HOW FAR OFF?

Lk. 22:45

“The religious leaders seized Jesus and led him away, but Peter followed from a safe distance.

They brought him to the home of the high priest, where people were already gathered out in the

courtyard.”

A true member of a group will proudly wear the badge of the group, football fans are a very

good example of followers. I used to work with a fellow who was an Arsenal football fan, and at

the time the Club was not particularly doing well, but this individual despite his not so fantastic

salary, was a season ticket holder, Des, would travel all over Europe supporting hie beloved

football club. I recall a season that they had a match against a Club in the East of Europe and

he could not afford to go by air, he took a few holidays so he could travel by coach, the entire

trip took 4 days! The most serious discussion I ever saw him had was discussing Arsenal

football – That is a follower. He was always proud of his Club and even when they lost a match,

he believes the next match will be better. When it got to a time when the Season ticket became

too much for him, he joined up with a friend to buy one, and they alternated the use of the ticket

to attend home matches of Arsenal. A true fan does not follow from afar, rather, they follow

closely.

As a follower, Peter was very close to Jesus, however, although he professed to love Him, he

nonetheless was a far off follower, a look at the times Jesus needed “help”, Peter was not there,

the first at the garden of Getsemane when He wanted him, James and John to pray along with

Him and when He was arrested. To be a far off follower, is an indication of lack of commitment

and sacrifice. It is easy for a far off follower to turn back from following. The far away follower is

prone to distraction and falling away as was Gehazi and Demas. The farther away a fellow is

from light the deeper he goes into darkness, in the same way, the farther off a Christian is from

Jesus, the easier will it be for the kingdom of darkness to overwhelm him.

Samson lived a reckless life, he gradually pulled himself away from God by clearly being

disobedient to his birth covenant, he ended up selling himself cheaply to the very enemy he was

born to take out, he lost everything because of his distance from God.

In Is.1:18-19 the Lord says the route to having the best of God is in willingness and coming, but

that must start from coming to Him and being in extra close proximity, it by doing so that we can

correctly be a reflection of Him. How close you to Jesus will determine will determine how far

you go in every area of life. The closer you are to the Lord, the easier the spirit of God will light

on you.

Are you close to Him?

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