Jesus said that, “apart from me you can do nothing” but for once I need to disagree with him on that one.
I mean, that’s simply not true. I know from firsthand experience
that there are loads of things that Christians can do apart from Jesus.
For example, Christians can do these things without any help
from our Lord:
· Start a church.
· Hire a pastor.
· Buy a building.
· Create a program.
· Launch a ministry.
· Market the Gospel.
· Promote themselves.
· Attract a crowd.
· Grow their church.
· Sell a lot of books.
· Host a conference.
· Plan a church service.
See what I’m saying? There are actually a whole lot of
things that we can do without Jesus.
So, maybe what Jesus meant was that we can’t do anything of
any real Kingdom value without him?
Or to put it another way, the things we can do without Jesus
may appear to be important, but as far as He is concerned, they are all worth
nothing.
The best we can do is, of course, the best we can do. But,
just imagine for a moment what it would be like to raise our expectations a
bit?
What if we started praying for things that were impossible
to achieve? What if we began to expect the miraculous? What if we really
started acting as if Jesus was actually living and breathing within us?
If we can dream a little bigger and embrace the bigger
vision for accomplishing things that we know we could never achieve apart from
Jesus, then we’ve automatically put ourselves in a position where we
either trust Jesus or we’ll never make it.
That way, if these things get done we will know – and everyone
else will too – that it was only Jesus who made that happen.
If what we can do apart from Jesus is really “nothing” then let’s ignore all of that and start shifting over to what can be accomplished when we abide in Christ, which is unlimited and eternal.
-kg
4 comments:
You are spot on Keith. The context of the verse relates to what He said about bearing fruit (fruit that will last). Everything other than His fruit will rot away and be of no enduring value.
Great post. There is so much accomplished in the name of Christ which has so little to do with him.
Well said. This year I have stepped back from a lot of good things I previously did to focus on the greater things God calls me to do. I feel more rested, more in touch with Jesus and more available to be used by Him.
Very good point--yes we can do something but the source of our doing must be The Lord himself and us as the instrument of participation.
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