Exodus 34

I find it a great joy and blessing that I have been able to say over the past few years at this time that "this past year" has been the best year of my life. And I wholeheartedly know that this continues with 2011. Without question. I mean, think about it: spending a month in East Africa, spending two weeks with like-minded people at training school in Phoenix (twice), there meeting my wife-to-be (my joy and beloved) Hannah, hearing God speak again and again (most prominently in the move to AZ and knowing that Hannah is "the one" for me), seeing Him provide without fail, great times with family, and so much more...

Here are some thoughts from my time in Exodus 34:

The chapter is about Moses making new tablets after he broke the previous Ten Commandments tablets upon seeing the Israelites worshiping the golden calf they made while he was away (Exodus 32). In doing this, the LORD stood before him on the mountain and proclaimed His Name:

"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." (34:6b-7)

We love to call God many different things: Provider, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Majestic, All-Powerful... all of these are great! But I think it's especially fantastic when we find the LORD naming Himself to someone! See the things that are important to God about Himself:

-Mercy and Grace

-Being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness

-Forgiveness of iniquity, transgression and sin

-Justice ("who will by no means clear the guilty")

I love how He will forgive, but doesn't just clear the guilty by anything they try to say or do. The guilt has been paid for: on the cross through the perfect sacrifice of His Son. How wonderful!

Next, I love how He sheds light on the importance of the Sabbath:

"You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest." (34:21 NLT)

I can see myself trying to justify not resting on the Sabbath during a time when the 'harvest' is plentiful. 'But God,' I might say, 'look at how much work is being done! Look at how great a harvest is being reaped! And you want me to rest?' But when I say things like this, who am I thinking is accomplishing the work? Me or God? Because if I am truly depending on God to accomplish the things He has prepared in advance for me to do (Philippians 2:12-13), then if He says "rest one day a week", it won't matter how good or bad things are going: I will obey. This is an area in which I need to grow tremendously- honoring the Sabbath.

And finally, "As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God." (34:26a NLT)

Again- it would be easy to say, "Well, giving is important, but taking care of myself is something that God wants me to do, too. So let's pay our bills and then we'll see what we can give afterwards." The way the NLT puts what God says, though, "bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the LORD your God." Wow! He calls us to not just give, but to give the very best of what we have first. This is a beautiful picture of how we should trust Him to provide, for the people in Exodus didn't know for sure how many good harvests each season would bring (I'm guessing). If they committed to giving 'at some point' during the harvest, they might get greedy and end up not giving very much. But by giving the very best of the first harvest, they are showing God that they trust Him to provide the rest of their needs (see Matthew 6:33 for more).

So I need to worship the Lord for His mercy, grace, abundant love, forgiveness, and justice, honor Him by resting on the Sabbath no matter what "excuses" I can come up with, and give Him the first and best of what I am given. Really- all my money is provided by Him, and as one of my mentors puts it: it's a pretty good deal when 100% of it is His and He only asks us to give a percent (cheerfully) back to Him, right?!

Seeking to treasure Jesus...

Luke

Comparisitis

In my time with Jesus this morning, I discovered a disease from which I suffer: comparisitis. The Werriam-Mebsters definition is: "the cancerous disease that causes you to compare yourself to everyone around you". It is only fatal if you try to fight it on your own.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and say, "seriously, Luke? Even that?" Like- I might compare how much food I'm eating to the person next to me in the lunch room at work. I'm comparing how much weight I'm lifting (oftentimes significantly less) to the guy next to me (the most humbling are when the older guys are lifting the same or more than I). How creative I am. How attractive/unattractive. How successful. And the list goes on...

I'm discovering more and more that Jesus is the only cure. You can 'treat' it with things like getting angry at yourself, confessing it to friends, or ceasing to eat, lift, or share around people. But these are just temporary band-aids. They don't heal the disease.

CS Lewis says that humility is: "not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Jesus embodied this:

Philippians 2:3-11
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better (more significant) than yourselves. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, and gave Him the Name that is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

This is one of my favorite passages- a passage that breaks me every time I read it. If Jesus compared Himself to us and suffered from comparisitis, He would never have come to die and give us the opportunity to know the glory of the Father. He would have considered us unworthy to come even close to. But He "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing."

