Following Jesus Son of God …

We’re not called to be nice.

We’re not called to be friendly.

As Francis Schaeffer would say “that’s a good place to start” but that is not what we are called to.

We are called to love one another, to owe nothing but love, as in laying our lives down for each other.

Otherwise I’m just another human “bean,” just anthropos, nothing more nothing less. . .

Mere man, mere human, woman, child. . .you get it don’t you?

Tsk, tsk, tsk. . .mere Christian.

(1 Corinthians 3:3 NIV)  You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

Mere

• mere(a): being nothing more than specified; “a mere child”
• bare(a): apart from anything else; without additions or modifications; “only the bare facts”;
• a small pond of standing water
• wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• Mere in British English refers to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, e.g. Martin Mere. A significant effect of its shallow depth is that for all or most of the time, it has no thermocline.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere (lake)
• The sea; A pool or lake; a marsh; Just, only; the smallest amount
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mere
• Only this, and nothing else; such, and no more; simple; bare; as, a mere boy; a mere form.

What is the missing ingredient of mere Christians?

The Spirit of God.  As we walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, we receive the things of God.  The Spirit adds “God-stuff” to our lives.  We are no longer mere humans.

We become humans who are filled by the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 ESV  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  (13)  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  (14)  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

We live differently because of what has been added to our lives that raises us above a basic existence on this Earth.

The God-additive, dude.

Human bean, plus forgiveness in Jesus Christ, receive the gift of eternal life, receive the Spirit of God, walk by the Spirit, living large on God’s highway.

 (2 Corinthians 4:7 MSG)  If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.

It’s not about self-portraits.  Even if  you are beautiful, those around you need to see more than your beauty and goodness gives them access to.

They need a reflection of God.

They need to be able to look at your life and mine and see a little bit of forever, past the ordinary kindness and goodness of people, to the saving grace of God.

They need a sneak preview of the glory to come.

And they need to be able to see that in you.

They don’t need to see how good and how righteous you are.  They need to see the reflection of Jesus, the Son of God in your life and mine.

Pretty groovy, huh!

 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 MSG  Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you.  (6)  It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

He was the new kid on the block, freshly chosen to join the board of our church, a pretty good guy, I had hope for him.

And then came his  first board meeting and those words.  “I just hope that I can learn from you guys how to be a good board member.” That’s when I wanted to yell.  As he spoke those words to the other guys around the table, inside I groaned “No, please, no.  Please don’t use these guys for your example.”

“I want to learn how to be a good board member.”

That is what they were, good board members.  I won’t deny that.  Well, they were at least okay board members.

It ‘s kind of like being a good church member.

Nooooooo…….

Too many of us reach those goals, become good church members, become good board members, etc.

But many never become followers, disciples, bowed servants of the Most High God.

We please those around us but we do not have the faith to please God.

(Hebrews 11:6 ESV)  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

We don’t believe Hebrews 11.6, not really.  We do believe that it is possible to please God without faith, just be a good church member, choir member, Sunday School teacher. . .groan. . .board member.

No, I did not want him to become a good board member, not really.  I wanted him to learn how to follow God, pursue godliness, be a man of faith, a leader who thought first of God, who bowed before God.

Just a few thoughts from my sticky notes.

Live the gospel and you will die and when you die you will live the gospel. We don’t know what life is until we lose what we are grasping for and receive what God offers. Speaking of a process here, not just initially coming to Christ, but continuing down the path (the Way) behind him.

Talking about following Jesus, dude!

Live God’s truth and when life rolls back on us and crushes us we relive the gospel every time we crawl out from under the rubble, and we see our world differently, see God differently, and we bow down in worship and praise.

That is the gospel; we always get back up off the mat because Jesus conquered life and death while on this earth.

(Matthew 16:24-25 ESV) Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (25) For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

As Wiebold squished across her sodden living room carpet, thunder rumbled in the distance. She sighed and expressed a sentiment that is likely on most Iowans’ minds.

“I just wish it would stop raining.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080615/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding_77

I don’t know.  It is like stand back and let God speak to us.

I can’t explain what is going on and won’t be foolish enough to try, but God is there, always has been, always will be.

