Continuing on in the book of Mark. I am taking scripture by scripture with no study notes, no sermons, no other books….just me and the Holy Spirit, asking for fresh eyes and a new Spirit while reading. Where the Lord leads who knows! I have taught, preached most of these scriptures over the last 20 years and now I’m looking for new revelations of Jesus through them………new revelations of MY life today and yesterday.

¹⁶ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon^[g] and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁷ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ¹⁸ And they left their nets at once and followed him.

¹⁹ A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. ²⁰ He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

This is after Jesus went through the temptations in the dessert, after his baptism…..how long? I don’t know but the Word here says “one day…..” He calls out to these two fishermen and it appears they hear him and just drop what they are doing and leave with him. I don’t know about you but to me this seems very strange and not in the character of any man I know.

Did they hear John the Baptist? Was they at the river when Jesus was baptized? Did they know who He was already? When they saw him heading towards them did they get excited, hearts skip a beat? What makes a man do such a thing? Just drop everything in his life and go………leave family, friends, work, everything!!

In today’s world I think most people take this as it is meant for men and women he calls into full-time ministry…..it’s not for the average Joe. When Jesus calls a man to preach, or be a missionary, or…….well then it’s expected of them to “drop” everything and follow Him. But for the rest, for the most part and usually at best we fit him into our lives as it is…….we create another box and neatly put him in it. We go to church on Sunday and do all the “churchy” things to follow him. BUT……..is that what it means?

If your husband, wife, son, daughter, grandson, or even best friend came to you and said God asked me to follow him………I saw JESUS and I’m going to give up everything I have to follow Him and see where it takes me! Most people would tell them that they are NUTS?

I have been in both places in my life when it comes to the Lord. I believe that when Jesus calls us to follow Him that we should follow Him at any cost. It’s about OUR hearts more than our physical being, but if it takes losing all in the physical before our hearts can really see him, hear him, and fall IN LOVE with Him………then that is the cost and I will say it is worth it.

A few years back I was part of a service in a newly planted church, I was there as a guest and helped this young pastor get this ministry going. It was an Hispanic ministry in the church I pastored. On the opening day of this new church as after months of preparation, prayer and money it was “Grand Opening” day and the excitement was high for all of us. I was on the front pew with the pastor during worship and man the worship was awesome!! All in Spanish but I worshipped hard and deep that day. The pastor of the new church leaned over to me and says “I have a guest speaker for today” I thought WHAT???????????? This is YOUR MOMENT why in the world did you bring in a guest speaker? Inside I was angry at him, all the work and prayers and the place was PACKED full of people…….I am assuming to hear this new pastor preach.

Well the time comes and he gets up and welcomes everyone, and then introduces the speaker………I assumed he was up front somewhere and I’m looking every where for him……. from the back of the church walking down the center isle is a little boy dressed in a suit………I mean maybe 10 or 11 years of age……..he steps up on the stage and before I knew it he was preaching his heart out….. all over the place, reading the Word, pacing around and the crowd is responding big time……I couldn’t understand a Word he was saying but I knew that it was powerful, my SPIRIT WAS JUMPING inside and I was “amazed and perplexed” as he preached. He probably preached for an hour that seemed like 20 minutes and before I knew it the altars filled up with people weeping, broken and praying out loud for help, forgiveness, healing….he laid his hands on each one and prayed powerful prayers over them, one by one they stood and wept, laughed, danced, ran the church, and give Jesus all the GLORY!!! IT was by far the most amazing service I’ve ever been in.

After service I met the boys father and sat with him for a long time talking to him about his son. I said you must be so proud of him……He tells me “I don’t know what to do with him……..” says, that since a little boy of 4 years old all he does is read the Bible and preach. WILL NOT GO TO SCHOOL, study, anything………the school districts are on them, the state of California is all over him…..but his son locks himself in his room with the bible and spends HOURS reading, studying, worshipping, praying etc. It turns out he has preached all through Mexico, S. America and most of California……..and he is ONLY TEN YEARS OF AGE. How do you force a boy like this to learn history? Math?

Thousands of men and women have accepted Jesus under his preaching, thousands healed, and the list goes on and on.

How many people in this world just ignore the Voice of Jesus? Or never even hear it? I sometimes say “well this is an extreme case…” Is it really? Heck most churches do not even encourage a deep love relationship with Jesus………church has become all about “fellowship and blah blah blah” When the NUMBER ONE CALLING IN OUR LIFE is to be CHRISTLIKE!!! This is the will of the Father in each persons life……and that my beloved friends takes a DEATH.

Well that is my thoughts on these few short Scriptures – don’t just read over them and think “oh that’s cool, if Jesus walked up to me and said “follow me I would do the same thing”