was part of a cadre of followers, a core group, learning from Jesus 24/7/365. Hours per day? 24. Days of the week? 7. Days of the year? 365.

In other words. He was committed.

But it was not to be an easy road. In the very next chapter, Jesus sends them forth with power to accomplish the impossible! Beginners! Trainees! Students! Disciples! But with Power!

And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him,
He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
(Matthew 10:1 NKJV)

In fact, Jesus even gives them strict commands on how to live! (Matthew 10:5-42) It’s a daunting challenge. They will be persecuted, challenged, rejected, even hated. Some will accept. Some will not. But their focus was clear. Go where the people are!

Every Day, Jesus

I cannot help but think that everything they did required them to reflect on everything Jesus was, what he taught, and how he lived his own life. As a student (disciple) they were learning to “mimic” Jesus. They could not “be” him, rather, in their own way and to their own audience, but to example and teach Jesus.

Every Day.

There was no vacation from their calling, or life, or audience. Every day they were to communicate Christ to the world. How? He tells them.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;
as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
By this all will know that you are My disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
(John 13:34-35 NKJV)

Here’s My Thought Today

Experientially, we live in an overly sensitive time. Hence, it’s easy to get caught up in the hurried pace of speaking and acting before we think it through. Politics. Crime. Social Injustice. It’s difficult to get off the roller coaster of emotional responses that are so easily tossed around by the entire world!

But, we must learn to act better when it comes to our reactions to what we perceive as the negative circumstances we are faced with. Too many will let their emotional response cloud logical options.

Consequently, we react to the pressured pot waiting to boil over, we should learn to be more like Jesus!

To Be Like Jesus

Consider his response to the pressures of the moment. Only the Apostle John brings this story to light! (John 8:1-11) Why none of the others? I think there is a spiritual lesson here from the one who loved Jesus the most! The other Gospels are like History Books, reciting the story of Jesus for their own particular audiences. John wrote a Spiritual rendition of who Jesus was!

A woman was brought before Jesus.
She was caught in adultery.
Adultery. The man is not brought, only the woman.
Let’s test Jesus!
How will he respond? According to the Law? It’s the only way.
Jesus? What say ye?
He stoops and writes in the ground with his finger.
As though he did not hear them!
“He who is without sin among you…let him throw the first stone…”
Again, he stoops and writes in the ground with his finger.
Convicted by their own conscience, the left their accusations behind.
One by one, beginning with the oldest.
Eventually, Jesus is left alone with the woman standing before him.
What would he say to her?
Where are your accusers? No one is here, Lord.
Neither do I condemn you.
Go! Sin no more!

This story reflects on those who are wrong on so many fronts. However, Jesus teaches by example how we should be every day. Condemnation is not who we are. I want to live like Jesus! Expressing love and a pathway to better living is the job we are given. Jesus teaches us, gives us a prime example, and then commands us to live by his teachings!

Summary

Early this morning I read of a famed Astrophysicist who tweeted some statistics and personal opinion.

He enumerates the deaths of the same 48 hours when 40 people were killed with guns. Over 1,200 died as a result of medical mistakes, flu, suicide, and car accidents. His opinion? “Our emotions respond more to spectacle than to data.” He is raked through the coals of public opinion for simply stating facts and personal insight.

Through this same 48 hours, as my mind wanders through the unknown statistics. I wonder, how many were aborted, overdosed by accident, committed some other horrendous crime, or shouted hate and slandered someone? Was someone rejected that their only response is to lash out in hate?

This is who we have become today.

I wonder. What would Jesus do? Say? Teach? Example? Today.

This is my Every Day Thought. I want to be like Jesus, Every Day.