What if we actually lived the life that Jesus called us to live? What if we really believed what he said? What if he was the head of my life? What if we actually sacrificed for the benefit of someone else? What if we were ready to live a life that was not marked by safety, comfort, and predictability? What if…
These questions came as a result of my times studying John for our upcoming series "Red Letter Disciples", reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love", and looking at my own shortcomings. So I believe this next season of ministry at Yakima Evangelical Church will be focused on answering the above questions, and some others along the way. I pray that none of us would be lost along the way. However, more than likely, some of us will do whatever it takes for these questions to produce a spiritual depth in us that we have never experienced. We will simply say, "Jesus, do your thing". Simply releasing our life to become a blank canvas in which Jesus can create a beautiful work of art for His glory. This life will resemble the more daring, confrontational, transformational, incarnational and missional life we see in the Gospels and in the lives of those who follow Him. Some of us will find this journey preposterous and want nothing to do with this Jesus, we liked the one we had. The safer, more socially acceptable Jesus is what we are after. For those of us that choose the former, we will be a richer people for it. For those of us that choose the latter, we have resigned ourselves to a religion devoid of power. Or at least the power that we see in Acts 2.
Here are some "teaser" verses and quotes from our upcoming series, "Red Letter Disciples":
John 8:31 "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples"
John 1:43c "Follow Me"
"I believe that he wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them" Chan
John 10:10 "He came to give live and life to the full"
"Lukewarm people don't want to be saved from their sin, they want to be saved from the consequences of their sin" Chan
John 12:25 "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this word will keep it for eternal life"
"It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticicsm, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity" Chan
John 21:19 "Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"
