Becoming more like Jesus

 

Truth Verses

 

2 Corinthians 3:18 As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his presence even more

 

Colossians 1:27 This is the secret: Christ lives in you

 

Truth Story

 

My dad’s Mini Clubman was a car ‘well stricken in years’! Its former classy chassis was

starting to rust; nonetheless I was ever so appreciative of being able to borrow it. This was

my first set of wheels to tide me over between college days and work in real world. Dad

had kindly added me to his insurance policy, allowing me to frequent the home of my then

fiancée and now wife of thirty-four years. Dad’s generosity had spared me the

inconvenience of public transport or by using what he used to call “shank’s mare” – a

colloquialism for saving me using my legs to walk, as my mode of transport.

 

However, the orange coloured car was starting to show her age. One evening the accelerator cable snapped and she came to an abrupt stop. When the accelerator cable was opened it released the petrol to the engine to give it the power necessary to move the car forward. What on earth could my fiancée and I do to get the old mini moving?

 

Stuck on the Craigantlet hillside, just behind Stormont and overlooking Belfast, the mother of invention, ingenuity kicked in. A wire coat hanger was used to save the day. By lifting the bonnet and connecting the coat hanger to an accelerator lever, we found this to be an alternative, although somewhat unconventional, way of releasing the petrol to restore the flow of fuel back to the engine again.

 

So with limited vision and the bonnet almost vertical I held a wire coat hanger out of the drivers’ window until we made it home. We had never laughed so hard and were to tears at the novel way that we’d managed to release and restore the power back to my dad’s old car.

 

Truth Unpacked

 

It’s one thing knowing that the car needed power, but it was another thing understanding how to release the fuel for its intended use.

 

Similarly, the secret power of every Christian is that Christ lives within you (2 Corinthians 13:5). It’s also imperative that we learn how to release that inner power into our everyday lives. The Apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question ‘Do you not know that you are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you’?  (Romans 8:11). Yes, the Spirit of Jesus, the power of God’s presence has been poured out on all flesh and we are now partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  Part of God’s reason for this outpouring is to shape and transform us to become more and more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).

 

 

Quote Christ-likeness is not produced by imitation, but by inhabitation (Rick Warren)

 

Praying the Word

 

Dear Lord, thank you for pouring out your Spirit (Acts 2:17). Continue to dwell in my heart (Ezekiel 36:26). Govern my thinking, choices and feelings (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Release the power of your Spirit in my life today and everyday (Ephesians 3:16-17). Empower and enable me to become more and more like you Lord Jesus (1 John 2:6). Help me be a conduit for your presence and let me be salt and light to some of the people that I meet today. Amen (1 Corinthians 3:16-18; Colossians 4:3-6).

 

Lectio Divina [Prayer reading]

 

Pray, read and reflect.

•        Have those that are willing pray, asking that the Holy Spirit would help them hear His voice (John 10:27).

•        Read the scriptures again.

•        Then go around the room [allowing for ‘neighbour nudging’ to let people opt out should they not want to share]. Have everyone willing then reflect, acknowledging one thing they sense the Holy Spirit is saying to them as they read.

 

Pray, reinforce and contemplate.

•        Close the connect group time by praying that the Spirit would help empower everyone to demonstrate this truth

•        Reinforce this by participating in symbolic gesture or creative activity that does something to express our desire to receive this change (e.g. Establish “a cross” in the centre of the room. Then have everyone write down his or her thought or prompting on a sticky note, bringing it up to the foot of the cross).

•        Ask everyone to contemplate; to consider how to demonstrate this truth more in his or her everyday life.