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“Following Our Lord's Leading Offers Wisdom! (F.O.L.L.O.W)”

By Ramesh C.Reddy
Pittsburgh Standard

June 16, 2009

Editors Note: The devotional has a background song  which can be heard if you use Internet Explorer.

SCRIPTURE:
"But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:33-34, NIV)

OBSERVATION:
I asked myself what did Jesus do after rebuking Peter?
Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:
1. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and
2. If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and
3. If anyone would come after me, he must follow me.

I decided to look at point three today.

INTERPRETATION:
I asked myself what is the significance of Jesus saying, 'he must follow me'?'
Jesus had stated to the crowds and his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and must take up his cross'.  Now Jesus goes a step further and adds to the conjunctions another prerequisite to come after Jesus. The conjunction 'and' connects the previous commands with 'and follow me' which itself is dependent on the other two prerequisites of 'denying himself' and 'taking up his cross'. Here we see that 'denying self' and 'taking up his cross' alone is not enough if there is not an 'act of following Jesus'. Jesus wanted the crowds to now follow Him if they wanted to come after Him.

Follow here is more than a tag along but an active response to the teachings of Jesus which will be seen as as fruit in a person's life when they do deny themselves and take up their cross. These two points are addressed in the previous devotionals.

IMPLICATIONS:
I saw important implications for my own life here. If I want to go after Jesus then I have to follow Jesus actively. People should be able to look at me and say, 'Ramesh is following after Jesus'. In essence, that is saying that I am following the Word of God to follow Jesus. For that to happen I need to believe 'the Bible is the Word of God' instead of 'Bible becomes the Word of God' or 'Bible contains the Word of God'

HOW GOSPEL GIVES ME TESTIMONY REGARDING F.O.L.L.O.W:

This also means to me that I cannot compartmentalize my life as a Christian which I define as 'a follower of Christ' and 'a follower of Christ' as one who is 'a follower of the Word of God'. I cannot follow Christ on my own without the help of Christ because even to be able to follow the Word of God, I need the help of the Holy Spirit to transform my life and help me bear fruit. It starts with Christ's work in my life in and through me as I choose to follow Jesus just as Jesus worked in the lives of the disciples who chose to follow after Jesus.

I learned before that even the disciples choosing to follow Jesus did not start with the disciples but it started with Jesus who appointed 12 that they may be with him, be taught by Him, and led by Him. Once Jesus chose them, they chose to follow after Jesus.

Since the disciples are already following Jesus why remind them 'you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me'?

I believe it is to show that following Jesus is not a one time thing where we tell Jesus, 'Jesus, I am going to follow you now giving my life to you but the rest of the days going my own way and doing my own things.'

 Following Jesus should be a daily thing. I must deny myself daily, pick up my cross daily, and follow Jesus.

I can follow Jesus not by my own strength but from the strength Christ gives me to follow Him. I am so glad that Jesus chose me to come to Him when Jesus decided to deny Himself, take up His cross, died on the cross shedding His precious cleansing blood, absorbed all my sin, was buried, and came back to life on the third day to save.

Jesus already provided a way for me to follow Him when He absorbed all my sin from my wicked heart. Now when Jesus absorbed all my sin on the cross by sacrificing Himself, He sacrificed Himself for humanity's sins of the past, present, and future by making a way for me to come to Him. If it were not for Christ's death and resurrection, I could not come to Jesus. 

But God in His Holiness knew that He could not let anyone enter His presence anymore after sin entered the Garden of Eden through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, so God in His love for humanity made a way that we can be restored to God.

God sent His only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world so that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16, NIV)

Here again 'believe' is an active belief based on actions instead of a passive belief.

Now, by what Jesus did on the cross, Jesus chose me to come to Him and chose all humanity to come to Him. 

But I believe even though Jesus chose humanity to come to Him, Jesus does not force humanity to accept and choose Him. Jesus wants them to make the decision on their own to deny themselves, take up their cross, and choose to follow Jesus to come after Him.

For me that started with acknowledging what a sinner I have been, confessing all my sin, repenting of all my sin at the foot of the cross. Believing that Jesus who had no sin became sin for me and absorbed all my sin so I can become the righteousness of God as long as I take the reddest purest antidote made by His crucifixion.  I did just that asking Jesus Christ to cleanse me with His precious cleansing blood so that I can be made whiter than snow and have the power of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus.

