Monday, September 13, 2010

The challenges to following Jesus!

Luke 9:45 – 62

At first glance this passage seems like Jesus is an insensitive jerk. Three guys say they will follow Him and He shuts all three of them down. (57 – 62). Jesus is making a point here to show us the cost of following Him.

I have a friend who just went into the military. Before boot camp they showed him a film of what boot camp is really like so that everyone knows what they are getting into before they go. In this passage Jesus is showing us that we have to know what we are getting into and set out priorities correctly if we are going to follow Him.

The first guy is all excited about following Jesus. While we need to love the Lord with all of our emotion (heart), it must be balanced by a full commitment of every aspect of who we are, intellect (mind), drive and passion (soul), physical being (strength). An initial enthusiasm is not the basis of long lasting discipleship there must be more. Jesus explains to him, I know you are excited but can you really live on the road the way that I do?

The second guy wants to follow Jesus but wants to do it on his time. Jesus ministry only lasted a little more than three years. This man wanted to wait until his Father died, then bury him, then follow Jesus. It sounds noble and right the problem is Jesus call to follow him is a “now” call. There are so many things; even good things that can distract us from follow Him. We tend to procrastinate and Jesus is saying to this young man’s procrastination choose who you want to follow the dead or life. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life. The man had to choose to follow life or death now.

This last one seems like a reasonable request as well, “Let me go home and say goodbye to the folks, then I’ll follow you!” Jesus response sounds somewhat cryptic but he is saying this, “No half-hearted disciple will ever really have an impact.” If you are going to follow Jesus you can’t be mixed in loyalties. The interesting thing is, if you are willing to walk away from the loyalties and place them in His hands, then He becomes Lord of those loyalties and takes care of them and generally strengthens them better than anything we could do on our own. It is all a matter of trust.

Do you struggles with any of these today? Did you have a heightened enthusiasm for following Jesus but then lost it due to “life”? The Lord can restore it. Has the Lord called you to do something and you feel like you missed it because you procrastinated too much? God can restore. Have you given your loyalty and priority in one direction and have found your walking hurting because Jesus is not the priority of your life? God can restore!

It is pretty simply to have your relationship with the Lord restored and renewed. First, simply ask for forgiveness. Tell the Lord you have blown it.

Second forgive yourself. Often we beat ourselves up over the things the Lord has forgiven us of a long time ago, but we still hang on to it.

Third, live like you mean it. The best way to show that we have changed is to live our lives like we meant what we said. This is true repentance.

If you choose to do this, you will see a life change. Your true destiny is in your decision to follow the Lord 100%

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