Jesus - the real thing

I love Jesus. I love everything about Him, even those things about Him that challenge me, and there are a LOT of things about Him that challenge me. Recently I have been thinking about Jesus.

I told our youth cell the other day that no one that encountered Jesus remained the same after meeting Him. Then I rather glibly said something like, "and if you have never been changed then you've never really met Him either", as soon as I said it it messed with me. How often do I have that testimony? How often do people meet me and leave different? If Jesus was really living in and through me, like I know He should be, then my life would have that effect on people too. Most of the time however I have little or no effect on the people I encounter. In fact most of the time I don't want to have ANY effect on the people I encounter! Most of the time I just want to go about my business and move on. Maybe that is my problem. I am about, "my business". In Luke 2:49 a teenage Jesus tells his parents (depending on your translation) "I must be about my Father's business". This was the way Jesus moved through the whole of His life. In John 5:19 Jesus discloses His philosophy of ministry, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." What would life look like if this was the way we lived? How extraordinary would our lives be?

Jesus I want to do this! Help me to have an ear open to you at all times. To walk through life seeing you change those around me just because I am following you. For REAL

Amen