The Call
Receiving God’s Call to Follow in His Steps
This past Wednesday we kicked off the Summer Bible Study with a time of worship and learning about Receiving God’s Call to Follow in His Steps. Our theme this summer is Following in His Steps, and our focus will be on participating in activities and studies that help us to do this. The scriptures give several accounts of Jesus calling his first disciples to follow him and explaining the cost of being a disciple. We looked at Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 14:25-35, and Matthew 9:9-13. We discussed how in Matthew 4, Peter, Andrew, James and John were all earning an honest living as fishermen. There was nothing wrong with being a fisherman and most likely they were able to earn a sufficient income. So why would they immediately leave their work to follow Jesus? We find the answer in Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” Does Jesus really want us to hate our family? Of course not, but our love for any other person should pale in comparison to our love for Jesus. In the same manner, the first disciples’ work as fishermen was perfectly acceptable, yet there was no comparison to the call of Jesus. The call of Jesus so dwarfed the seeming importance of all other work that the disciples MOVED from what they were doing and MOVED to follow Jesus. We as disciples of today are being called by Jesus to follow him. If we are to answer his call we need to MOVE from the comfort of our lives and follow his example.
