Who Do You Look Like?

Church messed me up this past week.

My pastor talked about people who were "watchers", "followers", or "interns" of Jesus. Many people "watch" Jesus, maybe at church, on TV, or by the examples set by people who claim to be Christian, but they don't necessarily want to commit to following Jesus. A "follower" spends time with Jesus. In Jesus' day a follower would, well.. follow Jesus from place to place for their own reasons. Maybe they wanted to hear His teachings. Maybe they wanted to witness the miraculous. Maybe they wanted to be part of the "in" crowd. We have "followers" of Jesus today. In Jesus' time, Judas Iscariot was a follower. Judas was called to be a disciple (or to use modern verbage... an "intern"), but he didn't take his "follower" status to the next level, that of "intern". "Interns" were (and are) those called by Jesus to be in His inner circle and learn from Him only those things that can be learned by living in close quarters with someone. They knew and learned who Jesus was to such an extent that they were expected to be "Jesus" to those around them. A more modern example that is easy to relate to is that of a medical intern. A medical intern goes to school to learn to be a doctor. When they become an Intern, they follow a seasoned physician around to gain more experience and insight into being a doctor. They have a particular desire to become a full-fledged physician themself.

At the end of our church service, our pastor gave an invitation for anyone who wanted to look more like Jesus to come forward. I failed to go and I should have. For awhile now God has been putting a deep desire in my heart to serve Him, but on a deeper level than I have been. As much as I can (or as God leads me to), I try to serve by doing things that will minister to others. I've tried, to the best of my ability, to model the Jesus I see in the Bible. But that, somehow, is not enough anymore. There's another (deeper) level where He is calling me to go...

Serving Jesus the way I have been has not been a bad thing, but it dawned on me on my way home from church on Sunday that I have been serving Jesus looking like myself. I need to serve Jesus in such a way that I now look like Him. And now I want so badly to be that person...Jesus, help me to not just resemble you in the things I do, but help me BE You (as much as that is possible). I want people to now see Jesus when I serve them.