Showing Others What Jesus is Like

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 22, 2017

By Regi Campbell (meet my good friend and guest writer Regi, founder of Radical Mentoring)

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  John 14:11

I’ve been mentoring guys in small groups for over 16 years. The fruit of these groups always spoke for itself but for a while, I struggled to understand why a mentor could have such an impact on younger people . . . more than traditional small groups or Bible studies. I’ve come to see that mentoring works because the mentor is the embodiment of the Christian life, observable and accessible to the mentee. Let me explain.

Embodiment is defined as the representation or expression of something in a tangible or visible form. There are all kinds of things that exist but only become understandable when they’re embodied in something tangible or visible. For instance, the transistor was invented in 1947 but it wasn’t until 1954, when it was embodied in the transistor radio that it became helpful, relevant, valuable and somewhat understandable. The internet was invented in 1983, but it wasn’t until 1991, when it was embodied by the World Wide Web, and then through the years as it was embodied by services like Yahoo, Google, and Facebook that it became helpful, relevant, valuable and somewhat understandable.

God has always been helpful, relevant and valuable, but about 2,000 years ago, he sent Jesus to embody himself . . . to make Himself understandable to us.  He put on ‘flesh’ and came to earth as a human being so the world could see and understand Him. Jesus modeled the Father’s life and heart. He made grace understandable by how he dealt with friend and foe. Jesus modeled forgiveness as he asked his Father to forgive the very people who were executing him. And he modeled ultimate love by dying in our place, paying the penalty for our sins even though he was totally innocent.

The Holy Spirit of Jesus lives in every believer. His presence in us offers the opportunity for us to embody Jesus. We can be his hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mouth if we’ll listen to the Holy Spirit within us and obey. You’ve heard it said that “you may be the only ‘Jesus’ some will ever see?” Well, it’s true; when we obey the Father by loving, accepting, forgiving, and serving others as He did, we make Him understandable to those who don’t know Him. If we embody Jesus to those we mentor, we preach the Gospel in a powerful, compelling way that’s more impactful than words alone. Just as Jesus showed us what God is like, we have the opportunity to show our mentees what Jesus is like.

God loves it when we ask Him to give us some people to invest in for spiritual purposes. Look around for those He has placed in your life and invite them to join you on the journey of becoming an all-in follower of Jesus.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

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