I Will Follow You But.....

These startling words are found in Luke 9:61 where a fella has decided to pick up and follow Jesus. But he wants to go say "so long" to his friends. Jesus answered with: "No one who puts their hand to the plow looks back."

At first that seems like a harsh, inflexible retort to the guy. However, within the culture of the day, to say goodbye meant more than it does now. First, you had to go to each friend or family member and explain what you were about to do. Then, each one of them would request a few days to work through the goodbye...that might include a few going away feasts. All in all, one might be looking at a period of up to six months (maybe longer) before the actual 'leaving' could happen. Jesus would have been long gone by then....the guy would have missed the boat....the ship would have left port....the gate would have been closed...and so on and so forth.

The problem has more to do with the risk involved in following. You see, to follow Jesus means a complete life-change. Look at Peter and Andrew, James and John; they had to leave their livelihood of fishing. They left their father holding the bag...or net in that case. Can you imagine the look on their dad's face when they told him the news at the wharf? "Well, sorry pop....no party or anything! This is the Messiah and we gotta go right now. We'll stop in for a fishing trip when we pass this way again. Say BYE to mom!" Whoa... That was a real and genuine example of what it means to take the risk of following. Not that fishing was a high income experience for Galileans, but man...they were going to follow a dude that had no visible means of supporting their habit...of eating! Later on we see that a group of special women followed in the crowd and paid the way...evidently women with bank accounts. Imagine a crusty Jewish man being supported by a woman in that culture!
Talk about risk!

Change is hard. We get attached to the way things are, even if the way things are isn't the best or ideal. We bump up to a point in our spiritual lives where the Lord challenges us to take a step into the unknown and risky, and we back off for fear of....whatever. The fears always, I repeat: ALWAYS turn out to be bogus, but we tend to be ruled by them nonetheless.

What's the answer? Not really sure...sorry to lead you this far and drop you, but I have no concrete solution to the dilemma. However, I do have a couple of ideas that seem to work for me, though I tend to be more maverick in nature and enjoy taking risks from time to time. First, we have to develop a new habit. Yep..a habit. Start small and keep it up. Take the first small step into risk, then keep doing it. Like what, you ask? Well, maybe no one around you has yet to lift up holy hands in worship and neither have you. It's a risk...according to a fear called inhibition. But try it a few times. Forget about the good folks around you and focus on obeying the Word....because it says "Lift up holy hands to the Lord." Same goes for a shout now and then...at the right moment of course. What about going deeper into worship before the Throne? Same thing: start small and make it a habit. This goes for anything and everything with God.

Second, convince yourself that FEAR is a big fat liar! If it isn't eating at you, it is convincing you to bury yourself in your inability to change. Listen...RISK can be fun! It is exhilarating, exciting, adrenaline producing, addictive, and almost always produces a result that is opposite from what your fear convinced you would happen. No, don't jump off a cliff and get excited about hitting the bottom. Rather, put on a parachute and jump out of a perfectly good plane while attached to an instructor. Or, close your eyes before you lift up your hands in worship so you don't have to worry about someone else's reaction. Don't worry about doing a Billy Graham thing of preaching to a billion, just talk to that one who is hurting and needs a word of encouragement from someone who really has life. Then, make a habit of it.

No more... "I will Follow You, BUT...." Just do it:-) Try it!
Pastor Jim

Nasty Signs Continue In the Middle East

The heat of the mid-west and an increasingly interesting presidential campaign tend to cloud over the ominous developments in the Middle-East. It will not be Washington that dictates the future of what the Bible calls the "center of the world." The following article demonstrates a steady march toward armed conflict that could fulfill the Ezekiel 38 & 39 prophecies. Note the Israeli point of view concerning its perception that America is turning its back. From the Debka Files...

Tehran hosts Assad to celebrate winning nuclear dispute with West and cooling of US-Israel ties


August 3, 2008, 5:30 PM (GMT+02:00)


The Syrian president Bashar Assad was due to visit Tehran in a week’s time. The trip was brought forward to Saturday, Aug. 2 to coincide with the deadline the six powers gave Iran for an answer to its offer of benefits in return for its consent to suspend uranium enrichment – or face a fourth round of sanctions.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report: Iranian and Syrian rulers are so pleased with their unforeseen success in outmaneuvering the West that they called an urgent summit for follow-up planning.

When a line of Iranian leaders rejected the ultimatum on their “right” to develop a nuclear program, Washington responded mildly “we are not counting the days”, while the European Union said there was no hurry. In any case, as DEBKAfile reports in a separate article on this page, a huge German energy deal with Iran has drawn the sting of any prospective penalties.

The Syrian-Iranian get-together also follows the failure of top Israeli leaders traveling to Washington in the past three weeks to persuade the Bush administration of the urgency of considering military action against Iran’s nuclear installations – or at least backing an Israeli operation.

Transport minister Shaul Mofaz was the last arrival after chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and defense minister Ehud Barak.

Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, president Mahmoud Ahminejad and Assad can therefore pat each others backs over the cooling of US-Israeli strategic relations in on top of their other successes.

DEBKAfile’s analysts report that their feats owe more to the way the West plays into their hands than their own ingenuity:

1. In mid-June, the Bush administration decided to embark on a secret dialogue with the Islamic Republic. DEBKA-Net-Weekly was the first publication to expose this radical turn of events and to trace its progress. After procuring a direct line for business with US government leaders, and wrapping up deals, mostly behind Israel’s back, on the burning issues of oil pricing, Iraq and Lebanon, Iran nullified any leverage Washington had. Tehran can now afford to make light of the six-power ultimatum on its nuclear activities.

2. At about the same time, Israel entered into peace talks with Syria through Turkish mediation. The result: While Iran was developing its back-door rapprochement with the US, the Syrian ruler had hit the jackpot for buying back international legitimacy and a respected role in Middle East politics, without giving up his warm ties with Tehran or his sponsorship of terror.

Damascus can now afford to dump its diplomatic track with Israel as soon as Ehud Olmert steps down as prime minister in September.

The insistence of Olmert’s would-be successors – Livni and Mofaz from his own Kadima and Labor leader Barak – on continuing the talks with Syria, on condition that Assad pulls away from Tehran – not only mislead the public about their purpose, but feed the Damascus-Tehran alliance which is aimed against Israel.

3. French president Nicolas Sarkozy gave Assad a massive boost to the stability of his regime when he hosted him as the guest of honor at the last French Bastille Day parade. Sarkozy assured him then that he would act through the UN Security Council to abolish the international tribunal set up to prosecute the murderers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. This let the chief suspects, Assad’s close kin and intelligence chiefs, off the hook.

4. A torrent of studies suddenly coming out of US think tanks in recent weeks shows how hard American research and intelligence circles are leaning on the administration to expand its dialogue with Tehran. Bush is being urged to call off sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program and withdraw US backing from Iran’s disaffected minorities’ revolt against the Islamic regime – all for the purpose of putting US-Iranian relations on a normal footing.