Gracious God... please heal me of this comparisitis. I need You to wash away my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin. Against You, You only do I sin and do what is evil in Your sight. Conform me to Your Son's image... He must increase in my life, I must decrease.

If you ever see or hear me displaying my comparisitis, please remind me that Jesus is the only answer.

Peter

The Rock. On whom the church has been built. One of the "Big Three" (sorry 'Bron, Wade and Bosh). Peter was such an instrumental person in the history of the Church. I can't say for sure, but my guess is that my buddy Peter was named after him (at least he is one of the namesakes).

Peter was one of my best friends growing up here in Arizona. He was one of the three friends I chose to join me as "ninja turtles" for a birthday party, and he was also a basketball teammate on a few teams growing up. He came out to visit my family in the first year or two that we lived out there. But after that, to my knowledge, I hadn't spoken to him in over a decade.

Flash forward: the wife of the leader of my internship here in Arizona is in nursing school and made the connection with her instructor that I used to be best friends with her son. Yep- you guessed it: Peter's mom! So we made the connection and scheduled to hang out a week ago. We spent the evening eating pizza and watching a football game and while we chatted about life, I recognized that he kept making reference to a desire to check out church sometime with me.

Over these past few months, I've been learning a lot about listening for God in prayer and doing things in faith. I felt the Lord put it on my heart to share about a new obedience-based way to study the Bible that I've been learning in my internship, unsure if he would be interested. We started studying in Luke 16 together, and by the end of the passage we got to the part about writing an "I will..." statement to commit to obeying the passage. I challenged him to pray and ask the Lord to speak to him, and while we were both bowed in prayer, I was praying like crazy, "God, PLEASE speak!" And speak he did.

Peter wrote and shared one of the most beautiful I will statements I have heard! It was super heart-felt and, when asked where that came from, he said, "I don't know where it came from, but it felt really good." We then closed in prayer and by the end of our prayer time, he was in tears. I left him with more passages to study and, because he's truly in the Father's hands, he is equipped to learn straight from the Word and the Spirit on his own!

God is amazing. He really does speak! Hallelujah!

Know Nothing

God has been really speaking to me recently. Really, really speaking to me. It's amazing. I love it. I am so thankful for it. God has used my fiancée Hannah and the internship in which I'm learning more about listening for His voice and following His leading in my thoughts. Recently, I feel like He spoke some really great things that I'd like to share, and maybe God will speak to you through this:

1) 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I love to speak in front of people. I believe that God has given me some gifting in teaching and it's a passion of mine. While I was asking God, "what do you want to say to me? What do you want to tell me or do you want me to do?" I felt Him put this on my heart: "Stop preaching principles. Just preach Jesus."

Sometimes I can get caught up in talking about principles. Talking about what we should or shouldn't do, how we should live, etc. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can be very easy to fall into letting my own beliefs slip in. These beliefs can often come from my culture, not the Bible. This is probably why God put it on my heart- when I just point to Jesus when I speak, the listeners are able to discover for themselves how He wants them to live. Truly, I believe that if we fall deeply in love with Jesus, the life He wants us to live will naturally flow out of us!

So what do I mean when I say, "preach Jesus"? I'm still trying to figure exactly what it means, but I think it is pointing people to Jesus whenever I can. Not trying to give the 'five steps to a better life' or anything of that sort, but just encouraging people to fall in love with the greatest Treasure the world will ever know: Jesus. The rest of life will sort itself out.

I spent part of my morning meditating on Colossians 1:15-20. If you read nothing else in this blog post (or blog, for that matter), soak up these words:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Wow. I love this passage. It's such a beautiful picture of Jesus! The image of the invisible God- we can't see God plainly, but He reveals Himself to us through Jesus' life. Amazing. All things were created "by Him", "through Him and for Him". Seriously- there is no part of your life that is not meant to be given wholly to Christ in surrender, for it was all made by and through Him. I sometimes forget that He is my "head" as I am a part of the church, but that doesn't mean He is any less the head. "that in everything He might be preeminent"- in every part of my life- before Hannah, before ministry, before family, before my own very life, He is to be preeminent. The line that got me the most that morning was, "For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell"- the immeasurable, incomprehensible God was pleased to dwell in Him! It was not under compulsion or forced to... it was pleased to do it. Isaiah 42 speaks to this, as well: (speaking of Jesus) "He is my Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen, in whom I delight." May my life be one in which You delight, Father...

