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At this writing we are just one day away from the 25th anniversary of Elvis' passing. Thousands are flocking to Graceland to get a glimpse of Elvis memorabilia, his many gold records and costumes used during his musical tours across the country among other things.
What is intriguing to me is how after so many years, people - men and women - dress up like him and have made entire careers of impersonating the "king of rock and roll." Some of the most bizarre acts attempt to imitate him. There is an Asian Elvis, Yoshi Suzuki who makes claim to be the only impersonator to record an entire album with the Jordanaires, Elvis' backup singers. There is Brian Childs, the Cop Elvis and there's a Political Elvis who remained an Elvis performer through eight years as mayor of Jasonville, Indiana. Believe it or not there is even a female impersonator named Elvis Herselvis! All of these and thousands of others have one thing in common, according to Buck Wolf, they all "want to be like Elvis."
There was another who was and still is King of kings. His name was Jesus. He issued a call to his followers to "take up" their "cross and follow him."-Luke 9:23. His followers were called "Christians," sometimes in a derogatory manner by outsiders-Acts 11:26.
When uneducated fishermen were charged with disrupting society with His teachings, those in power were amazed at their eloquence. "They saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."-Acts 4:13.
The point is this - when Christians, followers of Jesus, have a true relationship with Him, spend time in the Word, getting to know Him, imitating His life, then others will take note that they, too, have been with Jesus. It is the goal of the Spirit of God for every follower to imitate the Son of God. In doing so we will be more like Him. It is one thing to spend a lifetime imitating a rock star. But, it makes an eternal difference if we imitate, impersonate, the Christ. The apostle said that Christians are those who have been called to "be conformed to the likeness of his Son."-Romans 8:29.
God help us to make it our career - our life's goal - to "be like Jesus!"
Tom Nuckels |