I Want to Be Like Jesus

“The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. Many seek the ruler’s favor, but justice for man comes from the Lord.” [1]

You want to be like Jesus? Don’t deny God due to fear what people will do to you! God and one is a majority. Yes, you might suffer setbacks, but “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” [2]

I have suffered worldly losses while proclaiming Jesus (not as much as I should), but the Lord has been much better to me in those times than what was taken from me. God has turned what was meant to destroy me into what helped me to be more like Him. I understand better now His patience, His forgiveness, His selflessness, His love for lost souls.

Satan sought to destroy Job. He robbed Job of his wealth and of his children. Job wrote, “He [God] knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the Words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” [3]

A goldsmith knows dross is gone from gold when he sees his reflection in it. God made us in His image, but sin mars us. Praise God for replacing evil desires with wholesome desires for His Word. He transforms us as we treasure His Word. To be like Jesus, to have Him embody His life in my life, has given me more joy than any other experience.

My Heavenly Father, in His exceedingly great mercy, graced me to witness for Jesus on the streets of Hong Kong. Seeing a soul turn from idols to the living God yielded great for me! Some conversions happened in a park connected to a temple to a false god! The Lord graced me to baptize converts to Christ in a detention camp for Vietnamese refugees. He graced me to teach His Word to disciples in China. The Heavenly Father graces me with great love for my children’s children. The Lord gives His followers a better inheritance than the world does.

King David experienced God’s real presence in his life, He wrote, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” [4]

In lieu of his experience with the Lord, David wrote to fellow followers, saying, “O, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” [5]

Those who behave proudly against God and against His people may enjoy a moment where circumstances seem to affirm to them that they are greater than God, but their lives will not end well unless they humble themselves. “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” [6] Let us pray for proud people that God will grant them the grace to repent.

Sin is not a friend. Sin is a fiend. Sin yields depression. David wrote about this, saying, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah” [7]

Confessing one’s sins to God, asking Him to forgive, and then, experiencing a strong sense in your spirit that He indeed lifted the burden of your sin and shame away and gave You His Spirit’s presence to fill the void yields great joy and strength. Joy and strength to love God and love people!

“’There’s an elephant in the room’ is an expression that means that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.” [8]

A lack of conversions to Christ is an elephant in the room. “Lord Jesus, please change this!”

God’s servant Jude spoke of “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” [9]

God did not deliver us TO SIN. He delivered us FROM SIN so that we can live a better life. A life of love towards God and people in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ! A lack conversions is a red flag! Something is wrong! The Gospel converts lost souls to Christ!

We don’t want to be clouds without water. [10] Having the Name of Christ, but not His power.

Ungodly means not like God. Not bearing His image! Not behaving as He behaves! The Lord has been warning against such behavior from the very beginning. He hasn’t stopped warning.

“Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with 10,000’s of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” [11]

Jesus described the ungodly as “sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” [12]

To those who want to remain true to Him, the Lord says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” [13]

Build faith not doubt. Praying in the Holy Spirit means to ask the Holy Spirit to be the wind that propels your prayer life. I often say to Him, “Holy Spirit, please be the wind that propels my prayers.” I have found it helpful to do prayer walks sometimes even with my prayer list in my hand. A two mile walk gives me about 40-45 minutes of prayer time. If I get through my prayer list before my prayer walk is over, I ask the Holy Spirit, “Who else should I pray for?” And He brings people to my mind. The Lord tells us to abide in God’s love, and to live with anticipation of the mercy that we will receive from Him when He returns. In the meantime, He tells us, the Church, to focus on saving souls from the fire.

Only faith in Jesus Christ saves us from this present world. Our glory and power must be focused on Him and for Him!

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” [14]

[1] Proverbs 29:25-26
[2] Romans 8:28
[3] Job 23:10-12
[4] Psalm 30:11-12
[5] Psalm 31:23-24
[6] James 4:6
[7] Psalm 32:1-5
[8] dictionary.cambridge.org
[9] Jude 1:4
[10] Jude 1:12
[11] Jude 1:14-15
[12] Jude 1:19
[13] Jude 1:20-23
[14] Jude 1:24-25