Wednesday Morning Devotional

My friend, Scott, wrote today’s WMD.

Directions

Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path”(NLT)

Let me begin by asking a question: when you’re getting ready to go somewhere for a vacation or a business trip, do you ever ask around to see if anyone’s been there before? Maybe you want to know what the best places to visit are or which restaurants have the best food. I think everyone probably has at some point. Here’s another question: if you asked your best friend if they had been there and they said no, would you start asking them for more specific directions and suggestions? Silly, right? You wouldn’t ask someone who’s never been in SC what the best way to get to Clemson from Atlanta was, would you? You’d want someone who knows, someone with experience, am I right? Now, set that thought aside for just a moment.

Be honest, have there been times in your life when you have had serious doubts about God? Maybe about His plan, or His love, or maybe even His very existence? I know I have. I also know I’m not alone. Have you ever asked “God why?” or “Don’t You care?” or “Where are You?”

I’ve had times, plenty of them, where it felt like it was all I could do to hold the crumbling pieces of my heart and mind together. And all the while I’m begging God to do something, if nothing else then just give me a sign that He’s there and He cares.(By the way, I’ve come to understand, He already did. In fact, He wrote us all a big long love letter called the Bible. It’s a wonderful guidebook to keep us from getting lost along life’s journey but also to help us find our way back if we do wander off trail).

Last week, a friend and I hiked a pretty difficult hike(about 3.5 miles each way) to one of the most unique and incredible places in the Carolinas, Big Falls on the Thompson River. If you’ve never been and are in good health, it is well worth the effort. It is a big and powerful waterfall that is surrounded on one side by this huge rock wall. When you first emerge from the woods, the wind generated from the falls is like standing on the beach as the tides roll in and the breeze washes over you. I’ve never been anywhere that comes close to it.

Now, please don’t do what I did, which was get within a mile or so of the car on the way out and realize I dropped one of my boots, then backtrack about a mile and a half searching for it in the dark (walking right past it about 20 feet from where I started searching). However, that enabled God to continue a word He spoke to my heart as we were climbing out.

As my friend and I were climbing up the huge, steep hill from the Thompson River back up to the trail, we started talking about a friend of hers who runs a ministry for drug addicted men. It’s not some fancy rehabilitation center that people pay thousands of dollars to come to. Instead, it’s run on nothing but donations and a lot of love and grace. You see, the director was once an addict himself. He’s been there. He knows these men’s struggles. He is one of them. He’s walked in their shoes.

As we were talking about him and his dedication, this thought hit me and I just spoke it out loud: “perhaps the reason God allows us to go so far into dark and frightening places in our lives is not because He doesn’t care or doesn’t love us. Could it be that once we have made our way back to the light, He knows that we are the only ones who will know how to go back and rescue others?” I think when we finally vocalize thoughts or ideas that God is giving us, they can so powerfully hit us that we are overcome with emotion. I know I was. Standing there on the side of this hill that runs straight down, I just had to stop and let the tears out.

But isn’t that what we constantly see? How many drug counselors were at one time an addict? How many sponsors are recovering alcoholics? How many preachers were once, like Paul, chief among sinners? Which brings me back again to my travel analogy, who better to guide someone out of the darkness than someone who has been where they are? That’s what I realized God was showing me, metaphorically, as I searched in the dark for my lost boot. Only I knew where to look and only I cared enough to go searching for it.

So as you walk through your valley of darkness, don’t lose hope. Keep your eyes open and your mind alert. In the end, He may ask you to go back for others. And don’t think He doesn’t care or that He doesn’t love you. The enemy will whisper that in your ear, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, I think you could make a pretty good argument that He holds a very special place in His heart for the hurting and broken and lost. After all, didn’t He say He left the 99 to go find the 1? One final thought: in the darkest places, light shines the brightest. Let your light shine.