But isn’t it so very difficult to grab some perspective when your clothing and furniture are floating in the living room, your floors are buckling or will be, and you are wondering how in the world you will recover from this.

It has to be God, the Holy Spirit of God, direct intervention from the Most High God, which can bring our minds and hearts to something other than the wreckage of lives.

Pray and give if we haven’t been devastated with the water.

Trust God (really it is more than cliche) if you have been hammered by the floods.

(1 Corinthians 16:13-14 NCV) Be alert. Continue strong in the faith. Have courage, and be strong. (14) Do everything in love.

(Ephesians 4:32 NIV) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Just got the call to go out and help more with the flood damage.

But a brief thought from yesterday evening and this morning.

I gave him a ride home as he could barely walk. I helped him with his seatbelt.

I was strong for him. He was probably 30 years older than me.

I gave him my cart. I helped him load the dehumidifier in the cart, the last one, the one I was there for.

I was strong and kind. He was 28 years older than me.

He asked me if I needed help getting my package out of the car. I said, “You know what, yes.”

He was strong and kind. He was probably 25 years younger than me.

Just some words to you, my friends.

Be strong and kind as you have the opportunity. Do what Jesus would do with his hands and feet and back.

May God bless.

Now off to load the railroad cars heading to the washout.

I have been driving by a house for the last three days which one of my sons had hoped to buy a couple months ago.

Whew!  That is in “whew” we are so glad someone had the bid in ahead of him.  He was so disappointed at the time, but the house was extensively damaged by the flooding over the weekend.  These poor folks have all their stuff in the front yard in a big trash pile.  Junk.  Worthless.

I feel so badly for them and so many others in our area.

But I am so thankful that my son’s bid came in too late for the house.  Every time I  drive by I have these mixed emotions.

And tonight at our place.  I feel great that I am not working this evening as I have been working 12 and 14 hours on a night shift loading rock on trucks to repair washouts on the railroad.  Feels great to be home.

But again, knowing people who were devastated by the storming, more conflict of emotions.

Reading the stories and knowing how the stories are just touching the tip of things.

And I am making really good money because of the type work I do, more business for us.

And more hardship and financial loss for so many.

So I am giving some of mine away, not because I am guilty or have done anything wrong.

It’ s just the right thing to do.  Know what I mean!

surreal
characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions; having an oddly dreamlike quality; very strange or dreamlike; bizarre; not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary; unreal

Speaking to my friend on the phone, looking through the glass patio doors at beautiful, green grass, sun shining, flowers blooming, our big, beautiful maple tree just outside the door. . .

And across town. . .water rushing out of a subdivision like Niagara Falls.

Surreal. That’s the word I used to describe my feelings. How can this be? On one hand my heart agonizes for the people on the other side of town guessing what fear and anguish they must be experiencing. On the other hand, now that I am back on the “north end,” safely tucked away in our quiet, little neighborhood, it’s like it never happened.

I wasn’t just earlier Saturday morning helping my son get water out of his basement. By the way, what he was dealing with was just a nuisance compared to the tragedy that these other folks were experiencing. Get the water off the basement floor, maybe replace some carpeting, keep that dehumidifier running. Not two feet of water coming through your front door or your basement walls collapsing or not being able to get home or leave home because your access road looks like a picture from Iraq.

I was driving through water that I probably shouldn’t have going for a bigger wet vac, observing houses, churches and businesses with lakes instead of lawns. And I went through before it got bad.

This was before the state of emergency being declared in all the surrounding towns also, water supplies contaminated, and I had never seen the “code red” warnings before, not at least in our community where nothing like this ever happens. Well, according to the news, I guess it did happen similarly 100 years ago.

Surreal – Having an oddly dreamlike quality, unreal, strange, bizarre, seeming fanciful or imaginary.

But it wasn’t. It was real and lives changed in an instant. One friend related to me that as her son and his family were wading through the water from their house to their car parked on the street, abandoning their home, that he thought of Katrina. He told her that one family with two babies was using tubs to float them along to safety.

Unreal. Bizarre. But true.

Everything can change in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye.

Whoosh! Zip! Zing!

Everything different.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 MSG But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die–but we are all going to be changed. (52) You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes–it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed.