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Religous: Lift the name of Jesus
Joseph Lee L'Heureux
for South Peace News
Recently, I watched a movie by the name of ‘Flywheel’. Jay was the main character. His life was a mess until he turned it over to Jesus and made him Lord of his life.
Jay was a selfish, self-seeking individual who attended church on a weekly basis but the rest of his life did not reveal God in his life. Running a used car lot, Jay took advantage of every customer he could, abusing his knowledge of what a car was worth and taking advantage of everyone he came across.
Behind on his mortgage payment and his business loan, he even took advantage of his pastor one day in a car sale. The pastor, who liked to pray over and with people, says a prayer of total honesty over Jay, praying that Jesus would bless Jay as he had blessed himself.
Of course, the presence of God in Jay’s life begins to touch his conscience, and Jay begins to change. Radical changes, the kind people notice. Developing his prayer life with God and discovering a personal relationship with Jesus, he now shares his business, problems and successes with Jesus, each decision being attributed to God and Jesus being praised as Lord of his Life.
Everything becomes a roaring success!
Of course, many of us would say, well that’s just a movie, but the truth is, the name of Jesus does have a strange power - the power for success but also the power to alienate people.
The book of Luke tells us the prophet Simeon spoke these words, “This Child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against.” (Luke 2:34)
Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go learn what this means.” (Matthew 9:13-12)
When Jesus came, though He was God, He did not seek His friends among priests of His time and place. He went out and called fishermen, a tax collector, a radical zealot and others; He made these His personal friends. He came as a lay person which most of us are, so we are to lift Him up with a personal relationship, as He lifted up His friends. That collection of friends became The Church as we know it today.
The book of Acts (6:7) tells us this, that after His death, “The word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”
The operative word above is ‘Jesus’. Everyone was talking about Jesus! This is what created the excitement.
So just as the Master himself tell us, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man (Jesus) must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. (John 3:14)
A direct quote from himself: “They will look on Him whom they have pierced (John 19:37)
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
When someone told me about Jesus years ago I said, “I know about Jesus, I grew up as an altar boy.”
(I hadn’t seen the inside of a church on a Sunday for over 20 years!)
He said, “No! No! Not know about Jesus but Know Jesus personally.”
Before this I would have ridiculed anyone praising Jesus publicly, but life was not so good in the market crash of 1982-84, and so I was ready to talk to Jesus. He did make some radical changes in my life.
So don’t make the same mistakes I made about making fun of those who talk about Jesus. They are only discovering and doing in gratitude what Jesus expects of all of us.
A young Buddhist once said to me, “I can only say that name ‘Jesus’ five times before something happens to me.”
Invoking the precious name ‘Jesus’ in gratitude seems to bring us into His presence. There is a reward and He is it” “a peace which surpasses all understanding”.
I would later discover that ridiculing Mother Mary’s appearances in Medjugorje would bring back the same chaos in my life. So in gratitude today I tell you about Mother Mary and her appearances daily for the past 28 years in Medjugorje and in varied places around the globe, telling us about her Son Jesus and inviting us all home.
God bless and may you lift up the name of Jesus in prayer and in every opportunity.
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