• Jesus calls us to follow. Sometimes, it seems that people who come to Jesus never pick up on the idea that we are following. That is, we are to go where Jesus went and do what Jesus did. The sheep follow the shepherd (Jn. 10:4). We sing the song, “Where he leads me, I will follow.” Let us remember that means in attitude, thought and action.
• The apostles obeyed the call to follow. From the beginning of time, God has demanded obedience. Consider Adam’s and Eve’s sin with the forbidden fruit. Consider Saul’s failure to destroy the Amalekites. “behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice… (1 Sam. 15:22). Worship without obedience is vain. Let’s obey the call to follow.
• They followed immediately. In the work of God, time is always of the essence. “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway (Acts 16:33). “…behold, now is the accepted time…” Once you have learned a new truth or new application of truth from you study of God’s word, nothing is gained by waiting to obey it. Much could be lost (your soul). Why wait? It is our Lord who calls us to the work.
• They sacrificed the life they had planned for the life Christ planned for them. Jesus said, “…whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:33).. This is what James was trying to tell us when he said in James 4:13: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15: For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” Let’s live the life Christ plans for us. Let’s hide our lives in his (Col. 3:1-3).

Mike Glenn