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NOTES FROM THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
FOLLOW ME
Have you met the Messiah? I grew up in the church and met Jesus Christ in the classes I took and the worship services I attended. Like other believers, I trusted in Jesus as my Lord and Savior -- the one to whom I looked for guidance and help. My life of faith was traditional. I was blessed by Lutheran churches, graduated from college and seminary, and was ordained. I affirmed my faith and lived by God's grace in my daily life.
However, at age 48, I heard the call of Jesus saying, "FOLLOW ME and I will make you fish for people" (Mark 1:17). I say that honestly, realizing that some people will be astonished, others confused by my confession. I am not saying that my call to ministry at church camp (1959), or my ordination by the Lutheran Church (1973), did not prepare me for ministry. They were God's outward calls. I am saying that my inner call -- a conversion from self-centeredness to radical obedience to Jesus Christ -- was, is, and always will be a continual process. Going on the Walk to Emmaus in September 1990 radically changed my life. Like Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John, fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, when I heard Jesus say, "Follow Me," I left my own sense of ministry and followed Jesus' version of ministry. I was turned inside out by the presence of Jesus, the living Lord, for three days in Slaton, Texas, on my "walk" with Him from the cross to the grave. It was my cross of pleasing others that had to die, my grave of emptying myself that had to be experienced. The men at St. Luke's table can witness to you how dramatic my conversion became as I took off my "preacher" mask and became a fisher of people.
The call of two sets of brothers by Jesus (Mark 1:14-20) mirrors my call to renewed ministry. My journey from 1990 to the present has been both tragic and triumphant, because I am still a sinner-yet-a-saint. The joy of following Jesus the Messiah fills me with endless hope. I know that life without Jesus leads to a hopeless end.
My prayer is that you also will experience a conversion from knowing about Jesus to knowing Him personally in your daily life. Walk to Emmaus (Methodist), Via de Cristo (Lutheran), or Cursillo (Roman Catholic) are not the only resources for renewal in the Christian life. Daily prayer, Bible study, corporate worship, and lay ministry will also lead you from the cradle to the grave -- from the cross to the resurrection. Jesus is waiting in your own congregation to meet you "in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42).Jesus is with you always in His church.
Prayer: ALMIGHTY GOD, help me by Your grace to follow Your Son, be filled with Your Spirit, and serve
others in love. Amen.
Pastor Mel Swoyer.