Following Jesus

Honestly Following Jesus

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabbi let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.   Mark 10:51 ESV

Some of us might feel we need some kind of special mysterious experience to understand God. But Jesus always made things very simple for people. Out of all the thousands of people in the crowd that day it is amazing that only this one blind man named Bartimaeus could see clearly. When he heard that Jesus was coming his way, he believed that God was really interested in his problem. Then Bartimaeus began to shout as loud as he could asking Jesus to have mercy on him. The people around him told him to quiet down. They didn’t believe that Jesus would be interested in helping somebody like Bartimaeus.

But the good news for Bartimaeus and for us is that Jesus is interested in everyone. He had not walked up the street where Bartimaeus was sitting by accident. Just like Bartimaeus all you and I have to do is believe he cares and ask for His help no matter what anyone else say. Then just like Bartimaeus we will discover that God is passing by today because He loves us and sent Jesus for anyone ready to be honest and who are willing to follow Him!

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This Little Salt of Mine

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You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. Matthew 5:14 ESV

Being the salt of the earth gets a lot less attention than being the light of the world. After all when was the last time you heard anyone singing, “This little salt of mine!”? When people think about the salt of the earth they vaguely picture plain and ordinary folks. On the other hand, when my mother used to say that sailors were using “salty language”; she meant something quite different. Then what exactly is there about salt that Jesus is urging us to understand?

It may help to remember that salt comes up from mines deep in the earth. Its uniqueness is that it is totally different from the soil around it. In the same way, when we became Christians God dug us up by His grace and brought to the surface for a special purpose. His grace has transformed us and so He asks us to let that grace flow through us to transform our own little part of the world. Every day He gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the difference that grace has made in our lives; not to try to fit in and become like everyone else. When Jesus prayed that we would be in the world, but not of it He was asking that His grace would flavor everything and everyone around us. We are on earth for such a short time, so why don’t we start singing, “This little salt of mine; I’m going to shake it out!”

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Keeping Our Eyes on the Star

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After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Matthew 2:9 ESV

A funny thing happened to the wise men on their way to Bethlehem. Though they had followed God’s star for hundreds of miles across deserts and mountains, when they got close to their destination they decided to ask King Herod which way to go. “Now why would they do that?” we might ask. The fact is that all of us do the same thing at times. We begin in the right direction on something we know is God’s will in our lives, but somewhere along the way we begin to waver. Maybe we begin to wonder what in the world we were thinking about when we started out. No one else seems to be able to see the star we are following. Then when we doubt a strange thing happens. Our star disappears for a while.

But the same God who revealed His star to the wise men in the first place was willing to show it to them again. As soon as they left Herod’s palace the star appeared on the horizon and led them directly to Jesus Christ. So if your world seems dark and frightening the good news is that same star is still shining over the place where Jesus is today. The only difference is that the God’s star is not shining in the sky but from the pages of a book called the Bible. His promises now don’t depend on us wandering across a wilderness trying to keep it in view. Now we can trust God’s promise that He loved us so much that He sent us His Son. All we need to do is follow that star and it will lead us right to Him!

In the middle of your Christmas preparations maybe this quiet carol can bring a bit of the gentle calm of His presence for you today.