follow the Leader.

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"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

-Mark 8:34-35

As we are coming up on Good Friday, I’m reminded that our purpose on this planet is to tell the world of what Jesus did on that cross. What He suffered endlessly for so that you and I wouldn’t spend eternity doing the same.  We have to speak up for Christ as Christians and not turn our backs when someone questions why we believe.  Can you imagine if He had turned his back on us?

If you ever think you cannot do this, think again.  I hate confrontation more than anything, and when put on the spot, I tend to have a less than intelligent response for things.  That is until God took over for me late one night.  I never thought I would have the capacity to defend Him so deeply as I did that one night with one of my friends.  I was up late studying for my Old South final, and was on Facebook, of course, trying to avoid studying.  Somehow my friend and I got into a conversation about God.  This person, mind you, is probably the single most intelligent, educated, philosophically brilliant person I have ever met. The conversation somehow started with him saying, “Well I’m not getting into this conversation with you.” Who? Me? I had an inkling where this was going, so I said, “I’m not going to stop being friends with you if you don’t believe in God.” Whoa. I felt this surge inside of me. Hey, God. “Well, that’s refreshing,” he said.  Well, little ole me spent the next hour trying to convince him using every piece of information I had learned in 21 years of church, Biblical Studies classes, and bible studies, and some cold hard scientific evidence.  Sometimes, people think a little too much instead of believing what they don’t see, but I knew that with him, it was going to have to be an argument on the basis of intellectual theory.  I spent that hour pouring my heart out, and in the end I think I got more out of the conversation than he did.  He gave me the biggest compliment that a Christian could ever get, and it still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it.  He said, “I don’t know how I feel about this still, but at least you had the guts to defend what you believe and you actually know what you’re talking about.  I’ve had people literally raise their hand and say, ‘I’m not gonna talk about this with you.’” I couldn’t believe that statement.  Isn’t that what we are called to do? Isn’t that our purpose here on earth?

That conversation changed me, whether my little friend knows it or not.  I owe him a lot because he really showed me what God can do inside of you that you could never have done on your own.