Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live.

“We email, Facebook, tweet and text with people who are going to spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Our lives are too short to waste on mere temporal conversations when massive eternal realities hang in the balance. Just as you and I have no guarantee that we will live through the day, the people around us are not guaranteed tomorrow either. So let's be intentional about sewing the threads of the gospel into the fabric of our conversations every day, knowing that it will not always be easy, yet believing that eternity will always be worth it.”

“Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ’s pursuit of us. Christianity does not start with an invitation we offer to Jesus, but with an invitation Jesus offers to us.”

“To be a disciple of Jesus is to make disciples of Jesus.”

“Our greatest need is not to try harder. Our greatest need is a new heart.”

“Why are so many supposed Christians sitting on the sidelines of the church, maybe even involved in the machinery of the church, but not wholeheartedly, passionately, sacrificially, and joyfully giving their lives to making disciples of all the nations? Could it be because so many people in the church have settled for superficial religion instead of supernatural regeneration?”

“Doesn’t it take your breath away for a moment to hear God say, “I love you”? To which we, in our sinfulness, must certainly respond, “Why?” And then to hear him answer, “Because you’re my child.” To which we ask the obvious question, “Why would I, a hopeless sinner, now be called your cherished child?” Only to hear him say, “Because I wanted you, and I came to get you so that you might know me as Father.”

“When we delight in something, we declare our delight. When we adore someone, we announce our adoration. Isn’t this, then, the essence of worship—lifting up with our lips and our lives the one we love above everything else?”

“Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ’s pursuit of us.”

“If our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place.”

“Almost unknowingly, we all have a tendency to redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. Slowly, subtly, we take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into someone with whom we are a little more comfortable. We”

“The road that leads to heaven is risky, lonely, and costly in this world, and few are willing to pay the price.”

“the call to follow Jesus is not simply an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose our lives.”

“the New Testament envisions followers of Jesus living alongside one another for the sake of one another. The Bible portrays the church as a community of Christians who care for one another, love one another, host one another, receive one another, honor one another, serve one another, instruct one another, forgive one another, motivate one another, build up one another, encourage one another, comfort one another, pray for one another, confess sin to one another, esteem one another, edify one another, teach one another, show kindness to one another, give to one another, rejoice with one another, weep with one another, hurt with one another, and restore one another.”

“The purpose of prayer is not for the disciple to give information to God. The purpose of prayer is intimacy with God.”

“far more important than looking and searching for God’s will is simply knowing and trusting God.”

“By God’s design, he has wired his children for spiritual reproduction. He has woven into the fabric of every single Christian’s DNA a desire and ability to reproduce.”

“This is the stunning message of Christianity: Jesus died for you so that he might live in you. Jesus doesn’t merely improve your old nature; he imparts to you an entirely new nature—one that is completely united with his.”

“I think the one thing that is abundantly clear from these statistics is that there are a whole lot of people in the world who think they are Christians but are not.”

“For far too long we have convinced one another that we are basically good people who have simply made some bad decisions. Whether we’ve lied or cheated or stolen or taken God’s name in vain, we’ve all made mistakes. We just need to invite Jesus to come into our hearts, and he will forgive us of all these things.”

“The goal of the disciple of Jesus, then, is not to answer the question, “What is God’s will for my life?” The goal, instead, is to walk in God’s will on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis.”

“Being a member of a church means so much more than standing next to someone else and singing some songs once a week. Being a member of a church means realizing that we are responsible for helping the brothers and sisters around us to grow as disciples of Jesus. In the same way, they are responsible for helping us. We desperately need each other in the daily fight to follow Christ in a world that’s full of sin.”

“Becoming a disciple of Jesus involves far more than mere intellectual belief in him. But it certainly doesn't involve anything less.”

“Making disciples of Jesus is the overflow of the delight in being disciples of Jesus.”

“Clearly, people who claim to believe in Jesus are not assured eternity in heaven. On the contrary, only those who obey Jesus will enter his Kingdom.”

“Our goal as disciples is never just to believe God’s Word; our goal is to obey God’s Word.”

“spreading the gospel is the natural—or supernatural—overflow, not of a religion they adhere to called Christianity, but of a relationship they have with Christ.”

“God's glory is most majestically displayed not through you were through me, but through US. God raises up the Church, and says to all Creation in the heavens, on the Earth, and under the Earth, this is the bride and body of My Son, bought and purchased by His blood to be My people and receive My power, and enjoy My presence, and declare My praise forever and ever.”

“What if followers of Christ stopped looking for work in places where the MOST number of Christians Christians lived and started looking for work places where the LEAST Christians lived?”

“Our ultimate satisfaction is found not in the gifts we enjoy but in the Giver who provides them, “for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”[ 13]”

“This is the heart of following Jesus: enjoying God as Father through Christ the Son. And when this is a reality in your life, then your reason for living is utterly revolutionized.”