Recently I was taken back to a book I once read called " In His Steps" and I heard God ask me do you have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of Jesus?
As I started researching the life and ministry of Jesus , i came across this statement and it really stood out to me.
"The life of Christ confronts us with a personality which forbids indecision and neutrality. written by:Bob Deffinbaugh" And if you are paying attention as you are studying His life, you will notice there was not one time when Jesus was undecided on which way to go , nor was He ever neutral on anything. It was either right or wrong , no grey areas. Can we walk through our life with decisiveness and walking acocrding to what is right, choosing not to follow or entertain what is wrong?
We live in a society today that says there are different versions of right and wrong depending on the situation but, the bible states differently. Matthew 5:37....But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. In Revelation 3:15-16, God says........I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,[a] I will vomit you out of My mouth.
So to move forward here, lets move on to some other characteristics of Jesus we need to embody as a Christian.
There are many attributes of Jesus to choose from and this may go into a part 2 but, let's try to look at as many as we can find and if I miss some please feel free to message them to me.
1) Jesus was meek and humble.Matthew 5: 39,But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. Jesus himself did not resist but submitted Himself without violence to the abuse of man.John 18... but when they came to force him to a cross, he offered himself; for he came into this world to suffer, and went to the other world to reign.
2)Jesus was compassionate . all through out the gospels you will read of the many many times that Jesus had compassion on the people.Here is but, one example......Matthew 14:14
And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.Matthew 9:36
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
3)Jesus was bold. For instance, though hated by those having power and influence, Jesus did not water down what God wanted people to know.
He fearlessly exposed the powerful religious leaders for their self-righteousness as well as for their false teachings. Those men stood condemned, and Jesus told them so in words both direct and unmistakable.
On one occasion, he said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of every sort of uncleanness. In that way you also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”—Matt. 23:27, 28.
Now since there are many attributes of Jesus that we need to be like , I will be writing a part 2 and possibly a part 3.... But for this one, I am going to end this with a challenge to you.
My challenge : Can we be compassionate to the lost ,the hurting, the sick, the poor, the hungry? Can we speak with decisiveness, and not waiver on our views of right and wrong, no grey areas? Can we share the gospel of Jesus, the love and compassion of Jesus to the world, boldly, even in the face of ridicule and anger and insults and judgments from others?
Let's make a commitment to ourselves and to Jesus to try to walk in His footsteps.
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