I want to be more like Jesus

Yesterday morning while spending my time with the Lord in the early morning, I was in Matthew and really meditating on Jesus’ character and thinking about how much I long to be like Him. He was perfect (still is!) and while He was on earth lived a perfect sinless life as a man always obeying the Father and every moment of His life loving God with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength. I thought about how we, as Christians, are to be striving every day as hard as we can to be more and more like Him.(And I might add that this is certainly possible, but only with His help. So we need to be relying on Him and trusting in His strength to enable us to be as He wants us to be.)

This process is called sanctification.
“Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”

How can we be more like Jesus?

Here is what came to mind as I was praying for God to make me more like His Son.
Something that happened at work just over this past week popped into mind. I have worked at this particular job for over three years now. I spend more waking hours with these people than I do with my own family at home. I often hear them commenting on how they know each other SO well and how they spend more time with each other than they do their own husbands. Well…I find myself also now finishing their sentences, hearing some of their favorite phrases come out of my own mouth, and knowing exactly what they are thinking in a particular situation just by an expression on their face or one look in their eye. A couple of days ago one lady said something, and I made a comment back. Then she said, as she often does, “You know me so well.” My reply was simply, “Yeah, it’s kinda scary sometimes.”

So as I was praying, I thought of this and realized just how much more I need to spend time with my Savior. Think about it. The more time we spend with someone, the more we become like that person. The more we observe them, talk with them, really LISTEN to them, and even think about them…the more we find ourselves so connected to them and becoming like them(even in our thinking).

Isn’t this how it should be with Jesus? I found myself crying out to God just pleading with Him to give me a hunger and thirst for His Word and for righteousness.
We need His help, and we need to do our part! Ask God to reveal Himself to You and to open your heart to desire Him more so you may know Him better and become more like Jesus.

Here is another verse that came to mind:
"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." 1 John 3:2

When Christ comes back to bring His children home, it says that we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. God promises that when Christ returns He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body(Phil 3:21). Well, this is because we will see Him! We won’t be made fully perfect until that day comes, but as we eagerly await that day we can strive to be more like Him by spending time with Him in prayer and meditating on His Word. God has given us His Word to reveal Jesus to us today, and through His Word we can see Jesus and know Him. The more we see of Him and spend time with Him, this is how we can become more and more like Him each day until that final glorious day when we will really truly see Him and be made perfect just as He is.

I am reminded of the hymn “Take Time to be Holy”.
I chose just a few key parts of the hymn that really go along with what I have written.

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be.

By looking to Jesus...We become like Him by looking to Him. Fix your eyes and your heart on Jesus and spend the time with Him that you must. Study Him, talk to Him, sing to Him, worship Him, think about Him throughout your day, & really truly LISTEN to Him when you pray.
There is no greater thing. He is our treasure. He’s the pearl of greatest price. He’s the one we must sell all that we have for. He is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life.

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus.

Clear the Stage

Clear the Stage
by Ross King



Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze
If that's the measure you must take to crush the idols
Chuck the pews and all the decorations too
Until the congregations few then have revival
Tell your friends that this is where the party ends
until you're broken for your sins you can't be social
Then seek the Lord and wait for what He has in store
and know that great is your reward so just be hopeful

Cause you can sing all you want to
Yes you can sing all you want to
you can sing all you want to
And don't get me wrong, worship is more than a song

Take a break from all the plans that you have made
And sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper
Beg Him please to open up His mouth and speak
And pray for real upon your knees until they blister
Shine the light on every corner of your life
Until the pride and lust and lies are in the open
Then read the Word and put to test the things you've heard
Until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken

Cause you can sing all you want to
Yes you can sing all you want to
you can sing all you want to
But don't get me wrong, worship is more than a song

Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
Anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
Anything that I give all my love is an idol
We must not worship something that's not even worth it
Clear the stage and make some space for the One who deserves it

Cause I can sing all I want t
Yes I can sing all I want to
I can sing all I want to
And still get it wrong, worship is more than a song

And you can sing all you want to
Yes you can sing all you want to

Are We Still Running?

