I will follow you

And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Matthew 8:19,20 ESV

The verses above remind me of my friend Scott. I think Scott takes these verses to heart. He believes that he is to spread the gospel just like Jesus did. He is willing to follow Jesus and leave all the creature comforts behind and go serve people where they are.

Think about what is happening in these verses. A very religious man tells Jesus “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus response is to tell the man what it means to follow follow him. Jesus basically says if you want to follow me you won’t have all the comforts you are used to. Because, Jesus said I don’t even have a place to lay my head at night. It’s safe to assume that the scribe didn’t follow Jesus, because he probably had  a comfortable living and wasn’t ready give all of it up.

I respect the fact that Scott takes these verses to heart and lives his life according to them. How many of us would be willing to sacrifice all that we enjoy to follow Jesus and travel from place to place to share the good news?  That’s what Scott did.  

So today, let’s consider what we can do to follow Jesus more closely. How can we leave our comfort zone and reach out to others like Jesus did? There are many people out there today that need to hear the Gospel. How will we bring it to them?

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman

Scott

Today I have been thinking about a friend of mine. His name is Scott. I met Scott a couple of years ago when he came into the church building where I preach. He showed up to worship with us. He was wearing ill fitting sweat pants and a dress shirt. He was carrying a trash bag with some items in it and a gallon jug of water. Most of us would have thought that “he could have dressed better” for worship. He introduced himself to me and told me he was a “homeless missionary”. He said he traveled around northern New England sharing the good news with homeless people. 

Scott spent a couple of month’s in the area that winter and he worshipped with us fairly regularly. He didn’t always worship with us, he thought it was important to worship with other churches in the area as well. He was willing to reach out to anyone and worship with them, he wanted to let everyone know he cared about them.

In my next few postings I’m going to share some of my encounters with Scott. He reminded me of some things that I had forgotten. It is amazing, the people that God sends into our lives at different times to teach us something. When Scott came into my life I was reminded of a verse, Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. ESV Scott was a stranger, and by showing him hospitality I learned some things and was reminded of others.

So today, let’s be open to the people God sends our way. He may have a lesson we need to learn from them.

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman