Follow
Me
cotr/ss060913
Psalms 37:25 I have been
young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor
his descendants begging bread.
Like
King David of old, we have all been witnesses to God working in the lives of
those who follow Him. Although everyone suffers hardships of sorts in this
world, the Believer can nonetheless be of good cheer knowing that Jesus is Messiah and that He has overcome this
world. We have hope because we are headed to a victory that is beyond this
world.
I
cannot imagine anything worse than leaving this world without the saving grace
of Jesus. Next to that the worst thing would be living in this world without
the help and hope that comes from an abiding relationship with Him. Like Paul
said, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is
gain.” (Philippians 1:21) I
would not want to live or to die without Him.
The
relationship we have with the only begotten Son of Almighty God is gained by
faith. And, even though it cannot be proven to the scientific community’s
satisfaction or put under a microscope and studied by the skeptic minds of the
ages, faith is nonetheless more real and lasting than any matter in this
universe. What we cannot see is greater than what we can see and what we do not
know more than what we do …
We
actually know very little when it comes to the whole scheme of eternal truth. But
the little we know is so powerful that it fills eternity with hope. We know:
·
There
is only one God and He is the Creator and Sovereign Ruler over all things, seen
and unseen.
·
God
created mankind beginning with Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over all the
works of His hands.
·
Satan
deceived Eve and tempted her to question the truth of God’s Word. She became
confused and decided to do her own thing.
·
When
Eve and Adam disobeyed God, sin was born and man was separated from one
another, from God, from the blessings of God on the earth and from everlasting
life with God throughout eternity.
·
God
so loved the world that He gave His Only Son to make a way for man to be saved.
·
All
who believe in and call upon Jesus are born again, forgiven, saved and accepted
as a child of God throughout eternity.
·
Eternal
life is the absolute most important gift of God.
·
Born
again Believers are not perfect, nor are they exempted from the tribulations of
this life however but, they are forgiven and blessed.
If
we labeled Born Again Believers as “Good”,
and called lost sinners “Bad”, then
I can tell you from experience: (Psalms
37:25 repeat)
·
Some
good people do bad things and some bad people do good things.
·
Some
good things happen to bad people and some bad things happen to good people
·
Truth
can never be understood if we only look at the good and bad.
Throughout
the scriptures every Patriarch, each Prophet, all the Kings, including David
and Solomon, each one of the disciples, and even Jesus Himself had some good
things and some bad things happen to them, to their families and to their
friends.
People
often wonder saying, “I’m a Christian, why is this happening to me?” Or here is
a good one: “I thought they were supposed to be a Christian!” Or the worst one
yet: “You’re not a Christian!”
Through
the years I too have questioned some people and some circumstances that just
didn’t line up with what I knew to be God’s Word or God’s Will. I have even
questioned to myself wondering why bad things happen to good people … however,
in my many years I’ve come to realize:
·
Questions won’t change things … answers will.
Instead
of questioning why something is happening to us perhaps we should rather decide
what we are going to do about it.
One answer is better than 10,000 questions. And, thank God …
we have the answer! His name is Jesus – The Living Word of God.
The
best path to take in any situation is to simply “Follow
Jesus”. No guarantees following Jesus will be all roses, but following
Jesus will always bring us victory in the situation and ultimately bring us
victory over the situation. There is
nothing more important than following Jesus.
Every problem begins to straighten out when we get in line with
Christ.
My
wife, Brenda, is 60 years old today. She was saved and began to follow Christ
37 years ago this month and 33 years ago this month she was gloriously filled
with the Holy Spirit. When she began to follow Jesus, it straightened
everything out for her, just as it has for so many others:
Matthew 4:19 Then He said to
them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." (God has a perfect ,productive plan for every life)
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus passed
on from there, He saw a man named
Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow
Me." So he arose and followed Him. (Following
Jesus may require a change.)
Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to
him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." (No one can serve two masters … Luke 16:13)
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said
to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me.
We will find Him and
we can follow Him in His Holy Word
Today
I am going to ask you to make the life changing decision to follow Jesus. If you do you will experience:
·
The
excitement that comes with salvation
o Old things pass away
and all things become new! (2 Corinthians 5:21)
·
The
life change which comes with true conversion
o Only Jesus can
satisfy your soul.
o Good or Bad - He will transform you from the inside
out.
No
matter the question, don’t be confused – Jesus is the right answer.
