"Drop Your Nets"

Many people in North America would consider themselves Christians, in fact, as of 2008 about 70% of Americans consider themselves Christian. With such a high percentage of people calling themselves this, it makes you wonder what it is that they actually believe. The definition of a Christian from the Merriam-Websters Dictionary is basically someone that attends church, and maybe even believes in the Bible. This is what I like to call "stereotypical Christianity", and is why I've come to almost dislike the term "Christian". You see, it's really easy to call yourself a Christian, 70% of Americans do, but it's a lot harder to actually live it out. So I'd like to propose a new term; Christ Followers. What is a Christ Follower? Someone that has Christ in their LIFE, someone that really believes in what the word of God says and radically lives it out, who has a relationship with Christ. Quite a bit harder than just showing up at church. In fact, research shows that only 9% of Christians actually have a biblical world view, that's 4% of Americans! Can you call yourself a Christ Follower? Or have you gotten caught up in this stereotypical, watered down version of Christianity? A lot of Christians fit into the category that many have dubbed "lukewarm", kind of sitting on the fence and not making a strong stand either way. However, when it comes right down to it if you aren't growing closer to Christ, then you have to be drifting farther away. There is no middle ground.

One of my favorite bible passages is the calling of the disciples in Mark 1, and the one verse that really hits home is verse 18; "At once they left their nets and followed Him." Doesn't it seem a bit odd that these men (who were really only "teenagers") would just drop what they were doing and follow Jesus? They didn't even know who He was! This picture really doesn't get portrayed well today. I mean, we get the idea that there are a bunch of white guys on the beach, and Jesus comes casually walking down the shore with perfect blond hair, and a blue beauty sash...that's really not how it when down. The fact that these men were fishermen says that they were "low-class", they weren't the "best of the best", but still, Jesus sought them out and asked them to follow Him. And they left their lives behind and went with Him.

Just like the disciples, Christ is calling each of us to follow Him. Like the disciples we aren't the "best of the best", we screw up and struggle with different things. Each and everyone of us has something that we struggle with, even the people that look like they've got it all together. In the summer, I worked at camp for a few weeks. If you've ever had the chance to do that you'll know how draining it can be. You're physically tired, but also emotionally drained because you've been pouring so much of yourself out. For me, the hardest thing wasn't unruly campers, or even being totally exhausted. It was reaching a low, a point where all the masks were stripped away, and being pushed beyond what I thought I could take, and then realizing how ugly of of person I really was inside.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38,39

Think of this; we aren't the "best of the best", we're ugly insides, we've messed up, and Christ still calls us to follow Him. But even more than than, He LOVES us. He loves each and everyone of you more that you can even begin to imagine.

You may thinking that this is just the same old "Jesus loves me" message, and yeah, that's important, but it's not what I'm trying to get you to think about. Watch this video clip and see what you think...

The girl in the skit gets dragged down by so many things. Where did you see yourself in that? You have been called by Christ. What is holding you back from following Him? What are the "nets" in your life that you need to drop, to leave behind to follow Christ? Maybe it's lifestyle choices, maybe it's addictions, or relationships, but in each of our lives there are things that we must give up in order to fully follow Christ.

Back to the Christ Follower thing, thinking about that now, can you call yourself a Christ Follower? Is it worth it to you? God's free gift of salvation will cost you everything. Are you willing to drop EVERYTHING and let Christ save and change you? Are you willing to rely only on Him? Everyday you have the choice to make Jesus look greater or bad, to sound great or bad, what does your life show about Him? You could be the only bible that someone ever reads. What about your boundaries in life? How far will you go in certain things? There's this attitude among teenagers where we want to know where the all the lines are...so we can see how close you can get to them. Someone once told me that as soon as anything stops bringing glory to God it becomes wrong, which made me step back and majorly examine my life. So where does it stop bringing glory to God? What are the things that pull you away from God? Those are the things that we need to hold with an open hand, they need to be the negotiables in life that we're willing to drop in order to follow Christ. Are you willing to let everything that you do glorify God alone? How obvious is it that Christ is in you? Do you eagerly set out to be His hands and feet? Or do you only bother when it's convenient? We have to willingly give our lives over to Christ. You have to put God first, the focus must be on Him. Are you willing to step away? It isn't going to be easy, in fact following Christ is probably one of the hardest things that you can do, but it is also the best thing that you can ever do with your life. Christ never promised it would be easy, in fact, He promised the opposite;

"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:34-36

Are you in? Are you sick of living the same old life? Because of you're really willing to go all out for Christ, He WILL use you. Or maybe you really don't care, and honestly, I can't make you, no one can, it's your choice. But to see that apathy breaks my heart, but more than that; it breaks God's heart. Are you in? What's holding you back?

soli deo gloria

The Ultimatum

What is this ultimatum I'm talking about? It's about following Christ. You see, a lot of people have got it wrong. You'll often hear it talked about how you can chose Christ, and yeah, you definitely do don't get me wrong, but they fail to tell you how you make a choice either way. If you don't chose Christ, you reject Him. Look at what Jesus gave up for you, He loved you SO much that He was willing to die for it, He gave His life so that you could gain true life. He wants people to follow Him, He's waiting and knocking for you. Are you listening?

He's calling you to follow Him, are you ready to go? Are you ready to drop everything and follow Christ no matter what it takes? He's calling people to follow Him, but He doesn't want lukewarm followers, He wants people who are totally sold out for Him. There's no sitting on the fence, there's no middle ground, you either follow Christ, or follow the world, you can't have one foot on both sides. Each side has a completely opposite view from the other, and you can't hold both. It's like two trains heading in different directions, you can't have one foot on both; it's going to tear you apart. You have to either follow Christ or the world, and if you decide not to chose, you've defaulted and picked the world. What side are you on?

That's the ultimatum.

soli deo gloria