“‎Those who aren’t following Jesus aren’t his followers. It’s that simple. Followers follow, and those who don’t follow aren’t followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it.”
― Scot McKnight, One Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow

I have been doing a lot of reading on discipleship since Pastor Sheridan’s sermon series about it. The statement above is a pretty powerful one isn’t it?! But it is also true. Our purpose is to be disciples of Jesus – we are told that we are to die to our self-centered agenda and live for Him and allow Him to live through us in everything we do.We are to commit our lives to Jesus Christ and be willing to do whatever Jesus tells us so that His kingdom will be built according to His plan.We Follow Him.

Does this mean we don’t get a’ life’ ? I think the question should be what do you mean by ‘life’? Does having a ‘life ‘ mean living to fulfill your own pleasures and desires and if there is any time left over you might fit God or church into it if you aren’t too exhausted from all you are filling your ‘life’ with?
Luke 9:23,24 NIV
23. Then He said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
24. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

I don’t believe that we are supposed to make ourselves miserable, or to not enjoy life, family, friends…. But because of our love for Jesus we need to surrender our ‘right’ to do what we want. We need to surrender our right to do with our life what we please and allow him control over EVERY area of our lives.And we need to Follow – actively seek Him and His plan for our lives, deliberately serve Him and continually strive for deeper understanding of His teaching. We need to be disciples – and make disciples!

Vicki