I'm excited to meditate on this passage more and more as I learn to Treasure Jesus and how He wants me to preach Him, period. It's the greatest thing ever.

2) I have found pride to be one of my greatest struggles in life, and God spoke to that. He revealed to me that a lot of my pride comes from comparing myself to other people. You may have heard me make statements like, "the church does a bad job of this", referring to the Western church, or "why do Americans behave like this?" Confession: typically, I am subconsciously elevating myself when I make those statements, thinking "well, at least I'm not doing too poorly at that".

God showed me that I need to worry about myself and how I am living for Jesus, and let Him worry about the rest. This doesn't mean I should just ignore the rest of the world. I pray that I will continue to grow being burdened for the state of the church worldwide and for my friends and family who are still learning who Jesus really is. But whenever I feel myself comparing me to them, I need to just stop. The conviction is definitely there, and I have already seen a change in my heart-set since He spoke that to me. Hallelujah! May He continue to teach me the humility of Christ: (Philippians 2:5-11)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Quick illustration God also put on my heart (it's only been a few days since I've been hearing more clearly- can you IMAGINE what the next 50+ years are going to be like, God willing I live that long?!):

Mom and Dad gave me the name of Robert Luke Sjogren, naming me after my Dad, Grandaddy and other relatives (Robert) as well as the good Doctor in the Bible and one of my Dad's mentors (Luke). But at the name of Robert Luke Sjogren, will every knee bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord? At the name of Robert Luke Sjogren, will the dead be raised, the sick healed, sins forgiven? At the name of Robert Luke Sjogren, will sinners enter the kingdom of God? Last I checked- nope. Then why strive to make a name for Robert Luke Sjogren? For the fame of that name?

The Name of Jesus does all that and more. That's what I'm living for.

Big Day

As many of you have heard... by the glorious grace of God, Hannah Rayes agreed to marry me! It is a privilege just to know her- as I'm continuing to learn more and more as I get to know her and her community out here- much more to call her my fiancée! I'm super grateful... if you haven't seen it already, please check out this video we made to announce it:

So here's our engagement story, for those interested...

Hannah's perspective:

Luke and I met at a two week class for training to take the Good News to the nations. After the two weeks ended, he flew back home to Virginia and I stayed in Arizona. When our first skype conversation ended up over 2 hours long, I knew I was talking to someone very special so I said a prayer asking that God take my heart and show me what He wants to happen. I decided to just enjoy the time getting to know Luke as a friend and to let God lead. It wasn’t too long into our friendship that Luke stated his intentions for me, and he defined our relationship just one and a half months after meeting and after he asked my parents for their permission to date me. Shortly after that Luke moved to Arizona and I was so excited that we were going to live in the same city!

With the progression of our relationship I didn’t ever doubt what I saw and learned about Luke and my feelings didn’t betray me, he was genuine with nothing to hide and I felt accepted and free to fall for him and so I did. One week before he told me he loved me I admitted to myself that I really loved this man, and in that admission I knew I could spend the rest of my life with him. We started talking about marriage and engagement soon into our dating relationship and having those open conversations was key to letting my heart process what was transpiring so quickly before me.

When Luke said he wanted to have a picnic in the park I didn’t think anything of it. I knew he had been talking about not being able to afford a ring so I put the possibility of a proposal out of my mind. When he picked me up I was so hungry and had one thing on my mind: get to the park quick so we can eat. Little did I know that was the furthest thing from his mind! After we unloaded his car, guitar, chair and picnic basket, I got to work right away making our sandwiches while Luke sang me a song he wrote. Unfortunately the loudest thing was my stomach so I wasn’t listening to the words he was singing. But after he repeated the song the last line stood out to me “And I want to worship the Lord by your side for the rest of my life.” Still dismissing the possibility of a proposal I exclaimed my happiness at the words and asked that we eat soon! However Luke had more to say. After explaining to me that he felt that I was the one for him he got on one knee and proposed with, of all things, a twisty tie as a symbol of the poverty we may face at times as a couple. I gleefully shouted my "yes, yes of course I’ll marry you"! He then got back down on his knee, saying that God will also bless us abundantly at times, pulled out a ring and said it was his Grandmothers ring. She had given it to him when we visited her in Tennessee on our trip across the states. I was overjoyed, shocked and ecstatic. This was really happening!


