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Good
Monday Mornin'
When I was a little boy I always loved to dress up like my dad. I would
wear
my jeans like his, get my hair cut like his, wear boots like his and want
to
go everywhere he went. I didn't care about being like anyone else; I just
wanted to be like my dad. I remember even going so far as to when I would
walk beside him I would try my best to match his stride. I would want my
boots to land in the same cadence that his did. Now I was four ft
something
and he was five ft something, but that did not stop me from trying.
Now that I have a son, I see the same things in him. He wants to wear
jeans
and boots like mine, he wants to do the same things that I do and he loves
to go where I go. I have even seen him here lately trying to match my
stride. And as I get older and watch him get older, I realize that this
shapes and molds everything about his life. You see even though when I was
a
kid I just pretended to be like my dad, now when I look back I realize
that
all of that time I was trying to be like him, in many ways I was becoming
like him. I love to work with my hands, I can do just about any kind of
construction and I am hard headed. All of these things I got from my dad.
And Jake as he gets older I can see that he is becoming more and more like
me. He has a love for the Bible, he loves to hunt and he likes being
outside. So this acting like our dads has more to it than meets the eye.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1. . .
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life
of
love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice.
As I read these words of Paul I am reminded of how I tried to imitate my
dad, and how Jake tries to imitate me. And I wonder, if I imitate God, if
I
try to look like Him, act like Him and walk in stride with Him, what will
my
life look like? The Scripture says that God's ultimate goal in my life and
in your life is to make us look more and more like Him every day until we
reach death when we will be made perfect. So the question is not what will
my life look like, that one is easy it will look like God, but how can I
imitate God? I offer a few things for you to consider this Monday Mornin'.
.
.
I. Recognize God as your loving Father. One problem that many
people face is that the word "father" brings up bad memories.
Many of you were abused by your father; many of you had a father that
never spent time with you. Some of you never had a father, and some of you
had more than one father and none of them were consistent. But I want you
to know that the Father God is consistent, and everything that you ever
thought a father ought to be He is and more! Yes He will discipline you,
yes He will feel distant sometimes, yes He will not always make since, but
let me assure you of one thing, He will never leave you and never forsake
you and He will only give you good gifts! If you were lucky enough as I
was to have a father then you don't struggle with this, but if you were
not, you must recognize God as your loving Father before you can ever
imitate Him.
II. Get to know Him. The times I remember most with my dad,
and the times that Jake seems to remember is time when we had nowhere to
be, nothing to do, nowhere to go it was just us. Maybe hunting, fishing,
working or just sitting outside but the times remembered were times
together. Now if we are ever to imitate God, we must know Him deeper than
a few minutes in the morning. What I challenge you to do is take a day
sabbatical sometime, just you, your Bible and your Heavenly Daddy. It will
change the way you see things, I promise.
III. Then finally everything that you see in Him try to
imitate. When I was little I would try to put on my dad's boots. They were
huge, but I would walk around with them on and everyone would get a good
laugh. But as I grew I started to wear his shoes, I started to be able to
fill his shoes and no longer was I pretending to be more like him, I was
more like him. When was the last time you put God's boots on? When was the
last time you evaluated your life and saw just how small you are compared
to Him? But when you try those boots on and walk around with them on, in
the process you are longing to be more like Him, and in that process you
will grow to be more like Him! You will never be Him, but He wants you to
strive to wear His Boots!
Sometimes being a Christian is so overwhelming. The Bible seems to call us
to an impossible life. And trust me, it is impossible without Jesus. But
if
we are striving everyday of our lives to look more and more like Him, the
impossibility of it fades into the manifestation of it coming true in our
lives. We don't set out today and say, "Today I will look more like
God",
no, we live our lives according to His Word, and then look back a year
from
now and say, "Wow, I look more like God."
I love every one of you guys with all my heart. Have a great week.
Pastor Jason Lyle
The Open Range Church of Henry County
Many are the plans in a man's
heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
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