Be More Like the SON in 2021 Summary

     Over the past four months we have looked at ways in which we can be more like Jesus, so we can conform to His image (Romans 8:29) and follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21).

    All the lessons this year, as the Lord wills, should be helpful in continuing our pursuit to 'Be More Like The SON in 2021,' but today's lesson will summarize the series I have written and we will study other useful bible topics for the remainder of the year.  **If you have a topic you would like to study, please mention it in the comments below or contact me directly, I would love to hear from you and dig into a topic that is particularly helpful/needful to you!

BE MORE LIKE THE SON IN 2021  

• January 4: Let The Beauty of Jesus Be Seen in Me - a beautiful hymn that reminds us of our need to be more like Jesus. Listen to it here . Read full article here
• January 11: Jesus is the Son of God - We Can Be Children of God - John 6:69, 1:12-13, 1 John 3:1-3. Read full article here 
• January 18: Jesus Determined to be About His Father's Business - So Should We! - Luke 2:41-52, Matthew 7:21. Our God-given purpose: Seek God (Acts 17:26-27), Proclaim God's Praises (1 Peter 2:9), Do Good Works (Ephesians 2:10, Titus 2-3). Read full article here
• January 25: Jesus Knew the Scriptures - We Should Too! (Part 1) - 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Ephesians 5:8,10, 15-17. Read full article here 
• February 1: Jesus Knew the Scriptures - We Should Too! (Part 2) - We can become more comfortable and familiar with the Bible when we take time to read it every day. A reading plan can help create this beneficial habit. Read full article and find reading plans here
• February 8: Jesus Didn't Seek Status, He Sought Souls - We Should Too! - Matthew 11:19, 9:10-13, Titus 2:14, Luke 19:10, Romans 6. Read full article here
• February 15: Jesus Talked to People About His Father - We Should Too! - consider passages like Matthew 5-7 and Psalm 71:14-16. Read full article here
• February 22: Jesus Had Compassion For People - We Should Too! - Matthew 9:35-38, John 17:1-26. Read full article here
• March 1: Jesus Prayed Often - So Should We! - before, after, and even during big events, when life is unusually busy, and without ceasing - Jesus prayed this often, so should we. Read full article here
• March 8: Jesus Patiently Endured - We Should Too! (Part 1) - 1 Peter 2:21-23, Hebrews 12:2. Read full article here
• March 15: Jesus Patiently Endured - We Should Too (Part 2) - consider James 1:19-20, Psalm 62:8, and Ephesians 4:29-32. Read full article here
• March 22: Jesus Denied Self - We Must Too! - Matthew 16:24, Luke 22:42, 1 John 2:15-17, 2 Corinthians 5:15. Read full article here
• March 29: Jesus Took Up His Cross - We Must Too! (Part 1) - Matthew 10:38. Luke 9:62, Hebrews 10:38-39. Read full article here
• April 5: Jesus Took Up His Cross - We Must Too! (Part 2) - John 17:14, 1 Peter 2:21-24. Read full article here
• April 12: Jesus Left Us a Path To Follow - We Must Walk in His Steps! - Matthew 16:24, Proverbs 3:5-6. Read full article here
• April 19: Follow Jesus and Flourish! - John 12:24-26, 1 Pete 3:20-24, Matthew 7:13-14, Hebrews 10:35-39, Joshua 1:7 - Who Will Follow Jesus? Read full article here

    We can become more like Jesus! Let's do all the that we can to become better acquainted with Jesus and His Father by reading the Bible and learning what is right to do! Let's do what is good and right so that we may be pleasing to God, as Jesus was and is, and help others come to know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2)!

You can do it! So can I!!

Follow Jesus and Flourish

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour." (John 12:24-26 NKJV)

    Over the course of this year's study - Be More Like the Son in 2021 - we have found that in order to flourish we must let go. Let go of our own notions and ideas and dig into God's word for the truth, let go of our stubborn independence and submit to God and His wisdom and instruction, let go of our selfish desires and live lives that are pure and holy and helpful to others. 

    Like the seed of grain we must have a willingness to be buried (in baptism, Romans 6), so that we, in full submission to God and His commands, can flourish and bear abundance of fruit! We must learn to hate our life in this world ('hate' meaning to love God more than the things in this life), and to look forward with earnest regard for life eternal with Him (2 Peter 3:10-18)!

    Jesus said, "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me..." Follow His steps (1 Peter 3:20-24), don't turn from the path He has created for us (Matthew 7:13-14, Hebrews 10:35-39, consider also Joshua 1:7), carefully learn His steps, His character, His care, and allow yourself to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29-30) as you put His ways into daily practice!

