How many days a week is daily?

Live it Out by Abandon

So there was a survey of college students that asked them questions about their faith. For the question "What does it mean to be a Christian?" only a few even mentioned Jesus... Jesus Christ.

Christian 

You would think it'd be obvious... but we so often forget. Being a "good" person, isn't enough. Going to church isn't enough! And yet, that's the furthest we usually go... Being in church on a Sunday morning is enough of a commitment, right? We're busy and don't have time for more. 

Jesus said "Whoever wants to be my disciple, must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23/Matthew 16:24). 

Our crosses are decoration. We wear them around our necks, on our t-shirts, hung up on our walls, outside of our churches, tattooed on our arms... Yet, Jesus tells us to carry them. And carry them DAILY. Wait, is one day a week daily? How about two? Two out of seven... that's pretty close to daily right? 

#EPICfail.

Join me again next time as we continue to explore what it means to carry your cross.

be His love.

Being a disciple hinges on obeying two commandments. Yes, only two. You may have heard that there are 10... but there's actually hundreds (613, to be more precise). But Jesus sums them all up with just two. When tested by the Pharisees, Jesus answered that the two greatest commandments, the two that all the rest hinged on, were love God with all  your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength (see the post from Sept 10th)... this week, we'll look at the second piece of this: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Whose your neighbor? Everyone. So what is Jesus telling us? Love everyone. How do we love them? Do for them the things you would do for yourself... meaning your priorities should follow the JOY acronym: 

Jesus Others You

It is THAT simple. We follow Jesus, we do what he did... Who loved others more than he did? John 15:13 tells us that true love is laying down one's life for their friends. For us today, does that mean dying on a cross for our friends? No... it means thinking of them above ourselves. J. O. Y. (Notice what it spells. Guess what happens if you get your priorities in order and live this out? Go figure, right?!)

How we treat others is the single greatest testament to our faith. Like that super old song goes: "They will know we are Christians by our love..." If Jesus's entire message could be boiled down to one word, that word would be Love. So how can you honor what he's done for us? Go out and 

be His love.

Can we just get real? Like for real? I mean really?

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 22:35-40

Remember last time when I said Jesus could school the religious leaders of his day? This is one of many instances. In this passage, after the Sadducees had failed to make a fool of Jesus by testing his knowledge of the scriptures, the Pharisees took a shot at it. As you can guess, they failed and just made fools of themselves instead. They say to themselves Yeah, let's ask this guy, this crazy fanatic who thinks he's the son of our God, let's ask him what the greatest commandment is. Look at us; we're so clever with our trick questions. All they cared about was following the rules. But following the rules for no other reason than to look good or because you're supposed to, sooner or later, you're just going through the motions. Faith is deeper than that... faith is a complete change of heart. You follow Jesus because you WANT to... not because your parents say you should.

So consider what Jesus said #1 Love God with all of your heart... all of your soul... all of your mind. Love God with EVERYTHING in you, every part of you. Love God with all that you are. If you loved a person this deeply, would anything in the world be able to pull you away from them? You would think about them and text them constantly... you would go over to their house, go out to the movies. You would spend every possible second you could with them. You would be obsessed and you would never have enough. There's not a person alive who has done as much or loves us as much as God... yet, we'd rather spend time with our girlfriend or boyfriend? We'd rather play video games or watch a movie or play on facebook... We'd rather do anything other than pray or study the Bible. And we wonder why our faith isn't stronger or why we don't feel closer to God. Really?

True Christianity isn't about following the rules. Jesus despised the very men that were thought to be the most righteous of his day, because they were too caught up in their man-made religion, too blinded by their own legalism to recognize that the very God they worshiped, prayed to and offered sacrifices to had come down into humanity was standing right in front of them. And then, they killed Him. So let's get beyond what we're 'supposed' to do... don't just go through the motions, don't fake it. Every time you do it's like you're helping them nail Jesus to the cross all over again. And He died once for all so get that weak sauce outta here!

God just wants to love us and bless us in ways we can't even imagine but He can only use the parts of ourselves that we give to Him. So c'mon, what are you waiting for? 

Surrender everything.

Follow the Leader

So Jesus has asked us to follow him. Which involves what exactly?

1. Going to church
2. Reading your Bible
3. Praying
4. Spreading the Gospel

(Uggggggh.) Can we get beyond what you're supposed to say... I mean think about it, it's not like Jesus is walking around right here in York County and we can just hop right in line behind him and start singing "Follow the leader." (See: Disney's Animated Peter Pan---youtube it).

This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1John 2:5b-6

You want to follow him... do what he did! Live how he lived. Remember those super awesome bracelets that everyone had once upon a time... they said WWJD? What Would Jesus Do. Just because the bracelets are outdated, doesn't mean the message is. This is how we should live our lives. Consider every choice with the principles and lessons of the Bible in mind, with the words and teachings of Jesus guiding our thoughts and decisions. Although... how can we do this if we don't know much about what Jesus taught? How are we ever supposed to live like him? 

Open up those Bibles!

(Jesus knew the scriptures so well, he could school the religious leaders of his day. He makes them look like idiots, it's really great.)