God Speaking

“…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

(John 8:12)

The last few weeks has been a frenzy of campaigning in this part of the world (Canada), as the country decides who will be the governing party to lead the country for the next few years. The promises of the candidates for the different parties seem outrageously extravagant, painted with rosy expectations of what we, the people, can enjoy if we just choose them for the position. The faces on all the bill boards have huge smiles and the one I saw was very straight forward, “The Choice is ….” This made me stop and think about what choosing and allowing somebody to lead, meant. We live in a democracy so we are allowed to choose which political party we think will do the best job, of course this is not guaranteed and governing parties often fail to live up to expectations. Choosing and following, spiritually is very different from that of the world.

Choosing and following has been part of the relationship between God and his children right from the beginning. The big question of who and what to choose, was posed by Moses after he had been given the law of God, designed to care and protect the children of Israel, and he urges the people to choose the life the Heavenly Father has prepared for them.

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before your life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice and hold fast to him….” (Deuteronomy 30:19 – 20)

Jesus himself poses the same question to us. His campaign to persuade us to follow him, contain the most powerful promises of all time.

“..I am the way and the truth and the life…” (John 14:6)

Then he tells us what to do;

“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.” (John 12:26)

During our election campaign, I was interested to see how many volunteers were prepared to put their efforts into seeing the message of the candidate they were promoting, spread to the public. Their enthusiasm was obvious as they followed the one they were representing to all the public meetings displaying the party signs on tee shirts, placing posters on every corner, speaking to as many bystanders as they could.

I thought, a bit sadly, that we as Christians do not always put as much effort as that to promote the lovely message of love the One we represent, has for all mankind.

When the disciples heard Jesus’ loving invitation they were prepared to leave everything behind to be with him;

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men”. At once they left their nets and followed him.” (Matthew 4:19 – 20)

The beautiful hymn is a wonderful affirmation of the way we can cast our vote, spiritually.

Following Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

No turning back, no turning back