How far will you follow me?

God is always asking, will you follow me and if so how far? By looking at the life of Peter, we see that Jesus was always asking Him, how far will you follow me. First of all when Jesus called the disciples, He asked them (Peter included) to give up their jobs in order to become His disciple or follower. A job isn't just a job but a source of provision, comfort, and for men in that time it can be a form of identity. So Peter dropped his nets and followed after Jesus. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:18  Another time Jesus asked the question "how far will you follow me", was when he asked Peter to step out on the boat. Matthew 14:25-29 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."Come," he said.   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" In our relationship with God we are asked often times to venture into the unknown like Peter was when he was asked to walk on water. We are sometimes asked to do things that with our all natural eyes look and seem humanly impossible. The most amazing thing about this event that took place is what Peter said. When He said, Lord if it's you, I'll come, He was declaring that no matter what it looked like, felt like, how unknown and no matter how afraid he may be THAT because Jesus bid Him come and because Jesus was on the water then He could step out of the known into the unknown. The unknown will always seem fearful unless you step out with the One you know. The only hope that Peter had in this situation, was that the One He knew was on the standing on the water. Peter had several firsthand experiences with Jesus, meaning He had personally been with Jesus as He had fed the multitude, healed the sick, raised the dead, spoken truth to the blind, crossed cultural boundaries, and even watched him escape it all to pray to His father. Peter experienced it firsthand and had a knowing of Christ, so when Jesus responded "It is I"... although everyone else was afraid, Peter stepped out of the boat because He knew Jesus. As followers of Christ, we too experience Jesus firsthand through a daily relationship with Him: we know Him, when He calls, when He speaks, when He leads, and when He whispers  his amazing love to us. The sheep know His voice. Sometimes like Peter, we see our "very known" personal Savior in an unknown place asking us how far we will follow him. When we know it's him, even if we sink he holds us up, because He is faithful to those who follow him in obedience. When Jesus asks how far will you follow me, it's a matter of trust. Will you trust like Peter did, even in the unknown, that He will hold you up? It's greater to be in the unknown with the one you know than rather than being in the known without Him. Trust the One you know and where He has led you this far, even when you face the unknown. The unknown changes, the known changes because they are just circumstances..but Jesus (who you know), will never change. What he speaks is sovereign, and where He leads is for divine purpose. God always asks to His children how far will you follow me and how much will you trust me? He asks us this because he loves us and desires that we all grow closer to Him in our own life and so His will can be at constant work through us. A lot of times we pray for greater things in God and that greater can come as the unknown where we have to take a blind leap into the loving arms of our Savior. Trust is defined in a very broad way, but I like to think of it as this in my relationship with God: With all that I am rely on all that He is, and He is always more than enough. So when Jesus asks, how far.... follow Him farther because He knows every step of the journey in our lives and whether this is the first step of salvation or the step to walk in a specific calling, God is still leading and directing every step and He knows what we can't quite see yet. The plans He wants to fulfill through those He created are amazing, and He asks us to follow Him in loving obedience and the best response is more than a yes, but an actual step. 

All around we are facing unknown circumstances in our society and in this specific time in history. Whether it's economic trouble, family problems, and the list could go on and on  because that's what circumstances do... but today, trust the one you know with all that you are despite what everything else looks like. 
 I would encourage you to read Matthew chapter 14 and today don't put a limit on how far you follow Jesus, but follow  Him, fully abandoned with a loving heart. Don't stay in the boat, but go where He is.

