What are you lifting up?

Last week I talked about “The Messiah you have? Or the messiah you want?” As I looked into the life of Judas Iscariot I came to a conclusion that the Messiah standing before him wasn’t the messiah he was looking for. Often we want our crosses we’ve been called to bear altered to fit what we would like. The whole “dying to self” thing is a bit much…so we don’t live it because we convince ourselves that maybe that isn’t really what he meant by “carry your cross.” If you would like to read the rest of my thoughts, take a look at my last post.

So the question is…if we lift up a messiah that we have altered, what does the world see? Does the world see an accurate portrait of Jesus Christ, our Messiah? Jesus said that, “I am going to be lifted up from the earth. When I am, I will bring all people to myself” (John 12:32, TNIV). I heard this verse talked about in an evangelistic since and it has changed how I view life. The question was, if Christ will draw the world to Him when He is lifted up, are we drawing the world to Him by what we are lifting up?

We’ve been called to live a life that is drastically different from the world.
If you look at www.barna.org, you’ll find that there aren’t many differences between the world and Christians. I know I’ve talked about this before but I really wish that Christians would keep the 10 Commandments themselves before sticking a bumper sticker on their car saying that they need to be kept in the courthouse. What is the world seeing in us?

Jesus calls us to a life of peace. I’m not making a war protest because I believe He is talking about a different kind of peace. The kind of peace that David talks about in Psalm 23, “I will fear no evil, because You are with me.” Jesus calls us to the kind of peace that no matter what is going on in life, no matter how bad things get, you will have a life of peace. When the world looks at our lives, do they see craziness or peace? Does your life show the Messiah to the world or are we simply asking people to trade their life of craziness for our life of craziness with something else to do during the week?

John 14:26-27
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”