Many years ago, there was a man who came to our church from Texas. He began to contact people individually, wooing them with promises of money and a plan to make everything wonderful in their lives. He never once talked to me, because he knew my loyalty to my pastoral leadership was solid and unwavering. The spirit within him targeted the weak, the ones with personal desires. A few days after he showed up, I went to the church and found my pastor and his family huddled on the bed. Some of them had been crying. The parking lot was empty, only one car in sight. The man managed to drag all but three of us to Texas. Those who left created an impossible financial situation for my pastor- he had to go back to secular work. Those next few years were hell for him and his family, all because of a wolf in sheep's clothing, and a personal agenda that was completely unlike that of Christ.
The Word tells us that we should become like Jesus. Too often, people turn that into a religious idea. They choose to talk a lot about God, or babble on about His ways, but they never really apply those words to their lives in real works. James 2:17 says that faith without works is dead. Being like Christ means being LIKE Him - always faithful, always standing true to who you are and what God wants you to do.
It also happens that people who call themselves Christians have personal agendas that have nothing whatever to do with God's heart for them. It's called "selfish ambition" in the Bible. And people often follow that, thinking they are following God, when they are a long way from the truth.
I have encountered too many people who tell me they are Christians, but friendships, true friendships elude them.Why? because they are flighty and do not fight for those friends in prayer or in person. I want to be LIKE Jesus. He has been my friend through feast, famine, flood, fire, and every moment in between. He has even stood with me in my own failings and sin. Let's be like that for the people in our lives. Let's really be like Jesus. As new friends of mine would say:
"Saepius Exertus, Semper Fidelis, Frater Infinitas: Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever."