God bless, Scott

Love Does

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. – 1 Corinthians 13:1 (MSG)

I love to watch one of our setup guys at Lifeline Community Church. Being a church that sets up and tears down weekly takes a lot of time and effort. This particular guy comes early, cranks up his praise and worship, and as it fills the auditorium he goes to work for about a solid hour. I have never heard him talk about how much he loves his church, but his actions show that he loves his church and wants it to succeed.

Love does.

If you love your spouse, you will work to maintain your marriage. If you love your job, you will do your best because you want your company to succeed. If you love your children, you will intentionally spend time with them. If you love your school, you will listen in class, bring your materials, and to the best of your ability you will work for it. You wouldn’t even think of “Christmas treeing” a test which would produce a score that would make your school look bad. If you love God, you will pursue Him relentlessly and serve Him wholeheartedly. To me, love is the action that should always accompany your words.

I say that to say this: There are two things that I haven’t been able to erase from my mind these past few weeks. The first involved a conversation that I overheard about being a Christian.   Several people were roasting a guy who said he was a Christian and were calling him a hypocrite. All he could say in return with was, “You don’t get to judge me!” They were claiming that they had caught him in several lies and that his life just didn’t line up with his beliefs. As I thought about this person, he had lied to me several times; he made excuses for absolutely everything he did wrong, blamed others, and never took responsibility for his own actions. I thought, “I hate it dude, but your judgers are correct. If you speak of being a Christian, and don’t show love by doing the simple things you know are right, you are as annoying as a creaky, rusty gate.”

The other situation involved my alma mater. The little school that I attended for 13 years and then worked at for 17 years is currently on the chopping block. As our numbers have declined over the years, good old-fashioned economics continues to work against us. The blade of the guillotine hasn’t dropped yet, but all that is left is for a vote to let go of the rope.   I’m not here to argue whether or not the blade should drop or not. I’m here to tell you what I saw.

I went to the last school board meeting and saw nearly 200 people pack the place. I looked around and was amazed at how many people I knew. Many were alumni from decades back. Many were current students. Many were in between. All were saying, “don’t close our school.”

Now, I believe the vast majority of the people who were there genuinely love the school. I saw faces of people who sacrifice their time, their efforts, and even their money to support it. You know they love the school because love does. Then, I saw the faces of some who actually harmed the school. Here they were saying, “I love this school,” but I know that all they did for the most part was stir up dissention and use the school for their own social entertainment. They would not bring a pencil, bring books, bring a halfway decent attitude, nor would they show an ounce of effort inside the school walls. In fact, if the teachers and parents did not absolutely do everything in their power to beg and plead them to do their work, absolutely nothing would have actually gotten done.

So, here is the point: All of the people at the meeting said they loved the school and wanted it to stay put. Not all actually loved the school because even though they said they loved it, they did absolutely nothing for it other than show up as a consumer.

Love does.

In the same way, Google just told me that 83% of Americans call themselves Christians. 4 out of 5 people in the U.S. say, “I love God.” How many of these actually follow through when it comes time to show that love? I see people who would rather have their sexual immorality than actually live by the teachings of Jesus. I see people who would rather be lazy and take short cuts than work like Colossians 3:23 tells us to work, “as unto the Lord, not for men.”

Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not claiming to be some prime example of a Christian. I have spent more than my share of years as a horrible example of what it looks like to follow Christ. However, upon giving my life to Him, my desire to represent Him well has always been there. Slowly, over time, he is molding me and shaping me into His masterpiece. In no way have I “arrived,” but I will keep doing that which I know is right and continue to seek after Him.

Will you?

Later

Adam

Completely Trusting God     

Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. – Psalms 40:4

It is so easy to say, “I trust God.”  It is not so easy to live your life like you really do trust Him.   This verse tells us that a person who fully puts their trust in God will be blessed.  I am certainly the happiest and most content when I am looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.  (Hebrews 12:2)  On the other hand, I am the most miserable when I take my eyes off of Him and begin to listen to others or simply do my own thing.

