This is my 100th post!!! I think I'll bake a cake.
I've been thinking, what if we aren't the first JGen?
I know you've heard someone say, "Jesus hung out with lepers, prostitutes and thieves." People usually use this phrase to justify running around with a crowd they shouldn't be hanging with. I probably used it myself "back in the day." We tell ourselves we are trying to influence them, that we are "the light in the darkness." Blah, blah, blah and yaddah, yaddah.
Everytime I hear it I cringe. Because it's just not true and it's certainly not biblical. In preparing for Friday night's Jesus study, I've really been looking at His lifestyle, how He traveled and what He did as a man. He came to earth to reach people, but the Bible tells us to be careful who we associate with. Jesus isn't going to do something that contradicts His instructions to us.
Jesus went to the lost. He crossed paths with them everywhere He went, that's why He went there. But He came to them for purpose. He taught them, healed them and testified to them of Himself. He came to each of us that way, or we would still be lost.
But what about His family? His crew, His boys, His posse, the gang, His bro's, or His "small group?" They are called The Twelve. Kind of ominous sounding, ain't it?
These are the ones Jesus rolled with. He ate with them, traveled with them, called them to follow Him, and commissioned them to carry on after He was gone. These are the ones He prayed with, the ones who saw Him in Gethsemane broken and afraid because of what was to come. He asked them to get His back when He was at His most human. These men, and the other disciples and followers, including women, were His church family. They were the ones who loved Him the most, were willing to follow Him anywhere, even to death. And these are the ones who asked the most of Him, tried His patience, bickered and argued about Him, and sought His favor and blessing.
Whatever it looked like, it's a picture-perfect example of how He wants His church to be, of how He wants us to be. It was family, bound by love and unified in purpose.
Maybe they met on Fridays and had dinner. Maybe they came up with silly skits to do in the temple (Mary and Martha performing "Baklava is the New Deodorant"). Maybe they scroll-blogged during the week (I picture Andrew dressed in a "Blogger.com" toga running all around Judea delivering scrolls) and sent encouraging messages to the young disciples who were away at school and couldn't be there. Maybe Thomas played "Captain Underpants" for everyone's entertainment. Maybe someone wrote a devotion called "Life is Like Un-leavened Bread." I wonder if Jesus planned a Disciple Now and they all looked at each other and said, "Dude, what's a disciple?"
Just like them, we are to be set apart. They were recognized as His own. They eventually came to realize what a privilege it is to be called "His."
Jesus had a JGen of His own. How cool is that?!? I wonder if He called it MyGen?
Happy Friday, everyone.
