Let Us Celebrate
Jesus' Resurrection By
Standing For Jesus
As He Stood Up For Us On The Cross
Dear Friends,
This week I have received a letter from New York's financial world, from
an old friend I met in the late seventies. He has written to me a one-line
note.
*****
ÒCan the religious be led by a godless individual?Ó
******
I suspect others friends must have similar questions, so I will take advantage
to answer this question in an open letter. Though my friend did not signed
his note to me, nor did he addressed the note to my name, I will assume that he
is writing to me as a religious man and Òthe godless leaderÓ must be the
President, and to make it clear, I must be the follower of this individual. (No
offense intended or taken, he is my friend).
******
Dear J.D,
First of all, I am not a religious man but an already follower and lover of
Jesus.
Secondly, I divide the world in two groups, those who love and Follow Jesus and
those who do not.
Thirdly, no one can follow two masters, either he will love one and hate the
other, or he will serve one and reject the other. No one can serve God and
money at the same time.
For me, to follow any other than Jesus is logically, morally and practically a
total impossibility.
The religious are those who are trying to get saved by, holding for dear life,
unto a god of their imagination.
On the other hand, a believer or a follower of Jesus, is one who has been hold
by the love of God in Jesus and is being saved from past, present and future
sins without any possibility of being lost from the hand of the mighty God and
everlasting father revealed in the prince of peace Jesus.
Religion at best can qualified as a man made cause or an ideal not worth the
paper in which it is written. I could not in clear conscience attack or
defend a religion, because it is only a theory, a concept.
Jesus is not a concept, Jesus is a
Person. So while religious people follow a cause, I follow a person.
No concept is worth dying for, but Jesus
is a person worth dying for, especially when he loved, died and resurrected for
me.
Finally, no other leader religious or secular has died for me and resurrected
and is alive today and coming soon to lead me home.
*****
Can a religious be lead by a godless leader?
******
Yes. All the time, everywhere and throughout the
generations, history is the history of the godless leading the
godless religious person who does not trust God but man.
The followers of
Jesus are members of a Kingdom within a kingdom, that may at times give the
impression that we are following leaders by our words and deeds, that confuse those outside the Kingdom of God.
Jesus came into the world as one who serves, but he was not a
servant or follower of anyone but God the Father.
Jesus escape with his life to Egypt
overnight, not for fear as if he did not have the power God to strike back, but
by divine design and predestined life with greater things behind the appearance
of things.
Jesus also paid taxes to the godless
establishment out of submission to the will of God. Submission to earthly
king as wicked as they may be is not the vocation or choice of any servant of
God.
The believer, seemingly follows the godless leader but
in actuality is a witness of Jesus to testify as the jury of his peer to his
fellow man in a case that God is building against the ungodly, whose cup of
iniquity is about full of which he will give account in due time in his day at
the court.
If we eliminate from our thinking Ôthe Kingdom of God and the final Day of
JudgmentÕ then these things do not make sense. Because life is reduced to the
here and now and it would be valid to pursue law and order in our terms and to
seek justice and do all we can to bring about ÔorderÕ according to the counsel
of our will.
We the people of God, follow no one, but Jesus.
We follow Jesus, not because he knows the way, but because he
is the Way.
We follow Jesus not in order to be lead to the truth, but because
he is the Truth.
We follow Jesus as our leader, not in hopes of finding life
but because in Him is life and the resurrection.
We follow Jesus because he said, "No one comes to the father
but by me."
The Father is Eternal life and no leader leads to him but Jesus. Religious
people do not have eternal life.
We believers do not Submit to secular
authorities out of weakness but strength.
We the followers of Jesus have the
power of Jesus to be able to have compassion of people in high places, because
we are commanded to obey and pray and love them, even our though they might be
our enemies.
Jesus has set an example by his Prayer from the Cross.
"Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do."
Our obedience to secular leaders is our message and testimony of the love of
God for sinners.
Without the godless sinner God is like a baker without flour to make bread.
What is a savior
with out sinner to save? Salvation is for sinners only.
God loves sinner and gave his love for them.
Jesus died for us when we were yet in our sins and transgressions.
If God would save and love only good little boy and good little girls, then no
one could be saved. There is no one good, not even one.
******
As to the president, I am on duty to pray for him and his family as I have
never prayed before, I will love and help him in anyway I can because that is
the will of God. There was a time when I was in desperate need of prayer and
many prayed for me. I will pray as I would pray for you and myself. I have been
there and there was hope for me and there is the same grace available for him.
I write this letter as one of the ten lepers healed by Jesus who return to
Jesus to fall on his face and praise him out loud. I am a stranger in a strange
land thanking Jesus for cleaning me.
I want the other
nine fellow lepers who have been heal to laid down with me at the feet of
our crucified Lord and praise him out loud with me, saying ÒYESÓ to Jesus and
asking for his prompt return.
Jesus loves the
godless sinner to death. The only leader I acknowledge with all my heart,
soul, strength and mind is Jesus who died and resurrected from the dead and is
leading ahead of us to the Father in Heaven.
Your fellow motorcycle traveler who met you by the side of
the road many years ago on a far away country and fix your bike with great
delight.
Gerry Gutierrez