Mark 1:16-18

Mark 1:16-18 “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew 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.”

John 21:18-19 “Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”’

For the last month, I’ve been reading a small section of Joseph M. Stowell’s book, “Following Christ” each night in my devotional time. Right up front, Stowell points out that Jesus began His ministry with a call to follow Him. And He ended His ministry with the same call. That makes following Christ a lot more important than a lot of us want it to be.

It’s human nature to want to lead. We like it when other people follow us. We divide the world into the leaders and the followers, with the implication that the leaders are the winners and the followers are the losers.

But Jesus turns the world’s understanding on its ear. His highest calling for us is to follow. He never talked about how to be a leader, but instead showed by His example how to serve others and to follow His Father.

The question becomes: How well do I follow? How well do I listen for the Good Shepherd’s voice, and when I hear it, how well do I obey? It’s not enough for me to listen. Following requires action. Just as Peter (Simon) and Andrew left their nets at once, so I too need to act right away when Jesus calls.

How is your “followership” these days? Let your focus be the will of your Lord and Savior.

May you follow in His footsteps, wherever He may lead.

Brenda

Acts 9:5-9

Acts 9:5-9 "’Who are you, sir?’ Saul asked. And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men with Saul stood speechless with surprise, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice, but they saw no one! As Saul picked himself up off the ground, he found that he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days. And all that time he went without food and water.”

Colossians 3:2-4 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”


Our pastor has been doing a series of sermons through the book of Acts, and when he went over Paul’s conversion, something struck me that wasn’t part of the sermon. Paul remained blind for three days, without food or water. Jesus Himself was dead for three days, blind to this world and without food or water.

There are no coincidences with God, especially not in Scripture. But this lesson is a bit of a challenge when I try to figure out what it means in my life. Almost nobody has a conversion like Paul’s, where we’re blinded or we fast for three days. I certainly didn’t.

But Paul tells us in Colossians (and lots of other places) that we died. Our lives are not our own. Our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. Hidden, so we can’t very easily take them back, though we try sometimes. We are not our life now. Jesus is.

It’s hard to remember, though, because I live here on this earth, so my mind is on earthly things. I blog about politics and culture and weird animal news. I’m working toward traveling as a career, but I still have my day job that takes up most of my time. I haven’t left myself much time for setting my mind on things above, but I need that more than all the rest of what I do. I’m thankful for writing the Bread, because it forces me to focus on Christ, who is my life.

“Set your mind…” is active. It’s forceful, determined, and for me at least, it takes determination to do it. What about you? Where is your mind set? Where is your life hidden? In Christ, or wrapped up in your own two arms? Remember that at your conversion, you died. Give your life back to Christ, so one day you also will appear with Him in glory.

May you live in Him, for Him.

Brenda

Ephesians 3:17

Ephesians 3:17 “And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.”

I got a call not too long ago from the husband of an old friend of mine, inviting me to a surprise birthday party for her. We had lived next door to each other nineteen years ago, when our sons were toddlers and we were pregnant with our daughters, who were born four days apart. But time and growing families and the real estate market sent us our separate ways.

About ten years after that, we met again at a bible study and got reacquainted. I was going through a divorce, and she was pregnant with her third child, but we managed to keep in touch for a year or so. Then we lost contact and made it again when our sons went to the same high school, and lost it again after they graduated.

We’ve always been happy to see each other again, but as I thought about what to get her for her birthday, I was stumped. I knew her, but I didn’t know anything important about her. I had no idea what she liked to do, so I had no idea what she’d like for her birthday. Scrapbooking supplies? Crafts? Books? Movies? I settled on a bookstore that also sells movies and music and coffee and got her a gift certificate. It was very generic, and it saddened me that I didn’t know her better.

I don’t want my relationship with Jesus to get that way, where I bump into Him every now and then. I don’t want to lose track of what pleases Him. I want my roots to go down deep and not stay at the surface.

Where is your relationship with Christ? Do you know Him well? Are your roots sinking down into the soil of God’s love?

I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.

Brenda

Psalm 23:1

Psalm 23:1 "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

“Want” is an old-fashioned word, as it’s used in the twenty-third Psalm. It means to lack or need something, or to feel the lack of it. People used to say, “He wants wisdom,” and they didn’t mean that he desired wisdom. They meant that he didn’t have a wise bone in his body, and he sorely needed it. So this Psalm doesn’t mean that I’m never going to desire anything. It means that, when the Lord is my Shepherd, I’ll never feel a lack of anything I need.

Unfortunately, I want. In both the current and the old senses of the word. I want my work hours to be shorter. I want more energy left at the end of the day. I want to be able to travel more. I want less stress, more peace, and maybe even enough time to have a relationship with a Christian man. Oh, and I guess I want that Christian man to show up too.

I haven’t thought about wanting as wrong, because the things I want aren’t wrong. But wanting in the modern sense also means wanting in the old-fashioned sense. By telling the Lord that I want my life to be different, I’m also telling Him that I’m not satisfied with what He has provided for me. That kind of dissatisfaction is wrong.

Of course, there are times when the Lord gives us dissatisfaction in order to stir us out of our complacency or to set us in a new direction where we can be more effective for Him. But more often than not, I find that my dissatisfaction grows out of a stubborn, selfish heart—a heart that forgets to follow its Shepherd.

What fills your heart? Is it dissatisfaction? Is it wanting what the Lord hasn’t given you? Or, is it trust for the Shepherd who provides all you need so you need not want?

Look to your Shepherd.

Brenda

Psalm 103:15-17

Psalm 103:15-17 "Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children.”

Psalm 8:3-4 "When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have set in place—what are mortals that you should think of us, mere humans that that you should care for us?”

I went to Washington DC a couple months ago for a travel photography workshop, and one of the places we visited was Arlington National Cemetery. Our decorated servicemen and women and their families are buried there in row after row of headstones. Beside the path, I saw one headstone that wrenched my heart. It read:

His twin daughters
Nancy Roberta
Feb 6 1955 Feb 7, 1955
Catherine Janet
Feb 6, 1955
Feb 10,1955

It’s just names and dates and not much more, but it tells a story of heartache and lost dreams, of a mother’s fear when she realizes her labor has started, of two little girls born much too soon and then gone in what seems like the blink of an eye.

And yet we know that God is mindful of each human life, from the most fleeting to the very longest. His love was with each of these tiny girls as they struggled for life and lost. And His loving care was for their parents in the days their babies lived here on earth and in the years that followed. I don’t know who the parents were or whether they were Christians or not, but I do know that the love of the Lord reached out to them, drawing them to Himself for salvation, for comfort, and for strength.

The Lord our God shapes each one of us through the joy and the pain of life, and it’s usually through the pain that our faith and our character gain depth. The Lord is mindful of us, and He uses all of it for His glory and for our good.

Praise His holy name!

Brenda