I apologize for the delay in completing today’s entry.  In January, I’ll make it up to my limited readership with my first podcast.  More information about that when it’s ready to go.

For now, we’ll finish up this series of “first things.”   Today, we’re going to talk about the center of the Christian life.  The most important thing.  And hopefully, we’ll be able to be brief–I know some of these first few entries have been sort of long.

Hopefully, today, this will be a “well, duh…” moment for you.

The beating heart of the Christian life, of being discipled and sanctified, is your relationship with Jesus Christ.  (see…duh…)

There’s lots of books and podcasts out there about the issues that go along with the Christian life.  Many of them are really, really good and can benefit lots of people.  But they’re all making an assumption–that you know Jesus and are doing everything you can to follow him.  They’re assuming that you’re striving after Jesus in the every day, and that you already know the God you’re dealing with.  Sometimes, I think they assume too much.  Sometimes, I think I assume too much (even about something as basic as my own walk with our Lord).  It’s easy to assume that because we’re in church every week, or studying the Bible regularly or praying regularly that we know the drill and that we understand God pretty well.

Hopefully, you assume these things about yourself because they’re true.  That would be fabulous.  I sincerely hope that you could be described as someone who is regularly in God’s Word, active in a local church body, and unceasingly in prayer.  If you’re doing those three things, you’ve got the pieces in place to get started on the long road of sanctification.  But today, just in case of life, I’d like to ask you to stop this morning with me and answer a few questions, just because it can’t hurt to double check.   So…the questions…

1. Do you pray daily?
2. Do you read the Scriptures daily?
3. Are you regularly participating in a church?  (e.g.  doing something other than just attending a church)
4. Since you received Jesus, has your desire to pray, read the Scriptures, and serve God increased?
5. Has your sensitivity to God’s Spirit working in you increased?
6. Do you see God at work in your daily life, and in the lives of the people around you?
7. Would someone who hasn’t seen you since you accepted Jesus recognize that there’s something about you that is different than the last time they saw you?  Would someone who saw you last month recognize God at work in your life today because of a change in the way you live from then to now?
8. Do you regularly find opportunities to worship God outside the appointed time each week you set aside to do so?  (I’m assuming you find time to worship God regularly…hopefully, that’s not assuming too much.)
9. Would you recognize Jesus Christ if he showed up at your front door today?

I hope your answers to each of those questions pleases you, and that you now have an additional reason to celebrate and worship our God.  But I suspect that you’re like me, and your answer to one or more of those questions doesn’t quite please you.  Don’t fret, help is on the way!

That help doesn’t come from any person.   The help you need comes from God alone.  Your relationship with God, no matter how good it is, can always be better.  You’ve got a relationship with the Creator of the universe, a Being who has no limitations, no boundaries.   Several places in the Scriptures note that the totality of His wisdom is unsearchable (Romans 11:33-36 is one). You could start right now pursuing Him with everything you have (and you should!) and not reach the end of His wisdom by the end of your life, even if you lived to be 1000.  But rather than this being a discouragement, let it encourage and challenge you:  you have a relationship with the God of the universe, and He glories in His relationship with you.  He wants to show you Himself.  He is waiting for the opportunity to do so!  (And if that doesn’t make you want to worship Him, I can’t help you.)

This is where the discipleship piece comes in again.   Your attempt to follow after Christ is totally dependent on the extent to which you pursue continuing relationship with Him (and trying harder isn’t the solution).  Receiving Jesus is not a one time event, which, having been completed, entitles you to all the benefits of being a disciple.  Receiving Jesus is the beginning of a journey which will take you the rest of your life to complete, and the journey is knowing Him.  Everything about being more Christ-like requires you to know, with increasing familiarity, Christ himself.  And He is knowable.  The point of Jesus’ taking on a human body was to prove this very point.  As the author of Hebrews points out, we now have someone (a “great high priest”) who stands before God on our behalf who can sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:14-16).

But you have to want Him.  It won’t do for you to stand outside and wait for something to happen.  Go after Him with everything you have.  Become acquainted with His ways.  Learn how He sees things.  Spend time in prayer seeking Him.  Read about Him in your Bible.  Watch for Him in your daily life.  Look for Him working in other people, and in you.  To be a “disciple” you have to know the Discipler.  You have to answer the call to follow after Him, drop your other concerns, and go after Him.  Without a vibrant and daily relationship with Jesus Christ, your attempt to be a disciple is doomed to frustration and failure.  My prayer for you today is that your walk with Jesus is healthy, and that you find the encouragement to follow even harder after Him.