Monday, March 18, 2019

Following Jesus

After Jesus died on the cross, after he rose from the dead, and just beofre he returned to the Kingdom of his Father, he gave his followers their marching orders. Modern corporations might call this their statement of purpose.

Jesus said, wherever his followers wnet, they should take his message. They should find people, who are open to spiritual things, and share Jesus' message with them. And because he is calling people to him, by his Spirit, they will find people who want to follow him too. When they find someone who chooses to follow him, first, they will immerse him\her in water, as a public, symbolic declaration of their chose to follow Jesus. Second, like parents, they will teach this person how to live.

They will teach him how to "feed" himself. They will teach him how to treat others. They will teach him about his heavenly Father, how to communicate to him, and how to hear him speak back to us.

Men have studied the Bible. The have tried to understand God, and have laid systems to help others understand God. This is good in that it helps people go further, faster. But it can cause problems as well.

Jesus' marching orders were to go, find open people, share Jesus' teaching, and help them to learn, and obey, all of his commands. (Including this one to go, find, share, and help … which usually gets left by the wayside.)

People, no matter how hard they study, how diligent, and conscientious, to avoid errors, miss stuff. And people, who insist on following someone's system, run the risk of missing stuff too.

Moreover, they are following a system, instead of a person. Jesus didn't say: Follow an "ism." He siad: Follow me.

We need to learning how to read the Bible for ourselves. We need to learn to pray for ourselves. We need to learn to hear God speak to us ourselves. Then, we need to learn to practive what we read, or heard, ourselves. These are probably the foremost skills for a follower of Christ to develop.

Scripture says we are Christ's ambassadors. Scripture says his family is a kingdom of priests. We are all God's representatives. We are all intermediaries between God and people. Each one should be able to go, find, share, and help. Each one should be going, finding, sharing, and helping.

In the places where Christianity has existed for centuries, people have been trained to sit. They have been trained to be audiences. But Scripture declares that each person who chooses to follow Jesus is his priest. Maye we should not all be standing up, and doing something, at the same time. That might cause a little confusion. But, sometime, in some place, we all should be doing something priestly.

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