Happy New Year! Beginning January 3 (8:30-9:15 a.m.) we will begin an in-depth bible study of Hebrews on Zoom. You are welcome to join us. Contact me @ homer@whchurchofchrist.org to join in the study of this amazing book.
It’s not in Jesus’ nature, personality, or Lordship as the royal Son of God to reject us when we repent after messing up and not following Him the way we should. Walking in the light does not mean perfection – it means progress in our maturity of faith.
For example, look at Peter. He was totally committed to following Jesus but had trouble in his spiritual walk because he had one foot in his mouth half of the time. But he kept repenting – he kept following – and Jesus kept forgiving Peter and working with him to help him to mature. Peter was still a work in progress even after seeing Jesus alive from the dead. In Galatians Paul records his confrontation and correction of Peter: “But when Cephas(Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of some men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? (Galatians 2:11-14).
Listen closely to the lyrics of the song by Sidewalk Prophets entitled You Can Have Me. Do we love Jesus enough to drop everything and follow Him in 2021? Are we so drawn to Him that we are compelled to run to Him in 2021? Do we recognize our need for Him is so great that we will not allow anything to stand in our way of devoting ourselves to follow Him in 2021?
Is there anything in this life more valuable to us than being close to Jesus? Read Luke 9:23-27,54-62 and listen to You Can Have Me by Sidewalk Prophets. Maybe make this song your launching song into this new year.
Luke 9:23-27
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it. For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels. But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:54-62
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.
As they were going on the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at my home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
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