Sunday, January 15, 2017

John Review

I think today I will do a brief review of some of the things John taught us about being a follower of Christ.  We must first acknowledge the eternal nature of Jesus.  He did not come into existence at His conception, as we do.  He was there at the creation of the world.  I almost said He came into existence in His human form at birth, but it is clear that He was in existence in human form nine months prior to that.  In Mary's situation, today many women might feel that His conception was inconvenient and He might never have the chance to be born.  I believe the Bible teaches us that human life starts at conception.  We also learned that Jesus was always obedient to the heavenly Father.  He did not look for what would be easiest or bring Him the most glory.  We are called to do the same as His followers.  We do not become children of God to extol our own virtues, but to follow the will of the Father in humble obedience.  This is the example that Jesus set for us.  Jesus called disciples to follow Him.  One , Judas, betrayed Him and was never restored.  One, Peter, showed great faith, but denied Jesus in a crisis, but repented and was restored.  One, Peter,was a true follower and one, Judas, wasn't.  If we are truly His followers, we will never stop being His.  We will fail at times, some more than others, but we are still His.  We are born again.  There is a difference between being a good person and a born in again believer.  We cannot restore ourselves, but must go to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration.  The disciples were called to follow Jesus first and put everything else second, and so are we.  They were to reach the world with the gospel, and we are to also.  They were to nurture fellow believers, and so are we.  Following Jesus is a lifelong calling, not a situational one.  We cannot separate life into secular and religious as His followers.  Everything we do must be to glorify God.

No comments:

Post a Comment