Dinner with a sinner

Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick......For I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners." Matthew 9:12. In this moment of  Jesus' mission, He and his disciples were eating with tax collectors and 'sinners'. This specific dinner apparently intrigued the Pharisees, as seen in their questioning. The life that Jesus lived allows us, as ordinary followers , to capture his nature- meditate on it, embrace it, reflect it and live it. So what can we reflect in this circumstance? We can acquire a lifestyle model of making eternal investments and discovering true evangelism of the gospel of Christ. Dinner with a sinner. All around us are people who need to know Jesus, desperately, and are truly missing hope, peace, salvation, worth, freedom, healing, etc. People all over the world need the real Jesus... the Jesus that ate with sinners, that shared His love by daily laying down his life and by pouring out all he had far beyond man-made barriers, traditions, and physical limitations. Sometimes knowing the amount of lost people, the great amount of people in nations who have never heard the gospel message or who are the least evangelized, seeing poverty stricken people, the hurt, wounded, broken, bound, addicts, or even those whose crutch is man-made traditions, is... well overwhelming. So with this overwhelming factor of the world, where do we start. Jesus left the 99 to go after the 1. We can begin by investing in the one(s) around us. When God puts something in your heart, it is very much alive, a heartbeat causes your body to respond. The heartbeat of God in a willing vessel will cause one thing: action. Sometimes it's so easy to get wrong ideas about how things are supposed to look like or how they are even supposed to function. For instance, sometimes in our ohhh so human minds, it's easy to think that the things of God have to be embellished with something of "our own" when in reality He ministers in power according to His will and normally a lot more simple but amazing than we expect. So, dinner with a sinner- One person at a time: Reaching out to the people around you, sharing the hope you have with another, displaying the life changing, unselfish, amazing, distinct Love of Christ.  Jesus reached out to me when I thought I was unreachable. His love met me at the place where I was a sinner and He embraced me there and my life changed. As you pray and know the heart of God, He reveals people around you that need Him. When God shows you this person, or people be their friend and build a relationship with them. Get to know them and follow God's lead with them. "Dinner with a sinner", or befriending an individual who needs Jesus will allow the nature of God to naturally flow through those who follow Him and the people who are being reached out to will see something different. That difference is of course Jesus. As a Christian, we are all called to live a life or mission. A mission of following God on the journey in daily obedience and seeing the world as He does will allow you to impact others and take part of the work He has started. The harvest isn't an event that will take place one day or in the future, the harvest is now for those who are willing to see it. One day at a time, one obedient act at a time, one individual coming to know Christ at a time... what a life to live, daily encountering God to know Him more and in return make Him known by pouring yourself out into those around you, and to wherever the journey leads you. Jesus truly saw the worth in each individual He encountered on His journey and He even knew the worth of every person ever created thus He gave all. By seeing with the eyes of God, we can see the worth in people we encounter, because underneath it all, each person has the value that is seen in the life and death of our one true Savior, Jesus. Worth shouldn't be questioned, when Jesus gave His life for all, so they may know Him. May the mission of God be branded on our hearts and sealed in our lives as we reach out those around us.

All access---Love!

It's amazing to know that God, is never unavailable and never too distant for us. The God of  all creation is not too far out of reach and we have all access to Him through the work of the cross. It's a captivating thought to understand that God created us and desires to be in relationship with us. He doesn't require it, but through the life of Jesus we see that God gave everything so that we could be reconciled back to Him. Nothing compares to the love of God. Who knows you better than the one that created you? No one knows the depth that God put inside of you before he formed you, except Him. God takes the time to be with us, to commune with us. In the garden, prior to the Fall of Man, the world was"one" with God. After the fall of man, we had to live in the curse of sin, which separates us from our maker. Jesus reconciled that gap by being born of a virgin, living a life to exhibit who God was, and then die a cruel death on the cross, to then overcome death and sin. Because of this, God is ever-present and we have all access to Him in our lives. Each day, I can wake up and come to God through grace to know Him, talk to Him, and daily encounter Him. This is life changing to catch the revelation that God loves to spend time with His children. He invests in us and goes to the depths to rescue us in this life! God's goodness never ends, his grace is not limited, and His time is not like ours. He is everywhere, always! Inside of each person is a divine plan, that God placed in us. The Bible says that we were created in His image, so somewhere in us despite our worldliness, is characteristics of God. When we begin to search after God to know Him more, His characteristics, His heart, and His plan for our lives begins to surface. When your life is turned over to your Savior, you begin to walk in you really are! At this point, you realize your life isn't your own, but that we belong to God! Perspectives on life begin to change, and you realize that each day counts! Knowing who God is, asks that we live every day on purpose. Embracing the heart of God and living a life accordingly is a full life. Love begins in us, by knowing the love of Christ and it's then spread to those around us. God's heart is zealous for the world, that includes us and all people, of every nation, race, language.etc.  The sincere love of God reached us at our lowest points, so the love of God in us will reach the world around us! It takes no specific equation to be in relationship with God, but that you allow realize that forgiveness for all sin, is in the work of Christ and that He is lord and Savior...We were created to know God, find out who we are in Him, and live a life to make Him known. I'm definitely thankful that every day I can experience God and live a life for Him.. there's no greater life!

