Sunday, November 12, 2006

WWJD...

Hmmm I was reading JC Ryle's sermon on Holiness and he said this:
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c) A holy person will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.

They will not only live the life of faith in Him, and draw from Him all their daily peace and strength, but they will also strive to have the mind that was in Him, and to be “conformed to His likeness” (Romans 8:29). It will be their aim to bear with and forgive others, just as Christ forgave us-to be unselfish, just as Christ did not please Himself-to walk in love, just as Christ loved us-to be meek and humble, even as Christ made Himself nothing and humbled Himself. They will remember that Christ was a faithful witness for the truth-that He did not come to do His own will-that it was His food and drink to do His Father’s will-that He would continually deny Himself in order to minister to others-that He was meek and patient in spite of undeserved insults-that He thought more of godly poor men than of kings-that He was full of love and compassion to sinners-that He was bold and uncompromising in denouncing sin-that He did not seek the praise of men, when He might have had it-that He went about doing good-that He was separate from worldly people-that He prayed continually-that He would not even let His nearest relatives stand in His way when God’s work was to be done. These things a holy person will try to remember. By them they will endeavor to shape their course in life. They will lay to heart the saying of John, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6); and the saying of Peter, that “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Happy is the person who has learned to make Christ his “everything,” both for salvation and example! A great deal of time would be saved, and a great deal of sin prevented, if men and women would often ask themselves the question, “What would Christ have said and done, if He were in my place?”

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Did anyone else know that this What Would Jesus Do phenomenon began nearly 200 years ago? I wonder if Ryle was the first to pose this question. I wonder if in the 1800s they had little bracelets that said WWCSD? Because his question was not exactly What Would Jesus Do but What Would Christ have Said and Done. Maybe we need to add in the said part, it's pretty important. We can nearly murder people with our words, but feel ok if we didn't actually do anything physical to them. As though that was noble self control. That reminds me of the most absurd thing kids say, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." That is a blatent harmful lie. I would rather be hit with sticks and stones than hurtful words. Hurtful words play over and over in your head for years and years long after little physical bruises have healed. There's an entire chapter in James devoted to taming your tongue... That was just a side tangent on the said part Ryle added to our current WWJD. Anyway, I thought the WWJD thing was interesting.

This excerpt came from JC Ryle's sermon on Holiness which you can read by clicking here I certainly recommend that you do. It's excellent

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