TELFORD, PA – Paul E. Miller founded the seeJesus movement in 1999, soon after he had received his Master of Divinity degree. Two decades later, this global discipleship mission is active in more than 30 countries.

The mission of seeJesus is to help churches and individuals rekindle “the central passions of Christianity: a love for Jesus, a desire to imitate Him, and real, working communion with the Father.”

The seeJesus ministry begins with understanding that we live in a post-Christian world in which both Christendom and morality are collapsing.

“Our culture not only accepts ideas that stand in opposition to our faith; it even welcomes practices that were condemned by ancient pagans.”

For this reason, seeJesus addresses the urgent need for Christians to rediscover what Miller describes as the two treasures of the Gospel.

• The Person of Jesus
• The Pattern of Jesus’ Life

These are relational issues that cannot be transmitted solely by training, but that require developing Gospel relationships that point to and reflect the person of Jesus and the pattern of His life.

We have, by and large, done a commendable job of teaching “sin identification” while neglecting to demonstrate “Jesus imitation.” When we seek Jesus, we will see Him as the Scriptures describe Him. We will become better acquainted with how He relates to us in His incarnation, how He depends on our Heavenly Father, and how He balances truth and grace in relationships.

When we study the pattern of His life on this earth, we find a pattern we must follow to become more Christlike. Everything in Jesus’ incarnation is lovingly complete and obedient submission to the will of the Father for our benefit.

He set aside His glory that makes Heaven shine, debased Himself to our fleshly level, suffered in every way that a human being could. He, was despised, rejected, humiliated, betrayed, and crucified. His birth in a barn culminated in His crucifixion on a cross. He lived His life downward, until His resurrection, whereupon the Father has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above all names. Ultimately, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

Our responsibility as Christ-followers is to follow Jesus’ “downward” pattern of living until He raises us up to share in His glory. This is a dynamic that seeJesus calls “the J-Curve.” Miller’s book, “J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life,” takes the reader into much more depth on the subject.

In the meantime, we need to realize that becoming more intimate with Jesus and committing ourselves to His pattern of life is getting more urgent by the day.

Miller says, “Our culture is in a moral free-fall.”

He is right. Our culture says that “Christianity feels tight, narrow, harsh, negative, restrictive, old-fashioned, irrelevant, unintelligent, reactionary, odd, syrupy, boring.”

But the situation is worse than that. Many people, including professing Christians, are more comfortable with the secular, progressive culture that feels to them, “inclusive, kind, positive, open, global, inter-tribal, accepting, innovative, compassionate, beautiful, youthful, free.”

You may be familiar with the motto, “To know Christ and to make Him known.” The time is now at hand for us, “To know Christ, to pattern our lives after Him, and to make Him known.”

It may be the only way we can get the world to seeJesus as He is.

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