Who Do You Look Like?

Church messed me up today.

My pastor differentiated between people that are "watchers", "followers", or "interns(disciples)" of Jesus. There are people that "watch" Jesus. They observe, but don't necessarily want to go any further than that when it comes to making a commitment of following Christ. There are "followers" who were around Jesus and, for their own reasons, followed Him from place to place. They may have followed Jesus to watch Him perform miracles or for His teachings or maybe it was to be part of the "in" group. Judas Iscariot happened to be a "follower". Judas was called to be a disciple, but didn't take it to the "disciple" level. The "disciples" or (using modern day verbage) "interns" were those who were called by Jesus to be in His inner circle and learn from Him only those things that you can learn by living in close quarters with someone. They knew and learned who Jesus was to such an extent that they were expected to be "Jesus" to those around them. A modern example would be a medical intern learning about being a doctor, then becoming an intern and spending time in the presence of doctors with the particular desire to become a doctor themself.

At the end of the service our pastor gave an invitation for anyone that wanted to look more like Jesus to come forward. I failed to go and I should have. For awhile now God has been putting a deep desire in my heart to serve Him, but on a deeper level than I have been. As much as I can (or as God leads me to), I try to serve by doing things or by ministering to others. I've tried, to the best of my ability, to model the Jesus I see in the Bible. But that's not enough anymore. There's another (deeper) level where He's calling me to go...

Serving Jesus the way I have been has not been a bad thing, but it dawned on me on my way home from church that I have been serving Jesus looking like myself. I need to serve Jesus in such a way that I now look like Him. And now I want so badly to be that person... Jesus, help me to not just resemble you in the things I do, but help me BE You (as much as that is possible). I want people to now see Jesus when I serve them.

Daddy, Where Are You?

Last evening I was sitting outside reading and enjoying the sun. Our next door neighbors were outside as well, working on their yard. The dad had moved around front to work, leaving his two year old daughter in the backyard in the care of his wife and her other siblings. The two year old suddenly realized that her dad wasn't there and began calling out in her little voice, "Daddy, where are you? Daddy, I need you, where are you?" She began searching for him, but because she couldn't see him, she was becoming more desperate. Her cries grew louder and more frantic. "Daddy, where are you?!?" There was a sense of urgency and terror in her voice. Her heart was breaking. She wanted her daddy and she couldn't find him. If she could just be near him, everything would once again be alright.

By this time, my heart was feeling her plight. How many times have I been in the same situation and called out to my heavenly Father the exact same thing? "Daddy, where are you? Daddy, I need you! Where are you, Daddy?" I wanted to run over, scoop her up in my arms, and tell her, "It's okay. Your daddy is right here. He's just around the corner. He loves you. He's never far away."

Do you know where your Daddy is?