I am reminded even though our sins are scarlet red, He can make us white as wool and even though our sins are crimson red, He can make us white as freshly fallen snow.

So, I asked Jesus to now come into my heart and vacuum my heart using His precious cleansing blood as the heart shampoo to clean out all the yuckiness, dirt, and wickedness caused by the deadly virus known as sin. I asked Jesus to continue to live in my heart and make my heart His home so He can be my Savior and my Lord. I told Jesus that I will live for Him and serve Him the rest of the days of  my life as He helps me. I have to believe Jesus is my Lord before I can believe He is my Savior.

Sadly, there have been times I have taken Jesus just as my Savior but the way I lived my life has shown that I have not taken Him as Lord of my life. A lot of people believe in Jesus as their Savior to be saved and are so happy that they are saved but then their life or churches look like dead mausoleums. The reason is there are people who give their life to Christ and then think now since they are a Christian, they can live however they want to even if it contradicts the teachings of Christ. The Lordship of Christ is missing in their life. That should not be for any of us.

It is by grace we are saved through faith and it is not of any good works that we can boast about.

That is so true that it is God's loving grace that saves us and many people want to stop at this verse but if we read on we read,

'We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works'

God saves us not so we can live our lives however we want to and then say 'Hi' to God in Heaven when we die. No, God saves us so we can be restored to a relationship with Him and restore fallen humanity by drawing them to Jesus by presenting others the Gospel that convicts and saves. 

For us to even be able to do that, we need to bear good fruit that comes from having a personal deep relationship with Christ that we love Him so much that our actions reflect denying ourselves, picking up our own cross, and following Jesus.

This is not an easy thing and Jesus never promised following Him would be easy but time after time made it clear to His disciples and the crowds that there is a cost to following Jesus.

Sadly in this century we want to forget the cost of following Jesus and just focus on what many like to do saying, 'I gave my life to Jesus as a child, in high school, in college, etc so I know I am saved. Now since I am saved by Jesus, now I can live my life however I want to since I am already going to heaven'

Don't you see something seriously wrong with this picture?

I do! That is why so many churches are dead, the divorce rate among those claiming to be Christians is the same as those claiming to be non-Christians, premarital sex is rampant among Christians too, pastors, priests, etc involved are in scandals, and TOLERANCE has become "Who are you to judge?"

Jesus did not tolerate sin thinking He needs to show tolerance and neither should we. This however does not mean we hate the person committing the sin. We love them and hate the sin but that can only happen when our mind is on Christ. Remember we have been give the mind of Christ when we follow Him! Praise the Lord!

When we take our focus and our eyes off Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, we put our focus on Satan. It is one or the other. We cannot focus on both at the same time.

When we sin, we have focused on Satan's deception and lies giving into it. When we bear good fruit, we are focused on Christ and His teachings from the Word of God.

Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

It is sad that many people are watering down the Gospel of Jesus Christ wanting to make so many converts, filling the pews, etc without focusing on the 'Cost of following Jesus'

Jesus wants only those that are willing to pay the cost to follow Him and not those who want to have one foot inside the things of the Kingdom of God and one foot outside the things of the Kingdom of God.

What was Jesus' strongest rebuke to Peter followed by commands to the disciples and crowds?

"But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:33-34, NIV)

Being saved from Satan and saved from the bondage of sin means we have buried our old life and its fleshly tendencies by denying ourselves, picking up our cross, and following Jesus.

Following Jesus should reflect our life adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ. That does not mean just opposing abortion and gay marriage because following the Word of God is more than just opposing those two issues but those two issues are a start.

When we take our focus off Jesus and go our own way, we will sin and when we are sinning, at the time of sin, we are not following Jesus but following the devil.

The Good News is once it is brought to our attention that we have sinned, if we confess our sin and repent of it, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all our unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

God knows our heart and motives. Let us be genuine with the Lord and not think following Christ is an easy matter. Jesus alone can save and no one else can save either you or me. That is exciting to know that Jesus wants to save us. Praise the Lord! Amen!

