Three Simple Words… Come Follow Me

Over the past few months I have been processing through the simple words that Jesus said to his disciples and the many people he encountered on a daily basis. The words “Come Follow Me”, three simple words that changed everything for a lot of people. Those same words I believe he is still saying to you and I today.

 

Last month I was down in Alabama on a short missions trip with some of the students from my youth group. We went to host a sports camp at the MOWA Choctaw Friends Center which is about 45 min from Mobile in an area that is at or below the poverty level. We taught a different sports everyday and got to know kids of all ages from the community. Many of these kids come from rough family situations and a couple of the kids I found out that their parents would send them out of the house in the morning and not let them back in until the end of the day, so they were on their own.

 

It’s hard to believe this is how people live here in America, but it’s real. I’ve seen and experienced poverty in Brazil, South America, but this was a lot closer to home. Seeing those kids and getting to teach them sports reminded me of how God broke my heart a few years ago to lead and love “The Next Generation”.

 

Despite their situations and circumstances these kids enjoyed life. If anything we gave them a week out of the summer where they can have a positive memory and a glimmer of hope through the gospel that was shared everyday. Those kids are the future of that community and just as the kids that I work with here in North Carolina are the future of this community.

 

While we were down there I was asked to speak to the students that had come and to the staff during our worship sessions every evening. The staff had called me and asked me to speak two weeks before we were to leave and even though I was really busy with vacation Bible school, I felt like God telling me to do it. I felt like at first that I was not going to be prepared to speak because I didn’t have the time I thought I needed to prepare, however, the closer it got to the trip God kept saying just speak from the heart, trust me.

 

So our theme for the week was “You before Me, Last before First, Jesus before Everything”. I tied that into the talks by looking at different encounters that Jesus had with people and how they lived out that theme. We first looked at the rich young ruler and how he thought he had it all together and was wondering if in the new heaven and earth he would be as rich as he was here. Jesus listed of the commandments as his response purposely leaving out the first two. The rich young ruler respond to Jesus by saying all of these I have kept since I was a child. Then those simple three words followed from Jesus mouth, “Come Follow Me”.

 

Yet, the rich young ruler walked away sad. He wanted to go to heaven, he wanted to keep all the rules, but he couldn’t follow Jesus.

 

Why? I think one of the main reasons why was because he would have to put Jesus first, he would have to stop worshiping himself, his riches and the power thought he had. The rich young ruler walked away because he did not want his life to change, he just wanted to guarantee a spot in heaven. He had put himself before God, I think thats why Jesus left out the first two commandments. The commandments of love the lord your God and have no other God’s before me.

 

I think sometimes as christians we can focus more on trying to guarantee heaven then we are about following Jesus. We lose track on putting Jesus first and we put ourselves and our possessions before God. Life was never meant to be lived for Heaven, life was meant to be lived for God.

One of the main points I made in my talks while in Alabama was that “I don’t want you to think that Jesus just came to save you from your sins, but that he came that you might live and show you how to live.”

 

When Jesus says “Come follow me”, he is saying come see how I live so that you might live, because Jesus lived out, you before me, last before first.

 

The second night in Alabama we looked at a little different encounter that Jesus had with some, this time it was with Levi the tax collector. He was rich but not a ruler, he might not have kept all the rules and wasn’t really liked by people. Tax collectors were some of the most hated people in Jesus time because Hared would appoint Jews to take taxes from the Jew for the Romans. The reasons they did this is because being a Jew, Levi would have known who had the money and what he could charge people. Tax collectors were not liked by their own people and were not to be trusted. The religious leaders would have considered them sinners and outcasts.

 

Yet, Jesus comes along to Levi’s tax collectors booth and says those simple three words “Come follow me”. The guy nobody liked, the guy the leaders cant stand, the guy that takes peoples money and cheats them to get rich, yeah that guy is the guy Jesus reaches out to and says come follow me. That guy is the guy that gets it right, then and there. He leaves he tax collectors booth and follows.

 

He could have ignored Jesus. He could have stayed there. Comfortable, rich and disliked, yet he didn’t, he knew that following Jesus would mean things would change and he followed. To me the tax collectors booth represents the selfishness that Levi was living out. He didn’t care really about his Jewish friends and neighbors, we worked for the enemy of the Jews and in all likelihood he cheated them all to get rich. His choosing to follow Jesus in that moment was the start of a long process of growth and learning about life from Jesus.

 

Jesus didn’t come along and ask him if he wanted to be saved, he didn’t point out all his sins, he just said come and follow. Jesus later went and partied with Levi and his friends. Jesus hung out with the sinners and the outcasts. Jesus did what the religious leaders would not. Jesus called Levi even when Levi was in a place where he was living for himself.

 

Levi got it, he put aside the one real thing that was keeping him from following Jesus. I challenged the students and staff down in Alabama to try to identify those things that are keeping us personally from following Jesus. To find those things that we are putting between us and God. Putting those things aside or leaving them behind may be hard, it may be uncomfortable, it may mean everything about us will change but with Jesus he will show us how to live and what life is really all about.

 

When I recommitted my life to Jesus six plus years ago now, I chose to start following, to leave behind my selfish tax collectors booth and learn how to follow. It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t always been the best follower, but it has changed me for the better, Jesus has changed me from the inside. Who I am is not who I was and following Jesus is a process of growth and renewal. Heaven will be nice but my life is not about heaven it’s about Jesus, living with and for him.

 

Jesus is still telling us those simple three words today “Come follow me”.

 

Recently I have been writing a song or poem of sorts about this idea. As you read this let it soak in that Jesus saved you so that he might show you how to live.