Luke's perspective:

Many people have told me in the past that "when you find the right person, you'll know." I was very resistant to this idea, for in many areas of my life, I solely walk by faith and the Lord leads and guides as I go. When I first started getting to know her, I didn't hear anything from the Lord- though I prayed a lot about it- so I walked by faith. When we started dating, same situation. So when I was praying about marrying her, I figured it would be the same deal. And I told her that... woops. Tip to guys who are dating someone: never tell your young lady, "I don't think I'll ever know if you're the one". That doesn't inspire a vote of confidence.

But God was laughing as I said that (and Hannah was very gracious in her response), for that same night, not 30 minutes later, He put on my heart, "this is the lady you're going to marry. She's the one for you." Wow! I was SUPER excited and 100% confident that it was God and not just feelings (although there are plenty of feelings there, as well). But I didn't tell her about it right then...

Later that week, after discussing it with a few friends, people I respect, and family, I asked her parent's permission and they gave me a "yes" (I was hoping they would, but was still nervous, because we haven't been dating too long... but glory to God!). My grandmother was tremendously generous in giving me her old engagement ring so that I wouldn't have to buy a totally new one! But I also came to discover that Hannah likes the more simple style, so I had the stone fitted in a much more simple band and setting, and picked it up Tuesday night.

We were planning on going on a picnic together Wednesday night, and I'm glad I only had the ring in my hands for less than 24 hours... it felt like it would burn a whole through my bag/pocket if I had it for any longer! But in my usual, "on the go" way of doing things, I hadn't checked out this park to know where we could see the sunset or where would be a good, private place. So we drive to the park (after I got off work and to her apartment late), rushing to try and see the sunset, and after unloading the car, I ask if I can sing a song for her. She replies, "Luke, I'm really hungry. Can we eat first?" I'm not about to have this happen (food>engagement), so I compromise and let her make the lettuce wraps while I sing. At the end of the song, I ask if she had heard any of the lines (the last one: "I want to worship the Lord by your side... for the rest of my life"). She says.. "not really". Again- hunger trumps song. So I played it again and then asked her for a hug (I had to get her on her feet).

After the hug, I told her how God had shifted in my heart to knowing that she WAS the one for me, dropped to one knee, and told her that "there will be times in our life when we will be poor... but even then, will you allow me the privilege of being your husband?" and pulled out a twistie-tie to symbolize the poverty. She said, "are you proposing?" I said "yes." Then she said, "Yes, of course!" and gave me a big hug! Then, I said, "but wait! There's one more thing." Dropped to one knee again, and said, "but there will also be times when God blesses us abundantly..." and I pulled out the ring, and asked, "Hannah, will you marry me?" Her eyes got big and she said, "yes!"

We then proceeded to eat (finally), I washed her feet (took a page from my buddy Kyle's book- symbolizing Christ's love for the church and serving His disciples- I hope to love and serve her like Jesus did), we prayed and read some Scripture together, and then started calling family!

Please keep us both in prayer as we go through this exciting time of engagement! Pray that our hearts are open to hearing what God wants us to learn and are always seeking to love and build up each other.

Exciting times!

Salesmen

First of all- I'm currently listening to the new "Man Up" CD by 116 Clique... it's tight. Go listen to it soon, seriously.

I have had the privilege of working for a sending agency over here on the West Coast, sending people to love and serve people in the name of Jesus. A part of my job is to do some "recruiting", getting people to consider living out the Great Commission as a goer (going overseas- not just a sender, prayer warrior, etc). But as I was considering this idea of "recruiting" people to live out globally what Jesus has already commanded us (see: Matthew 28:19-20), a lot of it left a very sour taste in my mouth and heart.

