Follow Me

^{Now that our Winter Bash! youth retreats are over, we want to share some of the devotions that were written by our staff and included in a 5 week devotional book that each camper received. We hope it blesses you and them!}

^{Follow Me}

²³And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:23-24 ESV)

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest… most of you have heard of these social websites that supposedly reveal your true self to others on the internet. It is so easy to get sucked into these sites, allowing them to draw your attention from the life going on around you. Our first question for you is this; Who are you following?

This is a simple question. You could probably name off five or six people you follow on Facebook or Twitter and talk about all the cool things they say or do. Perhaps you even want to be like them, emulating their actions and activities. They set an example for your life, whether it’s a good one or a bad. The problem is, we don’t see who they -really- are and what they really stand for. We get a small taste of their lives online and the rest is a mystery to us.

God has given us the coolest Facebook page ever. It reveals everything you’d ever want to know about Him. Every detail of the life Jesus is written down for you from four different viewpoints. His closest friends even wrote about Him, leaving wonderful bits of knowledge and wisdom for those who dig in. You could spend years on His page and never see all that there is to offer. The Bible doesn't leave much of a mystery as to how Jesus walked on earth and is better than any social media page.

 Luke 9 tells us that Jesus expects us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. In the following weeks, we’ll repeatedly come back to this passage with the hopes that you’ll begin to see why it’s so important to do as Jesus says; “Follow Me.”