Are You Following God?

Do you follow Jesus? That's not a trick question and it is a question whose answer holds your eternal destiny in it's context! (John 14:15)

In the afore mentioned verse Jesus was very clear in His statement. There are others that allude to our responsibility to God also, both in the Old Testament and the New. Paul was so clear in his teaching on the point that folks have become so uncomfortable with Romans 12:1 that they have made a joke about it to draw away some of it's sting.

People have so exaggerated Biblical slavery to the point that I have been rebuked and threatened with posting privileges being removed if I did not retract my post and apologize for offending some unstudied New Testament Christians. I've read the Bible for the past twenty years to learn all that I can about God before I go home to be with Him. I've sat under several good teacher and preaches and they have, all of them, agreed with my understanding that we (Saved Men) are purchased away from our lives of sin and the price paid for our purchase is the death of Jesus, the Christ, on the cross.

So when Jesus says, “If you love me...” He's not making a footnote for the average Joe to ignore. No, and Paul is on the same page as Jesus when he tells us it is our duty to live as Holy a life as we possibly can, with the aim that we will be worthy of being a living sacrifice to God. My great grandmother was an Irish immigrant and thousands of them, at a time, would sell themselves into slavery to get to America. This was happening long after the conclusion of the American Civil War and many of them were Share Croppers with the aim of purchasing there freedom, they were Bond Slaves just as the follower of Jesus are.

If you are following Jesus the task is very simple and yet there are very few in the Worship Service on any given Sunday that have and are submitting their will to the will of God. When we are submitted to the will of God we use the Word of God, the Bible, as our governing agent in every decision we make.

I am often asked how to determine the will of God for one thing or another and I must admit that it perplexes me that folks are serious when they ask this question and they, often, are disturbed with me when I explain to them that God's will for every circumstance is covered in the scriptures. The problem arises when people ask specific questions, such as but certainly not limited to, “What does God say against going fishing on Sunday Morning?”

Well, God did not have it recorded as Commandment number eleven that “Thou shall not go fishing until after Worship service.” This is actually a poor example of this situation because it is covered in Hebrews 10:25 where we are exhorted to not forget to assemble ourselves together to exhort one another. You see, it says not a single word about fishing or not but the principal is very clearly stated.

A a teacher of the Bible with a very advanced case of RRMS I have learned to rely on God to speak through me and the Holy Spirit has led me to prepare more carefully thet I might be ready with an answer as quickly as possible and I have three volumes I rely very heavily on besides my NASB giant print Bible. The first, the Naves Topical Bible I purchased in my second year as a Christian. It is very useful to study any topic in the Bible and it is alphabetically arranged for a simple search.

My next purchase was about five years later and being an Amateur Christian Apologist, I have found it essential. This volume is the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman Giesler ad finally my newest essential tool for the weak minded is a paperback titled Where To Find It In The Bible. With the first and the last volumes, about thirty-eight dollars on the net, there is not a question to e asked that you cannot give an answer to in less than a minute. If you only purchase one, I urge you to make it the Naves and if you have a computer go to e-sword.net and download the free basic program ad them the Naves from the Dictionary section.