I just watched Close Encounter of the Third Kind (again) with my children. I always find the part where the big space ship comes across and the aliens come out very exciting. It’s something about feeling that child like excitement about what it would be like to actually meet an alien.
It then got me thinking about God. How often do we feel that child like excitement about meeting God? There should be more excitement of course about meeting God than there should about meeting aliens.
Then it got me thinking that perhaps we often find it difficult to follow Jesus because we have just got so used to him being around. We have lost our excitement and anticipation that should be there when we meet Jesus. There is a gospel story about a short man climbing a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus. This is the kind of excitement that we need to have each day.
Now I’m sure you are aware that when you get used to having things around the excitement of them tends to dwindle, so how do you keep the excitement alive?
With Jesus I think it comes from thinking about him and what he has done. This is one of the reason Christians are always banging on about the cross. Not just because of what happened but because it’s amazing and makes you feel excited about who Jesus is.
To follow Jesus we need to feel excited about being around him and learning about him. Without this excitement our faith tends to die away until it doesn’t matter much to us. Let’s try and get our excitement about Jesus back and then perhaps following him will be that much easier.
Thoughts discipleship, jesus christ
Don’t you think that following God should make a difference to a persons life? When it comes to God it’s easy to think only in terms of the afterlife, perhaps even of doing everything to avoid going to the hot place. But Jesus was pretty insistent that becoming a follower of his should change life here and now for the better. If you listen to some Christians – you may have met a few – it feels like following Jesus is actually a bit of a chore.
Now I’m the first to admit that some church services I’ve had to sit through have make it feel like a chore but that is not always true and it isn’t the way Jesus talked about things.
Jesus was pretty hot on talking about God’s kingdom. In essence this was the beginning of heaven now. The point being that we can live in heaven right now without having to wait until we die. Of course there are limitations to this because of the way the world has been dented and twisted by so much that is wrong but within the limitations we can start to experience heaven right now.
It might sound crazy but I’ve been in places (some of them church services) where it felt like being in heaven.
The life of the Christian should reflect a bit of heaven on earth. I’m just sorry that so often I’ve made a mess of things and have not been the beacon to God’s wonderful life that I should have been. People make too many mistakes.
So if you want to know where heaven is and what it’s like it’s the place where God is listened to and where his people follow. Jesus reckoned this was available to everyone and all we have to do is follow him.
Christian living discipleship, heaven
One of those things that I’m always trying to get across to my children is that being popular doesn’t make you right.
There certainly seems to be an assumption around that if you are the most popular person then somehow that automatically means that you are right. Perhaps this is one of those situations where the press has encouraged us to think this way.
I have always found this to be a worrying trend. It means that right or wrong is decided by a general consensus of popularity. It must be right if it feels good (regardless of the consequences for the rest of humanity) seems to be the order of the day.
Is this really a good way to decide what is right and what is wrong? My good feelings might result in unhappiness for another. My overfilled stomach might be taking food from a starving mouth. My drunken and destructive revelries might be putting someone out of business or breaking a good relationship.
Popularity is a very poor way to make choices.
I don’t think Jesus is as popular today in the U.K. as perhaps he once was. This doesn’t make him wrong it just makes him less popular. Perhaps Jesus’ popularity depends too much on how people perceive his followers. Perhaps how people perceive his followers depends too much on the popular press and popular stars and pop singers and popular comedians?
So what about you? Do you decide what is right or wrong based on popular opinion? Do you just follow the crowd and do what they do? Or perhaps you want to think for yourself and make your own choices.
Whatever you decide make sure you always remember that being popular doesn’t make you right.
Thoughts discipleship, Jesus, jesus christ, popularity
Lent is traditionally a time for Christians to reflect on their relationship with God. Am I doing a good job of being a disciple? Am I doing lots of good things or too many bad things? How can I stop myself doing bad things so often.
Part of this process involves fasting – or going without something for a while – the idea being that not having something that you enjoy will remind you to focus on the things you should be thinking about.
Giving up something for lent is supposed to be good for the soul.
By the way – the word Lent is not really a Christian word but simply denotes a season, it’s a very ancient word for spring.
But I want to challenge you to take something up for Lent. What about taking up thinking about God? Give it a try until Easter and see what happens.
What other things would you recommend getting people to take up for Lent?
Thoughts discipleship, Jesus, lent