 

Come follow me he said

As we stood in disbelief,

Who is this man

Why would he want me

I have no place to lay my head

This is not my home,

These are not my mother and brothers

but I will call you my own

This is what he means

when he said “Come follow me”

 Sell all you have and

Give it to the poor

Trust me for I will

meet your needs

 

Can’t you see

Healing all around you

It’s doing something amazing

Inside of you

 

This is what he means

When he said “Come Follow me”

 

Simple words from a carpenters mouth

That turn the world upside down

Simple words that will change

the heart inside of me.

 

When Jesus says “Come follow me” think about what is holding you back? You don’t have to walk away sad. When we trust him he will lead us into life, life 

is waiting to be lived to the fullest. I will echo the words of my savor not because he has guaranteed heaven but because he has given me life

“Come Follow Jesus”.

 

May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Restore My Joy… Enable Me To Go

“Yet I will Rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of the deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”-  Habakkuk 3:18-19

In October of 2012 I moved from Indiana south east to North Carolina, I left my family and a great group of friends behind. I didn’t fully realize how much those friends really meant to me until I found myself battling loneliness in my little apartment. I missed the deep philosophical conversations about competition that my friend Bobby and I would have over a game of cards. I missed the late night runs to Stake N’ Shake and our off key renditions of the Avett Brother’s song “Shame, which I’m sure we sang a thousand times. I missed the random weekly get togethers at someone’s house. You can’t really recreate that atmosphere of joyful community we had. That longing to just be together with others went with me when I left.  Ever sense those first few weeks here I have been praying for a community of people that I could just worship with and be myself. People who were more interested in being the church rather then doing church.

Over the months I started to get more discouraged and more lonely. I was discouraged by the fact that even in the church that I work at as youth pastor, there wasn’t that community. The doing of Church was all there, but the level of community and openness that I have had before was not. I found that it is much harder to lead when you feel like your running on empty. I am such a people person it hurts when I have to be alone. I think this probably has to do with the fact that I was raised in a house with four sisters and parents who always welcomed in our friends. When you are around people so much like I was growing up sharing life is just part of living and so when I am in a place where I am less able to share life with others it feels like I start to die. It’s as if my souls is fragile and weak outside the context of community.

Slowly, I started to make a few friends through some retreats that I attended as a leader and started to see hope again of community. Hope is a powerful thing, when hope takes root the world starts to seem like such a brighter place than before. So as I got to know these people a little more I started to hang out with a guy also named Caleb, which I find ironic. That was the start of God answering my prayers. I had not given up, but my hope had been fading.

Two weeks ago Caleb ask me if I want to go to a house concert in Greensboro where a local band was playing. I didn’t know the band but that didn’t bother me because concerts are one of my favorite things. So we went to the concert in someones living room where we knew no one. There was maybe 30 people crammed in the front room of the house. The small intimate space made for an awesome setting and the music started playing and I felt my soul coming back to life. Every word of the each song sounded like sweet worship to my ears.

After the show we were leaving and ran into the lead singer in the street. We started talking and just out of the blue he invited me to a monday night worship gathering that he and some friends have every week. I was stunned and excited because in my heart I knew thats what I wanted, really what I needed. A rough week went by and I sorta forgot about it. But then monday hit and I remembered the invite and looked him up and asked him where the gathering would be. He told me but said he wouldn’t be there. I thought about not going because I made the excuse I wouldn’t know anyone but I felt God kept saying you need to go, just do it and trust me. So I went, I drove up the greensboro to a neighborhood I had never been to, to a house I had never seen to hang out with people I have never met and it was exactly what I needed.

When I showed up I knocked on the front door but no body answered, after making sure my directions were right, I knocked again and realized the door was unlocked and cracked a little. I would’t recommend this but I let myself in. I heard some people talking in the back so I yelled hello and walked in. There were two guys there who welcomed me as if I was suppose to be there and just like I was a friend.

Others started showing up about 20 of us were there and we all shared a meal and talked. It felt like home to me. I didn’t know anyone when the night started but I felt like I was suppose to be there. After we ate we all moved into the living room and two of the guys started leading worship. There wasn’t sheet music or hymnals, they just picked a key and started singing and everyone joined in. As we sang I was reminded of my time in High school where we use to have a time of worship every wednesday night, where we would just sing worship songs together, no set order of songs or set time. We would all pray for those who needed prayer and just share together.

As the the group sang “Restore the Joy of my salvation God, be my hope oh Lord”, I was filled with Joy again. Joy that i could just be with people that just wanted to be together and sing praises to the Lord. People who just wanted to share a meal and conversation for no other reason than to be in community. It says in Acts that the early church met together, broke bread, prayed, worshiped and just were the church. The church was the people the community. I realize my faith is much stronger in the context of community. When in a place where I can be myself and just sing with all my heart for the Lord. Where life is shared in open honest community.

As the night closed the group shared praises and prayer requests.  There was both joy and sorrow shared with no hesitation. I told the group that I had been praying for a place, a community where I could just worship with others my age and felt like God had lead me there that night. It’s one of those God things. You look at it after the fact and say wow, I didn’t see that coming but I sure am glad it happened. As I drove away I felt God restoring the joy of my salvation.

When I woke up the next morning, I turned on my Bible app on my phone and read Habakkuk 3:17-19 “Though the fig three does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stall YET I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights”

The Lord has restored my Joy and he is my strength, out of the loneliness and times when nothing seemed to be going right God was still working. He is faithful to restore, even when it doesn’t seem like it in the midst of the drought. He will enable us to God where he leads. I hope to go back again to be with this group of people, to be in community and to go where God leads.

-Caleb Ross Hunter