Tag Archives: follow me

You are Your Own Judge

Christian Life, , , ,

YOU ARE YOUR OWN JUDGE

I have noticed, as I have walked and re-walked through the gospels with Jesus, that He was big on human responsibility. He never sanctioned the kind of prayers I often hear people pray – that God would do for us what He has already done, or given us the responsibility to do for ourselves. Jesus always honoured the gift of choice. How often He ratified the choices people made! Take the rich young ruler, for instance. Did He go running after the man to beg him to follow Him, or to make things easier for him? Not a chance! He simply let the man go. He had made his decision, and that was that!

How will we, as prospective disciples of Jesus, respond to His warning? How will we measure our response to His yoke? I am sure we have no desire to disqualify ourselves or to lose what we already have because we have not understood the kernel of His teaching. What I am about to share with you is, I hope, in essence what Jesus was getting at.

I have an acquaintance who works for a small private company. She has worked extremely hard to help the company prosper, bringing in huge amounts of money through sales and service. She recently resigned to take up a position in her husband’s business, much to the disappointment of the company owners – not because of her value as a person but because of the wealth she brought to the company. The husband of the husband-and-wife team has shown his disdain for her decision. Where once he was her “friend”, he is now distant and unfriendly.

I think that this reveals in a nutshell the difference between those who have “the evil eye” and those who have “the eye of light”. Jesus was adamant that He had come to serve, not to be served. He expects those who follow Him to have to same attitude towards other people as His. My friend was useful to her employers as long as she brought in the money. The bottom line is: they used her. Their relationship stood only until the crunch of her leaving hit their bank balance.

What came to my mind through this incident was something like this: Whether they are believers or not is irrelevant. They have been diminished by their reaction to her resignation. Something of what they had has been lost. They measured her worth in terms of money and business. They did not value her as a person and share in her anticipation of bringing prosperity to her family. In fact, they did not even reward her or any of the other staff members by a bonus at the end of the year. They became their own judges.

This leads me to the heart of Jesus’s yoke. If we have chosen to walk in the way of Yahweh, our lives will be characterised by selfless service. We will not use people for our own ends. We will serve people at our own expense. The more we serve, the more we will increase in knowledge and understanding of God’s ways. It’s this “reciprocal” thing again. When we give ourselves away, God gives back by multiplication!

The opposite is also true. When we use people for our own purposes; when we disregard them as people and use them as a means to enrich ourselves, we are diminished as people. We become more selfish and self-serving, less sensitive to the needs of others and dehumanised in our attitude to ourselves and other people.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Matt. 16: 24-26)

Another aspect of this principle is true. The shallow soil does not allow the seeds to produce roots to anchor the plant in all conditions so that it can mature and produce fruit.  Shallow people trust in God as long as it is beneficial for them. As soon as tests or adversity come, they fall away because their faith in God is opportunistic.

These kind of people will also use rather than serve God just like they use rather than serve others. Is this not diagnostic of what kind of hearts shallow people have? When they are disillusioned with God because He doesn’t answer their prayers – in other words, He doesn’t do what they want – they give up their faith in Him and go back to their old life. Use or serve – this reveals the true nature of our hearts.

Conclusion

The soil adds nothing to the seed. It only provides the environment in which the seed grows. Whether the seed is able to reproduce itself or not depends on the nature of the soil. What is the purpose of the seed? It exists only to reproduce itself so that its fruit can nourish the eater and its seeds can continue the cycle of growth and reproduction in the hearts of other people.

As I pondered on this thought, it occurred to me that this is a picture of our lives. Our hearts are the soil into which the seed falls. Like the soil, we add nothing to the seed but, as it grows and reproduces in us, our spirits are nourished by its fruit. We in turn, continue to perpetuate the life of the seed by sowing it into the hearts of others. Their response will determine its effect on their lives and whether the seed it reproduces will continue to be passed on to others.

