Looking Like Jesus

"Some thoughts on taking on Christ and loving w/ a love that only He can live through us."

John 5:19 - "So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."

How much we look like Jesus I believe is directly related to the amount of oneself given over to God repeatedly throughout life. The more and more we give up, give in, give over, surrender, and let Him take over, the more we look like Him and gain more of His heart and hear from His Spirit to guide us. I believe the amount of quality time spent on Him will show. So it goes the same for us as Jesus, we only do what we see the Father doing because we've spent so much time w/ Him and given up so much of selfish selves for Him to replace w/ Himself. It comes down to making space for the things that give life, and filling the holes that desire God, with God, not anything else, because after trying lesser things, I am convinced that our desires were created by God and can only find their satisfaction in Him.
And so in losing ourselves in Him, w/ continual surrender as life goes on, we take on His attributes, gaining in the depths of His endless perfect love and grace, looking more and more like Jesus.
Check out this awesome poem I found that I think embodies a humble grasping of what we have in Christ as we become more like Him.

Father, I will give You a gift of love
But I have no love that's mine to give
The love I know is what I see in You
Yet I will write my name on it
I will pretend that I am rich in love
I will be Your child and You will be my daddy
And we will play a game together
A game of self giving love
I will sit on Your knee ad pass out love
And You will give me more
I will pretend I am giving some to You
And You will smile at me
As though it were mine to give
I will give it out to everyone who passes by
And You will be very happy
Because You will know
It really has become mine to give

So, the more we respond to His love, the more of ourselves we give, then more He pours His love into us, the more of himself He gives us. Not to say that He doesn't already love us to the full because He has already given us all of Himself, but by greater responding means we are hopefully growing increasingly conscious of His grace in everything and in gratitude by continual greater and greater depths of recognition for what He has done for us, our eyes are being opened more and more to the fact that God is in an endless pursuit of all of ourselves, every part of us, and we are growing in realization of how big His love is and how much it covers us and that He truly is all we need. Proof of His perfect love is that He doesn't force us to seek and follow Him, He gives us the freedom to do so, and He lets us go as far into Him as we so choose. I think how much we look like Christ will show how much we actually trust that He is enough. The more then that we gain in His love, the more then we are enabled to love beyond just those who love us, for even sinners love those who love them. We will be able to love our enemies and even our friends who let us down. We will be able to better and better give the grace that was given to us. When we love w/ Christs love our love then goes beyond the regular love of the world, it becomes a love that conquers all, a love that heals and transforms and that has massive impact.
Matthew 5:43-48 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
I wholeheartedly believe that this is the love that Christ calls all of us to take a hold of in order to be His peculiar people, set apart for His glory. This is what makes us different, this is how people will know we are His, because we love with a love that is endless, because we are completely sourced in Christ.
This transforming way of loving isn't something we can acquire independently on our own though. As Jack Bernard says " We can only love with Gods love while sitting in His lap, and we can't continue to love like Him if we leave His lap. "There is no need to get up and leave, ever." - God.
Oh how i wish i could stay there! How i wish i could always be in the place Paul was when in Phil. 3:8 he said "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him."

But going back to the becoming more like Christ- I think it has to do w/ how important we really believe it is, which means as often as needed getting our priorities in line and also in reverse, the only way we can and will see the need of getting our priorities in line is to see how important it is and continually going to greater depths of realization of becoming more like Christ in order to have real and lasting and meaningful impact in this world.
I don't think we can see how truly important it is though unless we're in love with Him, because how in love with Him we are i think will equal how much we look like Him and have taken on His heart and what His heart beats for and breaks for. And I think the way to fall in greater love with Him is to evermore see God for who He really is, and then to see the depth and price of our sin and then to come to a greater and greater understanding of what He did for us, which then leads us into an amazing gratitude making us fall head over heel for the One who saved our souls and continues to sanctify us as we seek Him. I think this is what Christ meant when He said that if You hold onto Your life you will lose it, but if You give it up for My sake, You will truly find it, the abundant life He promises. Like i once heard DC Curry say "The more we look like Jesus, the more we live life to the full."
The goal is to look like Jesus.

