Author and pastor John Ortberg spoke at the recent REVEAL conference that I attended at Willow Creek church near Chicago. He described three places we can be on our spiritual journey when it comes to Jesus Christ.
Some people are admirers of Jesus.
They consider Him to have been a great teacher and religious leader. My personal thought is that they may even consider Him to be the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, but perhaps simply have never engaged in thoughtful reflection on the ramifications of that truth.
Some people are users of Jesus
They cry out to Jesus in time of need. Their prayer life consists primarily of asking for things from Jesus – “Dear Jesus, help me with this.” “Dear Jesus, bless my aunt Tilly.” “Dear Jesus, please….” Of course we all need the constant help of the Lord, but people who are at this place in their spiritual journey don’t have much more in their prayer repertoire than prayer requests.
Some people are fully committed followers of Jesus
They want their lives to be Christ-centered and not self-centered. They want everything in their lives to reflect this total commitment. Of course this does not mean that those who are at this place carry out this commitment perfectly; no one ever does. It just means they are committed to this as their goal.
We all need to ask ourselves where we are on this spiritual continuum. Are we essentially an admirer of Jesus, a user of Jesus, or a committed disciple and follower of Jesus? Just asking.
Dave
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