Category: Jesus

Watchman Nee died in 1972 after spending twenty years in communist prisons in China. This is a quote from his book, The Normal Christian Life: “The life of Christ in me will gravitate to the life of Christ in others. I can no longer take an individual line. Jealousy will go. Competition will go. Private work will go. My interests, my ambitions, my preferences, all will go. It will no longer matter which of us does the work. All that will matter will be that the Body grows.”

After reading this quote recently, I began writing down names of people who have influenced me as a follower of Jesus. Before long I had a list of about 100 people. I realize this group is just a tiny, tiny fraction of the Body of Christ, but God has used each to impact my life. I have been blessed because others have allowed Jesus to live in them.

About 40 on this list would not be considered personal friends, though in God’s eyes we are in the same family. You would probably recognize many from this group, and though I have met three or four of them, none would recognize my name. But God has used their teaching or writing or music or example to build my faith and draw me closer to God.

23 on this list are no longer alive on this earth, but their influence continues to spread. About 30 of these 100 are of a different nationality than mine. No matter the color of skin or national heritage, if Christ lives in a heart and a person lives in Christ, good fruit will result. Just think of the multitude from every tribe and nation and tongue that will worship at the throne of God!

60 of the people on this list would probably not consider themselves very important in the Body of Christ, but they are very special to me. These friends and family members are brothers and sisters who know me well. I dare not pretend around these individuals or they will call me out… for my own good! All these believers have helped me grow in Christ, and though we do not necessarily agree on every single point, we love each other deeply. And I truly believe we all need one another.

Now if each of the 100 people on my list created their own list of 100 people who helped them grow in Christ, and then each on those lists wrote down 100 people that influenced them in the Lord, could we get a glimpse of the magnitude of the Body? May Christ, who is our Head, help each of us see his beauty and bless one another.

“It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13

Competent and trustworthy scholars have translated original writings into both the New King James Version and the New International Version of the Bible.  Each version reads slightly differently, although each group strove to be true to the original meaning.  An interesting parallel can be made from these two translations regarding Jesus’ word in Luke 2:49. Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business? (NKJV) is the same question as: Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? (NIV)

Twelve-year-old Jesus asked this question in the Temple in Jerusalem after being found by his parents listening to his elders, asking questions, and giving answers. Communication is a part of the Father’s business, but as we examine the life of Jesus, we know there is much more than words. The magnificent Temple was known as God’s house, but Jesus understood there is much more than a structure.

The secret of Jesus’ life on earth was that He continually lived in God’s house. He did not live in the Temple; He lived in his Father. “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” (Psalm 91:2) Jesus, always about his Father’s business, lived with a deep understanding: “Father, you are my dwelling place and I choose to live in You.” As Jesus lived in his Father, his Father lived in Him.

Where do we choose to live? This world continually tempts us to call it home, but this world is not our home. We are to live in Christ… and when we do, He lives in us. And when Christ lives in us, the Father’s work is done. Notice what Jesus said about Himself and us. Let’s choose to live in Him!

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father… Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.” John 14:9-10

“I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing… As the Father has loved me so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.” John 15:5,9

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6

My dad turned eighty years old last week. We went to Chattanooga a couple weekends ago and gave him a picture entitled Path of Life with Proverbs 4:18 printed on it:

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

Daddy still chases cows in the country and sometimes early in the morning. But, of course, this Proverb is about more than the great outdoors.

Through faith in Christ and totally by God’s grace, we are called righteous like Abraham (see Romans 4). As we walk by faith, the Father wants the Light to become more and more clear and precious to all His children.

After returning home, I kept thinking there was something familiar about the Scripture I gave my dad. In our basement hangs a picture Susan gave me over twelve years ago. A young man is climbing a cliff looking at Jesus at the top of the mountain. The picture by C. Michael Dudash is entitled The Journey. The words of Proverbs 4:18 are written at the bottom of the print. I think Susan was reminding me with this picture that the journey is all about Jesus.

Our son Taylor and his wife Emma leave tomorrow for the Dominican Republic with a group of high school seniors on a mission trip. I don’t have a picture to give him, but I’ll ask Taylor to read this verse and remember the purpose of the journey.  We need His full Light. The world needs His full Light.

I just realized there are 27 years between my dad and me and 27 years between me and Taylor. So whether we are 80 or 53 or 26, Jesus is the One who tells us how to walk the path. “Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” (John 8:12)

“Yet [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:20-25

I led a session at the annual GISA Conference this week as 1900 educators from Georgia independent schools gathered at the Atlanta International School to focus on the theme: The Three C’s – Creativity, Communication, Collaboration. Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Drive, was the keynote speaker.

Throughout the day many teachers presented various ideas regarding one or more of the chosen categories.  The title of my class was Jesus and the Three C’s. It was fun to share a few Scriptures, tell a couple of stories, and ask fellow educators their thoughts about the Master Teacher.

For the past several weeks God has been reminding me to be totally centered in Christ. It is so easy in our busy world to simply leave Jesus out of our thinking and our daily decisions. But when we center on Him, Jesus brings meaning, purpose, and hope to any situation.

The classroom was full, and a young Spanish teacher from the Atlanta International School was assigned to make sure everyone’s needs were met. I am usually very low-maintenance, so my helper simply stood by the door at the front of the class for the entire hour and listened. Afterward, she came to me and said, “That was not at all what I expected.” Later in the hall I overheard her telling other AIS teachers how much she enjoyed the discussion about Jesus.

When Jesus is the center, even those standing by take notice. Of course not everyone will follow Him – they didn’t while He walked the earth – but thoughts may be stirred and hearts may be touched. The Holy Spirit wants everyone to know that the secret to true life is found in the Son. ‘God, help us keep Jesus in the center.’

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:15-18

God wants us to appropriate all He offers in his Son, but how? It is tempting to pursue wisdom or peace or healing or a particular gift… but God wants us to have more. He wants us to appropriate Jesus Himself… More than that, He wants us to know his Son. Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:11-12)

A. B. Simpson was born in Canada in 1843 and became an early student of God’s Word. He loved to preach, to write hymns, and to encourage Christians to reach out to the neglected people of the world. After moving to New York City, Simpson started the Christian and Missionary Alliance and served the Lord until he died in 1919. Simpson often shared that the turning point in his life came when he realized God intended everything to be about Jesus. This is a paragraph from a writing entitled Himself:

I prayed a long time ago to get sanctified, and sometimes I thought I had it. On one occasion I felt something, and I held on with a desperate grip for fear I should lose it, and kept awake the whole night fearing it would go, and, of course, it went with the next sensation and the next mood.

Of course, I lost it because I did not hold on to Him. I had been taking a little water from the reservoir, when I might have all the time received from Him fullness through the open channels.

I went to meetings and heard people speak of joy. I even thought I had the joy, but I did not keep it because I had not Himself as my joy.

At last He said to me – Oh so tenderly – “My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself.” And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment’s need, the Christ that had all I should ever need was given to me at once, and for ever!

And when I thus saw Him, it was such rest; it was all right, and right forever. For I had not only what I could hold that little hour, but also in Him, all that I should need the next and the next and so on, until sometimes I get a glimpse of what it will be a million years afterwards, when we shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father” (Matt 13:43) and have “all the fullness of God.”

So let us ‘take hold’ of Jesus… nothing more and nothing less. And let us believe God’s great mystery and spread his good news.

“I have become [the church’s] servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:25-27