I have often wondered what the friends of Simon and Andrew and Zebedee, the father of James and John, thought when the four of them stopped mending their nets, dropped everything and everyone and followed Jesus after just a simple "follow me...and I will make you become fishers of men!" Follow me! The implications of that command are startling: leave father, mother, brother, sister, wives, friends, children, the old ways of doing things, all of it! Were their friends contemptuous? Did they think that these four men were idiots? Jesus freaks?

Is it any easier for us to "follow" Him? Are you able to take the heat for Christ? Or do you go along to get along with your friends? Do you rationalize your conduct? The Ten Commandments are pretty clear. So, too, is the word of Christ when He says "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." It will not do to accept some and reject others; there is no negotiation with Christ. I refer you yto the parable of the rich young man.

Someone wrote last week questioning what it is you have to believe to be a follower of Christ, that is, a Christian. Politics has nothing to do with it. Your worldview has nothing to do with it. Whether you are leftist or rightist, liberal or conservative, green, democrat, republican...all that is folly. Do you keep His commandments? All of them? That is the only question you must answer.

At John 15:18, Christ says that "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you." You cannot please both God and Mammon. You cannot try to live your life by pleasing men, taking the easy way, being a compromiser of God's commandments. You must SET OUT INTO THE DEEP!! Christ's way is the Hard Way. His gate is the narrow gate. People will hate you, revile you, call you all manner of names but you cannot let that deter you from following Him!

Be willing to be a martyr; be willing to die for your beliefs. Die to the world, die to what is the easy way, so that you may live in Christ!

Read the gospels; listen to the Word; live the precepts of Christ.

Perhaps you think I am being harsh, that I sound like some backwoods Bible thumper. Far from it! I am as about as far from that as you can imagine. But I care for your soul! I have a zeal for souls! I do not want you to lose yours because of your attachment to the World. So be not misled by those who would tell you what you do and do not have to believe.Put your soul in Christ's hands by following His commandents! It's that easy...it's that difficult! There is no wide raod.