Peter writes, "But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16). There's the answer: we're to conduct our lives to be like Jesus and only Jesus. Here we have the King of all kings, who could've easily ruled the nations with servants ready to serve hand and foot. Instead, He served others. He healed the sick and the blind. He wept with those in pain. He conversed with and was in the presence of those no one else gave the time of day. He, Love (capital 'l') loved those who no one else would. And, ultimately, He was murdered to be the very sacrifice needed to bring salvation to everyone - a gift for the taking even to those who hate Him. He sacrificed Himself and became a dead Messiah; such an oxymoron that was as self-contradictory as a circular triangle. He didn't have to do those things, but He did. Do you think for a very second that He couldn't have removed Himself from that cross, or at least caused His lengthy torture to be pain-free? Jesus didn't live a life of conformity. Instead, He lived boldly and stood out amongst the world.
How do we do on a conformity test ourselves? We not only fail it miserably, we run to conformity. We desire to sit back and live a life in idle. We think that to do otherwise would set us up for a life with no happiness. For some, we have a hard time getting out of our comfort zones, but the desire is there. With most, though, we don't want to standout whatsoever. We don't want to look any different than anyone else in the world. The fact is simply that so many of us have become comfortable; we don't dare to be bold.
🎵And the wheels just keep on turning
The drummer begins to drum 🎵
The drummer begins to drum 🎵
Paul says in Romans 12:2 that we're to, "not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." Of course, we can't use the amazing blessing of discernment unless we're trying to walk daily to a different march; we can't fit in and ever expect to discern what God is assuring us matches with His ultimate will for our lives.
The fact is, once we're saved, we have the very Spirit within us that raised Jesus from the grave. Don't you think that that comfort, that power, that discernment, also comes with an eventual roadmap? When we walk in His ways daily, we can look back -- a month, a year, ten years later -- and see how God took us out of the bottomless pit of our empty, vanilla lives and has changed us for the good in order to live more and more boldly.
The twelve disciples are a perfect example of this change for the good. When Jesus tried explaining things to them, they were idiots. When He needed them, they were asleep. When He was murdered, they denied Him and went into hiding. When He rose from the dead, they doubted. But before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He left with them the Holy Spirit and their lives (then referred to as apostles - "those who are sent") forever changed for the good. Let's see, for instance, what they were up to in the very year that Jesus ascended.
“The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and
wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the
Temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. . . . As a result, they would
carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when
Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. Crowds came from
the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil
spirits, and they were all healed. Then the high priest took action. He and all
his colleagues, those who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled
with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But
an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought
them out, and said," Go and stand in the temple complex, and tell the
people all about this life." So at daybreak the apostles entered the
Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching. When the high priest
and his officials arrived, they convened the high council--the full assembly of
the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the
jail for trial. But when the temple guards got there, they did not find them in
the jail, so they returned and reported, "We found the jail securely
locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened
them, we found no one inside!" On hearing this report, the captain of the
temple guards and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might
lead to. Someone came and reported to them, "Look! The men you put in jail
are standing in the temple complex and teaching the people." The captain
went with his temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence,
for they were afraid the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in
and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "Didn't
we tell you never again to teach in this man's name?" he demanded.
"Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and
you want to make us responsible for his death!" . . . When they heard
this, the high council was furious and wanted to kill them. . . . After calling
in the apostles and beating them, they again ordered them to stop speaking in
the name of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing
that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. Day
after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped
teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 5:12,
15-28, 33, 40-42).
That underlined portion tickles me. I love it dearly, as I can picture them smiling and saying, "Oh okay!" walking out, and doing exactly what they were told not to -- like a cat with their paw close to an object, you saying, "don't you dare!" and then they knock it off anyways. They were learning to be bold. All of the original twelve were tortured and all but John were murdered for their unwavering spread of the Gospel.
And finally, to live boldly for the Lord brings happiness. Accomplishing our shared mission in life -- to know God and make Him known -- is the only way to achieve true contentment.
Jesus gave the disciples -- and ultimately us -- the key to human prosperity: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"
(Matthew 16:24-26).
J.P. Moreland states well, "Christ invites us to follow Him, but warns that losing our lives is the first step. It's an invitation to happiness. But what exactly is happiness, and how do we obtain it? According to ancient thought, happiness is a life well lived, a life that manifests wisdom, kindness and goodness. For the ancients, the happy life -- the life we should dream about -- is a life of virtue and character. Not only did Plato, Aristotle, the Church Fathers and medieval theologians embrace this definition, but Moses, Solomon and (most importantly) Jesus did, too. Sadly their understanding is widely displaced by the contemporary understanding of happiness defined as pleasure and satisfaction, a subjective emotional state associated with fleeting, egocentric feelings.
Consider the differences:
| Contemporary Understanding | Classical Understanding |
| Happiness is: | Happiness is: |
| 1. Pleasure and satisfaction | 1. Virtue and character |
| 2. An intense feeling | 2. A settled tone |
| 3. Dependent on external circumstances | 3. Depends on internal state; springs from within |
| 4. Transitory and fleeting | 4. Fixed and stable |
| 5. Addictive and enslaving | 5. Empowering and liberating |
| 6. Irrelevant to one's identity, doesn't color the rest of life and creates false/empty self | 6. Integrated with one's identity, colors rest of life and creates true/fulfilled self |
| 7. Achieved by self-absorbed narcissism; success produces a celebrity | 7. Achieved by self-denying apprenticeship to Jesus; success produces a hero |
Where Matthew writes, "what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul" (emphasis ours), Luke clarifies Jesus' teaching by replacing "his soul" with the word "himself" (Luke 9:25). The issue is finding one's self vs. losing one's self. More specifically, to find one's self is to find out how life ought to look like and learn to live that way; it's to become like Jesus, with character that manifests the fruit of the Spirit and the radical nature of Kingdom living; it's to find out God's purposes for one's life and to fulfill those purposes in a Christ-honoring way. . . . Taking up your cross means refusing to be your own central concern. It means living for God's Kingdom, finding your place in His unfolding plan and playing your role well. Taking up your cross means giving your life to others for Christ. . . . If we aim our lives at pleasure and satisfaction (see row one), we'll spend all our time looking inside ourselves, constantly taking our happiness temperatures. Our activities and relationships will become means to our own feelings, ceasing to serve anything higher or other than ourselves. This sort of life leads to narcissism.
If, on the other hand, virtue and godly character are our goals, we will learn to see ourselves in light of a larger cause -- the outworking of God's plan in history. We'll be preoccupied with finding our role in that cause and playing it well. We'll passionately see life's activities as occasions to draw near to God and become more like Him. We'll hunger to become people who make life better for those around us. Our long-term focus will be on giving ourselves to others for Christ. . . . Only by taking this path — only by rejecting the contemporary notion of happiness — will you find true happiness."
“Kites rise high against the
wind, not with it.” – Winston Churchil
“The person who follows the crowd will usually
go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find
himself in places no one has ever seen before.” – Albert
Einstein
“We must never be afraid to
be a sign of contradiction for the world.” – Mother Teresa
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