The God of the Holy Bible has done an amazing thing.  He has offered to be in a personal relationship with anyone and everyone who will place their trust in Him.  If we are completely honest, this is a very difficult thing to just straight up give Him our trust.  When I first got saved, I believed for the first time that Jesus was God in the flesh and had come to give His life on the cross as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).  Now as cool as that is and as much love as that shows, I had a hard time making it personal.  I had a hard time believing He did that for me.  Preachers always worded it as if Jesus would have done what He did even if I had been the only one who would have received Him.  But, in my mind, He had done nothing for me other than the stuff He did for everybody.  Of course, now I know and understand that what He did for everybody was and is crazy amazing, but as a sixteen-year-old ignorant kid . . . I just didn’t know.

My very first test came at work.  I directly disobeyed my boss’s instructions at my first job.  I had recently read Colossians 3:9; “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.”  I realized that my current self was a liar; it was simply in my default settings.  I also read in Revelation 21:8 that “all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.”  Hell was the last place I wanted to go.  So I prayed and told God that my new self would stop lying, and asked for His help.  There was this very big, dramatic moment where I had to stand before my boss man.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  I can’t even begin to tell you how bad I wanted to lie to him.  Had I not prayed my prayer earlier that day, there is no doubt I would have done just that.  Instead, I manned up possibly for the first time in my life and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  He was shocked at my honesty.  He had expected me to lie.  Since I told him the truth, he let me keep my job and didn’t even make me pay for one cent of the hundreds of dollars in damage I had done.   I left work that day with a pure trust in Jesus Christ.  My relationship with Him had just become personal.

That was over 20 years ago.  In no way did that experience “cure” any of my other faults.  I was still loaded with other sinful behaviors and wasn’t sure they were ever going away.  I realize now why God set all that up as my first test.  From that moment on, I was able to be honest with God.  I didn’t have to pretend to be something I wasn’t.  I was able to bring the brutally honest truth of my sinful behavior before the throne of grace. If I drank alcohol underage at a party, I confessed to Him that I flat out sinned by breaking the law.  If I had sex with my girlfriend or even looked at pornography, I confessed to Him that I was sexually immoral.  If I was angry with someone, I told Him that I flat out hated that person.  If the Holy Spirit or the Bible in any way pointed out to me that I was wrong, I simply admitted it to God in my prayers.  He had taught me that He could be trusted and that I could be totally honest with Him about the truth that He knew anyway.  To this day, the best thing about knowing Christ is our open and honest conversations.  I still confess my sins to Him as well as rejoice on the few occasions where I actually get it right.  There is nothing like a real deal authentic relationship with the Lord.

Do you have one?

Do you absolutely trust Him with every single fiber of your being?

If you don’t, you are missing out on absolutely the greatest thing this life has to offer.

There is and never will be anyone like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Later

Adam

 Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. – Luke 16:29

Upon arriving in Hell, the rich man immediately learned a lesson that everyone alive desperately needs to learn before it is too late; there is a place called Hell.  It is far worse than any can imagine, and is the final destination of a countless number of people who believe it either doesn’t exist, won’t be that bad, or will somehow be cleverly avoided.  Make no mistake, without true conversion of the heart, mind, and soul through our Lord, Jesus Christ, hell awaits.  In fact, it is constantly expanding simply to receive the countless number of souls going there.  Isaiah 5:14 says, “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.”

The rich man knew his family was headed to hell.  He begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus to talk to them.  He figured if they saw someone come back from the dead, and he told them about Heaven and hell, they would repent of their sins and change.  Father Abraham simply said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”  In other words, “they have the Bible.”  At the time, it was just what we know now as the Old Testament, but it was still enough information to save unconverted souls according to Abraham.

I would venture to say that there is not a single person who reads this today that does not have access to a Holy Bible.  Unfortunately, it goes unread because we are, for the most part, uninterested.  It took me five years after being saved to actually start reading the Bible.  Nearly 100% of the people that I counsel who are struggling with sin do not make it a regular practice to simply read the Bible and pray.  Nearly 100% of the time that I begin to feel far away from God, you guessed it, I have gone a long stretch of time without hearing Moses, Jesus, or the prophets and apostles.  I neglect the simple act of reading my Bible and praying.

