Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Does Jesus Lead? Do You Follow?

25 “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! — Matthew 10:25 (NASB95)
Then we began to talk about the gospel. We talked about it long into the night, and before we left I said to him, "Look, you're serious about our conversation, I know. It would not be faithful of me not to ask you if right now you'd like to put your trust and confidence in Jesus Christ." He said to me, "You don't know what you're asking me. Do you know what would happen if I did that? If I announced it to anybody, my wife would leave me. My family would disown me. My boss would fire me. I may want to leave to go back to the United States, and the government would not give me an exit visa. I'd give up everything. You go back home tomorrow. I would not expect you would support me, and I would starve to death in my own culture." – Haddon Robinson, from the sermon "Love Keeps Going"
That conversation was one that Haddon Robinson shared with a Muslim man from Turkey. To become a Christian meant far more in practical terms than it does to us here in the U.S. We don’t face anything like what that man would if he were to become a Christian.

If you faced those dangers would you be a Christian? If it meant that you would lose your family, your job, your whole life, would you follow Jesus? It puts the meager problems we face in perspective, doesn’t it. We stress over all sorts of meaningless things, and so much that means so little gets in our way of following Jesus.

We’re a little tired, so it’s too much trouble to get up on Sundays to assemble with our church family. Our friends might laugh a little if we get too serious about our faith so that they think we’re becoming a fanatic. Stand up for truth, morality, goodness, and all things of God, and you might get a bit of flak. We might have to miss our favorite ball game. Oh, what a tragedy that would be!

History is peppered with martyrs who died for their faith. Today, too many people would die if they had to live their faith. The Bible speaks of the souls of the martyrs around the throne of God in heaven. That indicates how highly God thinks of those willing to suffer and die for their faith. Wonder what God thinks when we shun anything but easy living and a no-bother faith?

Following Jesus demands your life. There is only one way for Jesus to be Master and you be his servant. It certainly isn’t telling Jesus what to do. Does he lead? Do you follow?

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