Jesus Disciple Challenge
Today, as I was leaving from the movie War Room stepping over
trash left on the floor, it made me sad. We were all leaving from seeing a
Christian film. The people who work there & others coming in after believe
everyone in that theater to be Christians. So our witness to them is we are
just as disrespectful seeing a movie about our God as the world watching any
other movie.
I pick up my trash & I throw it away when I leave, because that is what my mother ingrained in me. If I left a mess in the house
she would say, “you must have a maid who works here” or something similar. I also
don’t walk & cut people off or make big huffy sighs when people walk slow, because I can still feel my mother’s hand jerking me back from being rude. Her
gritted whisper of “you need to wait”. You
are not going to tell my mother you saw me somewhere not doing what I know to
do as right.
Those principals are even more important for me when I go
out into the world & represent my Father in Heaven. I don’t want someone
thinking we’re no different with God than those without, because they pick their
mess up. Our Father in Heaven called us to be different from the world. In
Isaiah 8:11 – 21, when we see Isaiah sharing the instruction of whom God doesn’t
want His people to imitate (walk in their ways), you see God say to “seal the
law among My disciples” (vs. 16). That means God wants to make sure we know how
He is expecting us to act in public. When people who don’t know Him, will see
His people & say there is something different about those children of God.
Jesus came & specifically said we were not the same. When
Jesus prayed in John 17: 14 – 18, He stated twice, how just like Himself, we are
not of this world. He stated He had sent His disciples into the world just
as He was sent with the Word of God being Truth. We need to look like God’s
truth to the fact that we are not of this world & we are different.
So when we, Jesus’ disciples, are going out into the world
shining our lights & making disciples, we need to be imitators of who Jesus
would be going to the movies, dinner, the gym or in traffic. Webster, (the
world’s) definition of who a disciple is as follows:
(Webster) Dis·ci·ple - dəˈsīpəl/ noun – a personal
follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of the twelve Apostles. synonyms: apostle, follower "the
disciples of Jesus". A follower or
student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher.
It is not as deep as God’s definition of who we are as
disciples. The word for disciples (Mathetes) translated from Hebrew is as
follows:
(Concordance) Mathetes – math-ay-tes’/noun – a learner;
pupil. From the root math – indicating thought accompanied by endeavor.
One who follows one’s teaching. A “disciple” was not only a pupil, but an
adherent; hence, they are spoken of as imitators of their teacher.
Making it very clear that when Jesus said “Go Therefore
& make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, of the Son & of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you…” (Matt.
28:19 – 20). He wasn’t asking for people who would understand, but have no
execution. Jesus was asking us to imitate Him in obeying our Father &
showing the world the Glory of our Father in Heaven.
I challenge you the Disciples of
Christ on this earth to make sure you look just like Jesus when you are
conducting business as a child of God. If you struggle just pretend when you
look in the seat next to you, across the table or in the nearest aisle, Jesus is
right there.
The next time you think
of littering with that Jesus bumper sticker on your car look over at Jesus grinning
at you from the passenger seat. Before you leave that giant mess you made having
dinner wearing your church t-shirt, cross necklace & earrings, look
over at Jesus’ place setting to see how He left it. While you’re shopping with
your I <3 Jesus reusable bags (you got out of your car with the Jesus bumper
sticker) don’t lay things you no longer want all over the store; lookup to see Jesus placing it back exactly where He got it from.
Here is a great snippet of Joyce Meyer talking about putting
back her grocery cart for God.
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