So, no wonder there is a “screen generation” rising up who have zero interest in reading any book, much less a hard to understand, difficult book that will take a lifetime of study, such as the Bible.  As long as we have texting, gaming, television, movies, and other various forms of entertainment, who needs it?

You do.

I do.

One day we will draw our last breath and our eternal destination will be sealed.  Every person who reads this probably thinks he or she has lots of time, but so did the rich man in the story two thousand years ago.  His time ran out.  He never planned on making hell his home.  Sooner than we think, our time will run out as well.  Where will you spend eternity?

Pick up your Bible, also known as “the sword of the Spirit,” read it, learn it, live it.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:2

Adam

A Cry from the Pit

“For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” — Luke 16: 28

Oh how I used to love singing along with Bon Scott from AC/DC, “Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there, too . . . I’m on a Highway to Hell!” Bon Scott got his wish on February 19, 1980. He was 33 years old. There are a lot of rock stars that I looked up to and even wanted to be as a teenager who are dead now. A quick search on the Internet says the average age of death for a rock star is 45 years old.

Jesus told of a certain rich man that went to Hell. In that story, the rich man says what I have chosen as my main verse for this week’s WMD. According to Him, Hell is not the big party AC/DC claims it is. It doesn’t sound like any of the rich man’s friends are there partying with him. If they are present at all, having them in Hell with him is of no comfort. It appears that the rich man is now thinking of his family. Hell was of no concern to this man while he was alive and he had a chance to make things right with God. It is of chief concern to him now. He doesn’t want his family to join him in torment. He would do anything to warn them so they could avoid his fate.

Jesus and Bon Scott can’t both be right. Jesus says Hell is a place of torment that is to be avoided at all cost. Bon Scott says Hell is one big party.

Many, many people are living today unconcerned with eternity. I think I know why. Most people look around at the horrors and atrocities going on in our world and it becomes easy to believe that you aren’t that bad of a person. It becomes easy to believe that you are “good enough” to avoid the place called Hell. It also becomes easy to believe that if Hell is your destination, at least it is the destination of countless others.

Somehow, I don’t believe having company in Hell will be of any comfort.

I wonder if on April 15, 1912 as the Titanic was sinking with over 1,000 people still on board if any of them found comfort in the fact that others were with them. On May 31, 2009, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic died. Eventually, we all step into eternity.

I wonder if on September 11, 2001 any of the 3,000 people who were perishing found comfort that others were with them. The most horrifying thing for me to watch is the footage of the people who jumped. Faced with the choice of jumping 1,300 feet to their deaths or burning, some chose to jump.

I realize not everyone believes in a literal Heaven and/or a literal Hell. There are plenty of other theories with little or no consequences to your soul. They are nice to believe because they absolve you of all responsibility as far as the way you choose to live your life. However, if you call yourself a Christian and claim to have put your trust in Jesus Christ, you must believe absolutely everything He taught. He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6)

At the age of 16, I chose to leave this burning world, trust Jesus, and jump. Just like I caught my daughter the first time she jumped from the edge of the pool . . . Jesus caught me. I love my Father in Heaven and trust Him completely. There is none like Him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Later

Adam

Consuming All of God’s Word

Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water.  The whole animal — including the head, legs, and internal organs — must be roasted over a fire.  Do not leave any of it until the next morning.  Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.  — Exodus 12:9-10

Just before the Passover, the Lord gave Israel some specific instructions.  The instructions were to kill a lamb, put some of the blood over the doorpost, and cook and eat the lamb…ALL of the lamb.  They were to eat ALL of it!  That’s kind of gross.  At least if some of it was too gross, they had the option to burn it.

