Follow Me by David Platt
Introduction - Chapter 3
Introduction - Chapter 3
I'd ordered it a week before and it was already in my hands when I discovered that The High Calling would be discussing Follow Me - A Call to Die, A Call to Live, by David Platt, on Monday morning through March.
I'm not new to the teachings of David Platt or Francis Chan, whose introduction to Platt's chapters in Follow Me is deep and rich and not to be overlooked. While some may bristle at Platt's teachings, they fan a flame for me, and I'm thrilled to be wrestling through these chapters with my friends at The High Calling.
I'm also grateful to attend a church that has embraced the mission "to make disciples who love and live like Jesus" and with core values that support that mission. These core values are re-enforced by the pastors in gospel-saturated messages and fleshed out within the church in small lifegroups where we discuss the application of those scriptures that call us to die to ourselves and to live in Christ - to be a disciple and make disciples where ever God has placed us.
From what I have read in the introduction through chapter 3, Follow Me would likely receive a hearty amen from the leaders of our church.
As Chan states in the introduction:
The life God has for us is one of abundance. It is meant to be full, not repetitive. He wants us doing things that have eternal impact. He wants us busy expanding his Kingdom in one way or another, today and every day. This doesn't mean that every Christian should quit his or her job and move to a foreign country. But it does mean that we need to figure out how to make each day count for his purposes. p. xiii
In the first few chapters, Platt reminds us of the first disciples, as well as Christians through the ages, who eagerly, willingly, and gladly lost their lives to know, follow, and proclaim Christ, and he points us to the scriptures that call each of us to die, as well - that following Jesus involves losing your life - and finding a new life in him.
Platt wants us to consider that if our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place - and more importantly, that we are likely deceived if we point to praying a prayer or inviting Jesus into our heart as proof of our salvation.
Platt's explanation on what it means to be adopted and to be called a child of God - to be loved by God, pursued by God, and found by God - is one of the best I've read for it's completeness, clarity and simplicity.
Chapter 3 concludes with a question that we might be tempted to think is obvious, but should be considered more deeply in the light of what he has written. Have you been born again? he asks, while reminding us that the fruit of this new birth is a new heart with a new mind, new desires, a new will, a new way of relating to people around you, and a new purpose to follow Jesus. And he warns us to not be mistaken...
This does not mean that you are making Jesus your personal Lord and Savior. p.73
And that's where Chapter 4 begins.
