WWJD?

I guess you’ve seen or heard of the acronym WWJD either on bracelets or stickers or badges. For some it’s just a fashion statement, for others it’s a constant reminder of the message – What Would Jesus Do?

I’m led to believe that it originated from an 1897 novel by Charles Sheldon about a small-town pastor who encourages his congregation to live a year based on that question. In each situation to consider what Jesus would do, and act accordingly. It was picked up in the late 20^th century and became a Christian marketing sensation.

Thomas a Kempis was a 15^th century monk who hundreds of years earlier wrote a piece with a similar sentiment entitled The Imitation of Christ, exhorting people to do just the same thing – to imitate Jesus in all the situations of life.

Author Ed Dobson recently took things a little further. He determined to live for an entire year exactly how Jesus would have lived. He ate kosher, grew his beard, observed Shabbat and all the Jewish feasts and festivals. In addition, he set a goal to read a Gospel a day (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), so that within 12 months he would have read (or listened to, as the reading became tedious) each Gospel story over 90 times. So keen was he to discover not just how Jesus lived, but what he taught and modeled, and to live that out as best he could.

He found it very difficult. The lifestyle to some degree, but to live out the teachings he found even tougher.

I find it difficult too.

To love your enemies, to give to anyone who asks, to turn the other cheek. Much easier said than done.

I’m comforted somewhat by the fact that those who were with Jesus as he was teaching these things, and modeling them, even they found it difficult. And they had a living, breathing example right in front of them. They were with Jesus himself!

So is it just too hard? Should we forget trying to imitate Jesus and live out his teachings?

I have found that it requires me to start afresh each day, with a fresh resolve, to do the best I can to live according to the teachings and example of Jesus. He said we were to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. For me this means not living by my own human instincts and desires, but living by my God instincts. And persisting on a daily basis in spite of my failings.

And when I do this, when I give living like Jesus my best shot, I find my life so much more fulfilling, so much more satisfying, so much more joyous and rewarding.

I believe that Jesus provides the absolute best blueprint for living on Earth. Why not read the Gospels through a few times and see if you agree?

Then may we all do our best, each and every day, to live as imitators of Jesus.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Images of God

I treasure the pictures that my children drew of me when they were quite small.

Their kindergarten efforts at making a Fathers’ Day card were often accompanied by a hand-drawn image that they believed represented me, their Dad. Their very first attempts usually featured eyes and a mouth which was smiling, inside a circle on top of two long sticks. As the years passed I developed a body, which was usually adorned in brown and gold stripes representing the football team I barrack for. I in time also grew hair – at first just a few long single strands, in later years a messy mop, then also a big nose and big ears, which is pretty close to the mark!

Now that my older children are teenagers, their attempts to draw me now would include the correct eye colour, silver-flecked hair, and a body somewhat in proportion to the real life model, whilst still including the big ears.

As God’s children, we too can sometimes create an image of God that is incomplete or inaccurate. And that is the image we hold tightly to. The God who is always angry, or always watching to catch us out, or God who is distant and uninterested, or the God that controls every minute details of every human’s life. The God who loves us but never disciplines, or the God that disciplines because He loves us. The God who is always testing us, or the God that always lifts every single burden.

I read recently of a man describing how his view of Jesus changed throughout his life. It began seeing Jesus as a sheep-carrying, tender-hearted, friendly softie. It developed and changed into hero, and at other times things like guru, teacher, miracle-worker, rebel, and Saviour.

The Bible describes God in various ways, highlighting different characteristics, and these can be seen in the life and person of Jesus. And they are broad and detailed – not stick-figure like. With the most important being the capacity to love.

As my children matured, they were better able to represent their picture of me.

As God’s children, we mature through various spiritual disciplines and activities such as our reading of God’s Word, prayer, service etc. And hopefully as we mature, we are able to form and represent an image of God that is closer and closer to the real thing.

May we each learn to hold our mental images of God a little more loosely.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Obedience Over Instinct

We have two recent additions to our family. They arrived a few weeks apart, and these little ones are cute and adorable. They can’t talk, but we feel like they can communicate through the little noises they make. They are nursed and cuddled and very well looked after.

We are now the owners of two guinea pigs.

But it has caused a major upheaval in our household. Not with the humans, but with our dog.

Our dog has a bit of this, bit of that, but is primarily an English Springer Spaniel with a fair bit of whippet. Can’t you just picture these breeds of dogs in their natural state? Little furry creatures that scurry along the ground and through long grass are precisely what they were born to chase.

So our dog is beside himself. He is just super keen to get these creatures into his mouth. So he will attack the hutch incessantly. Scratching, yelping, lunging.

My kids were shocked when I meted out some discipline. A few smacks on the rump to let him know that I did not want him annoying the life out of our little guinea pigs – literally.

“Don’t do that, Dad. Poor dog. He can’t help it”

My response, “He needs to learn obedience over instinct.”

As soon as I said it, I thought of a spiritual parallel.

The Bible says that we have all been born with instincts, and that our natural instincts are to tend towards behaving in ways that are displeasing to God. Our instincts pull us towards greed, selfishness, disregard for others, prejudice and a whole range of things that we do that are in conflict with God’s designs for the world.

God gave the ancient Israelites some commandments, ten in all, but Jesus distilled them down to two – love God and love others. Yet this loving others bit goes against our instincts. See it’s not just loving people that we like and get along with, but we’re called to show love to all people, like them or not, whether they’ve hurt us or had conflict with us or wronged us. And that’s hard.

And I feel like God says, “It’s hard – but you need to learn obedience over instinct”. And through that obedience we demonstrate our love of God. Because when we disobey, and go according to our human instincts, and don’t show love to others, we separate ourselves from God.