Now, I don’t read where any one person said, “I don’t feel like putting the blood on my door post.”  Nobody said, “I’m going to boil the meat anyway, that’s the way I like it and the way I’ve always done it.”  Nobody complained about having to eat certain parts.  It is pretty clear that everyone obeyed the Lord‘s commands to the best of their ability.  Being saved was obviously more important than their comfort.

Today, I don’t see a whole lot of Christians taking ALL of God’s Word seriously.  Don’t get me wrong; I think it takes some time to develop a reverence for God’s Holy Book.  I left mine sitting on my dresser brand new for years before I started to consume it.  Even then, I only read the parts I could halfway understand.  I read the parts I liked.  In no way did I attempt to consume the whole thing.

That is, until I just didn’t enjoy life.  I was all too aware that I was doing this halfway thing.  I fit in with the guys on the weekend when that was convenient.  I fit in with the church group when that was convenient.  I was trying to have the best of both worlds.  I was taking the parts of the Bible that talked about how good He was and hoping like crazy He was just winking at my sin.  I know now that He wasn’t.

I hear quite often about God’s grace.  Most of the time it is misused by people who want to justify their immoral actions.  Most people want to be sexually immoral.  They want to be able to watch anything and listen to everything in the name of entertainment.   They want to be able to talk any way they want and do anything they want to do.  But most importantly, they want God to be okay with it.  Maybe this isn’t true with you, but it was true with me.  I made sure back then that I only listened to people who would make my sin sound justifiable, and most of all would say things like, “God is okay with it, He knows we’re human and that we make mistakes.”  Mistakes are one thing, but willful disobedience is entirely another.

I say all that to say this:  I don’t want God’s grace to mean that I can willfully sin and have Him overlook it and be okay with it.  I want God’s grace to be this ridiculous, massive amount of power that gives me strength to overcome the sin that is so prevalent in the majority of men today.  God delivered me from sexual immorality, so why would I want to go back to filth just because I have convinced myself I can still go to Heaven if I do, or I have said in my heart, “He will forgive me.”  I don’t want to sit around and watch movies that take His name in vain and say, “Well, He’s okay with it, everybody else watches stuff like this.”  I want to get this sick feeling inside my stomach when I hear His name being misused.  I want to want to turn that junk off.  I want to want to walk out of the theater.  I want to want to eat the whole lamb.  I want to eat the tasty parts that are easy to eat because I like them, and I want to eat the bitter parts that don’t go down so well.  If God wants me to do hard things, I pray He gives me strength to do them.  If God wants me to forgive someone who has seriously wronged me, I want to want to forgive.  In light of how He has so freely forgiven me, how can I not?

I know people get seriously turned off to this “holiness” stuff.  But, I have had many transitions in my walk with the Lord that I had to ask myself, “Am I going to do it my way?”  Also known as the easy way that comes natural to me?  Or, am I going to do it God’s way?  Also known as the hard way.  In most of life‘s tough decisions that I have faced so far, I believe I have chosen God’s way.  Not one time, not one single time has He ever let me down or wronged me.  Yes, I’ll admit that I complained about it in the short term, but in the long term it always worked out for my good.  Anything God has asked me to do that was hard has only served to ultimately benefit me.  Though I certainly didn’t see it at the time.

Today, simply evaluate your relationship with God.  Is there anything in your life that is keeping you from God’s best?   Are you feeling His Presence?  Are you being obedient to the best of your knowledge and ability?  Is there any area of your life that is not clean?  Do you honor the entire Word of God?  Or, do you pick and choose?

Only you and God know.

If you are going to consume God’s Word…

Consume it all.

Later

Adam

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:61-62

Very much like last week, when the guy wanted to bury his father, this sounds like a reasonable request. I mean, Jesus, seriously, let the dude go say goodbye to his family. This appears to be one of those cultural things. A goodbye sendoff by a Jewish family in this time period would have meant a party that lasted for weeks. Therefore, the guy is saying, “I can’t follow right now, but give me a few weeks.” Maybe the guy would have changed his mind and Jesus knew it. More than likely, the guy would have done what the majority do here in America and try to maintain his own desires and the desires of Jesus. But, the Lord makes it pretty clear; you can’t serve two masters.

