To Be Like Jesus

   I remember a chorus we used to sing at church, when I was growing up, called "To Be Like Jesus." It went like this, "To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask is to be like Him. All through life's journey, from earth to glory, all I ask, is to be like Him."  Until recently, I only had one idea of what being "like Him" really meant. As Christians, we should strive to be like Jesus. I have heard many a message on this subject. We need to love like God love's. We need to have compassion like God has compassion. We need to live a righteous life, because we serve a righteous God. We need to be a shining example of our Lord, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We need to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. We need to lead and win souls to Christ. ALL of these things are true, and we should do them! I could go on and on. I have heard many messages in my life time, but there is not that much space here, and sadly, my memory is not what it used to be, so I will not try to quote a line from each one. :-)

   I grew up in a Christian home, with godly parents, who were a shining example of true servants of Christ. It was not until I became an adult, with children of my own to raise for Christ, that I realized how much "like Jesus" they were (and still are) and how little I was "like Him." Oh, I am not saying I have not lived for Him, because I have tried my best to, and I am still trying. I am not saying I have not spent my life in service to Him, because I have(and failed,) and I am still serving as best I can. I love the Lord. I have been so blessed by Him that living a life without Him would be foreign to me. I am not bragging on me, I am bragging on HIM. I gave my heart to Jesus at age thirteen, and thank God, He has been my best friend and never left me. I am so underserving of His constant companionship, and undying love. I will never understand why God would give His most precious, for this faltering, failing servant, (I could spend the rest of this page just bragging on HIM! He is so good!) Yet, all these years I have strove to serve Him, to witness about Him, to worship Him, and yet I never fully grasped what it mean to be "like Him." 

   Serving Jesus is not just about singing praises, teaching sunday school, being in His house every time the doors are open, going door knocking week after week, living a righteous life, having Godly standards and principles, encouraging others to know Him or be faithful to Him, cleaning the church, working on the bus, teaching children's church, showing up at EVERYthing that the church schedules, carting bratty children and unthankful teenagers to camp, picnics, and amusements parks, giving to missions, playing the piano or organ, taking care of crying babies in the nursery, praying daily, and having devotions every day. All those things are wonderful places of service for Christ, and you are commended for having participated or taken part in any or all of the above, but...... where are your scars?

   When I look at my blessed parents, my gracious father & mother-in-law, my precious grandparents, and some very faithful servants of God that I have been privileged to know and learn from, I see scars. I see wounds. I see tears. I see broken hearts. I see lives that have done all those things I listed above, while fighting battles within the church or personal battles with their children or grandchildren. They continue on while being falsely accused of horrible things, by people who have yet to walk a mile for Jesus in their own life. They trudge forward while the darts are being thrown, and they hold their shield of faith high over the heads of some of the most unthankful, ungrateful people. All the while hoping that their faith will help others to see Jesus. They don't look for trophies, gratitude, men's applause or praise, they just look up, because that is what Jesus did. When in the midst of persecution, slander, suffering, heartache, and pain, Jesus looked to His Father. And even though He could have come down off that cross and proven to them that things they were saying were  untrue, and the punishment they were giving him was unjust, and undeserved, He didn't. "..and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Is. 53:7) He bears in His body the marks, the wounds, and the scars. Where are your scars?

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal.6:14)

"From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." (Gal.6:17)

Continue Thou

II Timothy 3:14-15 "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

I have a friend, whom the Lord has blessed with a great many talents. One of those is the gift of song writing.  Two of the songs she has written, have become very close to my heart, as I grow older and learn more about the grace and mercy of God. The songs are titled, "Keeping Grace" and "Goodly Heritage." Both tell a story of being born into a home with parents that are already born again, and being raised to know the Lord, thus becoming a child of God at an early age. I am doing them very little justice really, they are tremendous songs that have touched my heart, over and over. 

I, like the author of these songs, was blessed to be born in to a Christian home, raised by Godly parents, and taught by example to serve the Lord. Thus, coming to know the Lord at an early age. I was able to hear some of the greatest preacher's while growing up. I was able to glean from many a Godly woman in my life, especially my mother.  Though I am grown now, I am still able to hear good, sound Gospel preaching at my own church, Faith Baptist. My pastor also has in other great preacher's and evangelists on occasion, so the Word of God (KJV 1611) is preached openly and without reservation, and I am blessed to hear it, and glean from it. By God's grace, I plan to continue to serve Him, and hear what He has for me, and try to be what He wants me to be, until He calls me home. 

So what's my point in all this? By God's grace, I want to grow better, more and more, every day. It is not enough to just learn what is right, you have to continue in it. You have to persevere to the end. Just as Paul is telling Timothy here to stick to the truth of the word, and it would protect him from the snares of the devil. It will keep you from being lured away. Also to remember who had taught him - - "knowing of whom thou hast learned them" - - not evil, wicked men, but men who had experienced the power of God and knew the truths they had taught him. He also reminds him - - "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures."  In order to know the things of God, you must know His Word. What a joy! What a blessing, to know the Scriptures from your childhood!!! That is when true learning begins. 

"It is a great happiness to know the certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed." 

(Matthew Henry) 

So if you have been blessed, as I, by growing up in a good, Godly home - - Be thankful. Praise the Lord for it, and CONTINUE in the things that you were taught. It is a blessing. It was by God's grace you weren't born to a drunkard, or drug addict, or even worse! Praise God that He has saved many from those places, but you and I, through NO GOODNESS OF OUR OWN were graciously spared. Like the song says, "No righteousness nor good have I, that I could glory in. Amazing grace, has kept me from, what I might have been." (words from "Keeping Grace" written by Leah Sandlin)