Modern Christianity as a civilized religion claims to have a group plan negotiated with God. Everybody gets the same package. And of course the package is always the premium plan - get rich, get comfortable, get secure, get safe, get well when you get God. Everybody gets the John plan; nobody gets the Peter package. This is the sticky part of Christ’s call as seen in His admonition to Peter: “If I want him (John) to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (Jn. 21:22 NIV). John lived to a ripe old age and Peter was tortuously crucified upside down in the prime of life: It’s not fair or equitable. “You must follow Me” is a life and death proposition where the “you” is “you” and the “Me” is God. This is not a cattle call where everyone called walks the same primrose path to glory. Every saint’s life is unique before God with a divine plan and purpose - your path is yours and yours alone. “God is no respecter of persons” when it comes to salvation, judgment and eternal rewards, the only biblical contexts under which this statement appears, but the individual methodologies He imposes to bring about our conforming transformation into Christlikeness is quite another thing. Where God will choose to lead you and how God chooses to use your life for His glory cannot be predicted by the lives of other saints. It is our job to follow and His job to lead the way. Some examples:
Stephen, the newly appointed deacon who was full of faith and power, “did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people”, but was stoned to death before he could get new business cards printed. This seems to be a senseless loss of a devout man the infant church desperately needed. But God used it to incite severe persecution upon His church spreading His Kingdom in accordance with His Great commission.
The Apostle Paul was scourged five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned once and left for dead and shipwrecked three times. During Paul’s many journeys he suffered exposure to the elements, weariness and toil, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, nakedness/lack of clothing, and danger from robbers, wild animals (he fought with wild beasts at Ephesus) and people who did not accept his message. Paul suffered from a lifelong eye disease that necessitated the use of an amanuensis to write his letters. Paul learned that rejoicing in adversity produced abundant grace, that in his weakness resided God’s strength. Through this most difficult of lives Paul received the great revelations on faith and the church, healed the sick (his sweat rags carried healing), raised the dead and wrote most of the New Testament. And he spent years in prison and was beheaded.
“No one born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.” John called a wicked nation to repentance, heralding the coming of the Lord. John baptized the savior of the world, saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove upon Jesus and heard the audible voice of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. John dressed in camel’s hair clothing and subsisted on a diet of locust and wild honey for thirty years, then lost his head in prison after a very short three month ministry. Why? ‘For He must increase and I must decrease.”
“YOU MUST FOLLOW ME”
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