For years and years, maybe two decades after saying as a sixteen year old, “Lord, I will follow you,” there were things I can point to now where I told Him by the way I lived my life, “Hands off of that!” Wannabe followers don’t mind giving Jesus the stuff that they don’t really want anyway. There always seems to be a “that” for a wannabe that he or she continually prioritizes above Him. Notice that Jesus does not go ahead and add this guy as a soul won to the kingdom of Heaven; in fact, He flat out calls him “unfit for the kingdom.”

I guess it all comes down to this; is there anything in your life that you put ahead of following Jesus? Even on the same playing field as following Jesus? Are there compartments of your life that are off limits to Him?

“Lord, I will follow you, but leave my money alone! Don’t ask me to tithe because I don’t have that much anyway. Besides, isn’t that all those preachers want?”

“Lord, I will follow you, but leave my entertainment choices alone. I love watching movies. I know they cuss a good bit and take your Name in vain, but that’s just the world we live in today.”

“Lord, I will follow you, but my kid is great at sports and will probably be the next world class athlete. I’m sure they will honor you with their worldwide fame, so don’t ask me to anchor down at a local church because we’ve got travel ball.”

“Lord, I will follow you, but don’t ask me to study Your Word. It is very hard to read and understand, and besides I have other books to read, television shows to watch, game systems to play on, friends to text, and social media statuses to update.”

Lord, I will follow you, but don’t ask me to give up my girlfriend or boyfriend. I know we do drugs and we are having sex outside of marriage, but you were the one who made all that stuff, right?”

“Lord, I will follow you, but I’m busy and just don’t have a lot of time.”

Now listen, I’m not saying if you are currently doing any of this stuff that it is too late for you. I did an awful lot of these things for years as a beginning Christian. I am saying when God convicts you and says, “What about that?” you should be willing to do as Elisha did. When Elisha in the Old Testament was faced with this same decision to be the successor to Elijah, he burned his plow and barbecued his oxen (1 Kings 19:19-21). He wanted to make sure that if he even thought of turning back, he had nothing to go back to. All three of these wannabes had a chance to respond to Jesus with boldness. Instead they said, “Too difficult and too costly, Jesus, I’m out.”

Will you decide now to follow Jesus?

No turning back.

Later

Adam

What About Now?

He said to another man, “follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first le me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:59-60

Years ago, I had a conversation with a young man about following Jesus. He told me a line that for some reason I have never forgotten. He said, “I can’t do it right now. Before I can become old and wise, I must first be young and stupid.” I simply said, “No, you can choose to be stupid, but you don’t have to be.” Interestingly enough, that young man is currently in prison. The reason I tell you that is because this young man did exactly what the man did in the verses. He said, “Yes, I will eventually follow, but not right now. Now is not a good time.”

Now, to be fair, Jesus does sound pretty hardcore right here. I mean, let the dude go bury his dad if there is a funeral is taking place, right? But, most scholars agree that was probably not was going on here. Dad was alive and well, but maybe didn’t care too much for the carpenter from Nazareth. Maybe this wannabe stood to lose his share of an inheritance if he associated with Jesus. Whatever the reason, now was not a good time to follow Jesus.

I have learned that it does not matter what stage of life you are in, there is always an excuse to not follow Jesus. He continually extends the invitation, “Follow me,” but it is up to you to accept or reject His offer.

If you are in high school, it will cost you popularity to follow Jesus. As soon as you reject the party crowd and all the illegal drinking, drug using and sexual immorality that goes along with it, you will be rejected by those you think are your friends. For this reason, many say, “Lord, I’ll follow you, but first let me get out of high school.”

