To be like Jesus.

To be like Jesus

This hope possesses me

In every thought and deed

This is my aim my creed

To be like Jesus

His spirit helping me

This hope possesses me

like Him I'll be.

Have sung this song in our church for many years now but this week I learned from the great Dr Leslie Weatherhead that the Gospel... the Good News is not that we try to become like Jesus but that we become friends with him and are therefore transformed through that friendship.

Jesus did not say "I have come so that you might all be like me". If we emulate the actions, thoughts and ways of Jesus but do not befriend him then we miss the very essence of Christianity. That is God seeking out mankind in order to restore a lost relationship.

The chip off the old block syndrome then kicks in. The more time we spend with Jesus in relationship... the more we become like him.

I love this songs sentiment and how it expresses the desire I have to "be like Jesus" but there is a real danger that I strive to be like him when all he wants is me to befriend him.

My books have gone!

Over the years I've collected hundreds of Christian books - commentaries, encyclopaedias, books on theology, church history, stories of great saints, Christian psychology, testimonies and even some Christian fiction.

Now the question I'm asking is "am I walking the way of Jesus because of any of them?"

How can I have so many books about Christianity and be so far from living a God loving, radical, injustice fighting, mercy loving, grace showing life ?

So... they're gone. Well, at least all boxed and tucked away in the attic. I kept one of course - the one book I probably should keep!

Oh yes and I kept the one I'm currently reading .... "Letters from Prison" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

I just read in there that Jesus did not preach or try and "convert" either of the thieves crucified either side of him. He simply responded to the cry from one.

Wow... what does this mean?.... I must go and look it up in my Tyndale commentary.....