What are you following?

Source: HBS Financial Planning

"Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” - John 6:68-69 (NIV)

The world today can pull us in a million different directions. Our jobs can keep us occupied at all hours of the day and night, pulling us away from our families and other important things in our lives. A hobby can take up all of our time. Public opinion can also do the same with the masses, or "everybody else," believing one thing and making it so attractive or so compelling that we feel we must follow or suffer the consequences.

Little has changed since ancient times in that regard.

As documented in the book of 1 Samuel, the ancient Israelites demanded a king to rule over them. At the time, they had been ruled by judges who had learned the will of God for the nation and then led the people in that direction. This was unlike the nations surrounding them, each of whom had kings who ruled with varying degrees of strictness, all as absolute rulers.

Rather than be the separate people that God had called them to be, the Israelites clamored for a king of their own. The prophet Samuel, who had been overseeing the nation as judge, warned them, with words from the Lord, of what a king would do to them:

"This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day. " - 1 Samuel 8:11-18 (NIV)

Despite this warning, the people ignored him, saying, "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8:19-20 (NIV)) So God gave them what they wanted, having Samuel anoint Saul, who was considered an "an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites" (1 Samuel 9:2), as king.

The arrangement worked for a while, with Saul scoring impressive victories early in his reign. However, it soon began to unravel. Following a victory, Saul offered up the burnt offering to God rather than waiting for Samuel and the priests as he had been instructed by God (see 1 Samuel 13:1-15), and he was soon replaced by David, who had risen to prominence after defeating Goliath (1 Samuel 17) and scoring other military victories.

However, with few exceptions, having a king rule over them "like all the other nations" did not work well for Israel. The Bible, in talking about future kings, often described them as having done "evil in the eyes of the Lord," causing the rest of the nation to sin as well. The nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, and eventually both were conquered by foreign powers as the people fell further away from the will of God. Psalm 106 explained the situation:

"They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin." - Psalm 106:32-43 (NIV)

But where do you go if the world's ways are not a good way to go? The Apostle Paul wrote on this several times in his letters to various churches:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:2 (NIV)


"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." - Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

Jesus also provided the answers, offering eternal life. He is quoted in John as saying he is "bread of life," and that those who come to him and believe will never go hungry or never go thirsty. (see John 6:35). He was provided as the answer to sin and deceptive philosophies (see John 3:16-17). After a while, his apostles also saw this, even as people were deserting him, with the Apostle Peter saying Jesus has "the words of eternal life."

All it takes is to believe in that.

Leaning on Jesus

"'I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.'" - John 15:5 (NIV)

There has been many a time where Christians have been accused of using God as a "crutch," where they are unable to stand or do anything without God.

Somehow, that has been portrayed as a bad thing.

Throughout the Bible, it is proclaimed that we should rely on God, for he provides the strength that is necessary to live in a fallen world. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (NIV)

The prophet Isaiah said for his fellow Israelites to "trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:4 (ESV))" even after they had been conquered and oppressed. In the beginning shortly after he created the world, God provided for his newly formed man and all of the animals (see Genesis 1:29-30). Later, as people were abandoning Jesus after a particular difficult teaching on his being the "bread of life" (see John 6:25-59), one of his apostles, Peter, told him,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." - John 6:68-69 (NIV)

In his comparison of himself and his people described in John 15, Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches. A tree's branches cannot survive apart from the tree - anyone who has picked up dead branches following a storm can attest to this. We are the same way in that we cannot survive and do much of anything apart from God and by extension, Jesus Christ.

That includes being saved from our sins. In John 14:6, Jesus is quoted as saying,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

That is because Jesus was the final sacrifice for our sins (and remember every last one of us have sinned) when he went to the cross. And we need to accept that gift is repent of our sins (see Mark 1:15) and confess that Jesus is Lord (see Romans 10:9-10), then we will be saved.

Questions? Concerns? Do you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today? Please feel free to contact me today and we can talk.

The Fourth Station of the Cross: The Truth

Courtesy: Vatican Museum

"Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. 'You also were with Jesus of Galilee,' she said. But he denied it before them all. 'I don't know what you're talking about,' he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, 'This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.' He denied it again, with an oath: 'I don't know the man!' After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, 'Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.' Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, 'I don't know the man!' Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: 'Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.' And he went outside and wept bitterly." - Matthew 26:69-75 (NIV)

Peter was a bold man. As Jesus predicted His death, He also predicted that all of his apostles would run away and deny Him. Peter challenged Jesus, saying He would never leave, even to the point of death. Jesus knew better, though, and predicted:

"'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.'" - Matthew 26:34 (NIV)

Of course, when Jesus was arrested, all of the disciples ran away, despite their earlier protests and promises to the contrary (see Matthew 26:56).

In the celebration of the Stations of the Cross by Pope John Paul II in 1991, the minister prayed this prayer:

"Lord, grant us the gift of honesty that we may not fear to speak the truth even when difficult."

Thanks to sin, even the most honest of us (at least by our standards) is still capable of speaking a lie, whether it is conscious or unconscious. Peter and the other apostles were very bold in protesting when Jesus predicted their falling away, but that was also at a time of very little trouble. When the real trouble came, they fell away almost too quickly.

We need to ask God to continue to work in us so we may not only be honest and speak the truth in the best of times, but also when we may, as they say, bite the bullet and say it when it is difficult. 1 Timothy 3 tells us that overseers (also can be defined as church leaders) must be above reproach, or good to the point of being beyond criticism because we are acting like we are speaking and doing what we should be doing, bringing glory and not shame to the name of Christ.

May we all be able to do that.

(Editor's note: This is part of a series of the Stations of the Cross.)