Follow Jesus
This is a very common phrase within the Christian community and may even be the one most frequently used, so it would seem logical that every Christian would know how this is done. Since our Messiah (Christ) is not with us visually, as He was twenty centuries ago, therefore, our only way of following Jesus is by reading the words He gave us, not only by the words He spoke Himself, but by the words He gave us through inspiration to the many Bible writers, both the New Testament and I must believe the Old Testament, since there was no distinction made. Jesus, who was labeled in John 1:1 as being the "Word of God". One aspect of His advent mission was to collect and train His various New Testament writers, who He would later inspire after His ascension to Heaven.
Let us first read some of His words, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and let him bear his cross, and let him follow Me." (Matthew 16:24), "Jesus said to him, If you desire to be perfect, go sell your property and give it to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21)(Mark 10:21)(Luke 18:22), "Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, where do You go? Jesus answered him, Where I go you are not able to follow Me now, but afterwards you shall follow Me." (John 13:26) and, "Jesus said to him, If I desire him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." (John 21:22). Jesus didn't just indicate this as something that you might do, but "follow Me" was His instruction to all, because, "Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except though Me." (John 14:6), indicating that the Father is our final destination. God lovingly gave us the privilege and responsibility of choice; this is the desire of our Christ, that we would follow Him by our own choosing to the entrance to the kingdom of God.
The words "Follow Me" are quoted often from the pulpit and from those sharing Jesus with others. The question remains: does the Christian community know how to follow Jesus, Jehovah's Christ? This should be a simple answer and some do know how, but not all. First of all, one is to reads the words God Jehovah gave Jesus to give to us through inspiration to the many writers Christ chose to fill the Bible with His Father's truth, and secondly to actually do His words. This is what Jesus gave us as an example by His perfect human walk, to qualify Himself as "The Lamb of God". What many, even most Christians do not seem to grasp, is that this means them; each one should personally read the Book Christ gave us. This does not mean a sermon could be a substitute for a personal contact with God's word, or even another book relaying what men thinks the Bible says. This would be following man and not our divine Christ; this is following someone who believes and claims to be following the Savior, but the one hearing would not actually be following the Savior. If we would ask all the Christian denominations, they would all claim to be following Christ, but many would be just giving their interpretation of God's word. If one considers that all pastors instruct their congregation differently, and some of these variations are widely different, even depart from Biblical truth. Can they all be following the same Jesus? Christ wants us to follow Him, Jesus is the only way to the Father, as John 14:6 (above) states. Again I stress, this states that the Father is our destination; our final home will be the kingdom of Jehovah, if we follow the only Shepherd that Jehovah has sent to man, our Savior Jesus, His Christ, Messiah, in the Old Testament, and the only Mediator between God and man, "For God is one, also there is one Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus." (I Timothy 2:5).
Why is it important for each of us to read the words Christ gave us in the only Book He gave us? His words instruct, direct, guide and supply us with examples by others before us. Christ wants to give us understanding of His Book, which is about His Father. Through His spirit, He gave us God's word as a gift, for our quest and our expressed committed desire for the truth. If all would petition Him for His gift of understanding by our commitment to reading and studying His words, then all sould be in unison, but as you can see, the Christian community is far from unified, and a unity is only worthy if all are unified in God's expressed truth. God Jehovah gives to those who seek Him, "And if you seek Jehovah your God from there, then you shall find Him, if you seek Him with your whole heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29), and this is how we seek Jehovah, through His only begotten Son, Jesus, reading the words Christ gave us, which are from His Father and our Father, Christ is the only Mediator to the Father. We also need to practice patience in waiting for His understanding, because He knows us and knows how much truth we can handle at one time, Jehovah's generous gifts of truth, arrives to us on His schedule. God's truth sometimes arrives when we aren't expecting, when doing unrelated things, clarity arrives for what we are struggling with, or a revealing light is shared with us on what we were reading at another time. His timing is perfect, His wisdom is overwhelming, He seeks to enlighten those who seek Him through His word, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." (Ephesians 1:17), then the pearls of knowledge will be so sweet and rewarding, pushing us further for more of His understanding and wisdom. Requesting understanding, reading God's word and receiving the gift of comprehending His meanings are only a step, but the value of His wisdom is manifested in the doing, according to what you have received, this is the purpose of the reading, for acquiring understanding, otherwise the wisdom we receive is useless to us and to others, "Because if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, this one is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror." (James 1:23). We must have a passion for His truth.
Remembering back in history, man's access to God's written word was only available
to a chosen few, to those studying in the institutions, which were controlled by
the church of that time and those rich enough to afford a hand copied collection
of His written word, therefore, the general congregation only knew what was spoken
from the pulpit and much of this was spoken in Latin. There was little conformation
of God's word, which was spoken from men at the pulpit. And as we know now, in our
hindsight, there were a number of doctrines that were changed or added to, by man.
