Follow Me....

If I asked you to follow me in my blogging efforts, would you? And if so-why?
What would compel you to read what I have written? What makes people follow other people? Ok, I know the reasons are multiple-but sometimes I get to wondering if we ever take the time to ask ourselves the right questions. I mean about why we do the things we do. It's important. It really is. We can't follow anybody blindly-not even Jesus. Oh, I know it's a faith walk and we don't know or see everything when we follow Him, but that doesn't mean we come after Him blindly. He said so Himself.

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." [Luke 9:23]

Just before He lowered this verbal boom, He had wowed the multitudes and His own disciples by feeding 5000 people with only 5 loves of bread and 2 fish. Now that is impressive! And Jesus certainly knew that miracles and healings would validate Him as the prophesied Messiah.Still-He took the time to let His disciples know there is a cost involved in following Him.

It's a given that we should be wowed when He reveals Himself to us in salvation and through His mighty works. We have laid hold of life that is life indeed! We have found the reason for our existence and discovered the hope of a glorious eternal reward. But He wants us to know that following Him means walking and living against the mainstream current of the world we live in. And that is not easily done. Because every single one of us is born with a nature that naturally gravitates to that mainstream pull. We all want to go with the flow. But Jesus is telling us that following Him means denying our natural urges, impulses and desires. In other words-our self life. Taking up the cross means deliberately choosing to live the kind of life He lived-the way He did. To be as He was when He was in the world. Sometimes it's easy to say "yes" to self-denial when it's put forth in a general way. It's when the cross comes to bear on our individual lives and things get more specific that the battle really begins. Things like careers and relationships.

How many of us really thought we would have to give up our so called right to plan or choose, and to have to recognize His lordship in literally every area of life?

Jesus clearly says that we cannot call Him, Lord and not do the things He has told us to do. Yet this is the case with many who call themselves Christians. I don't say this in judgement but with the deepest sense of yearning to encourage everyone, along with myself to examine ourselves to see if we really are in the faith.

Geoffrey O'Hara wrote these stirring words:

"You call me the "Way" and walk me not,
You call me the "Life" and live me not,
You call me "Master" and obey me not,
If I condemn you, blame me not,
You call me "Bread" and eat me not,
You call me "Truth" and believe me not.
You call me "Lord" and serve me not.
If I condemn you, blame me not."

Jesus said, particularly of the last days, that many would come in His name-but they would not be His. If we are reading and studying His book then we know that there is a counterfeit church/Christianity growing up right alongside the true church. We can only recognize the counterfeit by knowing & understanding the original blueprint (the truth) and being intimately acquainted with the Master Designer. When the disciples asked what would be the sign of His coming, He began His discourse with these words, "Beware, lest any man deceive you."

I don't want to be deceived.

The Bible clearly warns us that endtime deception will be so great that even the very elect may be fooled. Much of what is called Christianity in the 21st century is crossless. It has become a form of godliness that denies the power of the cross. It doesn't demand cross-bearing in the lives of its followers but has instead shed anything that might offend or make people uncomfortable in their chosen lifestyles.

But Jesus said, "Take up your cross!"

This involves:
-The opposition of loved ones
-The reproach of the world
-Sometimes forsaking family and home and
the comforts of this life.
-Proclamation of an unpopular message
-Attacks from established religious leaders
-Suffering for righteousness sake

Of course, this list isn't exhaustive-but it illustrates the point.

And let's be honest. We instinctively recoil from a life of cross-bearing. Our minds are reluctant to believe that this could possibly be God's will for us. And this is precisely why it becomes so easy for people to follow a voice that is not telling the whole truth. But Jesus said, "If ANYONE desires to come after me." No follower is excused or exempted.

This has been weighing so heavily on my mind because I am finding more and more that people are pushing off the hard-sayings of Christ as being negative and not necessary. And I believe that when we start doing this we are on dangerous spiritual ground.

I want to be told the truth and I want to tell the truth. In the end nothing else is going to matter.