FOLLOW HIM

By Rick Mathes

John 10:28 (NASB77) ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

Many of us have followed the wrong shepherd as he led us to prison and that included the wall-papered kitchens of certain death. If the penitentiary doesn’t get you and overdose of prescription drugs will. So we all get an invitation to turn from the devil to salvation from sin. What did you do with yours?

Following Him includes a consecration of holiness. Catholic priests consecrate their two fingers so as to hold the host they wrongly believe to be the actual body of Jesus but the thought is great How about if we consecrate our whole bodies and be not only wholly His but holy.

This following also includes a separation of you from all the non-believers. Ecclesia (Church in Greek) means “called out ones.” Our Good Shepherd calls us out of the world and endows us with a new sense of self-denial. As we become more Christ like we think, see, feel, touch and act as He would. It’s like being on an entirely new, foreign planet. You are probably shaking your head yes at this comment.

Put the old selfish self behind and move forward with a self-sacrificing, serving self in the image and likeness of God. You were made a mirror of Him and the Holy Spirit is here right now to enable you to do just that: reflect Him back to the Father and to all those that see you. I’d rather see the sermon than hear it wouldn’t you? How you live speaks volumes about who you love, yourself or your Savior.

We continue this pilgrimage in imitation of His image as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit. It expresses itself in service to Him that I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, comfort the sick and visit those in prison and though they were He.

It all starts and ends in “Him.” There is no other reason to press on except our Lord commands us to follow Him. If you don’t, what is your “plan B?” Who will you follow? You: you’ve done that long enough to know that it doesn’t work and more of what doesn’t work, doesn’t work. Duhhhh!