The Essence of Christianity

Let's start with a question. What is the essence of godliness? Or how did our Lord try to demonstrate to His disciples that He was God?
Some of the most interesting passages in the Gospels to me are those where the Holy Spirit tells us what our Lord was thinking about before He said or did something. Jesus reflects on the situation, and then, He acts. Studying these passages is a humbling experience for what Christ says or does is often the opposite of what I would do or say.
One of the most striking examples of this concept is found in John 13:3. "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God" rose up and did something. What do you think it was He did hours before His crucifixion to instill upon His disciples a portrait of God--of who He was? He rose from His seat, took a towel, and washed His disciples feet. Not spectacular was it? Didn't draw a crowd. Impressive? Hardly. He did what anyone in the room could have done. He simply did what a servant would do. Our Lord chose to demonstrate godliness through humility and gentleness.
I think that too often we think God wants us to be spectacular for Him--to be always doing something impressive--something exceptional. He doesn't. He wants us to be unnoticed--to be so enraptured with Him that we forget all about ourselves. He wants us to be involved in the ordinary; to serve the needs of others, to be unobtrusive. I often think the small deeds done in devotion to Christ are more precious in His sight than the most eloquent sermon or the most stirring testimony or the most stupendous act. Those little things demonstrate Christ in us.
The best example, other than our Lord, might be the man Enoch. Enoch never did anything spectacular--no miracles, no stupendous acts of faith--he simply walked with God. How mundane! How ordinary! The testimony of Enoch's faith was not what he did in exceptional times, but what he did in the humdrum of everyday life, in the dusty road of life.
And what happened to Enoch? God took him home. And even that wasn't done in a spectacular way; no one knew he was going; no one saw him go. Hebrews tells us that they looked for him but couldn't find him. But when they couldn't find Enoch, they came to a remarkable conclusion: "God must have taken him because Enoch pleased God." If the rapture were to occur today, what would the world think about us when they couldn't find us? "God must have taken them; we know they pleased God." Or would they not have the faintest idea what had happened to us?
Enoch made an extraordinary impression, don't you think? Yet, he did it in the most ordinary of things. He walked with God daily. And God was so moved He just took him Home to His place--and the world was not surprised that God would do so.
The devil doesn't worry too much about the Christian who is always going around trying to impress everyone with his spectacular spirituality or the great power he has to do marvelous things for God. These things may be good and profitable. But the child of God who walks with God every day in the Word, in prayer, in stooping down to help others in the simplest of ways--ways that anyone could do, but few will--the one who becomes a servant to others, this is the man or woman the devil fears. These Enochs demonstrate the omnipotence of God in the ordinary things just as their Savior did. How desperately the world--and the church--needs such extraordinarily ordinary children of God.