This post is taken from The Daily Spurgeon which I receive in my e-mail. It really hit me because I've been realizing lately how my passion for Jesus has been lacking from what it was at this time last year up until not very long ago. It is easy for us to be drawn away from our first love by other things when we aren't spending the time with Him that we so need to be.

Hosea 13:4-6 says, "Yet I have been the LORD your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me. I cared for you in the wilderness, In the land of drought. As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, And being satisfied, their heart became proud; Therefore they forgot Me."

Ask yourself this question:
Am I so enthralled by something else or distracted or satisfied in other things so much that I have forgotten my Lord?

Charles Spurgeon "Are We Still Running?" Taken from THE DAILY SPURGEON:

Think, beloved, each one of you who are Christ’s, how much you may have backslidden of late. Have you not become lax in prayer? You maintain the habit of it, and you could not give that up, but you have not that power in prayer you once had. You still read the word, but mayhap the Scripture is not so sweet to you as it was aforetime. You come now to the communion table, you have not learned to forsake the assembling of yourselves together there; but oh, the face of the King, in his beauty, have you seen that as once you did?

Perhaps you still are doing a little for his cause, but are you doing what you once did or all you might do? Instead of going on unto perfection, is not your growth stunted? Must you not confess that you are not a runner towards heaven so much as a loiterer in the road thither? Do these accusations evoke no confessions? I fear the most of us, if we came to search, would have to say, “I do remember when the love of my espousals was upon me, and my heart was warm with love to Christ; but now, alas! how slow are my passions in moving towards him! O that I could feel once again the glow of my first love, and that my spirit did rejoice in him as on the day of my conversion.”

I want to encourage you all as well as myself to fight our fleshly desires to do anything BUT spend time with the Lord. For if we live according to the flesh we will DIE(Rom. 8:13).
Let's pray and ask God to help us to confess, turn our back on our sin, and for Him to renew our passion and desire for Him. We must pray and meditate on His Word!

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:6-9

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."
Joshua 1:8

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:2


A book that I would recommend for you to read(& I plan on reading again soon) would be "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan about God's love for us and being wildly in love with Him.

The importance of preaching the Gospel to YOURSELF daily

Hi. I pretty much copied and pasted this from a blog post that I wrote back in September. I am being reminded of how much I need this in my own life, so I wanted to share it again on my blog to also remind you of something so incredible and so important in the Christian life. Please take the time to read this and meditate on the Gospel and what it means to you personally...


These truths that I am posting below are some that have really changed my life. Over these past YEAR I have especially been drawn closer to the Lord in realizing more fully all aspects of the Gospel and what it REALLY means. As I think about what Christ did for me, I can't help but want to pour out my life to Him. In remembering these things daily, I am filled more and more with a passion to love and obey God and resist temptations that come across my path.
So I have found that as is preached in the sermon which I have taken notes from and posted below, and also in the book that I am mentioning in this note how important it is for us as Christians to preach to ourselves daily the Gospel.
Please take the time to read through this and buy the book if you are able because it is such an awesome tool designed to get you "launched in preaching the Gospel to yourself and rehearsing its benefits."

NOTES TAKEN FROM A SERMON BY PASTOR JOHN PIPER
The Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ the righteous one died for our sins and rose again eternally triumphant over all of His enemies so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe but only everlasting joy.
That's the Gospel!
You never never NEVER outgrow your need for the Gospel!!!
Don't ever think of the Gospel as that's the way you get saved and then you get strong by leaving it and doing something else.
No. We are strengthened by God every day through the Gospel till the day we drop.

You never outgrow your need to preach to yourself the Gospel.

1 Thessalonians 5:9,10
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him."

Don't try to be strong in your own strength. It WILL NOT be there when you need it. Only one strength will be there when you need it- the strength that God gives according to the Gospel.
Don't put it off.
--------------------------

Also I am HIGHLY recommending this book for all believers to have! It is so good!!!
The name of it is "A Gospel Primer for Christians." It's written by Milton Vincent. This book gives reasons why we should rehearse the Gospel daily and then gives and overview of the Gospel in several different forms including poetry and prose. Throughout the book it has noted the verses that go along with each statement in the book. It is loaded with Scripture!

If you have any questions or comments, let me know.
May God bless you and encourage and strengthen you as you capture the meaning of preaching to yourself daily the Gospel!