Are you…

… following Christ?

Last week I asked if you believed in Jesus and if you were following Him. If you answered yes to both those questions, then it’s safe to say your life is different than your friends around you. Different from the world. You share the Gospel to the lost and boldly defend God when His name is being attacked. Right?

I have to admit, being a follower of Christ isn’t easy. The temptation to stay in your comfort zone is safe. Why bother to put yourself out there only to get humiliated, to be judged unfairly or even ridiculed. I have the answer.

Jesus did it for you.

Isaiah 53: 3; 5; 7-8 says:

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.

If you’ve accepted Christ, then you’ve accepted the call to follow after Him. How you live your life is up to you, it’s your choice, but when God called the disciples to follow Him, it wasn’t only their hearts that changed but their lives. They are our examples. Christ is our example. Let our lives and our actions be an example to others.