Obedience over instinct.

Just as well for me that God offers forgiveness too.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Let's Stick Together

My age isn’t always reflected in my taste in music, but today it probably is.

The song going through my head this morning was the old Bryan Ferry classic “Let’s Stick Together”. The song is actually a plea from a married man to his spouse not to leave him. But it also reminded me of the passage in Ephesians 4 where Paul says, “Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace. We are all one body…”

I learnt recently that the fire ant has a body that is denser than water, so it doesn’t float. But when a storm comes, the colony of fire ants join all together and form themselves into a life raft that can float for weeks. Tiny hairs on their bodies trap air bubbles, so thousands of fire ants that would normally struggle and drown in water as individuals, when they join together, they can ride out the flood.

This is the design, too, for the church. That we would be united. That we would stick together. That we would work together as one in the service of Jesus. That there would be peace in the church as we function all together as one body.

When that is in operation, we can ride out any flood.

Let’s stick together, come on, come on, let’s stick together.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Staying Clean

Each day in Philadelphia, in the US, if you walk down by City Hall you will see a long line of people standing in the footpath, apparently waiting for something. A cross-section of humanity in age, ethnic origin and appearance. Further enquiries would reveal that these people were on probation or parole and were waiting to take their daily drug test to show that they were staying clean.

One of the challenges as a parent of young children is trying to keep them clean. That goes for some teenagers I know too – who seem to think it’s OK to skip having a shower for a day or two or three.

Staying clean – it’s a basic, hygienic function that most of us engage in every day. Washing, bathing, brushing. A daily cleaning ritual to keep our human bodies clean.

 

This has spiritual overtones for me too. It’s OK to do things to keep the outside clean – but what am I doing on a daily basis to keep the inside clean?

When our sins are forgiven, we stand before God clean (2 Peter 1:9). And we know that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). So to remain pure, to have a heart that is pure, a good daily habit to get into is the seeking from God of forgiveness.

Perhaps add it into your physical washing routine – pray while showering, or while washing your hands, or while brushing your teeth – “Lord, yesterday/today, I failed you by… please forgive me?”

Let him forgive you on a daily basis, as has been promised – and may we each live every day clean in the eyes of God. Clean bodies, clean minds, clean souls.

Colin Lane

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Christ In Art

One of the more enjoyable excursions while I was in London last year was to the National Gallery. They had an extensive exhibition showing of Christian art.

I spent half a day, wandering from room to room, using it as a time of worship. Immersing myself into the scenes depicted, reminding myself of the stories being portrayed and thanking God for things like creativity and for His works throughout the centuries.

Of course, the way that Jesus was represented varied quite markedly, from artist to artist and from era to era. From features bordering on feminine, to the ethereal; European, Mediterranean; glorious and triumphant, to suffering and weak.

Jesus had many faces.

Initially I found some of the images quite off-putting. “That’s nothing like what Jesus would have looked like”. But I thought later that throughout Christian history, artists have just been depicting Jesus in the context of their culture, both in time and in place.

Something that we are inclined to do. Which I think is quite OK.

And I’ve since also reflected on the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25:40, ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’.

And recognised my own failings - I can quite easily overlook this in some people, thinking ‘that’s nothing like what Jesus would look like’.

Author Leonard Sweet says, “We will never know what Jesus looked like, because he looks like everyone at every time. It’s not his physical presence outside of us but his resurrection presence inside of us that is the handwriting of the gospel anyway.”

As I view Christian art now, I try to concentrate less on the facial features of Jesus shown in the art, and more on the heart features that can be found in me.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Easter 2012

My favourite cartoon character is the Road Runner. Fast. Cheeky. Never gets caught. Always chirpy! I want to get a Road Runner tattoo, but I’m a bit old!!

Poor old Wile E Coyote tries everything to catch him, but only manages to blow himself up, fall from great heights, get hit by a freight train and have things drop on his head.

Must admit, I have many more days when I feel more like ‘Wile’ than I do feeling like the Road Runner. Disappointments, falls, failures. Particularly in the spiritual aspect of life.

I know how Peter must have felt, when standing around that fire, having witnessed Jesus being arrested, pretending he didn’t know him.

I’ve done that.

Either outright denial, or just keeping quiet when there was a nice little opening to insert my faith and convictions into a conversation.

In Luke’s Gospel, he mentions that Peter followed the arrest party at a distance; near enough to see Jesus, but not near enough to be seen with Jesus. Then, after denying Jesus three times, and the cock crowing, Luke says that ‘the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter’. And Peter went away and cried bitterly.

The anvil on the head. The dynamite exploding. The fall from a high cliff.

Guilt.

How hard we try in life to avoid this feeling. All sorts of blame, and justifications, and excuses. So we don’t have to feel guilty.

It’s not a nice feeling.

Peter shed tears – tears of guilt, of remorse, of regret.

In the ensuing days came the cross, and the resurrection. And before long another fire, this one built by Jesus on a beach.

And forgiveness was given – three times.

And the guilt was gone.

That’s what Easter does for me. I feel the guilt of my sins, as I should; I feel the hurt that I cause my Lord when I deny Him or keep quiet; the cross makes me feel guilty.

And I shed tears.

But the resurrection wipes it all away. Like Wile E Coyote, I’m able to pick myself up, brush myself off, and ready myself to pack more explosives or paint tunnels on cliffs and resume the chase – full again of hope. Forgiven. I serve a Risen Saviour.

Max Lucado said ‘Mingle the tears of the sinner with the cross of the Saviour and the result is a joyful escort out of the canyon of guilt’.

May that be your experience this Easter.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington