How many times have we heard a message or a sermon, read a newspaper article, or seen a story on television that has motivated or even perhaps thrilled us? Yet soon the message fades and we return to our daily lives as though having never heard it. As though never having been touched with a desire to act and make some change in our own lives in response to what we have seen or heard.
Living today can be somewhat like standing in a field with thousands of choices and ideas flying at you from every direction. Television, social media, or internet news reports inform us of what is happening moment by moment in any corner of the world. Before we can get over the last tragedy, along comes another story of some disastrous event that has happened somewhere else on the planet, or even in our own town. While we contemplate and try to absorb the effect and meaning of what just happened, another story rushes in and fills its place in our minds and hearts.
We are living in an information society and most of us receive massive amounts of input on a daily basis, each separate item often demanding an immediate emotional response. Though we are incapable of absorbing such a continuous flood of ideas and information, somehow, we are expected to not only do so but also to personalize it into our own lives.
Yet if we are to be successful in our obedience to the command to repent and go the other way, we must set our eyes upon the One who calls us and follow Him to where He leads us. He will often take us out of the hustle and bustle of the world to a quiet place where we can hear his voice and his alone. We must not let the world and the happenings of the world dictate how we hear and understand the Lord’s agenda for our lives. Jesus said, “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt. 6:34b) In other words, the need does not dictate the calling.
As it was that day for James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, we too must put down the nets of our own goals, ambitions, and pursuits and follow Jesus to hear what his plan is for our lives. Though he is not here with us in the flesh, his imprint still marks the sands of time and, if we look closely, his footprints are still visible today. We must become vigilant trackers if we are to distinguish his steps from the numerous ones left by others beckoning us to follow in their way. With modern media pumping the voices of the world into our lives from every direction, we must turn down the volume if we are to distinguish the voice of Christ from the many others that are speaking.
It is commonplace in the world of organized religion to go immediately from experience to indoctrination. You may make a commitment at an altar or in some evangelistic meeting and then be encouraged to go forward to receive prayer and make a confession of faith. Next, attendance in a new believer’s class might be expected and so the programming begins. It might be preparation for baptism, church membership, or just a ‘basics of the faith’ instructional, depending upon the organization plan or doctrinal view of the particular church or ministry.
Some churches have cell groups or home fellowship meetings designed to bring you into closer relations with other believers within the church structure. All or some of these may represent the approved method for assuring that we are well caught and not likely to get out of the net before being scaled and gutted of our old belief systems.
Soon after, we are brought into the fold and introduced to a host of expectations like the mid-week or Sunday evening service, greeting or ushering, or joining one or more of the various committees dealing with church finances, the building program, nursery work, choir, chorus, or lay ministry of some sort. Though all of this usually comes with good intentions, it has been my observation that such methods generally produce followers of a specific belief system or denominational mindset, and not necessarily devoted followers of Christ.
Since many pastors are not comfortable with independent thinkers in their congregations, those who do not come around to the company line often find themselves ignored or ostracized until they move on or become silent observers held in check by guilt. God forbid if you were to stop the preacher in mid-sermon to ask a question or to have Him clarify the meaning of something he had said.
Jesus never meant for us to fill a pew staring at the back of the person’s head who sits in front of us, accepting everything the preacher says, relatively unchanged by the passing of time. However, this method often leads to the successful creation of another Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Charismatic, Catholic, or some other denominationally bent believer.
In a highly organized society such as ours, this process may make perfect sense. However, it often replaces personal experience with an educational process (as if the priority of all things is getting our doctrine right or in line with the interpretation that has been accepted in that particular organization). This is reminiscent of times before the Protestant Reformation when communicants were told they were lacking the necessary education to understand the Bible and needed a priest to explain it to them.
I find no such ideas in the New Testament teachings of Jesus or the Apostles. Jesus said, “You must be born again.” If we must have everything right before receiving an assurance of our salvation or becoming useful to God, then each different denomination must have a separate section in heaven, much like the popular jokes one often hears about such things.
I tend to agree with a friend who once noted, “A man with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with only an argument.” If that was Jesus’ intention, why did He not make apostles out of Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and other such learned men? Were they not smarter, more capable men than the handful of men he chose from the ranks of commoners?
Thankfully, our loving Savior did not leave us in the hands of the super-educated. There is no evidence that Jesus lined his followers up like ducks in a row as they waddled behind Him quacking out repetitions of what He had just told them. He simply said, “Follow Me,” and their obedience to do so brought them face to face with the Word made flesh as He went about the business of his Father. He taught them by living example, and the words He spoke were usually to explain to them what he was doing, why he was doing it, and how it revealed the Kingdom of God. He chose simple, common men and said, “Follow Me.” Those who did so in obedience became the foundation of what we know as the Church.