Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
He’s Here. Now What?

He’s Here. Now What?

Last updated on: January 10, 2020 at 5:04 am by Scot McKnight

He’s Here. Now What? 2020-01-09T16:45:46-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Mike Glenn

He’s Here. Now What?

Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is a time of waiting and preparation, of anticipation and thoughtfulness, of hope and dreams. When Jesus gets here, our lives will be different because (fill in the blank) and our world will be different because (again, fill in the blank). We wait in breathless anticipation for Christ to come, for God to come into world. Joy to the world! The Lord has come!

Everything will be different when Jesus gets here.

Now, in these few weeks after Christmas, after celebrating the arrival of Jesus, have you noticed anything different? Has anything really changed?

It’s now January. The Christmas decorations have been put up. Family has returned to their homes, and we’re back into our everyday routines. Besides having to scratch out “2019” a few times and write in “2020,” most of us have slid back into our same old routines. Now, routines can be good and sometimes, helpful, but honestly, didn’t you expect more?

Jesus is here! Shouldn’t life be different? Shouldn’t life be more?

Yes. Yes, to all of that. Life should be more. If Jesus has come as we proclaim, we should be able to see the difference somewhere, in someone…

…but we don’t. Why not?

Because most of us don’t believe. Now, I know, you winced when you read that. You want to tell me that you do indeed believe. In fact, you believe a lot. Just ask you any question and you’ll show everybody how much you believe.

And you would be right. Most of us can get the answers right when we’re given the questions about our faith. Do we believe in the Trinity? Check. Did Jesus do miracles? Check. Was Jesus raised from the dead? Check again.

Ok, so how can I say we don’t believe? Because we don’t live it, and if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

As followers of Christ, we believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the World. Given that, we’d also have to say Jesus is the smartest man to ever live. Jesus understands something about life and what makes life matter that the rest of us don’t. That’s why we pay attention to His teachings. We believe they are true.

And we believe they are true because they’ve been field tested – lived out – for over two thousand years. Men and women have applied Jesus’ teaching to their lives and found out the Jesus way works best. The Jesus way works because Christ is present in the life of every follower teaching us how to live and giving us the strength to actually do what His commandments require.

Let’s face it. All of us at one time or another have tried to love our enemy. We failed. Not only did we fail, but we never got to the “like your enemy” stage. We conclude the commandments of Jesus are meant for really spiritual people, super-saints, but not for people like us.

So, if Christ is here, what difference can He make? Let’s face it. Some people are hard to love.

The only way I can answer you is to tell you, since Christ lives in you as His follower, Christ will love that person through you. Now, before you roll your eyes, listen to how this works.

When you decided to follow Christ, He promised to live inside of you. He promised He would teach you His ways and guide you through your life. This means there is a running conversation going on between the Spirit of Christ living in us and us. So, as we’re going through our day and we turn a corner and bam!

There he is! Our enemy is right in front us. What do we do?

Our natural response would be fight or flight. Either we engage in battle or we run away. Either way, our adrenaline is pumping, our heart beating fast…and we prepare for what’s next.

That’s when you’ll hear the Spirit of Jesus. “Relax,” the Spirit will say. “Your enemy can’t take anything that matters away from you.”

“Look at him,” the Spirit will say. “Do you see what’s going on his life? Do you see the fear, the pain? Can you help Me bring some healing and hope to his life as I did yours?”

And you will…in the beginning, it won’t be because you love your enemy, but because you love Jesus and you’ll love Jesus by loving your enemy. Make sense?

And here’s the most mind-blowing part of it all. In time, your one-time enemy will be one of your most valued friends. Yeah, I know, I didn’t believe it either until it happened to me.

Now, I believe it. Now, I live it.

What needs to change in your life? In your marriage? In your community? What have you prayed about that you now need to act on?

After all, you’ve been telling yourself everything will be different when Jesus gets here.

Well, He’s here. Now, what are you waiting on?

Previous Post

January 10, 2020

Singles Myth: The Intimacy Challenge

Next Post

January 11, 2020 Weekly Meanderings, 11 January 2020

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

Follow Us!

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which New Testament book is written as a sermon?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Galatians Acts James Hebrews

Related posts from Jesus Creed

The Gospel of With Us and Through Us

Northern Seminary Announces: Nijay Gupta Joins Faculty

The Gundrys and Me: Ruth Tucker

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Evangelical

How the author of the world's best hymn...

I've been working with John Newton for a while now. This makes...

Psalm 130 | Lectio Divina

Long before this Lectio Divina, Psalm 130 - the song - started...

What About the Trees? Another Living Parable

After I finished writing the last article about falling leaves as a...

Why Classical Education Is a Conversation, Not a...

Come and Read: Joy in Classical Education When I was a little...

Falling Leaves: A Living Parable on Letting Go

I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in the southeast corner...

What Happened at Cornell?

Cornell University has received a great deal of negative publicity and intense...

view all Evangelical blogs

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos