Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 85

Jeff Klein

Transcript

Jeff Klein 0:05  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Monday, April 21  - Easter Monday. This is Jeff Klein with your weekly encouragement to take your faith, your following of Jesus and move it into the week, beyond Sunday.

Jeff Klein  0:19  

I love the Spider Man movies (the old and new ones). Peter Parker gets bit by a genetically enhanced spider, transforms into Spider Man and knows that something is different - but he doesn't understand the magnitude of the super powers he has. When he first experiments with these super powers, he climbs inside of a building, swings across the street and plows into the building next door. He goes up the wall, looks at his hands and falls off and crashes. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he's trying to use this new web thing and doesn't quite understand how it works. This young Spider Man reminds me of followers of Jesus. Do we understand the power of the Holy Spirit that we were bit by when we took Jesus into our lives? Do we know that in Ephesians, Paul reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead also lives inside of us? Do we know how to live by that power?

Jeff Klein 1:11  

Just like spider man, we've been transformed. But do we live like resurrected people throughout our days and weeks? Are people drawn to Jesus by being around us and by seeing the kind of people we are and the way we live? HughHalter writes this about our posture and its importance when it comes to being on the mission of God. Our main contention is that what drew people to Jesus (surprisingly) was not his message. It was him. His face, the softness in his voice, the whimsical look he gave children, how he laughed and how he lived. But, his message repelled people. Many people who were drawn to him as a man, would leave after he let them in on the message. This is quite a switch for most of us. We try to draw others by soft pedaling the message and end up repelling them by how we live our lives. On this Easter Monday, how can you begin to live like a resurrected person? How can you put what has happened inside you -because of Jesus resurrection - on display, so that people will be drawn to Jesus just by being around you.

Jeff Klein  2:16  

Let's pray Lord Jesus, thank you so much for all that you went through to transform us into your followers. Jesus, now we need to learn to live as your followers, to live compelling resurrection so that when we're around people, they go, "Whoa! What is different about this person?" Help us so those people are drawn in and want to hear the truth and the message of the gospel that we've come to understand. We pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.