Are You Following Jesus, or Just Following Him Around?

 By Jane Oliver

      Liaison Coordinator

  

“Are you following Jesus or just ‘following him around?’”  I was recently challenged by this question posed by Pastor Steve Wiggins on the KLOVE Cruise back in January.  My initial reaction was, “Ouch!”  It is a question that has stuck with me, and one that I have pondered over and over since. 

The Greek word for follow is akoloutheo which has more than one meaning.  It can mean to follow after or accompany; also, to follow faithfully, or to conform oneself to, to fully know, have understanding, or to accompany and assist.   In the Gospels, the word follow is used 76 times.  14 of those times are in reference to the crowds that followed Jesus around during his earthly ministry.  The other 62 times the word follow refers to when Jesus called people to be His disciples.  Based on this information, which definition of follow do you think was most important to Jesus?

You see, the people in the crowds who “followed Jesus around” were fans or admirers of Jesus—people who wanted to see and be near the man everyone was talking about—in the same way someone might admire and enjoy watching Tom Brady of the New England Patriots play football for his quarterback skills. Tom Brady fans may follow his career, or attend football games he plays in, but they are not participating in the game with him or emulating his character or skills, and they don’t know him personally.

So what is the life-altering difference between “following Jesus” as one might follow a celebrity on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or attend an event where they will perform, and “following Jesus” as His disciple?  When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He isn’t just asking us to tag along.  Jesus doesn’t want us to just believe in Him from a distance.  He invites us to come close--to be fully engaged with Him; to abide in Him by both learning about Him through His Word, and living that out by doing the work of the Gospel.   He changes us from the inside out by the power of the Holy Spirit and produces fruit in us.  In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”  Dictionary.com defines a “disciple” as a person who is a pupil, one who believes and gets others to believe the doctrines of another, one who embraces and assists in spreading the teaching of another.  We are called upon to be disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus. 

The most important distinction between “following Jesus” as His disciple and “following Jesus around” is whether or not we have put our faith in Christ and made him Lord of our lives.  1 Peter 3:15 reminds us, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  At Care Net, the heartbeat of our ministry is to offer our clients hope through sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ so “that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10).  Henry Blackaby once said, “Watch to see where God is working, and join him in His work.”  Won’t you consider following Jesus to Care Net to join Him in His work here?

Called, Loved, and Kept by Christ

By Traci Bolden 

     Center Director, Stuart

We just recently wrapped up another season of training potential volunteers.  This is always an exciting time for Care Net because we have the benefit of building new friendships with those who love this ministry as much as we do.  I think of my Care Net family and how important they are to me and how beyond blessed I am to have them in my life - each one with their own set of strengths that make this ministry flourish.  I also think of our volunteers that faithfully serve in the name of Christ each week without reservation.  They graciously sacrifice their personal time and talents for God’s greater purpose.  Oh, how we love each and every one of them. This ministry exists because of their selfless acts of service to our clients.  Many of our clients do not understand the joy we have or where it comes from.  What a privilege it is to be able to show them, to invite them into the family of God where joy is immeasurable.

One of my favorite parts about training is on the very last day when our Executive Director, Sue, shares with us the meditation for Pro Life Workers that reminds us that we are Called, Loved, and Kept by Christ.  It brings tears to my eyes every time and reminds me that we do have to rearm ourselves EVERY DAY with this profound truth that provides a shield against Satan’s lies.

When God calls you to do His work, He equips you.  There are days when we are weary and discouraged.  Weariness can be tough and exhausting, the kind of weariness that comes just before you give up.  If you have worked in a pregnancy resource center for any length of time, you know exactly what I am talking about.  It is easy to fall into an attitude of discouragement when we are tempted to believe the lies of the enemy, when we are challenged, shaken, and exhausted by the weight of the world, but then - in walks a client who says she is contemplating an abortion and one of our volunteers is there in God’s perfect timing to greet her with open arms, love on her, and show her that there is another way.  God tells us in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

It is tempting to become disheartened when we are bombarded with negative news media regarding abortion and the latest outrage of laws being passed in several states.  And, yes, it is difficult to achieve fair media coverage of the moral concerns about abortion.  Satan hates what we do.  He is relentless and merciless in his attacks, especially when we are taking territory from the enemy.  God reminds us in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

God did not say it would be easy, but he did promise that he would walk with us.  And He did not intend for us to fight this battle alone.   We often need reminding that we are joining God where He is already at work.  The support our Care Net family offers during these seasons is invaluable.  We walk alongside one another, loving one another, lifting each other up in prayer, supporting one another by offering hope, strength, and truth that can only come from Christ.