Fortunately, to a large degree, this changed when the printing press was invented
and copies of the Bible became more affordable to the public. In the past, people
risked their life for the opportunity to read even a portion of the Bible but today
this is quite different. Today, even though Bibles, in various translations and versions
are abundantly available, including through the Internet, surprisingly, few have
seized the opportunity to read this precious Book from Genesis to Revelation. Seemingly,
the congregations would rather leave this up to others, to their pastors, writers
and theologians. The beauty of reading God's word for ones self is that one can rest
in knowing what the Bible says, but when hearing a sermon or reading the opinions
of man in the millions of books written about what the Bible may mean, should leave
an uneasy question and a doubt, which this can only be erased by comparing with God's
word directly. The advantage of reading from this source is the accuracy, plus it
allows one to re-
When hearing a sermon or reading a book about the word of God, it usually contains opinions from the speaker or the writer, leaving it at least one generation removed from the purity of reading God's word directly. Having personal contact with His word opens the doorway, allowing His spirit to guide our understanding of His messages correctly, as God intended it, as Christ intended it to be comprehended. Another important element in this communication is our need to ask God for accurate understanding along with our prayers and petitions. Men's thoughts and opinions confuse the purity of God's word and muddies the waters of truth. The direct line is: you, your Bible and sincere prayer. God's word is meant for everyone, and rest assured, that He knows just how much and when we are ready for His understanding. Be patient, if it isn't clear immediately, maybe the next time or time after you will be enlightened. Know that God surely wants you to know the information He gave us, this is the reason He commissioned His Son to inspire all the Bible writers, He may be waiting for you to open His word and your mind with the correct motive, to seek Jehovah's truth.
I see so clearly that the impurity of much of the Christianity community comes from a dependency on the words of men. Just walk into a Christian Book Store and witness the thousands of books by thousands of writers; can there be any question why so many people become, and remain confused, or even accept confusion as the standard? As we all know without question, everyone has a different opinion then the next person, and this holds very true with every writer. Do we want opinions, or wouldn't we rather consume the pure truth, which is only available one place, God's word. This precious Book has a multitude of levels designed for the variety of readers and their individual levels of abilities. The more you read God's word the more you enter into His deeper levels, but that does not happen as a gift from God, if we rely on the thoughts and opinions of other men. "Rely" is the key word, we can read these other books on the Bible but it is so important to rely only on the words God gave us through His Son. God does work through some writings of men and sometimes this can lead us in a better direction, but we need to rely on God's word for purity, and rely on His word in our judgment of the words that are contained in the countless words of man.
Following Jesus not only involves reading the instructions that His Father gave Him to share with us, but we need to focus on Christ's earthly walk, because we are still here waiting for His return. Jesus Christ's first advent demonstrates His perfection, according to His Father's commands, laws and statutes. This was necessary to qualify Himself as the "Lamb of God" and for His blood sacrifice to count as payment for our repented sins. Christ Jesus performed a perfect human existence, not by His Godly powers because most were taken away when He became the Son of man, "but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, who on account of suffering of death was made a little less then the angels, so that by the grace of God He might taste of death for every son." (Hebrews 2:9), therefore His power was from His faith in His Father, personally knowing His Father Jehovah, because He was, before His advent, the Son of God and knew God Almighty, His Father, as no one else ever could. We are to strive for a similar faith by seeking to know God through the inspired words of Christ, in the pages of God's Book, now called the Bible. This is how we can acquire a similar faith, by reading and believing that these words are from the one and only Almighty God. We need to remember that God's words are pure and true, but man's words, whether spokes or written, will always fall short of perfection. We must remember that Satan loves to add a little error within a body of truth, so it is less noticeable and his lies are often accepted along with a quantity of truth, that's why it is necessary to test everything word of man with God's word.
There is a degree of confusion within the Christian community and this is extremely obvious because of the thousands of Christian denomination all professing to be Bible based, but all have varying degrees of different doctrine and beliefs. Much of this confusion can be attributed to the various versions of Bibles available in today's marketplace. The element that makes translating difficult; is the taxing duty of choosing from a list of possible English words that can apply for each Hebrew or Greek work. The words the translator chooses can be misdirected from the correct meaning, if not as Christ had intended, then we can be lead in the wrong direction. It is also important to read all of God's word, for the purpose is to find and relying on what is consistent throughout the entire Bible. What seems to be out of sync with the many other verses throughout the entire Bible, we need to dig deeper into the meaning and review the accuracy of the translation, this will take a devoted effort, but we do have a Sabbath day every week to invest in this kind of studying. Accepting someone else's understanding is not following Jesus, instead, following the easy path and most likely the crowd, "But He said this signifying by what death He would glorify God. And having said this, He told him, Follow Me." (John 21:19) It is our choice and our responsibility to seek out the truth in God's word. Judgment is solely based on God's word. The truth is surely there and Christ's spirit is the source for our correct understanding of His Father's messages, if we grant Him the opportunity, this can only be done by reading the words Christ gave us through inspiration to His chosen writers. Where does Christ want to lead us? To Jehovah, to our Father's kingdom, our next home, where eternity starts and death is no more, and there is only one path there, by following Jesus, our Shepherd, whom Jehovah sent for all who desire to follow Him to the kingdom of God.