Exploring 5 Biblical analogies of what it means to live out your faith.
Remember how much fun it was to play “Follow the Leader” when you were a young child? You formed a line behind your teacher and then you got to do whatever she did with her arms and legs and body – no matter how crazy it was. Sometimes you or one of your friends got to be the leader. There are many ways in which playing “follow the leader” doesn’t end with childhood, does it? All of us have role models, mentors, or family members whom we admire and respect so greatly that we try to duplicate the things they do and say. Sometimes we even try to appear in similar ways to the way they look or dress. Actually most of us are quite adept at changing our outward behavior in order to fit in, to accommodate the expectations of others and to become more like those whom we view as successful, admirable, or worthy of following in their footsteps.
When Jesus started His public ministry, His most repeated invitation to a whole variety of people was, “Come, Follow Me.” He said it to those men who would become His most trusted companions. He repeated it to them again at strategic times as they began to understand what it might mean to live life the way that Jesus lived His life. He explained to the Jews at the temple that “His sheep listen to His voice and they follow Him.” It’s actually a radical and amazing way to live – to think like Jesus, to speak as He would speak, and to do the good works which He has already prepared for you to do.
Would you like to grasp more clearly what this might mean in very practical ways for you and for me? Then you are invited to join us as we look at the analogies that the writers of the epistles used to help the new believers understand with clarity what it really means to follow the Savior – to let God’s Spirit change you into the person He wants you to be. Following Christ means inner transformation of the heart so that both our actions and words are pleasing to the One Who lives within us.