WWJD

What would Jesus do?
Where is the real Jesus?
What does it mean to take up our cross and follow Him?

Our Jesus bled and died.
He was despised and rejected; there was NOTHING attractive about Him (Isaiah 53).
He was imprisoned; He hung on a cross and bore the sins of the world; He spoke not a word as they led Him to Golgotha, the place of the skull.
The Sadducees and Pharisees called Him Beelzebub, glutton, and drunkard-they said He had a demon; they called Him a blasphemer.

Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed.

What kind of love is this--that it pleased the Father to crush His son?
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased Jehov'h to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand.

So we take pleasure in suffering for Christ.
I had been grieved at the cold shoulders, the outstretched hands saying stop, "I don't believe that!" (the Word!!) and scoffers, "Christians" who partake in sexual immorality and make excuses, "Christian" leaders who take their kids "trick or treating" who call us judgmental, legalistic, and perfectionist because we preach holiness and obedience--hey, I understand, but I'm taking a stand for righteousness!

WWJD?
Mat 11:20 Then He began to upbraid the cities in which most of His mighty works were done, because they did not repent.
Mat 11:21 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the powerful acts which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes!
Mat 11:22 But I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

WWJD:
if we eat instead of fasting, or if we eat the showbread, or if we work on the Sabbath?
Mat 12:5 Or have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 But I say to you that One greater than the temple is in this place.
Mat 12:7 But if you had known what this is, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," you would not have condemned those who are not guilty.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.
....(re: the man with the "withered hand.")
Mat 12:13 Then He said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored whole like the other.

WWJD?
He went, so we go, even if we only reach one person:
Mat 18:12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains and seek the straying one?
Mat 18:13 And if it happens that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety and nine which did not stray.

WWJD?
and what do we do as followers of Christ?
1Ti 4:10 For to this we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the preserver of all men, especially of those who believe.

This is what our church is learning, to love in deeds and not just Word, for the Word to be heart knowledge and not just head knowledge, and that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Jas 2:13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when He judges you.
Jas 2:14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?

Faithful is as faithful does:
...to be an example of belief, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Amen.