Forgetting the forest and focusing on the few trees. That is the Secret of Jesus.

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“My Hall of Fame.”

Luke never saw Jesus yet had vision to honor Jesus and disciple three men.

Luke discipled Theophilus, an important man and wrote and wrote for him about Jesus and his church in the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.

The second disciple of Luke was Paul with whom he walked in all his circumstances faithfully. Paul would write about Luke in loving terms,

 

“9Do your best to come to me quickly, 10for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me.”

 

The third person whom Luke disciple was ...put your name. YES. You and me whoever reads the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts they are his disciples.

The definition of discipleship is “Being with people and leading by fellowship.” Luke was with Paul and he wrote about it to Theophilus. And because of that relationship we all can learn how to be a disciple as Luke and how to make disciples after the pattern of Jesus himself who chose twelve to be with them.

“A time spend for Jesus in never a wasted time.”

 

Next in my Hall of Fame are the faithful women who love Jesus and the vision to serve. I love these many women who were there watching at the distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

As an old widower and still in the ministry I greatly appreciate these women who facilitated our Lord’s ministry. I also loved the women who anointed Jesus in the House of Simon the leper for doing something our Lord was very please. Jesus, who was use to the delicate and delicious fragrances of the garden at the cool of the day, must have been missing the smell of the roses of which the best of people is equivalent to fragrance offered to him.

“Doing something beautiful for Jesus”.

When you give your best to Jesus it is never a waste. The Super Apostles, who love to control but know not what to do with control, might be indignant with your doings, but you must know that Jesus loves your best for Him.

What about the poor? Some might ask. Jesus answers, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”

Let me paint a picture for you. Jesus is in the house of Simon the leper and he is having dinner and I imagine a small table the size that Japanese people use to eat sushi or sashimi that is about a foot tall from the ground like Charlton Heston as Moses is reclining to eat in the tend of his father-in-law Jethro in the movie “The Ten Commandments”. You can see him reclining on his left elbow holding pita bread in his left hand and breaking a small piece with his right hand and dipping it in the ball of gravy to eat.

To the comfort of my “Petit” sister in Jesus I say, “You will not always find Jesus but once reclining at the table with her back toward you at eye level even as you kneel down for you to pour downward on his head your best perfume for the nostrils of Jesus. Remember when he blew into you nostril something far more beautiful than perfume the day he gave you the gift of life from his sweet breath.

“Life is a gift of God to you and what you do with it is your gift to God”.

A businessman hired a chauffeur to drive him around fast and furious as he worked hard from early in the morning to late at night. This man accomplished two things, he became very wealthy and made very happy the next husband of his wife who in this case was the poor chauffeur he hired years ago.

“The poor you will always have with you, but Jesus reclining at the table and at eye level, in need of you? You shall not always find him but in his little ones.”

Do your best for Jesus and his body even if others are indignant but Jesus calls it “Something beautiful”. “She did it to prepare me for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done, will also be told in memory of her.”

But if you care more for the poor than Jesus, then you might have as reward the words of the poor chauffeur who married the rich man’s wife who said, I did not know that all this time he was working for me, “thank you brother”.
What is worse is that he will not even enjoy those words of gratitude. (Might be better that way, for hearing it might make him indignant and turn in his grave.)

Life is time, and how I spend my time is how I spend my life.

The first hours of the morning are my best hours. I spend it with my father in heaven at the cool of the day and I spend it with you writing my best thoughts for the sake of Jesus and my love for you. Do not be indignant because it is all I have to give, my time, but not enough of it at seventy.

Might the Lord bless you today as you also seek to give Jesus your best.

Gerry Gutierrez

PS. Apart from Jesus in the New Testament I love John the Baptist in whom the Spirit of Elijah rested. They were forceful men who gave it all for Jesus.

My hall of fame has also the pictures of a colt of a donkey who carried the King, the picture of a fish that pay the taxes of Jesus and Peter, Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus carry his cross and Joseph of Arimathea who asked for the body of Jesus and wrapped him in CLEAN LINENS and place it in A NEW TOMB cut in a rock. 

 

Fisher of men who work the hard work of discipleship are my heroes because they are teaching people to obey Jesus and not just stuffing them with information and endless instruction that people are not digesting.

“Our Utmost for his Highest”. “Discipleship is our best for God in Jesus.”

 

Two Pictures are of my Mentor from Washington, then My Son, and then my fellow disciples of Jesus from Tokyo, Osaka, Nepal, Kathmandu, Northern India, Peru and Alaska.