How to Live for Jesus

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.     John 14:23

     My home church has an "altar call" at the end of each service.  A song is sung by the congregation and anyone who wants to accept Jesus and be baptized can come forward at that time.  Baptism usually follows immediately.  At the end of a service I recently attended, a young couple, around 30 years old, went forward with their children.  The minister asked us all to sit down and as the couple faced us, here is what he said:

     "Most of you know these two.  They have been worshiping and serving with us for a few years now.  I asked them if I could speak frankly with you today and they gave me permission.  They love the Lord and they want to live their lives as Christ wants them to.  So today, before we have a baptism, we are going to have a wedding!"

     They then went onto the stage, the minister put on his jacket and the minister's wife brought the bride some roses.  Then, without any rehearsal, without any invitations being sent, without rings, without music, without listening to Here Comes the Bride, but with a church full of encouraging witnesses, they repeated vows to honor and love each other until death they do part and the new husband kissed his new bride.  The couple then prepared for baptism and were baptized into Jesus before their new brothers and sisters in Christ and their children who were watching from the front pew.  

     What a great example this couple set for us all!  We all say that we want to live for Jesus; but we set up our own terms.  This couple could have decided to get married when they had saved enough money for a big wedding, as so many young couples today are prone to do.  But they chose, instead, to show by example how to choose Christ over the world, over their own dreams and desires.  They were an example to their children and to the rest of us on how to submit to Jesus.  It was simple.  It is we who make living for Jesus complicated.  It is we who argue with God over his timing.  I hope to never forget the example of following Jesus that I learned from this couple who want to live as Jesus would have them live and have the courage to do it.