I Have Decided to Follow Jesus... Have You?

  In the 19th century, there was a family in a small village in India that had decided to place their faith in Jesus after a Welsh missionary had ministered to them. But after the rest of the village found out about the family's conversion they were taken by the chief of the village. The chief interrogated and tortured them trying to get them to renounce their new faith. After a while, the chief threatened the man's children telling him to deny his faith or else his children would die, the father responded by singing, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back." His two children were killed. The chief started threatening the man's wife telling him once again to deny his faith. But again the man kept singing, "Though none go with me, I soon will follow."  his wife was then also killed. Lastly, the own man's life was threatened if he did not disown his faith, but just like all the other times he kept singing, "The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back." and the man too was killed. That day the entire family was killed, but their determination to stand by their faith no matter what stuck with the village chief and dug at him for years until finally he too came to place his faith in Jesus along with the rest of the village. Those words that the man sang have come together to be one of the more popular songs that we sing today. 

As I've been preparing to go into the mission field stories like this, are stories that have come to encourage me and drive me closer to God and his calling for my life. These stories normally would of put a seed of fear in my hear or at least make me nervous about my calling, but instead, they have made me excited at the opportunity I have to take the gospel to people that otherwise would have never had the opportunity to hear. I've begun to understand more deeply what Paul meant when he wrote, 

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." 

Phillippians 1:20-21

         Normally these aren't things that a normal 20-year-old college student would be thinking about, being willing to give up everything in order to follow Christ. But I have come to realize that unless I'm doing it to give God the glory there is no reason to be doing anything else with my life. The prize at the end of this race is to look into my Father's eyes and to have Him say, "Well done." It doesn't matter what happens, what my friends think, what my family thinks, everything is to give Him glory. 

         As I sit here writing this I can only feel the Lord pressing me to ask, "Are you willing to give up everything in order to follow Him?" And if you've answered that question with a yes, are you in the spot that He has for you? Are you actively listening to Him and living out His plan for your life?