Saturday, February 23, 2008 "to be really like Jesus"

Saturday, February 23, 2008

"to be really like Jesus"

From Julie's Keyboard:

Those we love most....?
What is wrong with us when we can smile and laugh, aid and assist, comfort and console every other soul we meet in the world, except they of our own household?

This is walking way on out there today, huh? These thoughts were prompted from an episode of my own behavior. I'm not picking on anyone else. That will be for each of us to do individually. I caught myself only moments ago laughing inappropriately at something someone in my family had done. Then I noticed the impression it seemed to make on the person telling me about the event (they didn't share it to be funny).

No, I'm not saying we can't laugh with and at one another. Hey, we're funny folks, huh? But this particular thing didn't warrant laughter. There it was. I couldn't take it back.

Some may feel that life is just too short to be concerned about folks feelings so much and that may be true in part. The question seems to be, "What does our behavior reflect of life of Christ within us?" Our homes and our families deserve the same consistant Godly behavior that anyone else should be getting from us. If it isn't there, how real is anywhere else?

Once our hearts are changed, we still must continue on in a process of sanctification. Our souls and bodies must be trained to react according to that new nature within the heart. This has to be a daily task, or better yet, moment by moment. With all the free will we've been given we have all the ability to choose our thoughts, words, and actions. We're still at the helm, though we have a Director.

Oh, there will always be those that oppose, even those of our own family many times. The Bible has told us not to love family more than God, yet in our love for Him it's obvious that our actions toward them will reveal His life within us.

My thought to ponder this week, "How sweet are we at home?"
Hope you have a blessed week and value the wonderful relationships of family and friends that God has given you.

Scripture references:
Prov. 21:23 "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles."
Matt. 10:36-37 "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
the whole meaning of the Christian walk.....
Eph. 3:19"And to know the Love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
Julie

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"to be really like Jesus"

“If God called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways, He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing, and then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His…slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others.

Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule [entrance] to heaven.” - - - - G. D. Watson. A Wesleyan Methodist minister sometime in the 1800's.