who are you following...?

The Jesus Way has me thinking about those who say they follow Him... but their lives... their way... are at odds with His Word... His Way...

I cannot follow Jesus any which way I like. My following must be consonant with his leading. ...

More often than not I find my Christian brothers and sisters uncritically embracing the ways and means practiced by the high-profile men and women who lead large corporations, congregations, nations and causes, people who show us how to make money, win wars, manage people, sell products, manipulate emotions, and who then write books or give lectures telling us how we can do what they are doing. But these ways and means more often than not violate the ways of Jesus. ... Doesn't anybody notice that the ways and means taken up, often enthusiastically, are blasphemously at odds with the way Jesus leads his followers? Why doesn't anyone notice?

---Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way

And I answer Peterson's question...

Because they don't know His Way... they don't know Him...

Jesus's response to those who "follow" Him their way... comes to mind...

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day

many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,

and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me,

you workers of lawlessness.' ..."

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV

These are the scariest words in the Bible to me...

and drive me to pray... listen...

read His Word... seek revelation...

long to do life His Way... not mine...

Jesus goes on to say... not missing a beat...

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them

will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell,

and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house,

but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them

will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell,

and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house,

and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Matthew 7:24-27 ESV

In Sunday School once... a member of the class shared a story of a friend who left the Christian faith because of a storm in his life... 

As I listened to the account... this story of wise and foolish builders came to mind... those who built lives on the Rock... and those on the sand... and I had an epiphany...

Those who fall away from Him... who do not stand firm in the storm... have built their life... on a god of their own making... and not on the Rock... the Living God...

Followers of Jesus... who know Him... know His Way...

are not shaken in the storm... they do not do life their own way...

they do life His Way...

So I wonder today... Who are you following...?

I asked a similar question here recently...

but  it's one to give serious thought to...

Does your life match up with His Way... His Word...

or the world's way...?

The test is the storm...

we will all face one at one time or another...

you probably already have...

How did your faith fare...?

Was it devastated...? or stand firm...?

This will help you identify who you've been following...

Check your heart now... before you see Him face to face...

we have such a capacity for self-deception...

Ask Him to reveal the truth of who you are following...

and be prepared to receive what He has to say...