I ask you now dear friend, why bother to F.O.L.L.O.W Jesus Christ  if you are saved?
Dear friend, to follow Jesus Christ shows that I am saved. I am not saved because I just believe in Jesus Christ for God reminds us that even the demons believe in God. It goes beyond that to an active belief where my life will actually start bearing fruit. For those who belong to Jesus Christ will bear fruit from His  work in their life. It starts with belief but does not end with belief alone.

Friend, believing in Jesus Christ is a start because we need belief in Christ if we are to follow Christ and His Word. Without belief in Christ, we cannot follow Christ because we won't have the Holy Spirit residing in us. But the belief to follow Christ is more than a passive belief but an active belief. The demons believing is passive that does not bear good fruit but our believing should be active. It will be active when we surrender our life over to Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.

Some of you may have heard this example:

A person was walking on a tightrope above Niagara Falls came all the way between one side to the other side. If he had fallen, he would have fallen to his death. People were amazed how he could do it.

He asked them 'do you believe that I can take you across the tightrope with me and save you?'

Many people answered, 'Yes, I do believe you can safely take me with you and save me'. He was glad that they had faith in him to take them across with him.

So he called to one of the so called believers to come so he can take the person with him. At that time, the person refused when he had to act on it and go with the person on the tightrope. It was easy for the person to say with his words 'Yeah, I believe you can take me with you' but when it came to actions, the person did not express his faith by his actions. His belief just became a smokescreen.

Now take one side to be humanity and the other side to be Heaven. Now imagine the person on the tightrope is actually Jesus Christ. To reach heaven, we need to go with Jesus. The tightrope is the bridge and everything below the bridge is the chasm that makes us fall to our death if not held by Jesus Christ.

Jesus asks people, 'do you believe in me that I can take you to heaven?'

The people respond with a resounding 'Yes, I do believe you can take me to heaven because you became my bridge so I can reach heaven'

Then Jesus says, 'Deny yourself, take up your cross, and come follow me' but not one person lets Jesus take them on the tightrope. They said they believed in Jesus and had faith that Jesus could take them to Heaven but when the time came, they were not willing to express that faith through actions.

Anyone can say, 'I am a Christian and believe in Christ' but if it is not expressed by faith through actions that faith is dead.  Jesus' own brother understood that when he wrote in the Book of James:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" (James 2:14, NIV)

"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" (James 2:17-20, NIV)

"You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." (James 2:24, NIV)

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (James 2:26, NIV)

Even Paul in the Book of Philippians does not want the Philippians to become complacent thinking they believe in Christ and so are automatically saved unless it is an active belief.

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Philippians 2:12-13, NIV)

The works are a result of God working in our lives when we focus on Him and Him alone to bear fruit. We cannot focus on Him unless we believe in Him and have faith to follow Him and His teachings.

God made a way for us to be saved and Salvation was not given to any of us because we have been good.

No one is good not one! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All our good works like filthy rags to the Lord.

How true that is because without Christ working through our lives, they are not seen as good works by the Father.

Going back to the tightrope example as an analogy, Jesus does not expect us to live a victorious abundant life on our own. No, Jesus wants to carry us and take us with Him. We need to be willing to go with Jesus knowing He alone can save. We have been JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE. Now it is time to be SANCTIFIED BY HIS GRACE on a daily basis.

If our Salvation is just based on good works from the world's perspective then anyone could be saved even if they don't know Jesus as their Lord and Personal Savior. But we know that is not true.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)

Because we are saved by Christ, we can do good works. The good works we do now are the result of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit that God recognizes. They are not filthy rags anymore because Christ has come into our hearts and cleansed us making us white as freshly fallen snow.

The confession of Jesus is Lord is paramount too because Jesus cannot just be our Savior to be saved if He is not also our Lord. Jesus has to be the Master of our lives and govern us in all we do.

The Gospel has a cost to following Jesus which is addressed in Mark 8. The previous devotionals in Mark 8 address these concepts from different angles:

Also Matthew 7:21-23 puts it well: “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'“ (Matthew 7:21-23, NIV)

Only God knows whether someone has truly chosen to follow Christ and His teachings. Anyone can say anything but God knows the heart and our actions to determine whether we have chosen to follow Christ or chosen to depart from God’s Word.

