In our natural life, our ambitions change as we grow and mature. In our Christian life, the goal is given to us at the beginning: we start with Christ and we end with him; the beginning and the end are the same. Disciples live this out in their willingness to follow Jesus wherever he leads. We think the aim of the Christian life is to be useful or to win converts. The disciple is useful and does win converts, but this isn\u2019t the aim. The aim is to do the will of God by following Jesus when he says, \u201cWe are going up to Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n
In our Lord\u2019s life, Jerusalem was the place where he reached the climax of his Father\u2019s will upon the cross. Unless we go with Jesus to Jerusalem, we will have no companionship with him. Nothing ever discouraged our Lord on his way to Jerusalem. He didn\u2019t hurry through the villages where he was persecuted or linger in the villages where he was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned him away from his purpose: to go up to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master\u201d<\/em> (Luke 6:40 kjv<\/span>). If Jesus Christ is our master, then the same things that happened to him as he went to his Jerusalem will happen to us as we go to ours. Works of God will be manifested through us; people will be blessed. One or two of these people will show gratitude; the rest will show ingratitude. No matter what, we must let nothing deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.<\/p>\n \u201cThey crucified him there\u201d<\/em> (23:33). The cross is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. Those who follow Jesus Christ do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord\u2019s grace, they end in glory. In the meantime, our watchword is \u201cI, too, go up to Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In our natural life, our ambitions change as we grow and mature. In our Christian life, the goal is given to us at the beginning: we start with Christ and we end …<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2270,"template":"","collection":[42],"class_list":{"0":"post-2698","1":"modern-classic","2":"type-modern-classic","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"collection-discipleship"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/modern-classic"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}