Following Jesus?

Following Jesus?

I am currently in India together with the rest of the work Your way team. Apart from enjoying the absolute innocent love I’m receiving from the children at the orphanage and working hard on a water reservoir we are building for the orphanage and just experiencing the incredible India in so many different ways. From going to watch IPL to experiencing the scorching Indian sun, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes at night, seeing the Taj Mahal, shaking my head sideways like the Indians do, spending time with Indians who have a hunger for Christ and also with those who doesn’t know Him yet… and the list goes on.

I have also spent my time reading the book ‘Following Jesus’, written by Floyd McClung. I can truly say it is one amazing book! The book challenges you though, like all good books do, and I certainly did start thinking about a lot of things differently, in a good way that is. I would like to share with you some of the issues this book really had me thinking about. Perhaps you can learn or maybe relate to these things.

As the title suggests, the book is about following Jesus. Something so easy for Christians to say: “I am a follower of Jesus”.

Do we really realize what we are saying when speaking out these simple words: “I am a follower of Jesus”?

If we live our lives as Followers of Jesus, shouldn’t we strive to do everything we do as Jesus would have done? Surely you would agree with me on this? But do we really do this? Are we obedient followers of Jesus? If Jesus is indeed God, then to truly follow Him is to pattern our life after His life.

McClung shares that there are three basic truths of discipleship that all followers and seekers of Jesus must wrestle with:

1. To love Jesus

2. To love and practice community with other followers of Jesus

3. To share Jesus with those who don’t know Him.

I then started looking at my usual pattern of living. One of the things from the book that struck me was where McClung says that the first disciples did not attend meetings which they tried to ‘juggle’ or ‘fit’ into their busy schedules; the gospel was their life. They didn’t try to ‘apply’ the teaching of Jesus to their lives; His teaching was their life!

It became very clear to me that I put my own will before the will of God for my life. I tried to box God into the places I wanted Him to fit. My life needed to change… dramatically! For if I am saying that I truly love Jesus and that he is all I want to live for, why do I have my own agenda? How do you think this makes God feel? If I truly love God I should strive with everything in me to live in His will and be obedient to Him. 

So what is God’s will for our lives?

Jesus wants us to choose Him to be the God of everything for one reason only: That we have fallen deeply in love with him. God’s will for your life is that you love and obey Him. 

After reading the above I arrived at a sudden realization, the realization that God truly loves me. Don’t get me wrong, I always knew God loved me, but really now, God truly loves me and you! I know I am repeating myself, but I want to say this again, God loves YOU! Yes you! More than you could ever imagine. The almighty God that created the universe and everything in it loves you! What a privilege. And all he wants from us is to love Him back, with all your heart and be obedient to Him. 

If we love Him, surely we would strive to be obedient to Him as well?  We don’t behave differently in order to be loved by God, but because we are loved by God!

So we know God loves us. It is time for us to love Him back and be obedient to Him. And here is the great thing; God will tell you what His will is for your life. It won’t be an easy life. But we are followers of Jesus; did Jesus have an easy life? Certainly not, he had to endure a lot of difficulties and suffering. And so shall we, but we love Him and will obey Him no matter what the cost! Right? 

Ask God to reveal his will for your life to you. But before you do, ask yourself this question: Do I want to know the will of God for my life so that I know what to do to obey Him; or do I want to know so that I can decide whether I like what he is telling me?  This isn’t a negotiation! If you want to follow Jesus you must be willing to be obedient. So it became clear to me that I should start praying more and more and ask God what His will is for my life. And remember, prayer is talking to God. It is not something to do; it is someone to talk to.

So I want to challenge you, to go read the gospels and analyze what Jesus did and the type of person he was. And then start following Jesus. And remember Jesus gives us the authority to do the things he did on earth through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. The more we love Him and the more we are obedient to Him, the more we would grow to be like Him! Go practice Jesus. Go share Jesus. And be willing to suffer with Jesus. Take a step of faith and start living the life he wants you to live. Fight your way out of the temptations of the worldly life and into the life of a follower of Jesus. Let us stop being ‘cozy’ Christians who don’t have faith that God will provide but are only concerned about living the SAFE life:

S - Self protection, A – Avoidance of danger, F – Financial security, E – Escape from difficult circumstances.

Does God love us and is He concerned about our safety and well-being? Absolutely. But that does not translate into God’s greatest concern being our safety or comfort. God’s greatest concern is God’s glory.

How is God glorified? When child sex-slaves are set free, child-headed households experience help in their misery, drug addicts come to Jesus, workaholic fathers get their priorities right, families get healed and restored, a community of obedient Christians is formed and the unemployed find work. God cares about our safety, but He cares more about healing the pain in people’s lives.

Let us go out and share the Gospel, the Good News, where ever God may send us. For remember, there are not ‘missionaries’ and ‘non-missionaries’, but the obedient or the disobedient.

A man named Tom White once said: “I was in the central highlands of Vietnam when someone remarked about how the Christians suffer there. One Vietnamese Christian remarked, ‘Suffering is not theworst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst thing.’ “

PS: Go read Mark 16: 15-20.

And I want to encourage you to go and buy the book “Following Jesus” written by Floyd McClung as soon as possible and read it. It is truly life changing.  Most things from this blog comes from that book.