One of my favorite Bible Teachers described Christ it this way, “Sometimes Christ walks through our crisis dressed in the best disguise of all: ordinary events.  He tucks a miracle in the fold of His robe and sweeps in and out unnoticed.  Only in retrospect do we realize that a divine visitation graced our cold, crude winter and the resurrection of spring is on its way.”

If God is calling you to serve, obedience is necessary.  Are you willing to surrender your good for God’s greater purpose?

The Consequence of Courage

By Kevin Pierce, Director of Men's Services

Consequence - The result or effect of an action; importance or relevance.

Courage - Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty; doing the best thing in the face of difficulty, pain, grief, or the unknown.

In our media driven culture, it can be confusing to understand what courage looks like, and which things are of great importance.  I remember watching a movie and a family member wanted to know who the hero was.  I thought for a minute, and had to admit that there was no hero.  There were no good guys.  There were no truly courageous people.  All of the results were bad.

Truly courageous people just do the right thing.  Often, they are not sure of the result.  They may or may not know the consequence of their choice.  We may not even know their names.  They may not even think about courage as they act.   A newly divorced Mom moves her three children to a new state, to make a new life. (My mom.)  How many of us can name, without looking it up, the first responders who rushed into the World Trade Center towers on 9/11/2001?  Theirs was not the courage of a character in a movie.  Theirs was a courage, born of character, to do the right thing in a moment of crisis.

Most of the men who come to Care Net are men in a moment of crisis.  The crisis is that of a partner who is unexpectedly pregnant, a consequence of the decision the two of them made.  In nearly every case, he recognizes that there is a new life in her womb.  He sees the Mom, and recognizes that he has an innate responsibility to care for her.  Here is where courage comes in.

First, he must decide if he will view himself as a father.  He may not know how to be that.  He may fear the response from others.  He may see himself as unable to provide.  He may see the massive responsibility of a father.  He may not have the ideal kind of relationship with his partner.  His first courageous decision is to accept who he has now become.

Next, courage will be needed, as he admits his role in the life of his partner and child.  She will desperately need him to care for and support her.  In fact, his response is critical in her decision about the pregnancy.  His unborn child will require him to make changes to his life almost immediately.  Courage will demand decisions from him that will impact the rest of life, not just the weekend.  Courage is what will motivate him to get answers to questions he does not even know to ask yet.  It is what will cause him to mature.  It is what will force him to get help from people, and be humble enough to recognize his own needs.  Courage is what will aid him in saying, not “whatever you want to do,” but, “I will walk with you, as we care for this new life, whatever may come.”

At Care Net, I have had the opportunity to see men make courageous choices.  They spoke openly about the fear of failure, and of confusion.  Nevertheless, they made the choice to be what they now were- a father.  I have watched them fight for their relationship with mom, loving her no matter her response.  I have seen them overcome their own failures, to get what they need to be good fathers.  I have even watched men co-parent their children, with mothers who wanted no relationship with them.  They were courageous to serve and honor her, because of their child’s welfare.

There are consequences to these courageous choices.  And, the choices are of great consequence.  Pregnancies will fail half as often, when Dad courageously steps up.  In most cases, the children will score higher on tests, handle conflict better, and will be more successful overall.  They will be far less likely to live in poverty, far less likely to use drugs, and far less likely to make the same choices about sex that their father made.  More than this, they will be far more likely to make a positive impact on the world and culture.  What greater consequence for a man could there be, than to raise a child that does this?  What act of courage could be of greater consequence than a man giving up and investing his own life in order to make the life of his child and their mother better?

A star on a sidewalk cannot measure the consequence of this courage.  It cannot be measured by a name on a memorial.  It is measured by the legacy of impact on generations.  This kind of courage is of great consequence.

Overcoming Obstacles in Our Lives

By Pam Durham

      C.A.R.E. Director

Jeanne walked into the group for the first time.  She came because someone reached out to her at church and invited her; she even asked if she could pick her up.  This lady was warm and felt safe.  But Jeanne didn’t want to make her go out of her way, so she drove herself. 

Jeanne doesn’t have many friends. She is a loner for the most part.  She has a few friends, but no one she considers close.   She feels judged; she doesn’t believe anyone really wants to get to know her nor does she want anyone to think she is trying to infringe on an existing friendship.  All her life, she has had to be on her own, never having anyone she felt she could trust except Jesus.  But she so desperately wanted to be accepted for who she was.

 

In a way, this is my story.  I’ve struggled with feeling rejected most of my life.  Many things play into this feeling…sexual abuse, unprotected childhood, feeling rejected by my mom, no good father image, and my strongest gift – prophet, telling the truth (sometimes to those who don’t want to receive it).