Make the Day Count!

On most jobs people do what they must do in order to provide proof of hours worked in order to gain their wages for the time spent on the job. You can almost visualize 90% of our society running into the office after a very hectic morning, to make it to the time clock so they can clock in on time, and then at the end of the day they anxiously await the clock to roll over from 4:59 to 5:00 so they can clock out for an afternoon of relaxation.
We live in a fast paced environment and clocking in/clocking out is the norm for the working crowd. Unfortunately, sometimes "clocking in and clocking out" rolls over from just our jobs or other obligations in life to our relationship with God and what He wants to do through us.Thankfully God never takes a break to stop doing His work in my life or from fulfilling His purposes in the world, because my life would probably be wrecked.
The bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11:He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

When we get to the place that we realize God is always at work in our individual lives, for us and with us, and also at work in the lives around us it's easy to see that He never takes a break and that as He works for eternal purposes, that we should also work for the eternal purposes in life. God has set eternity in our hearts and although we spend each day walking on the earth, surrounded by the temporary, we are still on eternal time meaning everything we do now will make an eternal difference. While we may think that we have things to do according to our own agenda, our personal plans, goals, "stresses", etc, what we are actually living in this lifetime is on God's time. With the amazing revelation that God fights for us our entire life and created us for Him to be in relationship with Him and live for Him, revolutionizes the way we view "time" here on earth. The simple fact of knowing we don't choose Him, but He chooses us and places destiny in our lives, handpicking us while we were even in our mothers wombs, shows me that my time is not my own and the "time" I consider lengthy is but a moment to my savior in comparison to eternity. So, knowing eternity is in my heart and every moment can count for something great, it causes my walk to be different, my talk to be different. This revelation allows you to see from a greater perspective and rearranges your life, so that you position yourself to daily make your life count for something. Making the day count doesn't necessarily mean doing the most grand of things, but God will put you in a place in your life surrounded by people who need to know Him. That's a way to make the day count, that's away to make the hours, minutes, and seconds count. Praying and seeking God on behalf of His people will result in God sharing his compassion for people with you. At this point your heart will begin to break for the things His breaks for, the lost, hurting, idolaters, sick, poor, the lady at the grocery store, or the guy you always see whose eyes show emptiness. Living a life of impact can start with where you are, and count for all eternity. Loving people as Jesus showed His love for you counts for eternity. It doesn't take some magnificent equation, but a daily obedience to God's voice and willingness to lay down your life for those around you! That changes the course of man-kind greater than any event ever could. Everyday=Eternity, we are living it now, and from the moment we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior eternity set in our hearts and the clock began ticking to do the will of the one who Sent us. Everyday at that point our lives had the potential to really count for something. Jesus on his life journey, poured Himself out every single day, whether it was investing in the disciples, ministering to the crowds, sharing with the Pharisees, who would misunderstand Him, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and loosing the bound. What an extraordinary life that throughout His entire life He exhausted all He had, poured out all He was to the people He daily came in contact with, no matter where He was. Eternity was set in His heart. In the final moments of His life, when Jesus was on the cross He bridged the gap due to sin that separated the Father from man-kind,  He paid the price for our sins, and then as He was ressurected, defeating all the enemie's tactics and giving us opportunity for new life. Because of His entire life and because of the mighty work of the cross and ressurection, He made a way for eternity to be set in our hearts. How different would our lives be like if we knew everyday was not our own, but a day to do the will of the one who sent us. How different would the world around us be, if this wasn't only a thought, but a mindset to which a lifestyle followed. His kingdom work is being fulfilled all around us, and by asking Him to allow us to be a part we can be a mighty part in the work He began. Daily obedience, living everyday for eternal purposes will not only change us, the world around us, but bring honor to God, because this is His heart.With the technology we have, an email can be sent in a second, a text message can be sent in a second.. it is all very fast paced. With a second what kind of impact can we make? With our time what kind of eternal investments can we make? No spiritual clocking in and clocking out, but using the 86,400 seconds in your day to know God, hear Him, and make Him known... living a life reflecting the Father can never stop.