In college, you find that the party scene is ten times better than anything you saw in high school. Plus, you don’t even have to worry about going home and facing your parents. Therefore, many say, “Lord, I will follow you, I meant that when I said it in high school, but first let me get out of college.”

When these students finally graduate, many get married and get jobs. They find that the drinking habits don’t just magically disappear. They find that marriage does not cure their pornography addiction nor does it cure their other sexual addictions. They find that to get ahead in this corporate world you have to be dishonest. Yet, there is Jesus, offering the invitation, “Follow me.” Many say, “Lord, I will follow, but first let me get my home and my finances in order. I just don’t have time right now.”

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how “many” respond, it matters how you respond. How have you responded to the invitation of Jesus to “follow me”?

There will always be a reason to not follow Jesus. No matter what stage of life you are in, there is always an excuse. Satan loves when a wannabe follower of Jesus says, “Not now, later.”

Will you decide now to follow Jesus?

No turning back.

Later

Adam

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  – Luke 9:23

They were walking along the road, a man said to Him, “I will follow you wherever you will go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay His head.” – Luke 9:57-58

Christianity is full of “wannabes”.  I can spot them easily because I was one for way too long.  A wannabe wants all of the benefits of being a Christ follower:  Heaven when we die, healing when we or a loved one is sick or hurt, and comfort when we’ve suffered loss just to name a few.  When a wannabe needs Him, he or she wants and expects Him to be there for them and to meet their needs.  On the other hand, a wannabe wants nothing to do with the cost of being a follower of Christ.  Don’t ask a wannabe to deny themselves any of the pleasures or comforts of this world, and certainly don’t ask them to do anything they don’t want to do or is slightly uncomfortable.  A wannabe won’t say it out loud, but with their actions say, “If I feel like it and I believe I can do what you ask of me, as long as it isn’t too inconvenient, I’ll do it.  But, keep in mind, God, I’m not perfect, so don’t expect too much.”

The wannabe in the story came to Jesus and said, “Let’s do this!  I’m ready to follow you wherever.”  Now, right here is where many preachers get it so wrong today.  Nearly every church would go ahead and count this guy as a soul won to the Kingdom.  Churches count guys like this all the time and post the numbers on Facebook.  In fact, if it were possible in the late 90’s, there is no telling how many preachers and churches could have counted me as a salvation because I got saved just about every other week.  But, like the guy in the verses, I wasn’t willing to follow Jesus anywhere and everywhere.  Jesus essentially talked the guy out of being saved, and He did it easily by making one essential statement:  “Wannabe, it may cost you the comforts of your own home.  You can’t stay where you are.”

No deal!  Can’t do it!  I like where I am.

So many students are heading back to school this week.  So many of them have told God, “I will follow you wherever.”  How many of them will remain when He says, “Follow me in the classroom, I want you to do your best?”  “Nope, sorry Lord . . . I hate school work, it’s boring.  Those teachers are boring, too” How many wannabes remain when He says “Don’t participate in the drunkenness, foul mouthing, drug using, sexually immoral debauchery that will be all around you” will simply say, “sorry, can’t do it.  Everybody does that stuff, it is not that big of a big deal?”

What about the adults?  What is the answer when God says, “Follow me in your current marriage?”  “But, God, I’m not happy in this marriage!  You do want me to be happy, right?”

What is the answer when God says, “Follow me while you are single?”  “But, God, I hate being alone, I’ve never not had somebody by my side.”

What is the answer when God says, “Follow me at work?”  “But, God, everybody else slacks off, and my bosses do nothing and they make more than me, why should I try so hard when nobody else does?”

What is the answer when God says, “Follow me at the restaurant?”  “But, God, the waitress was rude and never filled my tea glass, she didn’t deserve a tip!”

What is the answer when God says, “Follow me at the football game?”  “But, God, I’m just passionate about sports and really competitive.  I get a little intense sometimes.  Besides, its just a game.”

Where is it you have the most trouble following Jesus?

Figure it out and fix it.

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King!

Later

Adam