Follow The Leader

I can hear my Savior calling,
“Take thy cross and follow, follow Me….”

Where He leads me I will follow,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.

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One summer when I was 6 years old we moved into a new neighborhood. Normally, moving can have a traumatic effect on a youthful psyche; you know, Change. Usually when you move into new surroundings the transition can be brutal, especially to six and five year old boys.

But to our surprise this move was a good one, we never had to prove how tough we were to anyone, our block was very tightly-knitted together, sort of like family. We had so much fun it seemed like the longest summer of my life.

Making friends was so easy, and it seemed that every morning a bunch of our new friends could be found knocking on the door wanting us to come out and play, and play we did. From climbing trees to playing soldiers or cowboys and Indians, we just had a blast. It was as if we’d always lived there.

One of my favorite games to play was follow the leader. That’s the game where one person does a lot of crazy and sometimes dangerous things, and everyone else duplicates the fete.

 

It seems that everyday our front porch was the meeting place for the crew and either my brother or I would always be out front no matter what game we played or what adventure we were involved in; a simple “follow me” was all the guys needed to hear, and we were off. What was even more amazing is that no matter the situation, these guys followed wherever we went.

In the 4^th Chapter of Matthew, Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Soon after His triumph over the Devil, Jesus heads into Galilee and a few other places; as He walks along by the sea Jesus spots Peter and his brother Andrew and says to them “follow me…” Together the three of them go on a bit further until Jesus sees James and his brother John. He gives them the same command; “follow me…”

Exactly what did Jesus mean by that command, what was His intention?

In this day and age of pop-culture and fads; mankind has become creatures of habit the world over, and are easily enticed to follow after every new thing that looks good, tastes good, or feels good. The problem with this behavior is that not everything this society has to offer is good for man, woman or child. (1^st Corinthians 10:23-24)

Just think about it? Everything Christ-like has become either a target of this society or just simply ignored. Christian truths go against the order of this world’s view of God. Furthermore, what’s good is bad and what’s bad is good.

This kind of attitude can often-times be found in the church. People are following after their own desires and beliefs, but they come to church because it’s a traditional event; most love the singing, the praise; but they despise the word.

Jesus’ intended for His chosen people to follow not just His example, but His life-style of holiness, righteousness; and to follow the commandments of the Father. Sadly enough, many church-folk believe that by just attending a service every now and then, they are doing just enough to please God, they might pray on occasion, and may even casually read the Bible long enough to memorize a couple of scriptures; they may even learn a few churchism’s…

However the thought of truly dedicating their lives to Christ would interfere with their pursuit of life and happiness according to the world’s standards. The fact that their grand-parents or parents took them to church as children, or sent them to Sunday school says that they are religious; and they are, however they lack relationship because in their hearts they’ve conformed to the ways of the more popular culture. A wealthy young man once came to Jesus saying all of the right things but he didn’t quite do all of the right things. Jesus was very precise in telling him that he was lacking in his desire to walk with Jesus, he challenged this man to sell all of his possessions, give the profits to the poor, then take up his cross and follow Christ. However he could not comply and never understood the perfect will of the Father. (Ref. Mark 10:17-22, Romans 12:1-2)

The focus here is not so much on walking with Christ as it is to follow after Him. In my lifetime I’ve walked with a plethora of people, some good and some not so good; but the only individual I ever wanted to follow after was my father. In doing so, I concentrated on just about every aspect of his life; my ultimate goal has always been to emulate him in every way possible. This required me to live and do exactly as he would do. He loved helping people, and so do I, he enjoyed serving, and so do I, most of all, he loved following after Christ and so do I. In fact, many of my ways and habits are a direct result of following dad’s example.

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these…” John 5:19-20



I remember the evening that we arrived at Parris Island South Carolina for basic training, we were ordered to stand on the foot-prints that were painted on the ground. By doing so our feet were positioned in a perfect 45 degree angle. By the same manner when we follow after Christ we take a path which ultimately leads to perfection in the ways of holiness, and righteousness.



To follow the leading of the Master means to follow a path of servant hood; this also means that our concentration is no longer on what makes us happy; instead we only seek to make others happy and to please the Father. (Ref. John 12:26, 13:3-7, Philippians 2:5-70

Following after the ways and will of Christ leads us to life everlasting where He has already prepared a mansion for those whom He leads. (Ref. John 14:2-3)

If you are a person who’s been accustomed to following the in-crowd, the ways of the world, the popular culture, let me encourage you to change direction; and follow Jesus.

                    “He’s a mighty good leader!”