Like Jesus Or Jesus Like?


By Phil Scovell




     It was money again.  To be more specific, it was the lack of
money again.  I sighed heavily as I consider the bills we had to
pay; knowing the money wasn't going to reach.  I didn't like the
feeling I had but identifying that exact feeling wasn't easy to
recognize.  Turning to the Lord, I said, "Lord?  This doesn't feel
right.  Where is this coming from?"  He immediately flashed a
memory image into my mind.  Getting up from my office desk, I
walked into the other half of my office and sat down in my
rocking chair and continued praying.

     I recalled the event quite well.  My dad had died a year
earlier unexpectedly and I had lost all of my sight in six months.
Now we were moving from Des Moines, Iowa, where I was born and
raised and had all of my friends, to Omaha, Nebraska where I knew
no one.  I had been to this memory in my thoughts perhaps hundreds
of times over the years but never saw, or felt, anything that was
out of place.  I saw myself seated at the table with all my
friends.  These were my church friends and they had collected
enough money to purchase me a small portable open reel tape
recorder.

     Admittedly, something always felt slightly wrong in the
memory but I never could locate it.  "Lord?" I complained.  "This
memory has nothing to do with money.  What are we doing here?"

     "How did you feel?" I heard in my thoughts.

     I looked at the memory again and focused on myself seated at
the table.  I was sad.  Sad because I was leaving all of my
friends but there was something else.  It had to do with my
blindness but what was it?  I couldn't seem to locate the
feeling.

     Suddenly, it was there.  I felt as if the Lord were in the
memory with me and I turned to my right where He seemed to be
standing and said, "Lord, I'm not like these people any more."

     I expected a sympathetic response from the Lord.  Something I
had heard many times before as I prayed with others.  "I was with
you," he might say, or, "I'm your friend now," or, "I love you."
Instead, to my total amazement, when I said, "Lord, I'm not like
these people any more," He immediately said, "That's because you
are like me now."  You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I wanted to say, "Me?  You mean, me?  I'm like you now?"  I
couldn't think of anything to say because the impression of the
Words heard in my thoughts were so authoritative, I knew what
Jesus had said was true.

     This whole thing started out with money, or the lack thereof,
and ended up with Jesus saying, "That's because you are like me
now."  What's that have to do with money?  Stop and think about
it.  Hidden in my woundedness of forty years past was a lie which
told me that I wasn't good enough and wasn't deserving enough.
Now, here is the Lord God Himself telling me I was like Him now.

     This forces a boat load of questions immediately to the
surface like a broaching whale.  Does Jesus have any financial
needs which He cannot handle?  Has money ever been a problem for
Him?  Does He pay his bills late?  Does he hardly make it from
paycheck to paycheck?"  Of course, the answer to all these
questions, and many others, was obvious.  The connection was made
through His statement to me, "That's because you are like me now."
Yes, I was aware of all the theology and doctrine behind that
powerful statement but this was not a Sunday school class, a
church service, or a Bible seminary professor explaining the
meaning of Scripture.  This was Jesus The Christ, The Creator of
the universe, telling me, of all people, that I was like Him now
and not only that, He told me in a memory that was over 40 years
old.  So what did He mean, someone may ask.  Perhaps it would be
easier, if we were going to attempt an explanation, just to say
what He didn't mean.  Frankly, I don't plan on doing either.  I'll
leave it up to you as what you think it means.  I'll give you a
little hint, however.  The answer is bigger than anyone can
imagine, envisage, or even fathom.

     The bottom line is this, Jesus said, "You are like me now."
He did not say, "Be like me now," followed with a list of things
we should, and should not, do in order to remain like Him.  In
other words, we are not like Jesus because we are imitators; we
are like Him because we are His children.  One of the biggest
problems, in my opinion, concerning the church today, is the idea
that we somehow are supposed to spiritually grow up and
spiritually mature so that nothing, absolutely nothing, effects us
any more.  It is a balancing act.  We walk the high wire, far
above the rest of the world, perfectly balanced, in order that we
won't fall to either side.  If you are thinking, "That sounds
dangerous," you would be right.  If you are thinking, "This sounds
like a lot of work to me," you would be right.  If you have to do
anything to maintain your relationship with the Lord, you are
performing.  Performance driven Christianity is what you can do
for the Lord.  Maintenance free victory is what the Lord has done
and is doing for you without any effort on your behalf.  In short,
and to the contrary thinking and teaching of most, it isn't what
we can do for Christ that counts; it's what we allow Him to do for
us that makes the difference.

     Of course, about this point, someone says, "What about
church membership, tithing, reading my Bible, memorizing
Scripture, winning the lost to Christ, preaching the Gospel,
supporting missionaries, pastoring, speaking in tongues, laying
hands on the sick, and raising the dead?"  We could easily add
about another 20,000 things to this list.  Again, I'm repeating
myself now, these are all things we do for the Lord.  Somebody,
somewhere, and somehow taught us that these things make us more
theologically acceptable, doctrinally sound, draws us closer to
God, and somehow makes us literally grow spiritually.

     Before you get your tail in a permanent irreversible knot,
let me quickly point out that there is nothing wrong with any of
the things I mentioned.  It is why we do them that makes a
difference.  When I ask this next question, don't answer right
away but think about it first.  Think about it for an hour or a
day or a month but don't answer the question the moment you read
it.  Stop right here.  Don't read further.  Clear your mind of any
preconceived answer.  Do not allow yourself to anticipate my
question.  Then, when ready, continue reading.

     Are you doing things for God because you think they make Him
feel better about you or do you do the things for Him because they
make you feel better about yourself?

     So which is it going to be for you?  Like Jesus or Jesus
like?

     This question either has a simple answer or it will create a
multitude of other questions.  If you don't know the answer, call
me.  It will be time for the Lord to begin His healing work in
your life.

Safe Place Fellowship
Phil Scovell
Denver, Colorado  USA
Mountain Time Zone
Phone:  303-507-5175
www.SafePlaceFellowship.comm


I Flew Kites With Jesus
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com