I’ve been a Christian since I was 16.  When I was 15 I went to my pastor and asked him for help to stop the sexual abuse.  He did help, he confronted my step-father who did stop.  For the first time in my life (since 1 year old) I was free from sexual abuse.  But not free from the damage.  I asked for forgiveness when I asked Christ into my heart, which he, of course, did.  But that also did not free me from the damage.  Fortunately, when I was about 25 I met with a Christian counselor and walked through a lot of the strongholds in my life.  Finally, freedom began.  Wow, what a weight that was lifted.  I could physically feel the difference.  I had a taste of freedom and have never stopped pursuing it. 

Strongholds are legal ground that has been given over to the enemy.  They begin by believing a lie. The lies feed a need for security and identity.  The lies are varied, designed for each of our weaknesses.  Some of the big ones are fear, lust, greed, bitterness, rebellion, etc. that create a spirit of independence.  We believe the Spirits of deception who are blocking us from hearing the truth.  Remember though, it began with us believing a lie.

 

As committed Christians who have a personal relationship with the Lord, we more easily will move through our strongholds.  BUT, we have to want to.  Many times God presents us with the truth, but we don’t want to hear it, or we don’t believe it, or we are afraid to move forward.  God is such a loving Father that he continually will bring us around to it again and again until we break it down.

One of the major areas that Satan wants us to stay in bondage to is rejection.  He knows if he can keep us believing that others don’t like us or that we are not as good as they are, etc., he can keep us from reaching our full potential for Christ.  My husband and I were in a situation where I had confronted a church board because they decided to do a 180 degree change on some things that affected us.  I was upset, but was careful not to make any personal comments toward them even though some of them were doing that to us.  I personally sought out each board member and asked for forgiveness if I had offended them.  They each assured me they were not offended.  But, one or two of them proceeded to spread rumors indicating their lack of forgiveness.  In a time of prayerful soul searching, I asked God why they were rejecting me.  I can still vividly hear his response, “They are not rejecting you, they are rejecting me through the truth you spoke.”  From that time on, my ability to be hurt or offended by someone’s rejection has been greatly diminished.

Another stronghold that Satan uses to great lengths is the lie of secrets.  He tries to tell us that if people knew our secrets, they wouldn’t want to be around us.  But secrets are one of Satan’s greatest tools against us.  He wants us to stay afraid and bound by them.  Once we have true freedom from rejection, we can also have freedom to share our secrets.  Now the rejection isn’t about you, but about them.  If someone rejects you for your honesty, they are struggling with their own secrets or with their concept of God and his forgiveness.

Once we learn how to tackle these areas, we are free to reach out to others.  We are free to be used by Jesus to meet someone else’s needs.

Some of the ways I have worked through these types of issues is through forgiveness.  Understand that forgiveness is a lesson in itself.  Also, through taking my thoughts captive and bringing them under the submission of the Lord.  Also, choosing to believe what God says about me – who I am in Christ.

 

Now, back to our introduction story.  When Jeanne arrived, what do you do?  What would you like to be able to do?  Is there something you need to be freed from that would hold you back from reaching out to Jeanne?  Pursue freedom and break those strongholds.

Adoption is a GOOD Thing!!

By Debi Boerckel

      Office Manager

My husband and I recently had the privilege of spending the weekend with friends of ours.  We have known them for almost 20 years, and served together at our local church for part of that time until God relocated them to another part of Florida.  Eleven years ago, they adopted their little girl.  They are amazing parents, raising her to know and love God, and to serve others.  In fact, this little one has such a servant heart it is obvious that serving is a gift that God himself has given her.  

As I spend time with this family, I am NOT constantly aware of the fact that this child was adopted.  She IS part of this family.  No less than her Mother or her Father.  She is their daughter and they are her parents.  There is a deep, deep love and bond between them – as deep a love as I have ever seen in any family.  There are mannerisms, speech patterns, and even unspoken understanding between her and her parents that can only exist in a family.

Why do you suppose adoption is so frowned upon by our society in the United States today?  Why is it that a woman would rather abort her child than place it into a loving home in the form of adoption?  So often, when we suggest the possibility of adoption to an expectant mother we hear, “Oh I could never carry my baby and then give it away.”  Some of these same women end their pregnancies through abortion.  Abortion is an attempt to eliminate a problem and return one’s life to its pre-pregnancy condition, which is impossible.  You can end a pregnancy, but you can’t make it as if it never happened.

