Ed Dobson lives a year like Jesus

It is somewhat of a running joke in our society to make resolutions for the New Year and then a half-hearted attempt to keep them. We don’t take seriously our failure to keep our “oath” to ourselves, to lose weight, or save money, or stop smoking. Ed Dobson, the former pastor of Calvary Church (Grand Rapids); who is fighting an ongoing battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease, spent the past year following up on a resolution to live 2008 as Jesus would. For Dobson, this meant taking much of the Old Testament (kosher eating, grooming and clothing regulations, Sabbath observance) seriously in a way that most Christians never do. We know from the writings of Paul (and his opposition on this issue of Peter’s wrong stance in Acts) that the church is NOT under Law but under Grace. As such, the requirements that were laid upon the Jewish people under the Old Testament Law are no longer applicable. I’m not finding fault with Dobson (a man I’ve always respected, esp. his brilliant sermons), but rather using this time of making resolutions to give us a chance to ponder what WE should do in this coming year to live more like Jesus. What do I need to STOP doing in my life? What do I need to do MORE of? How can I change my attitudes, my feelings, my words, and my actions to be more in line with the Son of God?
The first place to start any such contemplation is the Gospels. If you want to be more like Jesus (and God has told us we must), you need to know what Jesus was like. For Dobson, that meant re-reading the four Gospels every single week (52 times!). We’re not all prolific readers, but we certainly need to be in the Gospels in our Bible reading at least on a regular basis (that’s why one of the Gospels is always in my sermon rotation). Once you’ve discovered something in the Gospels that you should be doing or not doing; put it into practice. Not just a half-hearted attempt, but a real commitment to putting the life of Jesus into practice. That’s a New Year’s resolution that will pay dividends long after you’ve given up trying to lose weight again this year.