I am reading a great book right now by Darryl Tippens, Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life. It is a new, fresh look at the spiritual disciplines, or as Tippens calls them, practices of the pilgrim heart. I seem to be seeking out and reading tons of stuff about practically following Jesus these days. My preaching is centered on it; even my Bible classes concentrate on it. I truly believe this is the great “gap” in post-modern Christian living. We have a good big picture of following Christ but we all need a swift kick when it comes to living out our faith as Jesus calls us to. Without the kick, very gently, Tippens lays out the journey of following Christ our Lord and what is required of us: Following from the heart. Here is a short passage:
“Although it may sound a bit strange to the ear, Jesus advocated a kind of “worldly” spirituality, that is, a way of life to be practiced daily. What would this in-the-world discipleship look like? A fair amount of clearing out and cleaning out must be undertaken before one can answer the question, for there is much that even Christians have gotten wrong about following Jesus. The original and pristine call of Jesus has been tainted, often subtly and invisibly, by systems of thought essentially alien to Jesus’ world. Yet these philosophical systems have become so much a part of our way of thinking that their influences are mostly invisible to us. Add to these the numerous but faulty assumptions of popular culture about what it means to be “spiritual”, and we have a good deal of confusion on our hands.”
“At the heart of Jesus’ call is the urgency not just to believe what he taught, but to act like him. Being like Jesus is the alpha and the omega of the Christian life. Jesus said, ‘A disciple is not above his teacher, everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher’ (Luke 6:40).”
“But how is it possible to be in the world as Jesus Christ is in the world (1John 4:17)? What would this mean for our lives and our churches? The New Testament presupposes that we are not only called to perform the deeds of Jesus, but we are empowered by his indwelling Spirit to become Jesus to the world. According to Paul, Christ dwells in every believer, shaping them and turning then into his very likeness.”
Any comments on following Jesus? BEING Jesus in the world?
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