Adoption, however, focuses on what is in the best interest of the mother, the baby, and the adopting family.  While adoption is certainly a difficult and emotional decision, there is so much good that comes from it.  As I heard recently, placing a baby for adoption isn’t giving up, it’s giving life that is full of excitement, opportunity, and joy!

As I watch my friends and their daughter, I find myself thanking God for a woman that was not afraid to do the next right thing – to make that difficult decision and impact so many lives for eternity.

The Adoption Symbol.  The Birth Family, the Adoptive Family
and the Adoptee each represent one side of the triangle and 
the heart intertwining each side of the triangle represents the 
love that is involved in an adoption.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

By Rayma Zugel

      Lead Center Director

A while back a young girl who knows me called and asked me what I did at Care Net. She had “heard” that Care Net helps girls get an abortion. She said, “No way would Rayma do that”, hence the phone call. I explained to her exactly what Care Net does, and that got me thinking, “What do people think we do here?” So I interviewed a few young people to see if they knew what we do. Here are some of the responses:

Q: What do we do at Care Net?

A: “You help women with their pregnancies, like those that don’t know what they want to do.”

Q: Anything else?

A: “You collect baby supplies for the families that can’t afford them.” (From a 14 year old girl)

I asked this young girl what I did, specifically, at Care Net:

Q: What do I do at Care Net?

A: “Mom’s come to Care Net to talk to you for a minute, and if they don’t want to keep their baby, you tell them to take their baby to the ‘baby center’ to give them for adoption.” (From a 7 year old girl)

Oh if only more people could understand what this little one already knows, that adoption is a real and good possibility for those that “can’t” keep their babies. After all, God chose us, adopted us through Christ.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 1:4-5 NIV)

Q: What do the people that work at Care Net do?

A: “You help babies.”

Q: How do we do that?

A: “You give them food, and diapers, and stuff.”

Q: Do we do anything else?

A: “You help first time mommies and daddies know how to take care of their babies. (From a 10 year old boy)

Q: What do we do at Care Net?

A: You help babies.

Q: How do we do that?

A: You give them what they need, like diapers, milk, clothes, food, shoes. (From a 6 year old girl)

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27 NIV).  

One child I asked responded this way:

Q: What do we do at Care Net?

A: You help women who are thinking about abortion and you help them not want to do that.

Q: How do we do that?

A: You talk to them about their babies and about God. (From an 11 year old boy)

  

Someone else asked a 16 year old girl:

Q: What do we do at Care Net?

A: “You help pregnant women in a crisis and teach them about God”

“Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children’” (Matthew 19:14 NIV)

“Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV)

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:3 NIV)

I would say the children we know around here have gotten it right.

What do you say we do at Care Net?

It IS Finished!

By Willow Sanders, Director of Student Services

Earlier in the week I was reading and came upon a story I’d heard at least a thousand times since childhood. It’s the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luke 24 gives a glimpse of the retelling of those first morning hours on the third day.

But one line just pierced my heart as I read it again and it just stayed with me all week.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

It’s a good question and one that was totally appropriate for the context of the story. Three days prior Jesus had been crucified, his followers were grieving, his body buried behind a heavy stone. Even with all they had been told, their Messiah was gone and life as they knew it was over. Or was it?

They’re asked this poignant question by what we can assume are angelic beings. Scared for sure by first finding their Master gone, and secondly by the appearance of these beings and the revelation they had forgotten. Maybe it was emotion at the loss of One so great. Maybe it was exhaustion of living through the past three days of Jesus’ life.

We’re not much different are we?

There are times in our lives when we’ve been given the road map. Told exactly the plan of execution for a season of our lives, but we arrive totally void of the knowledge given to us.  But we’re SO exhausted at dealing with this life or we’re so filled with emotions rather than Truth.  As our culture continues to speed up and it asks our young people to hurry up and grow up, we are constantly left trying to play catch up.

I can remember times when I arrived at a new venture or mission and I kept trying to drag the old with me. The old mindset. The old operating system. The old ME. I had forgotten that God was doing something new!

So like the two ladies at the tomb that day, we can find ourselves surprised by our Savior. We don’t have to hang on to the old things of the past. Yes, some things are meant to stay but others are not. Other things we’ve gotten fresh information on…we just need to walk in it!

Our every day and every moment can be a turning again, a re-orienting and redirection to the Gospel of our Lord.  It is our privilege to keep preaching the Gospel to ourselves and to one another rather than listening to condemning voices.  We get to look deeper and deeper into the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection every day so that we may live in the riches of God’s grace through Christ. 

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” reminds us, Christian, that we live in the completed work of Jesus Christ—sins completely forgiven, atonement completely made, justification completely declared, adoption completely accomplished, and glory completely secured.  It is finished!