What we eventually become in our efforts to follow Jesus and become true disciples is entirely our responsibility. The Holy Spirit will not make the choices for us but He will give us grace and power to put into practice our decision to follow Jesus and to do what He instructs us to do. In the end, as we follow Him, we will become like our rabbi, maturing as we journey with Him, into true sons and daughters of God.

“Be careful how you hear,” Jesus warned. “You determine the measure of your own fruitfulness.”

Pray with me, then, the matchless prayer of David whom God called, “A man after my own heart.”

Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth;

Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (Psa. 86:11)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

 

 

Jesus, The Rabbi

Bible Study, , , ,

JESUS, THE RABBI

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will sent you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed Him. When He had gone a little farther, He saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay He called them and their left their father, Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him. (Mark 1: 16-20).

We often admire these men for acting so promptly when Jesus called them, don’t we? How could they just drop everything and go after a comparative stranger? And Zebedee didn’t protest either. He watched half of his workforce walk away without uttering a word. And they didn’t just take off half an hour to chat with Jesus. They were gone for good!

Of course we would wonder at this because we don’t understand the culture. Jesus was a rabbi. He was thirty years old, the age at which a rabbi would have completed his education and was ready to begin his itinerant teaching work. If he was recognised as having s’mikah – authority – he would choose young men to follow him to be his talmidim – disciples.

It was a great honour to be chosen to be a disciple. The rabbi’s simple invitation, “Follow me,” was an indication that he believed that they could become like him. These men would stick to him like glue, living with him day and night. They would watch him and listen to him and learn to copy him until they became replicas of their rabbi. He would teach them his yoke – his way of understanding and living Torah – God’s teaching in the five books of Moses, which they were faithfully to pass on to others who would follow them. They could not change or omit anything without being disqualified as a disciple.

Talmidim were usually chosen from among the young learner-rabbis. Those who did not make the grade after their elementary education went home to learn the family business. The select few went up the ladder of education, always aspiring to be among the very best who would one day also be recognised as being rabbis with s’mikah.

Strangely enough, Jesus chose men who had failed their entrance “exam” to “rabbi school” and were plying the family trade on the Sea of Galilee. They were not only dropouts from school, they were also in a sense religious dropouts as well. Because they dealt with dead fish, they were probably always considered “unclean”. They must have been startled out of their wits to hear the qualifying call, “Follow me,” especially from the mouth of the most popular rabbi of the day.

It’s no wonder they dropped everything and set off after Him without hesitation. Who would be so foolish as to pass up an opportunity like this? I can imagine how they shook their heads in wonderment and chatted excitedly together as they walked behind their rabbi, each one trying to get as close to Him as possible to pick up the dust thrown up by His sandals as He walked. They just could not believe that their lives could take such a radical turn in a moment.

They did not know that they were in for a rough ride. They were called to follow, not just another rabbi but, as they would find out soon enough, the Son of God. His authority did not come from the recognition of men but from God. He would say and do things that would appal them because they knew He was courting trouble with the religious authorities but it didn’t seem to bother Him.

He mystified them. He was ultra-kind to the down-and-outs. He had amazing powers – like no other rabbi in Israel. He healed sick people with a touch or a word. He made blind people see and deaf people hear. He even raised dead people to life again. And His preaching! He made outrageous claims and said outrageous things and yet, somehow, they believed Him. He spoke as though He knew what He was talking about.

As for the revered religious leaders, He made mincemeat of them with His words. He enraged them by uncovering their wicked hearts. He had no compunction about pulling them to pieces in public. He courted trouble without a qualm – almost as though He was egging them on to kill Him.

It’s just as well they had no idea what lay ahead for them. Would they have been so eager to follow Him had they had a glimpse into their future? This was an all-or-nothing call and they answered it without hesitation and without a backward glance.

Jesus still calls, “Follow me!” When men who masquerade as disciples call you to follow them, don’t go. If leaders try to bind you to themselves, don’t follow. There is only one who has the right to call and to whom we must respond – Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com