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Christ our Rabbi
by Our relationship with Christ lives and grows like our relationships with other people. At the same time it is divinely unique, overflowing eternal significance. He's a good listener, like any good friend, but He also improves our ability to listen to Him. He sees right through us like any true friend; He also teaches us how to see Him better. We who know Christ hear Him better than if we were listening with physical ears. And we see Him better than if we were looking with only physical eyes. We are completely dependent on Christ's Spirit to encourage, empower and lead us every day. If He does not teach us directly, then we will be lost amongst tornadoes of tradition and misguided manliness. But Christ is Lord and Teacher to us by the exceeding quality of His Presence among us. ***** Christ's Divinity does not excuse us from striving after exactly the same quality of life that He lived on earth. Actually, the opposite is true: Christ's Divinity is what makes it possible for us to live exactly like Him, because He now lives in and through and among us, continually available to help us. Christ obeyed God unto death to provide us with something better than well-worded theories about how we might live. As of now He dwells in our midst as our effective, empowering, encouraging Example. Christ is in the business of teaching His people how to live well. He is teaching us how to re-allocate our lives for His kingdom. If we follow Christ then we are discovering that His kingdom is the most substantial goal in the universe. That Christ is our Rabbi is our daily reality check. Spiritual maturity is not ours to calculate or plan out ahead of time. We did not hire God but rather, He went to great lengths to hire us. He is our Consultant, our Heavenly Boss. This means that we will know how and when to work for Him whenever He sees fit to tell us. We needn't invent ways to improve ourselves but rather, we will be faithful and obedient to Him when we obey His direct commands. It is our high honor to wait for Him to tell us what obedience means. Until we hear from God we will not know what "spiritual maturity" means. So should we stay active for activity's sake? Should we follow religious guidelines deduced by scholars who care more about Greek language than what is truly God's Word? Should we read more books filled with charming quotations and medieval illustrations about the life of Christ? No our calling in Christ is something much more, something eternally relevant. by Patrick Roberts. Find his book and additional material at www.BooksByPatrick.com Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |