Follow Jesus, Not his Followers

Follow Jesus himself, because if you follow his followers too closely, you may be led astray.

The College Years (18-early 20s) are a very challenging and important part of developing into Adulthood.  When I first packed up and headed off to Wayne State College in the Fall of 1999, I was full of excitement and fear.

I knew no one at the College and am an introvert by nature, so the idea of being in a brand new place, where I would need to make brand new friends, was pretty scary.  Nevertheless, at the time, I felt very strong in my faith.  I had had an important year of spiritual growth in my senior year of high school and was very excited to continue that growth as I started college.

I was convinced that I wanted to find a Bible Study at the Campus where I could find other believers who were as passionate about growing in Christian Faith as I was.  I found a group that met once a week in a room next to the cafeteria on campus.

What I ended up finding was a very legalistic, fundamental Christian group that taught that their strict beliefs were TRUTH and all of the other Christians were wrong.  As I attended the group week after week, my heart began to be filled with Fear, Confusion, Anger and Resentment.  I hated going to the group so much, but I was scared not to go.  They believed that we needed to quit celebrating Christmas with Christmas trees, and begin preaching on the corner of campuses.   "Me, preaching?", I thought.  That just isn't me.  But, they tell me that I need to.

After about 10 weeks, I finally had had enough, and said forget it.  I never went back to the group after that.  I also decided to quit pursuing my faith.  I had stuck my neck out searching for God, and been burned.  I decided from then on out I was going to go through the motions, but that was it.  I totally associated THAT group with God himself, and decided that if that is God, then I don't want anything to do with him on a personal level.

This turning away from God led me into a dark 8 year period of addiction, anxiety, depression, rage, and spiritual bankruptcy.

When I finally came to an end of myself and surrendered again to Jesus, I had a resentment that I needed to deal with.  I sat down with a dear friend and said "Why did God lead me astray back then?  I was passionate about growing closer to him, but I ended up with confusion, anger and resentment.  How could he do that to me?"

My friend looked over at me and said, "Just because you were led astray by a Christian Group does not mean that you were led astray by God himself.  He was there for you the entire time:  Walking you through your pain."

I sorta understood what he was saying and it helped a little bit, but I still resented God for allowing that to happen to me.  I also remained very weary about pursuing a close relationship with God again. 

About 2 years later, I heard something on the radio that gave me the healing that I needed.  Follow Jesus, Not his Followers because his followers are not perfect and they get it wrong sometimes.

From this I have been able to again pursue Jesus, but this time, I am pursuing him on a personal level.  YES, I need to be in fellowship with others, but if I don't agree with a particular group or person, that's alright.  And if I try out a particular Christian Fellowship and I don't agree with a lot of what they teach, I can just choose another one. 

The fact of the matter is:  The Bible is complicated and difficult to understand.  I believe there are a lot of things about the Christian Faith that we were never meant to understand right now.  I do know, however, that if I pursue Jesus personally, setting aside all OPINIONS ABOUT him, then I will never be led astray.

The Light Behind

As I pulled  up in my driveway today after work, the Sun had set and a darkness was overcoming the land.  I climbed out of my car and glanced up, which I do nearly every day this time of year.  Up in the sky was a spectacular landscape of bright stars shining down.  The stars are one of the things I like most about being back out in the country.

A few hours later, after the kids were in bed, I took the garbage out as we finished up the dishes.  As I opened up the trashcan, which was nestled up next to our garage, I decided to look up again and see one last view of the beautiful stars.  As I looked up, our bright porch light blinded my eyes.  No stars could be seen through that bright, piercing porch light.   I knew the stars were out there, but I absolutely could not pick them out.  I then looked back away from the bright light and again was blessed with the beautiful stars.

How many times, when staring at the problems in my life, do I feel like God is not there.  As I keep my eyes focused on my problems, I cannot see God at work.  Even though he is there transcending my problems, my eyes cannot see him because I am too focused on my problems.  When I look away from the problems and focus on God, I can then again see his Light and gain strength to deal with my problems.

There is no doubt that taking our eyes off of our problems and acting like they are not there is not going to solve them.  This is stepping into denial which gets us nowhere.

 Instead, this situation challenged me to look away from the problems from time to time and look straight at God forgetting everything else.  When I do this, I gain the strength needed to look again at my problems and find the solutions to them.

Love Is Blind

"Come now, let's settle this,", says the Lord.  Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson, I will make them white as wool."  Isaiah 1:18 NLT

Love is Blind

We have all heard that phrase a thousand times.  We know the guy who loves his girlfriend so much that he is absolutely blind to the fact that she treats him terrible.  Or, we probably have heard the stories of the girl who stays with her husband after he cheats over and over again, because she always thinks this time it is going to be different.

We probably know the parents of a child that continues to make bad decisions  The parents love their child so much that they keep bailing him/her out.  In this case, the conscious mind refuses to see what the subconscious mind knows is really going on.

It really is true.  Love can be blind.  In our human experience, blind love often leads to ENABLING our loved ones and preventing them from taking responsibility for their mistakes.  This BLIND LOVE actually turns out to be detrimental to the growth of the one that we love.

So, where did the idea of BLIND LOVE come from.

From God, of course

In the above verse, God is saying that though our lives are a complete mess and we hurt him all of the time, he sees us as white as snow if we accept his provision.  God loves us so much that his LOVE IS BLIND to our sin.  He sees us as white as wool, when our lives are stained by sin.  How can this be?  Is God an enabler?  Does he turn his back to our sin so it prevents our spiritual growth?

A Loving but Righteous God  (Not an Enabler)

God does love us so much that his Love can be Blind, but he is also a JUST GOD.  Someone has to pay the price for our MISDEEDS.  Through Jesus, God provided a WAY for him to see us as WHITE AS SNOW but to still have payment for our sins.

Therefore, if we accept the free gift of Jesus, and admit that we are broken people without him, then God sees us AS WHITE AS SNOW.

Thank you Lord for providing a way for me to be acceptable in your eyes.