ReJesus Your Life

May 2009

Jesus, do you know him today? There is no better question! My African American brothers will ask “do you know the Man” rather than “are you saved” to discover your eternal status. What a refreshing way this is. One question is current. The other is in the past.

It used to be that this question was only good for those outside the church. Things have changed. It’s time again for the church to refocus on Jesus. People outside the church are hungry for Jesus. My soul deep within me cries out at times “please church, show me Jesus.” It’s a good thing.

So what’s the problem? Is the connection between Christianity and the radical Jesus looser or weaker than before? Possibly so.

Outside and inside the church we find Jesus interesting as a person but not of much relevance to the way we live our actual life. If we did we would look much more like him and a lot less like the world. Ask yourself the question: “how much of my attention, energy, effort, time, and resources do I give to learn the life that is life, to train to be like Jesus? Loving my enemies, doing good to those who persecute me, going beyond the call of duty, serving and living sacrificially with all the inconvenience this service and life may bring?” Does this describe our actual lives?

Jesus is a radical leader. A radical figure without radical followers is an insult. Radical followers are apprentices who are transformed to the core or radically by the one they say they follow. They become like him in every way. The economy doesn’t run their lives. Their self-confidence is not in their education. Their hope is well anchored in God not God’s servants in politics. They shun any power that tempts us with false assurance. They see Jesus not as a dogmatic lawgiver, but an abundant life “liver”. They see in Jesus life, a beautiful mind, a strong soul, and compassionate heart. They believe that Jesus is intelligent enough to give them all the answers they need for life and work in and outside the church. We are seriously in need of “reJesusing” our lives. Falling in love head over heel with our Groom, Lord, Teacher, Savior, Christ, Friend, Lover, and God again and again, infuses in us Jesus’ spirit and life.

Connecting everything about us with Jesus is the grand goal of life. The grand question of life is how to do it. Honestly, we’re not even close to this serious connection. It’s not as if God stopped calling us to it. From the moment he created us, he wanted this connection, this likeness to his son (Luke 6:40; Gal 4:19; 2 Cor 3:18; Rom 12:2; Rom 8:29; Phil 3:21; Eph 5:1-2; 2 Pet 1:4). God has nothing better for us than this connection. From the foundation of the world his design is to achieve this connection. He intends that his adoption agency (all that it takes to accomplish his plan of salvation) would have all this world’s people look like Jesus, that’s how much he loves him and us.

Why is this connection so vital? In the words of Jesus himself: “my words are spirit and life,” Or, I have come that they may have life and a full life at that (John 6:63). When we encounter spirit and life we know it. It’s overwhelming. We can’t contain spirit and life. Spirit and life splash everyone in their path. Being connected with Jesus awakens and enlivens our deepest longing to connect with God. Dallas Willard, in the Divine Conspiracy, adds this comment about these words: “They invade our ‘real’ world with a reality even more real than it is, which explain why human beings then and now have to protect themselves against them.” But I assure it’s a passing and weak protection even if the Supreme Courts of the lands attempt to suppress spirit and life. His words are sharper than any two-edged sword. They cut to the quick. They are sweeter than honey, more biter than gal, loftier than creation, more down to earth than bread and water.

My pastor said last Sunday that the number one question people are asking today in and out of the church is: “How do I connect with God?” He followed this up with this chide: “The number one complaint in the church today is that the church doesn’t tell them how to connect with God.” I’ll have much more to say about the complaint of disconnection in the future.

This soul-deep connection with Jesus is important for several vital reasons.

1.  As long as we remain minimally connected to Jesus, we will remain minimally effective in our work for Jesus.
2.  As long as connecting with Jesus is assumed among us, we will continue to turn a blind eye to it.
3.  As long as we put the acquiring of skills and competencies before seriously training to house life and spirit, we will continue to mire in our own success.

To reJesus our lives is the most pressing issue facing us today. It’s not knowing what the culture thinks, it’s not the latest sermon series, building expansion, a new campaign, state of the arts technology, or more knowledge. It’s transformation of everything, our life, our way of serving, thinking, doing, and being to reflect that we are the Society of Jesus, where Jesus is at home.

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