The main issue I have with this is that it appears that we have to become "salesmen", trying to sell people on how 'good' it is to serve the Lord overseas. My question is: shouldn't the 'product' sell itself? Shouldn't the weight of what Jesus did- coming to earth and giving up a million times more than we will ever call 'ours'; humbling Himself that we might have the opportunity to intimately know the Father- compel us to at the very least be willing to give up everything we own to take this good news to the farthest parts of the world where the Name of Jesus isn't even known!? Why does "recruiting" have to be a part of sending people overseas? Shouldn't it be more of what my organization calls itself: a sending agency, where we sift through those who are ready to go now and those who still need to grow before they are ready to go (as desperately as they long to go) so we can give them adequate training?

I found this need for 'recruiting' to be true in college ministry, as well. Consider American Idol- there are hundreds of thousands of people that try out every year for a program where the ultimate prize is 15 minutes of fame as one of the thousands of artists out there. Yes- some 'make it' for a while (see: Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood), but most don't (who the heck is Kris Allen? Lee Dewyze?). At JMU in Harrisonburg, VA, we have been blessed with one of the largest IV student orgs in the nation (450+). Yet we had trouble finding 8- yep, 8- guys willing to apply to become small group leaders. It's one thing to have trouble finding 8 competent guys, but 8 guys to even apply?! And some of the eight we had to convince just to apply! What's the deal? One of the options gives, at most, a few record deals that get lost in the masses over time... and at the very most it will be temporary rewards. The other gives us the opportunity to live out the Great Commission and store up treasures for eternity. Why do 100x more people try out for American Idol than apply for small group leading (or ministry positions)?

So again, why should there even be such a thing as "recruiting" for anything ministry related? The simple answer is that I believe we haven't been living out the Great Commission in the recent past, so we're raising up "Christians" who are more concerned with the clothes they wear to church than the fruit (or lack thereof) they wear all the time. If we actually tried to understand the great love that the Father has lavished upon us (1 John 3:1), we would echo Paul in 2 Corinthians 5- "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others... For the love of Christ controls us..." and be controlled by Christ's love to tell the Good News to people all around the world, or pray about it and discern that God wants us to be senders (or both!).

Some of you who read this are probably already involved in some capacity sending people or going overseas yourselves, but please do not just stop there- see how you can influence others to follow the example of Christ: going Himself and sending others! Treasuring Jesus is the ultimate goal, but I believe that the more we treasure Him, the more we will identify with Him, and the more His love will compel us to go and to send.

Please pray for God's glory to be revealed among all tongues, tribes, nations, and peoples as soon as possible. We want to see Jesus high and exalted, as He is intended to be (Philippians 2:10-11)!

Luke

Follow Me

Isn't it crazy how you can spend a really long time studying just a couple of verses- and there is STILL so much more to discover from them? I had that kind of experience in Luke 5 this morning, looking deeply into these two verses (27-28):

After this He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And He said to him, "Follow Me." And leaving everything, he rose and followed Him.

The call to follow Christ is phenomenal, for it is so simple, yet at the same time so deep and complex. It will challenge the rich and upper class people and at the same time it's simple enough for the poor, illiterate people to grasp and obey. But regardless of to whom the call is issued, there is only one correct response: complete, willing obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian who died for Christ, wrote in "The Cost of Discipleship" (a favorite book of mine)- "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die..." and in reference to the call of Christ to discipleship: "...Jesus demonstrating what is at the heart of discipleship: willing obedience to the call." Bonhoeffer understood the sacrifice required by the call of Christ, but he was also able to discover the joy that comes to those who follow it completely!

Let's take a look at four or five instances of Jesus saying "Follow Me" in the Gospels:

When the disciples were first called (Matt 4:19-20; Mark 1:17-20; Luke 5:27-28).

Jesus often called His disciples by simply saying "Follow Me". When talking to the fishermen, he called them to follow Him "and I will make you fishers of men". But the call remained the same: blind obedience. They didn't know where they were going or what they were going to do, but they obeyed. Their responses were the same: they immediately left everything to follow Christ. This is a great response- the best. Following Jesus means leaving everything behind and walking with Christ.

