Several years ago, I was convicted by the fact that having
called myself a Christian for about 20 years, I had not yet read the Bible in
its entirety. I’d like to say that I was fully obedient to that “assignment”
that God gave me, but I wasn’t. I did read it all, but it did take me a few
years to do so. Better late than never, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, because I
learned so much from doing that. No, because 98% obedience is still
disobedience. In school or college, if you are told that an assignment is due
on a particular day, but you turn in the assignment after the due date,
depending on the teacher, you may still get credit for it, but not as much as
you would have if you completed it on time. In some cases, some teachers would
not even accept it. All this to say that it is important to obey what the Lord
has said to do when the Lord says to do it.
As I read the Bible, I realized that there were some
differences or inconsistencies in how we, American Christians, interpret the
Word of God in our behavior and how people who were followers of Christ in the
Bible lived. I tried to rationalize it by thinking that we are living in modern
times and “things were different back then”. I started hearing sermons about
while some may call themselves Christian, go to church every Sunday, read the
Bible and do good to others; some will not go to Heaven. That was a wake-up
call! So, for the last several years, I have wrestled with whether I am a
Christian or not. It was difficult to put into words when I would share these
feelings with others. Now, after reading just a small portion of Multiply: disciples making disciples by
Francis Chan with Mark Beuving and listening to some sermons by David Platt
based on his book, Radical, I
realized why I have felt so convicted. Chan says “Basically, a disciple is a
follower, but only if we take the follower literally. Becoming a disciple of
Jesus is as simple as obeying His call to follow.” (p. 16) This made me think
of the game that we played as kids, “Follow the Leader”. I looked up the basic
rules of the game on Wikipedia. It says,
“Follow
the leader is a children’s game. First a leader or head of the line is chosen,
then the children all line up behind the leader. The leader then moves around
and all the children have to mimic the leader’s actions. Any players who fail
to follow or do what the leader does are out of the game.”
So, my question is do I read the Bible enough to know who
Jesus Christ is, what is important to Him and what He has done? Do I read the
Bible enough to know what He commands of His followers? What did He do while He
was here on earth and do I do the same things He did? He obeyed our Heavenly
Father to the point of death, do I obey with the same fervency? If not, then I
have to question whether or not I really believe Jesus Christ is who He says He
is and question whether or not I really believe His Word, The Holy Bible, is true.
Naturally, I then have to question, am I truly a follower of Christ? Notice my
questions are NOT do I go to church and how often? Nor is it do I participate
in a Bible Study? Nor is the question, on how many programs or committees do I
serve?
I am not trying to suggest that our salvation is based on
what we do. Romans 10:9, 10 says, “. . .because if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified and with
the mouth one confesses and is saved.” If Jesus is my Lord and I believe that
every word He says is true, then I will do what He says when He says to do it.
Plain and simple.
So, my question to you . . .is Jesus Christ your Leader and
do you follow Him?
