Jesus condescended (left His throne of Glory above and lived in flesh upon our fallen Earth). During His time here, Jesus provided a lifetime of examples for each of us to follow.
Throughout the scriptures, Jesus outlined His instruction manual on how to become a saved man or saved woman. As we study about His life and also develop personal relationships with Jesus, we draw closer to Him, and get to know Him better. We learn from His examples in the written word, and more importantly, we receive of His guidance and instruction, which is available all day long, each and every day.
Jesus is consistent and patient. His message remains the same, He asks us to follow Him. While living in the flesh, Jesus constantly sought for and followed His Father’s will! Jesus set aside His glory, to save our fallen Earth, while also attaining to His resurrection by following closely the direction from His Father in Glory.
Jesus becomes our Father in Glory, once we decide to follow Him, once we decide to follow His will for us. Jesus saves! He is the only way to salvation!
Of the many living examples Jesus provided for us, I’ll mention a few..
While living here, in the flesh, Jesus made sure to always promote His Father in Heaven. Jesus never made Himself the focus. It’s hard to imagine Jesus creating a social media account for Himself. Instead, Jesus taught others with His example of directing the praise and accolades towards Heaven, while remaining humble.
Jesus, held power over death. His miracles were many, including healing a man born blind. Jesus literally, walked on water. He commanded the winds and waves. He was patient, kind, long suffering and generous, while finding time to serve and teach all of humanity.
Jesus reminds each of us that self promotion didn’t work back then, and doesn’t work today. He remains ever humble, patient and kind. As we explore the individual direction that we receive from Him, we learn just how involved and concerned Jesus is with the details of our lives. Glory to God! Glory to Him!
A popular woe generating mindset from the time of Jesus, is prevalent again today, found in the practice of worshiping idols. There is so much wealth and material available today, finding oneself entrenched in worshipping the wrong things (anything but Him) is an easy mistake to make and perpetuate.
It was common back then (and now) for priests to elevate themselves, however, Jesus taught and teaches us, that all people are precious to God and to remember the importance of being meek, humble and teachable.
While photographs and selfies were not available two thousand years ago, the worship of idols was popular via different methods (statues and dolls).
Today, the availability of potential idols for us to worship is staggering, while wealth and prosperity have become the norm. Within the realm of social media, participants have an endless supply of photos and written text designed for the promotion and elevation of self.
Even worse and more offensive than worshiping ourselves.. pictures adorn the walls of homes and churches, offering worship to leaders of religious organizations (the pope, the first presidency).
The following spiritual offense regularly happens.. a large gathering of believers are assembled together, awaiting instruction. Parish members are sitting comfortably, waiting for the meeting to begin. All of the sudden, their religious leaders begin to enter the room and everyone stands up, in an act of reverent adoration. This awful scene is accepted and practiced within the culture of organized religion.
The act of worshipping a man or men is offensive in the sight of God! This grave mistake involves misplacing one’s trust and worship, away from God, and directing it towards a man of flesh. There are warnings located within the scriptures, in very clear language, concerning this offensive behavior.
It would be dreadful if the folks who found themselves standing up, in adoration of a church leader, also find themselves forgetting to kneel in respect and reverence for the Lord of Hosts, the Father in Glory, during their personal prayers.
Oh, what the heavens must be mourning about our culture.
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