When Christ called His disciple Philip in the beginning of the Gospel of John, Philip actually went and told his brother Nathaniel (out of excitement!) about the call of Christ! This is another fantastic response- for out of the joy we find in who He is and His call, we go and tell those close to us, encouraging them to follow Him as well!

The rich young ruler (Matt 19, Mark 10, Luke 18)

Here is the tragic story of the rich young ruler who followed the ten commandments of God to the 'T' but did not obey the call of Christ. When Jesus called him to sell everything he had to follow him, Matthew writes that "he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." This is obviously not the desired response to the call of Christ, but it is good that he recognized that he wasn't going to follow Christ at all and walked away. Wait... what?! What did I just write? Check out these next few guys...

The three men (Matt 8:18-22; Luke 9:23-27)

You thought that the story of the rich young ruler was tragic? Break out the box of kleenex when you hear about these three guys. They were either challenged by Christ to follow Him or volunteered to follow Christ... but they all tried to qualify their obedience. They had their own terms of obedience. They said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow You, but..." Jesus will have none of this. You know what I believe these people are? The lukewarm people mentioned in Revelation 3. What does Jesus say He will do to them? You got it: spit.them.out. Why do we tease ourselves by saying that there exist "lukewarm Christians".

I love when Francis Chan talks about this, because he is so passionate about it. The term "lukewarm believer" doesn't exist in the Bible- the only time "lukewarm" is mentioned is to say that Jesus will spit out those people. Does that sound like they will be accepted into the kingdom of God to you?! I look at the disciples' obedient response as one extreme, and the rich young ruler's walking away as another extreme. But pity the fools that think they can tell Jesus how they are going to follow Him!

Sadly, I believe that the western church today has fallen into that third category of telling Jesus how they are going to follow Him. Don't find the time to spend with God throughout the week? It's ok- God is a God of grace! Forget John 15:5 where Jesus says "Abide in Me and you will bear much fruit... apart from Me you can do nothing." Forget the many verses that show Jesus spending time with the Father and the other verses that tell us we need to walk like He did. Can't find the money in your budget to care for the orphans and widows or (much less) even give some to God?! It's ok... just sharpie out Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25 and the other large passages that talk about the terrible things that will happen to those who don't care for the hungry, poor, orphaned, etc. In the words of Burger King- "have it your way"!

Can you see how sad this is?! And, if you take a step back and think about it, how prevalent it is in the church today? God desires that His Church be a vibrant, living Body that is pointing all people to Himself with their example. A Body that is seeking Him daily, desiring nothing more than to please Him and bring Him all the glory, whatever the cost.

The last example is found at the end of the Gospels in John 21. Peter is being restored from his denial by Christ ("Do you love Me? Feed my sheep...") and is told by Christ how he will glorify God in his death. Then Jesus says "Follow Me". Peter tries to ask Jesus "what about [another disciple]?" Jesus responds, "If it is My will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" This is a trap that even the most devoted believers fall into- trying to compare their walk with Christ to another's. Trying to model their obedience by someone else's example, not the example of Christ (complete obedience and desire to follow God's will).

I believe that our 'best' response to Christ's call does not necessarily mean going overseas to serve God or becoming a pastor. For many it will! But while following Christ takes on many different outer forms, the important thing is what's going on inside: are we loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourself? It's the heart attitude- that being obedience- which is most important. Jesus was pleased with the disciples response because they obeyed His call... not just because they did good things.

We are in a place today much more like Peter in the last example, for we understand what the cost of discipleship is. Just as Bonhoeffer wrote decades ago, God bids us "come and die"- die to ourselves and our 'terms' of following Christ, die to the world, and maybe even physically die for Christ (glory!). How will we respond? Will we completely turn away like the rich young ruler? Will we try to qualify our compare our obedience to others? Or will we immediately leave everything we have (our wants, dreams, desires, hopes) and share with those close to us how exciting this call is, for we know that "these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

In the words of Nike: when Christ calls you to follow Him, just do it.

He is worth it.