SCRIPTURE: John 8:31-41
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” (John 8:31)
How do I know if I am a disciple of Jesus?
Do I hold on to, do I make my own, the teaching of Jesus?
Not just ‘do I believe it’ but ‘do I love it, live it, desire it?’
The fact that they were thinking of killing Jesus shows they did not have God’s heart.
We can look into our own hearts – for the spirit of lust, of greed, of rage, of revenge.
If we hold on to Jesus’ teaching, we will hate these things.
They may be present, but we will not be happy about it.
But if we justify our sinful attitudes, if we do not fight to change them…
Then we show that we do not ‘hold to’ Jesus’ teaching, that we are not really His disciples.
This is not judgmental, it is just plain fact.
This does not mean God hates us, or that we are doomed.
But it does mean we are not sincerely trying to be who we think or say we are.
The point of all this is to make us do a heart check.
Do I say that I am a Jesus-follower?
Does my pattern of thinking and living reflect that?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I know there are things in me that do not reflect Your heart. I am not happy with this. Please help me confess and address these inconsistencies. I want to really be Your disciple.
I read your blogs everyday on my break (keeps me somewhat accountable). This one already reminds me of the book I’m reading ‘in His steps’. I’m on chapter 4 already and it traces back to I know I want to be a disciple and I want to renew my thinking to ‘WWJD’. I have a bracelet that says that to remind me in certain situations. It’s one thing to say we are following Him but do our actions and thoughts portray that too? Do I need heart surgery too because everything flows from the heart.
Observation/Application
Who do I follow?
The world’s ways or Christ’s?
What leads and guides me in my daily decisions? Christ or my desires of this world? Who’s first in all matters?
All too often is is a matter of convenience – my way. All too often it is for profit in this life? And when that is true, Christ Jesus has no part of me. Then Christ is not in charge and I am then living for myself. All for me.
Yet to have the joy of the Lord God Who is my strength, I must have Jesus in all things. He must be first. What Would Jesus Do puts me on the right Way. Then we will be doing the works of the Father. Walk With Jesus Daily. Jesus Others Yourself. Then truly our lives will show that we His kids. Kids of the Kingdom. That’s who we are if we are His followers in all of our daily living.
When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When you begin the day, O never fail to say,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
And at your work rejoice, to sing with heart and voice,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Whene’er the sweet church bell peals over hill and dell,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
O hark to what it sings, as joyously it rings,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
My tongue shall never tire of chanting with the choir,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
This song of sacred joy, it never seems to cloy,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Or fades my earthly bliss? My comfort still is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
To God, the Word, on high, the host of angels cry,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let mortals, too, upraise their voice in hymns of praise,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this at meals your grace, in every time and place;
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this, when day is past, of all your thoughts the last
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When mirth for music longs, this is my song of songs:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evening shadows fall, this rings my curfew call,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When sleep her balm denies, my silent spirit sighs,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evil thoughts molest, with this I shield my breast,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The night becomes as day when from the heart we say:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
No lovelier antiphon in all high Heav’n is known
Than, Jesus Christ be praised!
There to the eternal Word the eternal psalm is heard:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
In Heaven’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Sing, suns and stars of space, sing, ye that see His face,
Sing, Jesus Christ be praised!
God’s whole creation o’er, for aye and evermore
Shall Jesus Christ be praised!
In Heav’n’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let earth, and sea and sky from depth to height reply,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Sing this eternal song through all the ages long:
May Jesus Christ be praised!