Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Wednesday, June 23, 1999
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me.
(Matthew 16:24
NRSV)
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the people of Rome used to make all their decisions like
that. If they were going to buy a house, or get married, or move to another country, they made
that important decision by flipping a coin. The Roman coins had a picture of the famous emperor
Julius Caesar on them. The Roman people used to think that if they flipped a coin, and it turned
up heads, then they were making the right decision. Now that seems like a pretty stupid way to
make a really important decision.
Today we are going to talk about a very important decision that Jesus wants us to make. When
Jesus went out preaching to the people, He challenged them to forget about their lives and to
follow Him. Nothing is more important than following Jesus; not jobs, not money, not friends,
not family. If we make the decision to follow Jesus, then that means we will try to act like Jesus.
We will love other people and be nice to other people. We will tell others about God's love.
Sometimes it is not easy to follow Jesus; sometimes we don't feel like being nice, and sometimes it
seems fun to do what we know is wrong. That's why God doesn't want us to just flip a coin to
decide whether to follow Him. This is something we really need to think about everyday in order
to truly honor God's way of living.
Ronald Newhouse, Texas, USA
How many of you have ever flipped a coin to decide something? For instance, you want to watch
one television show, and a family member wants to watch another television show, so you flipped
a coin to see who would get to watch what. That's a fun way of making a decision isn't it?
Prayer: Dear God, help me to wisely decide to follow you everyday. Amen.
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