Come Follow Me….

“Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.” Matt. 4:18-22

So guys, the inspiration for this post came to me today when I was working on my Bible Study which is due this Friday. The theme of my Bible Study is to step outside our comfort zones, the walls we place around ourselves to keep us safe. Comfort zones aren’t necessarily bad, in fact sometimes they are good. I know I like my comfort zone…maybe a little too much. But I digress…

Comfort zones help show us where and where we should not go. They define clear boundaries of what is normal. But when we stay inside our zones, we do not grow, learn, experience, or change the world around us. In fact, we do nothing at all…we don’t change. We stay the same person that we have always been.

So my Bible Study was on that topic and a thought occurred to me. How many times does Jesus beckon to us and says, “Come, follow me,” and we do nothing at all. I believe God is always calling us to new things. He wants us to always be discovering Him and diving deeper into His heart. But He also wants us to be actively serving Him as well. In fact, service to God is just an outward expression of our love towards Him.

I can’t help but think of how many times Jesus has called me to follow Him and I turned away because it called me outside my comfort zone, my normal. You see, God is the type to rock our worlds because if He didn’t shake things up every now and then, we would slowly sink into complacency. That is not to say that God is responsible for every earth shaking even that happens in our lives. He WILL NOT hurt us in any way, but at the same time God doesn’t want us comfortable in our relationship. A comfortable relationship is often times a complacent relationship. When we fail to strive to dive deeper into God’s heart, we are telling Him that we don’t want to learn about Him any more, that we think we know enough.

I wonder if Peter and Andrew when they had heard Jesus say, “Come, follow me,” turned the other way and dismissed Him as a raving lunatic on the beach if Jesus would have asked them again. I also wonder if Jesus calls me to something big and I dismiss Him will He ask me a second time?

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What Is Fear?

So, like the title says, what is fear? What defines fear? Or even a better way of wording it, what makes an object or a place fearful? Is it associated with a bad memory, a traumatic experience or even just something unearthly creepy that sends chills up and down your spine? Well, this post is based on a video episode by a man named Neil T. Anderson and hopefully, this will encourage you to see the truth behind some of your fears.

Well, fear can be sometimes seen as something that is sometimes irrational. Some phobias, for example, such as the fear of spiders or the fear of tight spaces can seem to some silly and even downright stupid except for the person experiencing the phobia. While the reason you have a phobia is sometimes unknown, some are brought on by traumatic and abusive circumstances or situations. For example, if as a child you were locked in a small, dark closet for being bad, chances are, you will associate small, tight places and even darkness as something bad.

The point is, we cannot really know what defines fear or what makes one thing scary to someone else and not to another. Or can we?

Isaiah 8:13-14, “13 “It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. “Then He shall become a sanctuary…”

This verse clearly says that God should be the one thing we fear. He should be the one we “dread”. Not because He is mean or even a cruel God but simply because He is God and we are men. He WILL NOT squish us like bugs but He is a jealous God and deeply desires a relationship with us. Fearing God means respecting and honoring Him for who He is; the Maker of Heaven and earth. Once we develop that mentality — that God is God and we are not — then He will become our safe place, our refuge. God ALWAYS takes care of His own.

So then, what is fear? Or rather, what should fear be? Based on that passage, our fear should be a deep and healthy reverence for God. Easier said than done, I know. In fact, I am probably the last person who should be talking about fear. I have feared many things. When I was a child, I was scared of the dark. But even then, my mother always told me that God is with me and when He is with me, who can be against me?

Receiving a Bible for the First Time

This maybe one of the most powerful one minute videos you will ever see. To think that I take the three Bibles I have on my shelf for granted when these people are so grateful to receive even ONE copy. I cannot help but think that if the Bible was outlawed in our country, would I treasure the Word of God this much?