Jesus Invited People to Follow Him
When people approached Jesus, wanting to connect with him, he would offer a variety of instructions. It seems his response addressed their particular situation and issues. What he said most often was “repent and follow me.”
“Repent” simply means to change our ways, to do a U-turn; “follow” means to go after. Sometimes Jesus was even more concise and just said “follow me”.
I like this idea of following him and often tell people “I’m a follower of Jesus.” The label of Christian may be a quick and easy one, but it means different things to different people, evoking varying responses from respect to invective.
To say, “I follow Jesus” is straightforward and less confusing. Or is it?
With the ubiquitous popularity of Twitter, comes the common request to “Twitter.” To follow someone on Twitter takes little effort and requires no commitment; it is passive and demands nothing.
This is quite the opposite of following Jesus with a passionate desire to be his disciple and know him intimately.
It’s my hope that everyone will follow Jesus, not the meaningless “follow on Twitter” nonsense, but an all in, totally sold out following of Jesus, the Christ who is revealed in the Bible.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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