Gotta Love That Jesus

John 12-13
I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.

Sounds pretty serious to me....
Doing the works of Jesus?
Of course the mind says, "Dude...it was Jesus! Jesus you ain't!"
But yet there it is in red (and you know it has to be official if it is written in red). Jesus Himself telling that bunch of knucklehead disciples that they are going to take up His mission once He returns to heaven. What's even stranger is that these knuckleheads are going to pass this teaching/doing on to other knuckleheads. By this spiritual replication the kingdom of God will grow....the works that Jesus did will continue...and lives will be changed.

What if........
What if for a brief moment we lay aside our religious assumptions and concepts and act as if we'd never heard this stuff before. Do you think we might actually risk doing some of the works of Jesus? I think maybe we might. Hey...it took me a while before I tried. I knew it with my heart, but my head said, "No way, bud..don't you get involved with this." Why? Because I was afraid I would fail. Guess what? I did! I messed up...I said the wrong things. I prayed some of the most bizarre prayers ever prayed...and yet God continued to train me, show me and direct me in this new adventure of following the heart of Jesus. 

I truly believe John Wimber had it right when he stated that "he fell in love with Jesus." I think that is where we must all start. I think this is the point in which real life begins...we fall in love with Jesus. We fall in love with our creator.Love that isn't focused on what He has done to us, but for the simple fact that He saved us. We fall in love to such a state that the words to the song "Breathe" is a truth that burns in our hearts.

"You are the air I breathe
You're Holy Presence, living in me.
And I 

I'm desperate for you.
And I can't live without you."

Is the very presence of Jesus like your need for air to breathe?

Is His word the daily bread you feast on and are nourished by?
You see, I came to the conclusion that this call to follow Jesus is not some half-hearted attempt to be religious. It isn't a facade we throw up to hide behind and keep our dark secrets from being discovered. The call to follow and my subsequent obedience is life itself. He takes me out of the muck and mire of spiritual darkness and death, and transport's me into the marvelous light and life of His desire to see me grow and mature.

How can you not love this Jesus?
Part of the motivation to love Jesus comes from being grateful for Him rescuing us from ourselves. To me, the deeper the level of sin a person exists in, the more gratitude they have when they become saved. Gratitude that keeps them focused on being who they were created to be. Gratitude that burns brightest when the days are the hardest.

God on you this morning!
Michael B.