    "If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour."  Just reading that statement is thrilling, but it is a promise that God can/will/does fulfill! Read and think on passages like Romans 8:12-17 where we find that we, who are led by the Spirit (letting God's Word, the Bible, be our guide), are children of God "and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (v17) and also Ephesians 1:3-14 where we discover all the spiritual blessings we have when we are in Christ (in the church, His body, Ephesians 1:22-23)!

    Are you determined to Be More Like the Son in 2021? Are you willing to follow Jesus's steps?

You can do it! So can I!!

     

Jesus Left A Path To Follow - We Must Walk in His Steps! (Part 1)

    From the time our daughters were young we've been taking them on hikes in the woodland valleys surrounding our home. They have always known that Dad led our little group and that he was the first one to cross the wide creek beds at the base of these valleys. Although they were sometimes impatient, wanting to cross on their own, I would hold their hand and tell them that Dad was finding the safest route and if we carefully watched where he placed his feet we could follow his steps and cross to where he waited for us with outstretched hand. 

  Over the years the girls learned by obedience (and sometimes by failed experiment,  a.k.a. soaked shoes) that their Dad was loving and wise. He was always looking out for their best interests and wanted them to get to the other side.

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 

"If anyone desires to come after Me. 

let him deny himself, and take up 

his cross, and follow Me." 

(Matthew 16:24 NKJV)

   Jesus has walked ahead of us and left us a path for us to follow because He loves us. We don't have to guess at it because, thanks be to God, we have it written down, so we can know it, study it, understand it, and follow it!

     To be a disciple of Christ - a Christian - we MUST follow in His steps! Jesus obeyed His Father's will (John 6:38) and in following His steps we will also obey the Father's will - which is found only in the Bible and nowhere else. We cannot follow after anyone else's made-up doctrine, another creed of men, and think that we are following in Christ's steps. We cannot pick and choose which parts of Christ's steps we want to follow and think that we are following His steps. 

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him, 

and He shall direct your steps."

(Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)

 

    Jesus left us an example so that we would follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21) and in so doing safely reach "the other side." Let's do all we that is necessary to ensure that we are following Jesus' steps and  only His steps!

 

You can do it! So can I!!

 

 

   

Jesus Took Up His Cross - We Must Too! (Part 2)

 “…he who does not take his cross and 

follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” 

(Matthew 10:38 NKJV)

    We  studied last week what it means to take up your cross: committing yourself wholly to Christ, understanding you will never return to your former life.

    While under Roman rule people would have watched those carrying their crosses to the place of crucifixion. Some, without pity, would have mocked and ridiculed those who were bearing their burden. When Jesus instructs us to take up our cross and follow Him we understand that in following Him we will be mocked just as He was (Mark 15:16-20), ridiculed just as He was (Mark 15:29-32), and hated just as He was (John 15: 18-21), and still we will continue to follow Him.

“I have given them Your word; 

and the world has hated them 

because they are not of the world. 

Just as I am not of the world.” 

(John 17:14 NKJV)

    The world will judge you and criticize you for following Jesus, because in following Him you are no longer living “in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God”(1 Peter 4:2). Those who happily accompanied you in your former activities will “think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation” (1 Peter 4:4, read verse 3 for definition of dissipation), and then what will they do? They will speak evil of you; they will mock you and your cross, they will ridicule you simply because you have chosen a different – and better – way; Jesus endured it and so can you (Matthew 10:22)!

    Jesus has already walked the path we are on. He knows and He understands (Hebrews 4:14-15)!

“…when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable to God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we , having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:21-24 NKJV)

     Jesus left us a perfect example of how to endure suffering at the hands of the world (consider also Matthew 5:44-48), and not only that but He gave His very life in obedience to the Father so that we who have died to sins (Romans 6:1-14), having taken up our cross to follow Him, might live for righteousness!

    To be like the Son in 2021 (and be worthy of Christ) you must be willing to die to sin and live for righteousness - Jesus provided all we need to do just that: He provided the means through fulfilling God’s plan (Matthew 1:21, Romans 6:22-23, John 17:4, 19:30), He left us an example to follow, and He is ready and able to help us as we walk in His steps (Hebrews 4:16, John 14:6, 1 Timothy 2:5-6)!!

God has provided all through Jesus. Be willing to take up your cross and follow Him, be willing to do whatever is necessary to be more like Him and be worthy of Him – no matter what the world says – trust God and continue to be more like Jesus!!

You can do it!! So can I!!