Essential 100

Get Up, Go, and Get Ready to Do!

“He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, …” The man was Saul, soon to be renamed Paul the Apostle, and the Voice was the resurrected Jesus. Jesus identified Himself to Saul with the command to, “Get Up!” Get up, go, and get ready to do. It is interesting that when Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, He did not just have an intimate conversation with him, chiding him for his persecution, telling him that he was forgiven and loved or explaining all the theological implications of His life, death and resurrection. He did none of that at the beginning, later yes, but at the beginning ,no. He told him to Get up, go, and get ready to do.

I think that many of us are under the misguided idea that an encounter with Jesus is just a feel good passive experience where nothing is required in response. We often see Jesus as our Celestial Errand Boy who is just waiting for us to request something new that He can do for us. However, it seems that Biblically, every encounter that Jesus has with His followers after the resurrection includes a command to get up, go, and get ready to do. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is full of the getting up, going, and doing of the early disciples of Jesus .

The Apostle Paul never forgot his first encounter with Jesus. He wrote of it often. The encounter revolutionized his life. He was not only obsessed in knowing Christ intimately, (a good obsession!), but was also obsessed with getting up, going, and doing in response to Christ’s command. Sometimes it was hard for him to get up. Sometimes it was hard for him to go. Sometimes it was hard for him to do. The book of Acts and his letters are full of his challenges, struggles, and frustrations. But even as a house prisoner waiting his martyrdom he was still getting up, going, and doing.

So should it be with us the 21^st century disciples of Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to get up, go, and do. It is difficult in a busy day to “offer a cup of water” in the name of Jesus. Sometimes we feel too tired to offer a hand to someone or give a call of encouragement to a fellow believer or give a testimony of God’s love. So I suppose those are the times to hear Jesus say, “Get up, go, and get ready to do!” It is amazing how the power that raised Christ from the dead is unleashed when we are obedient to His command to, “Get up, go, and get ready to do!”