So by saying, I am of a Christian faith is saying that my faith is in Jesus Christ and His teachings. His teachings condemn following Satan and his ways. So someone who says, ‘I love Jesus Christ’, but does things His own way is not loving Jesus Christ at that moment in time. I have been guilty of that and need Jesus' help daily. My Christian faith should affect whatever I do in life.

I pray that you follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly in the life He gave you to live remembering following our Lord's leading offers wisdom! Amen! May you understand and know following after Jesus Christ is never easy but the joy of following Jesus is worth it! Amen!

“If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:8)

"Following Our Lord's Leading Offers Wisdom!"/"Why bother to F.O.L.L.O.W Jesus Christ if you are saved?

Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much that I can follow you. It is not because of anything I have earned based on how I have lived my life. But, it is because of your mercy and grace. When I was separated from you because of my sin, you came to save me when I yielded my life to you. Thank you Jesus the act of saving began on the cross when you absorbed the sins of all humanity, shedding your precious cleansing blood releasing the antidote for our deadly virus known as sin. I am so touched that you did not force people to believe in you and you still do not do that.  You have chosen to save humanity because you desire that none should perish but all come to repentance. Now, Oh Lord help us to choose to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow you because you have made the Way for us being the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Thank you after you sacrificed your life for me, you came back to life on the third day to save. Oh Lord, following you is not easy but I thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to follow you. As we focus our eyes on you the Author and Finisher of our faith, we can fix our eyes upon you and know we are led by the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful when we do mess up because we take our eyes of you, you are gracious and merciful to forgive us and cleanse us of all our sin when we confess and repent them to you so our fellowship can be restored. Oh Lord, please help us to follow you and thanks for your Word we have to follow. I pray that I and others don't  compartmentalize and rationalize our lives to do our own thing. Please Oh Lord let us not compartmentalize our lives but all 7 days follow you daily in all we do and say. We cannot on our own without your help. I thank you for your help. Thank you for hearing me and answering me. Thank you for hearing our prayers. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!

No matter what you feel in your heart, know that Jesus has come in and resides with you! You are not alone! To make your walk strong with the Lord, spend time in prayer talking to Him as you would to a friend. You don’t need special words to talk to the Lord. Spend time in His Word reading Psalms and turning them into prayer. Next allow God to heal you and speak to you through the Gospel of John or Gospel of Mark before moving on to other Books of the Bible! Slowly, let the Lord show you to which Scriptures He wants you to go to next. It is also important to be part of a body of believers to help you grow in the faith. Find a Bible believing church that preaches the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation proclaiming Jesus Christ our crucified and risen Lord who brings us hope, healing, and help! But beware of churches who do believe in the Word of God completely but there is no freedom in Christ but legalism involved.

As a professional, it is not too late to join a church! As a student, it is not too late to join a fellowship on campus this  new year of 2009! May the Lord's presence and peace fill you with His love now and forever! Amen!

Friend, if you have prayed this prayer and meant it in your heart, you are a new creation in Christ and all old things are passed away and everything has become new! You may feel something or may not but don’t base it on feelings but base your new life in Christ on the promises of our Savior who will never leave you nor forsake you! Amen!

Spend time in His word and let the Lord speak to you! Start out in the Gospel of John! You can also check out the Gospel of Mark which are the devotionals I have been going through.  Learn from Jesus through study and prayer. Also find yourself a church fellowship and a college fellowship you can be part of where you can be part of a community of believers to supplement your own walk with the Lord. Let it be a Bible-believing and Bible-breathing church! Believe in Bible Live Eternally!

Feel free to email me at reddy4hisglory2004@yahoo.com if you want to meet to study the Bible, pray with, talk about Spiritual issues or whatever is on your mind! My number is 412-720-4579

"This is my work and I can do it only because Christ's mighty energy is at work within me." (Colossians 1:29, TLB)

Love in Christ,
Ramesh

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Devotional of yesterday:
"How can you take up the C.R.O.S.S in your life?" (June 15, 09, 1:22 a.m.)
To come after Jesus we all need to know how to take up our cross. It starts with an acknowledgement that we cannot take up our cross on our own. Our flesh will .......

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