What does it mean to become a follower of Jesus Christ?
I think Jesus answers this question, when one of the scribes asks Jesus, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” And Jesus answers him, found in Mark 12:29-31: 1) The foremost is: Hear O Israel! The LORD our God is one Lord; You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. 2) You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It starts with a foundation – knowing that YHWH, our God, is one Lord. Not two lords. Not three. There is only one God, whom we are to love with our entire being. This is key, because without it, there is no reason to obey Him, no reason to want to love others, no reason to listen to the words of His Son, no reason to submit our will to God’s, dying to our own selfish wants and desires. It begins with a trembling, humble heart, which will fear the one Adonai YHWH. When we get #1 down, #2 naturally follows. I John 5:3-5 tells us, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; a
On the surface, it seemed to be a rather straight-forward event for the original disciples—Jesus invited and they accepted. However, dig a little deeper and you discover that they recognized something in Jesus that inspired them to leave their life’s ambitions and follow him regardless of the cost. What was it that caused them to go after Him with such reckless abandon? If you’ve examined the other content of this website, the answer should be obvious by now. They were convinced that Jesus was sent from God—on a mission to save mankind from the sin that had separated them from God. The Old Testament prophesied the arrival of such a person—the Christ, the only Son of God. Jesus’ remarkable fulfillment of those ancient prophecies, coupled with his heavenly miracles, laid a foundation for the disciples’ faith. Any lingering doubts were completely swept away when they beheld his living body after his horrible death and subsequent resurrection from the grave. They sincerely believed that Je
