Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me… Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1,5-7

“Jesus didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that He was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you would “come to the Father.” He said that it was only by Him—by living, participating in, being caught up by the way of life that He embodied, that was His way.” (Frederick Buechner)

Seth Polk, outgoing chairman of the International Mission Board trustees, in his final address at the May trustee meeting, shared a quote by Dr. Paul Chitwood, President of the IMB. “As Dr. Chitwood regularly states, 154,937 people die without Christ every day around the world. This is unacceptable and our purpose as the redeemed is to make Jesus known, so the lost will be saved and the saved will be discipled.” Dr. Chitwood is passionate about getting the gospel message to the ends of the earth.

I fully agree with Dr. Chitwood’s remarks of the tragedy of those who die without Christ. Yet, maybe just as heartbreaking are the billions who must face every living day without Jesus. For many, they live without knowledge of who Jesus is. For many, they live life fully knowing about Jesus but have made the decision to reject Him in their life. Countless others live life having made the decision to follow Jesus yet live their lives as if He doesn’t exist. The modern trend of deconstructing their faith leaves many people living life without the hope of Jesus. Hopefully in their reconstruction of faith they will find Jesus for their life.

Jesus welcomes our questions of faith, responds to our challenges but He always comes back to “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Jesus spent a lot of time teaching about the Kingdom and helping us live a Kingdom focused life. Jesus’ mission was to move people out of darkness into the light. His strategy was simple: “Follow me.” As we follow Jesus we avoid the darkness and can walk on His well-lit pathway. Those walking in darkness are constantly bumping into objects – objects of hatred, violence and philosophical hopelessness.  For those of us who walk in the light of Jesus, we see the path ahead allowing us to avoid many of the pitfalls.

The billions who live in the world daily without Jesus and the billions who live in the world daily with Jesus all live in the same chaotic world. A world where injustice still impacts people, violence causes unrest and lack of peace, physical and spiritual hunger abound all amid a heightened mistrust of others.

Dallas Willard, commenting on John 8:12 wrote, “Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did.”

My preference is to always walk in the daylight. I find it rather challenging to see in the dark, maybe age has something to do with the problem. What I do know is that I avoid a lot of sore shins if I walk in the light. This is even more important in my spiritual life. I am confident of Jesus’ promise that if I walk with Him, I “will have the light of life.”  What about you?

God is great,

Pastor Lynn