Fan or Follower?

We’ve read and shared the book, Not A Fan. It’s a very good take on the difference between fans and followers. I learned my lesson on this from of all things baseball.  I fell in love with the game and especially the Braves through spending time with one of my teenage daughters. I began to watch games with her. I was a fan, especially of some of the players. Mark Wohlers was one of my all-time favorite players. He had an arm like no one I’d ever seen- until he lost it. I watched the team try to keep him playing, try to help him get the pitch back and ultimately send him to the minors to try to help him recover. To my knowledge, he never did. Then there were the great players who would get traded to other teams. Then there were the players I didn’t know who came in to play for the team I enjoyed.

I found it hard to keep watching because the players changed all the time. Just as I had a favorite pitcher or hitter to follow, they’d be gone and another would replace them. I had just about decided I didn’t like baseball anymore when one of my cousins said, “you just have to pick your team and stay loyal to them because everything else is subject to change”. People come and people go. So instead of being a fan of a couple of players I became a follower of the team.

In the believer’s life, we are all on the same team – Team Jesus. But some of us are merely fans while others are completely committed followers. It’s hard to tell the difference in a fan and a follower until a real commitment is needed. When the going is tough, a fan will move on. When the thrill is gone, fans leave the stadium. When things don’t go their way, a fan will quit the team and begin to do their own thing. Followers look for a spot to plug into, while fans look for what makes them feel good. Followers are servants. Fans like being served.

We must pray for our pastors. They are over a team of followers and fans. It’s a rough place to be. Pray for our churches, they are filled with followers and fans.  Pray – that you and I will always be a completely committed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that no matter what and after having done all we will stand. Pray for one another – that God to keep us all from straying when the heat is on, when the stadium is empty, when the money is low and the commitment level is lower.

Oh beloved, God knows what you’re going through. He knows you may have been slighted, ignored or pushed aside. It may have been intentional or accidental, but God was with you when it happened. You may have talents you want to use, gifts you want to give, blessings you want to share – but always remember, even when your talents, gifts and blessings are low you are needed on Team Jesus. God doesn’t need your abilities, He just wants your commitment. He reminds you to look into His Word and see: Caleb and Joshua were the only two who stood with God yet they were powerful men who stayed on God’s team, even when everyone else quit. Moses stood on the mountain with God while the rest of the group made an idol to worship. Mary Magdelene let Christ change her life completely and she was rewarded by being one of the first to view the empty tomb! Rejoice, beloved, in your commitment to Him and watch as He takes you beyond your wildest imagination! He will fix what’s wrong, He will bless what’s lacking, He will minister to you in your deepest hurts and use you for His Kingdom and His glory! 

He loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth all your commitment forever!

Isaiah 26:4 So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]. (Amplified Bible)

Titus 2:14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

John 6:66-68 At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.”

 

Your Life is Valuable Enough to Bear Fruit!

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that my mother had a green thumb.  She could break off a branch from a bush and stick it in the soil and roots would appear and that stick would become a bountiful bush! It didn’t matter what the plant was, she could make it grow.  She could even make something out of plants that others throw away.  Take the horse apple. Now everyone knows you can’t eat bois d’arc apples, only squirrels find them edible. But mother would take those ugly knobby green blobs, slice them thinly, plop them in the oven and out would come interesting “flowers”.  I think the reason Mother was so talented at her gardening was that she loved it. It was more than a duty or a chore. It was something that gave her extreme pleasure. Sometimes she’d be burning hot in the summer sun with sweat streaming across her face. She’d whistle a little tune and keep working.  It never crossed her mind to quit because she loved it. She loved the outcome of what her efforts would accomplish in the lawn and the garden.  You could say she stayed rooted right there until she was done.

God loves to make something from nothing. We are like broken dead twigs in the garden of life and most of us, if truth be told, are throw-aways. We didn’t produce fruit or beautiful flowers. We just existed. But God came into our lives to make something that we never thought we could be.  As He prunes and replants us, we flourish. It never crosses God’s mind to throw us away. What He begins He will continue. He made a way to tend our lives throughout history by His sacrifice on the cross. If it were merely the cross, then death would be our answer. But He went beyond the cross to new life. He rose again, so that we too can rise to new life. He took our little bent, misshapen and unusable lives and caused them to bear much fruit for His Kingdom.

And He always tends to our needs with His loving hands, because we were rooted and established in His love.  Oh there will be times when we feel destined to be plucked up and placed on the burn pile, but God will have none of that.  He never tires of tending His garden of love, so that He is with us, his flourishing plants, forever.

Oh beloved, you may not realize how valuable you are to God. Others may have told you you had no value or given you the idea that you are not worthy of being regenerated, but you are! It doesn’t matter what type of soil your life was beforehand or whether you produced good things, it just matters that He is calling you out of your own mess into His loving care! He will show you wonderful things about your life as you learn to trust in and lean on His Word! He chose you specifically to bloom where you are planted, to produce where you are set and to live a flourishing life of abundance in Him! He loves you, He will tend to your life needs and He will watch over so that the weeds of life will not take root anymore.  And His love and care are all that really matter!

Proverbs 12:12  Thieves are jealous of each other’s loot, but the godly are well rooted and bear their own fruit.

Colossians 2:7  having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (NAS)

Ephesians 6:17-19 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (NAS)

John 15:5 Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.