Mindset - Discipleship

I need you to think of yourself as living in another age, one where there is no electronic entertainment, no motion pictures, no TV, nothing artificial at all!  Even the printed word is rare!  Truly not much different than growing up in my German 11th century village.

Your major source of news is other people, talking to people, all people, everyone you meet!  People were not morons whom worked in the fields and then came home to get drunk.  They talked to each other while doing chores, they told of what they had done, what they had seen, what they had heard.  And as people moved through the day - all knowledge became common knowledge across the community.

Now  your name is Matthew, or perhaps Zacchaeus, you are a tax collector.  You are not generally liked by anyone, but like everyone - you talk, they talk, you overhear, you learn, you think .....

Talk has been all about this one strange man whom works miracles, he talks about eternal things in a way that makes sense, and anyone whom stands up to authority always draws attention!

And the dude is coming to town!!!!!

You shut down your tax office and make a run for where he is going to appear.

There are lots of people there, like you, they have heard the tales, they have thought about it and they have come to see and to listen.  Lots of people believe these people would be todays Christians but ... these people are just FANS.  They are here for the entertainment value of the event.

Some in this crowd are willing to do what they are told, they want to obey because they understand that to do so is to serve God.  Matthew our tax collector whom walked away from his post to follow Jesus, Zacchaeus, our tax collector in the tree, came down and did as he was told by Jesus.  They both understood this was truth they were facing and they had to respond.  At this point, they are both FOLLOWERS.

And Jesus had lots of followers! At times, thousands of them!  They came from all around, some we know came from up to 90 miles away!  With a donkey for transportation ... uhm, no, you are not going anywhere real fast.  Some were dedicated, enough to spend weeks to walk from home to see this miracle-worker and then taking their new knowledge back home.  And out of these, 120 were destined to become DISCIPLES, whose whom set Jesus as to whom they would emulate.

I know many in our post-christian churches are just happy pretending and being a fan of Jesus. But, as Jesus said, He would vomit the lukewarm from His mouth!  You are hot for him or you are cold but there is no middle ground with Jesus.

Jesus sought followers, those willing to carry their cross behind him (not led the way!).  And this concept of follower is hard to separate from that of a disciple (darn you English language!).  Certainly, Jesus seemed to use both terms, even when identifying two different groups of people.  But, both the follower and the disciple were the basis for our Christian believer today, at least to my satisfaction.

So, where do you stand?
Are you an entertainment follower?
Do you go where you are comfortable with the teaching?
Are you challenged to grow?
Are you challenged to become more?
Do you want to be despised, just like Jesus?

Well, you know where you stand ... but you always have the ability to be more ...