Any thoughts on my thoughts?

Starbucks

So I work at Starbucks, as probably anyone who reads this knows. I could tell lots of stories of my experiece thus far, good and bad, hilarious and sad, shocking and strange, but honestly, I have pretty much loved it all. Starbucks has been one of the only places that I have been away from for a week and when I got back, was really glad to be there. I just really like working there. I work with some of the coolest people. Some are really unique, some odd, entertaining, loving, really smart, seeking for truth, sweet, and just plain nice people.
I think Starbucks has been a place where I have grown even. My memory has grown. The fact that i can remember how to make every drink, or remember 3 drink orders no matter how long the modifiers are. Its really amazing to me actually. It was quite overwhelming at first, but i think I've got it down. I Also think It has been really helpful for me socially as well as I think i tend to be some what socially inept at times.Starbucks is a place where they really want you to be relational with your customers and build friendships and be that 3rd place as you've probably heard. Continuing on in that direction, the relational part of the job is where I shall now go.
I absolutely love the people I get to see every day. Sometimes it's the people that make or break the day. Sometimes people can be outright mean and blatantly rude. Often you get treated on a daily basis like a vending machine. They put the money in your hand (the slot) and you give them their coffee and they don't even look at you or acknowledge that you exist. Phones bother me, especially in the drive through, the ones that have bluetooth and it looks totally like they are talking to you and what they are saying makes absolutely no sense and so you try and respond somehow, and they say to their friend on the phone " give me a sec, the idiot at Starbucks thinks I'm talking to him." I remember one story I've told a few people when I was working the front register and some lady came up and ordered a bagel and a coffee and with all sincerity in my heart I said " So how are You doing today?" and she responds " I really have no desire to talk to you, just process my order." Often I have to remind myself that they are God's creation and maybe they are just having a bad day.
Other times people can just be just the nicest people and say something that helps get you through the next half hour on a bad day. Especially when those ones walk in the door, the ones who you have made relationships with. The ones who know what goin on with you and you know whats goin on with them.
So let me tell you about just a few people that I can think of right now.
There's John, who after a few times of him coming in and us having deeper conversations than just "hi how are you" we had started talkinga bout how he had got a new job and would be moving soon and so I offered to help him move. I remember that just blew him away, he asked me "you really wanna help me move?" and i said "yeah i do!" A few visits later I remember telling him about a week long tour a buddy and I were planning on doing and he offered us a meal and a room in his house for us to sleep if needed. WOW it was pretty cool.
There's Steve who is in every single day who gets a grande toffee nut coffee who is just the nicest guy who I had told about the show I am gonna be playing next Friday and how he said he would for sure be coming he said this on night, and i remember i saw him about to walk out of the store and he turned around and came back and told me he was sorry because he forgot that he was going to be in Las Vegas that weekend so he couldn't make it. The fact that he even did that amazed me, honestly. He couldnt have just not shown up and not said anything. But he is just a guy with a heart who wants to be honest and real and take the time to talk to me.
another lady Pam, who comes every day through the drive through who has kids in the back one day came through and told me that I was one of 3 guys on her 1st grade daughters "boyfriend" list. I was right up there with one of her friends and David Archuleta, but was behind him because I didn't sing. So when I told her that I do sing she got real shy. It was quite funny.
Even just another lady, who's name I don't know, who I've never seen smile or really even talk, who comes through the drive through all the time, the other day came through and she had done something different with her hair and so I asked her if she colored her hair she said yes and I told her I liked it and she just got the biggest smile on her face. Man that stuff excites me. I love to see people smile, I love joy.

All this to say, I know that I'll look back 5 years from now and be glad I worked at Starbucks. What a wonderful time I've had so far. God called me to Indiana almost a year ago now and I can say with confidence that Starbucks was His idea, not mine.

Relevant article

i really like this article from Relevant Magazine
check it out

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=7550