What would Jesus do?

I have just spent some time thinking about the contrast in these questions....

What would Jesus do?

What would Christians do?

I feel like there is a massive gap. A gap that needs to be closed.

I think it was sparked by seeing a trailer for a short film called We Will Make You Whole Again. It gave me the image that Jesus is in the business of making people whole again. Restoration is an important and obvious doctrine in the bible. What are we doing to heal the broken in today society? What am I doing on the 22nd of April 2010, sat in Durham University Library that is reconciling broken lives? What can I do? What can I change?

I remember a Mother Theresa quote that I read earlier today....

"Let us thus praise you in the way you love best,

by shining on those around us.

Let us preach you without preaching,

not by words but by our example,

by the catching force,

the sympathetic influence of what we do.

The evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Amen"

"the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do."

I need to start opening my eyes, looking around for broken lives and I need to preach by my example, because of the love of my heart for Jesus.

I yearn for the day when I can ask What would Jesus do? and look around and see what my Christian brothers are doing.

What was important to Jesus?

When the rich young man rocked up to Jesus and asked him "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered with a question about goodness, proclaiming that "no-one is good except God alone", and then told the man to follow the commandments.

But that still wasn't enough for Jesus.

Jesus then asks him to give up his life. The rich young man couldn't do it.

What do I learn from this? Jesus tells the man he is not good because he is not God. He then asks the man to get up and follow him. The man does not want to do this.

We are not good. We are not God. Jesus accepts this, and is tolerant of this through his grace over us. He simply asks us to follow him, through the laying down of our lives. He doesn't care who we are, what we have done, where we have come from, he just asks for some obedience and then he will sort out the rest.

Too long have we thought, believed and preached that Christians need to be good to follow Jesus. Christians can be whatever they want to be, and then he will transform them into his likeness so they actually are truly good.

Only in him, through him and filled by him can we be good, can we meet God.

Less talking. More praying

“We are daring to believe that an entire campus can turn back to the Lord. We no longer want to just talk about renewal and revival; we are praying for it.”

A quote from a student at St.Andrews university from a 24-7 prayer newsletter.

I love it.

I love that passion.

I want to pray those prayers.

I want to 'dare to believe'.

I don't want to just talk about renewal and revival.

I want to see it.

I want to see transformation of student communities.

I want to see transformation of resident communities.

I want to see life.

I want to see Jesus.