Wednesday, November 10, 2010

2010 – November 10 – Which Jesus Do We want to See?

Study from God’s Word John 12: 12-13; Mt 21: 1-7 & Mk 11: 1-7 [Jn 12: 14-16]; Mk 11: 8-10 & Lk 19: 36-40 [Mt 21: 8-9]; Lk 19: 41-44; Mt 21: 10-11 & Jn 12: 17-19; Mk 11: 11 [Mt 21: 17]; Mk 11: 12-14 [ Mt 21: 18-19]; Mk 11: 15-17 [Mt 21: 12-13 & Lk 19: 45-46]; Mk 11: 18 & Lk 19: 47-48; Mt 21: 14-16; John 12: 20-36; Mk 11: 19 … Passage for Reflection: John 12: 20 – 21 … NIV 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”

My Journal for Today: Okay, my fellow SEEKERS, may I assume, in following this humble blogger and reading along with my devotional journal entries, you are a disciple of The Christ, who, like many of the people as Jesus entered the City of David on His triumphal entry, you seek after The Messiah.

However, as we know from history and Scripture, a lot of those people who were crying “HOSANNA!” at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, just days before His crucifixion, were not really seeking The Christ the way Jesus had said they must as His disciples. Many of these seekers, declaring that Jesus was THE Messiah, would soon become the Jews crying “crucify Him!!!”

So, today, in his devotional Dr. LaGard Smith asks some very pertinent questions, which are relevant to all of us who claim to be “seekers” after the One we call our “Lord and Savior.” We say that we are “Christians;” and we claim to know the historical Jesus to be THE Messiah, … the One Who died on the cross at Calvary as the Lamb of God. But we need to ask ourselves, as Jesus was asking of all those followers on His way to the cross, some of the questions written by Dr. Smith, ”What do we really hope to gain by knowing [Jesus]? [Are we just] … trying to make sure that we end up in heaven rather than hell? [Or do we seek Him] … to feel good about ourselves, wearing a name [“Christian”] associated with the Righteous One? [Or] is it still the miracle worker we’re after?” And Dr. Smith’s most pointed indictment comes right at the end of his devotional entry for this date, writing, ”Wanting to see Jesus for all the wrong reasons is to miss the Man altogether.”

Many times when I come here to read and study what Dr. Smith has to write in the context of the chronological passages he has edited for his readers to follow from Scripture, I’m convicted – in a healthy way – to go deeper into my relationship with Christ. But today, I’m actually affirmed by reading what I’ve read and writing what I’m writing here; because a deep personal exam of WHY I seek after Jesus, it tells me that my beliefs are true to what Jesus sought in His disciples.

I truly believe that I’m doing all I can to deny my sin nature. And I’m doing all I can daily to take up the crosses God’s providence brings into my life. And most importantly, I truly am doing all I can to follow after the One Who went to the cross to save me. (see what Jesus demanded of His disciples in Luke 9: 23)

Now, am I the disciple and seeker I need to be or become? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But I hope you have discovered whether you are following after Jesus to be part of the crowd of nominal “christians” who just feel good about being part of that crowd. Or I hope you’re not following after The Christ just to see Him perform some healing miracle. Or finally, I hope you’re not declaring yourself to be a “Christian” merely to try to claim your fire insurance against hell after death.

I pray that all who read here with me are seeking to know Jesus as deeply as we can so that we can follow Him as closely as we can; … so that we can pursue Him to become like Him and to become the workmanship of His grace which is described by Paul in God’s word in Eph. 2: 10. I’ll leave it to you to do that self inventory; but today, for once, I’m not so convicted as I’m uplifted by being able to declare myself a true seeker after Jesus!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to stay on this trek to know You more day by day and to follow You more as You lead me to become Your disciple. Amen

1 comment:

Rich Griese said...

I am interested in the study of early christianity, especially the creation and formative years, perhaps the first 200. Although in recent years, I have taken a greater and greater interest in Patristics. To show you some of the stuff I have been collecting, and trying to organize, take a look at these two pages, and see if anything interests you;

http://webulite.dyndns.org:8080/christianity

http://webulite.dyndns.org:8080/?do=showtag&tag=christianity

I am interested in conversations on anything in the early christianity general area, If this kind of thing interests you, feel free to contact me by email.

RichGriese.NET