imitate me (Christ)

December 7, 2010

Listening to Christopher Yuan's testimony, watching 'Faith Like Potatoes' (another inspirational and encouraging testimony, watch it watch it!), and listening to the sermon on discipleship this past Sunday has reminded me of this important but often forgotten fact: our lives should be one big testimony pointing to Christ. All of our lives are to be testimonies and witnesses of God's continual grace, mercy, and powerful transformation. We must seek to live in such a way that our lives are always pointing people to God, attracting them into a deeper yearning for God, and are serving as an example of His love, grace and mercy in our own lives.

In Christopher Yuan's testimony, his father speaks about how after his mother became a Christian, he was at first skeptical and thought that this was just some other 'religion.' But as time went on, he saw how transformed and at peace his wife was, and that transformation attracted him and made him want what she had for she treated it like treasure and the change in her was both genuine and appealing. It was through her example and her life, that he was attracted to and interested in knowing this Christ that she had accepted as the Lord and Savior of her life. This verse was so very true of his mother's life:

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. (1 Peter 3:1-2)

Our lives should be like this- so filled with purity, reverence, fruits of the Spirit, and God himself that without words, we win over those around us and we stir up within them their own yearnings and pursuit of God. What we have is what everyone in this world is seeking, and we should be living our lives as an example/witness/testimony to how very real and awesome our God is. I constantly have to remind myself that God doesn't just use crazy rebels to bring glory to his name, but that he uses seemingly boring people like me to be a testimony of Him. While crazy anti-Christian rebels who become Christians serve to be a awesomee testimony of God's transforming love, power, and grace, boring 'always' Christian people like me can serve to be a testimony of God's faithfulness and constant presence in our lives. We should never underestimate how God can bring glory to His own name through these seemingly insignificant lives of ours if we'd only place them in His hands and let Him do with it as He wills and pleases.

This also reminds me of the sermon I heard today. The pastor was talking about how important and crucial discipleship is to our spiritual growth. He used the example of Paul who told the churches to follow his example, as he himself follows Christ's example. It sounds almost prideful to tell someone 'imitate me.' For who is good enough to be imitated? Yeah, maybe Paul, Peter, big theologians/pastors like Piper, Swindoll, Augustine, Tozer, etc., but us? me? That is quite a weighty responsibility, one that I think we often shirk from, thinking that it is reserved for those 'holier' people. But the pastor's sermon reminded me that we are all called to be disciples of Christ- imitators of Christ- and if we are imitating Christ, then others should be able to imitate us just as we are imitating Christ. We need to remember our higher calling, and live this life not for ourselves anymore, but for Christ. Our lives are not to be lived out for our pleasure and comfort, but for the glory and purposes of God.

20“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.(Galatians 2:20)

If Christ lives in me, then I should be able to say to others to imitate me, for they'd be imitating Christ who lives in me. We should be aiming to live a life not only worthy of Christ's calling for us, but a life that God can use to serve as an example for how others are to live. When you think about it, that is a weighty responsibility. That our lives would serve to be an example for other Christians as to how they should live and grow in their Christian walk. We would not be able to do so, if we ourselves are not closely following Christ and constantly growing in our own walks with him, and being constantly convicted by the Spirit within us that we may pursue after increasing holiness. If we lead others astray, the responsibility is on our heads. When I reflect upon my own life in light of this responsibility to be examples to one another, there are many areas in which I feel I need to really raise my standards in to God's standards. But I pray that in all things, we'd be praying and desiring that God would so fill, consume, saturate, and transform our very being that we'd be able to say to each other

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

A weighty statement indeed.