3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 1:14-20
Illustrations
FOLLOWING JESUS TO JAIL
submitted Owen Bourgaize
Hitler imprisoned a German pastor, Martin Niemoeller, for eight years.
He spent some time in prisons and concentration camps, including
Dachau. Hitler realized that if Niemoeller, a First World War hero,
could be persuaded to join his cause then much opposition would
collapse, so he sent a former friend of Niemoeller to visit him, a
friend who now supported the Nazis. Seeing Niemoeller in his cell, the
one time friend is reported as saying, "Martin, Martin! Why are you
here?" To which he received from Niemoeller the response, "My friend!
Why are you not here?"
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DISTANT FOLLOWERS
"It's possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to
be a camp-follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a
hanger-on in some great work without pulling one's weight.
Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He
said, "So and so tells me that he was one of your students."
The teacher answered devastatingly, "He may have attended my lectures,
but he was not one of my students."
There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a
student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the
Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real
disciples.
William Barclay
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AIM-DAY-CO
It is said of Miss Reside, the first woman missionary to Kiowa Indians
of Oklahoma, that after she had been with the Indians long
enough for them to know what it meant to be a Christian they gave her a
new name. They called her "Aim-day-co."
Chief Bigtree, in explaining this name, said, "When we Kiowas see
anyone on the wrong road we call out, Aim-day-co‚ (turn this way).
Our sister came to us from a far land, and found us all on the wrong
road and in great danger. She stood in a new road and called to us and
said, "Turn this way" and showed us the Jesus road. God bless
Aim-day-co.
Unknown
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NO EASY ROAD
Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal
for recruits in these terms: "I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor
provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death.
Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips
only, follow me!"
Jesus invites you to discipleship. But He lets you know up front that
it is a commitment that will cost you something. It's not going to be
easy.
To paraphrase Garibaldi, "Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and
not with his lips only, be Jesus' disciple!"
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Not Peace, But A Sword
A young man from India was brought up in a Hindu household. A very
strict one, in fact.
Due to a set of circumstances, this man came in contact with
Christians. And he was of course repelled by these people. But
gradually he realized that what they said was true. In these people, he
saw Jesus revealed, and he came to see that he was a sinner who needed
a Savior,and that Jesus had died on the cross to save him, and that he
must give his life to Jesus. Like millions and billions before him, he
fell down helpless before the cross, and repented on his sin.
When he told his parents he was to be baptized as a Christian, they
were appalled, horrified, and told him in no uncertain terms that if he
went ahead and became a Christian, he would never see them again. On
the day of his baptism, his parents, brothers and sisters, and all his
extended family held a funeral for him. And, up until the day I spoke
to him, he also had never again seen his family.
When I asked the man would he do it all again, he said, of course he
would.
He would hate to go through the pain again. Yes, he missed his family.
But go back? Never! Any cost, any pain was worth it, just to be by
Jesus' side.
In his joys, in his sorrows, in his laughing and in his crying, Jesus
was always there. To know Jesus - to follow Jesus - to sit at His feet,
to take up his cross and walk with Him - to climb the mountains with
Him - to walk the valleys with Him - this was his life. There was no
other. He said,with a twinkle in his eye, and also with a tear, that he
prayed daily for all his family to come to know Jesus too.
Ken Shillito, "The Cost" From a newsletter by Joe Bradford
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Who's In Charge Here?
A colleague shared about a church he served in Tennessee where an
eccentric and flamboyant elder impressed him with her intense
commitment to the faith.
She did not have a pietistic bone in her body, but her devotion was
nonetheless clear and articulate.
One evening at a dinner party in her home we were animatedly discussing
some theological idea. In the midst of the give and take her teenage
daughter, probably frustrated with all of the high-blown discussion of
religion, asked, "Mother, you talk about religion all the time. Why are
you so religious anyway?"
This query brought a loud hush to the dining table. Her mother paused
dramatically, pushed her chair back from the table, stood and
responded, "Every morning before you are awake, I rise and walk into
the living room. I lift my arms and ask,`Who's in charge here?'
The answer always comes back: `Not you!' That's why I am religious.
Because I am not in charge!"
Religious life begins with the realization that we are not in charge,
and from there we can proceed to align ourselves to the One who is in
charge. Jesus is declaring to the disciples: Go into the world knowing
who is in charge and what it will mean to act upon that knowledge!
Jesus is clear, however, that to act on that knowledge is not always
easy.
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Follower
S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases, tells a story of a
young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she
read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a
leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and
returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she
received this letter from the college:
"Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this
year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you
because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."
Source unknown
Author Unknown