Courting Christ: Wear His Ring, Part 1

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 10:32-33 (NASB)

Why do we wear wedding rings? Do we need a physical reminder of a decision that we made? Surely we can remember the fact that we vowed to dedicate our selves to serving and loving someone for as long as we both shall live? With a 50% divorce rate apparently not!

Why do we need war memorials? Surely we could remember the hundreds of thousands of men and women who over the years, fought so that their loved ones could enjoy freedom? Watching film clips of people throwing refuse and epithets at returning vets, I guess not!

Why do we need tombstones? Surely we can remember the lives and deaths of the loved ones who have contributed so much joy and richness to our lives? From the number of people who actually visit their elderly loved ones in nursing homes while they’re still alive – apparently not!

Why do we feel the need to identify ourselves with sports teams? Why do we ask our police, soldiers, postal workers, firemen and K-Mart workers to wear uniforms? Why do we sometimes ask our children to wear school uniforms or to identify themselves with certain social groups like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts or AWANAS?

We routinely identify ourselves with all kinds of activities, both serious and frivolous. We shouldn’t balk when Jesus asks us to identify ourselves with Him, should we?

As a matter of fact, we do many things to identify ourselves with the Christian religion. We wear pretty little jewelry in the shape of crosses, we label our bracelets and ball caps with WWJD (What Would Jesus Do). We put tall steeples on top of buildings in order to publicly identify them as places where the worship of Jesus as God takes place.

But how does Jesus ask us to identify ourselves with Him? He explicitly called Himself our Teacher and said that His life and actions were an example for us to imitate[1].

Paul also admonished us to imitate his imitation of Christ[2]. Jesus wants us to represent Him; to BE Him to the world.

• 1 John 4:17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
  

So what is it about Him that we should imitate? We could talk about His many great works. We could discuss His passion for the poor, the hungry, the needy, the fatherless, the widows or even for justice.

However, in order to accomplish these things, we must imitate the core of the Savior. It is His mindset that we should seek. Tomorrow I’ll give you twenty ways to do just that.

[1] John 13:13-17
[2] 1 Corinthians 11:1