Follow Me
–Pastor Chuck Peters
“Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” John 21:22
Peter, in the context, inquired as to what John should do. Jesus admonished Peter to focus primarily on his own personal responsibility to follow the Lord.
We have a tendency to want to manage other people’s lives while ignoring our own responsibilities and needs. There are far too many lost people who go through life focused on how sinful everyone else is at the expense of overlooking their own sinful condition before a Holy God. They, furthermore, are more concerned in the accumulation of “things” than attending to the need of salvation of their soul. Multitudes of people are on a sinking ship, yet clinging to their luggage while the ship is going down. Their luggage can’t save them. They need to grab the life raft of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ.
Christians need to quit managing other people’s lives and simply get serious about following the Lord! Instead of saying, “What about John,” we need to focus on God’s personal will for our own lives. The best approach to following the Lord is to get serious about starting with the basics. Those basics are: Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, witnessing, and stewardship.
We simply need to be a good follower of the Lord. God said of Caleb, “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Numbers 14:24
Jesus told Peter, “Follow me.” We all fail when it comes to talents and abilities, but we can, by the grace of God, follow Him!
SHARING
A God To Pharaoh
–By Pastor Barry Farnsworth
“And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.” Exodus 7:1a
At 80 years of age, Moses was being sent to deliver his people from Egypt. His 83 year old brother was to be his voice. The negotiations were to begin. They would tell Pharaoh what God said, and Pharaoh, for the most part, would not listen. However, it was time to speak up for the Lord. It was time to do what God had told them to do. It was time for judgment and judgment would precede deliverance. Everything was to happen according to the order God had established.
God told Moses he would be “a god to Pharaoh.” He would lay down the demands. He would require obedience. He would bring judgment. As far as Pharaoh was concerned, dealing with Moses was the same as dealing with God. Pharaoh might not know God, but he would learn. He might not obey, but he would wish he had. He might not recognize authority, but soon he would recognize no other authority. He may not like the arrangement, but he could not change it no matter how much earthly power he possessed.
What we might take from this exchange is that God is not only God to His people, but He is also God to the world. God is their God whether or not they choose to listen. He is their God whether or not they choose to obey. Moses is His voice. God will deliver His people from the world, but while His people are waiting to be delivered, they should remember to speak for God to the world. There is a reason God chose Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and there is a reason He chose you to speak to the world of our day. While our names may not be recorded in the Scripture, we can still be a Moses to a lost and dying world.
Are you ready to face your Pharaoh?
“And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:5
SHARINGSuper Sundays (Without The Bowl)
The First Super Sunday – God Created Light: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5
The Resurrection Day Was a Super Sunday: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.” Luke 24:1-2. “He is not here, but is risen” Luke 24:6.
The Last Day of Pentecost (a 50 day feast) Was A Super Sunday: It was the day of ingathering of Old Testament believers into the New Testament Church: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. …we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Acts 2:1-41
God Gave The Book Of Revelation To John On A Super Sunday: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” Revelation 1:10
Wouldn’t it be something if Jesus was to return on the Lord’s Day? What a Super Sunday that would be! Matthew 24:36,42,44
Beware of the desecration of the Lord’s Day (that’s not super)—“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14. Beware of making pleasures the “idol” before God: “…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” 2 Timothy 3:4
SHARINGYour Sorrow Shall Be Turned Into Joy
(John 16:20)
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren…that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13
The scripture does not lead us to believe that Christians have no sorrow, but rather due to our hope in Christ, we do not sorrow as the unsaved, who are without real hope.
Jeremiah’s life was filled with such heartbreaking experiences in witnessing the spiritual apostasy and eventual devastation of his country with the Babylonian captivity, that he is often referred to as the weeping prophet. Some of this is reflected in the Book of Lamentations. Job wept while suffering the loss of all things, even his health, as he was despised and denigrated by his friends. Our Lord and Saviour was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). There were many periods in David’s life that are reflected in Psalm 38:17: “For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.”
Yet in light of the hope God’s Word sets before us, our faith is enabled to triumph over our sorrow, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” 2 Corinthians 6:10.
The difference is that a lost person’s present hope will all be swallowed up in the coming eternal hopelessness, while a saved person’s sorrow will all be swallowed up in the coming glory that awaits us.
An unsaved person has no Divine intervention for their problems, whereas with the saved, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, assures us that whenever necessary, God can and will intervene in the lives of those waiting upon Him. The lost have no larger plan and purpose for their lives, but the saved know God has a larger plan for our lives that involves His care. The lost have no promise that everything will work out for them in the end, whereas the saved have the promise that, at the outcome of all our trials, everything will work out for good to those that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Thus, as we sorrow in this life, our sorrow is enlightened with, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1
SHARINGThinking With The Scriptures
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
The Bible admonishes us to consider the faithfulness, the personal sacrifices and devoted service rendered to God by the saints of all ages. We are also to consider that the faith to live such lives comes from looking unto Jesus.
Hebrews 11 is often referred to as an honor roll of faithful saints. It speaks of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, Samuel, etc. It lauds their faith for making accomplishments beyond their own abilities. It holds up their God given victories when going up against superior foes. It praises their courageous faith in withstanding torture and laying down their lives, rather than deny the faith. It values their willingness to forsake all the world had to offer, to fulfill God’s call and purpose, esteeming heavenly rewards above earthly gain.
In view of the stories of their lives, etched out by faith, what does the story of our life have to witness in comparison, as well as to those we are responsible to inspire? How much of our lives are being defined by the accomplishments of faith?
What kind of a story does our life tell? What sacrifices have we made to advance the kingdom of Christ? What characterizes our way of life? Have we been spiritual pillars in the church? Who have we been instrumental in bringing to Christ?
The revelations of God’s Word can enable us to fast forward to the judgment seat of Christ, to understand how the lives we are now living will fare then. We need to meditate in God’s Word and pray to understand now, what our lives will prove to be in the presence of our omniscient God.
We must consider–will we be satisfied with our lives, when they are put up beside the lives of the saints of other ages, and when it is made known what they could have been by looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith?
SHARING
