Friday, October 16, 2009

Living Like Jesus

I returned from Louisville, KY late yesterday afternoon. Rick Atchley took a few young ministers to Bob Russell's retreat center. My soul is full. After pastoring the Southeast Christian Church for four decades, Bob has earned the right to lavish wisdom and grace upon young preachers like myself. For three days I became a sponge!

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Last week I finished Ed Dobson's The Year of Living Like Jesus. A couple of years ago, Ed Dobson read A.J. Jacobs book The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs tried to follow the OT word for word the first six months of the year, and the NT word-for-word the last six months of the year.
From Jacobs, Dobson (Ed, not James) thought it would be interesting to try to live like Jesus for an entire year. An absurd thought, right? He found it to be a daunting task.
A Jewish Rabbi once told a Christian, "How can you call yourself a Christian while not reading the gospels every single week? You claim to follow Jesus, but you rarely spend time reading about Jesus."
Dobson's book wasn't thrilling, but it was inspiring. He spends too much time trying to dress like Jesus, eat like Jesus, and pray like Jesus. But the one thing that was challenging was the fact that living like Jesus is difficult. It's counter-cultural.
Who knows, maybe we should give it a try.

1 comment:

  1. This is a matter I've been turning over and over in my head recently. If I claim Jesus gave all for us and that I am his follower, how should my life look in the wake of that confession? The truth is that I don't let it look that different. Sure, I don't steal, kill, commit adultery. I'm a good citizen. But what about the other HALF of the transormation? What about the amount of time I spend in nursing homes, in broken homes, in the homes of the sick, the dying, the hurt? What about the way I spend or don't spend my money? Transformation is an ugly thing when I kick my sinful ways and forget to invite the Spirit in for full transformation. Usually, all I get when I go halfway is self-righteousness, "Look what I used to do but don't do... Look at what I gave up for Christ..." Thanks for the bold challenge, Josh. I pray I can continue on it, step by step, joyful sacrifice by joyful sacrifice... one counter-cultural move at a time, until He takes me into His eternal care.

    JM

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