Our love for God and our desire to be obedient to Him MUST be greater than our love for the “church”.

One of the biggest differences between followers and fans, is that followers listen to Jesus’ orders, and obey them. In fact, GOD wants us to remember that the overall purpose of the church, is to seek order or aim for harmony within others the church, by keeping our demanding attitudes in check, and instead, try to have the same attitude He had. GOD also wants us to be orderly and obedient to the authorities. Meaning, one of the biggest differences between fans and followers, is that followers seek to be the best example of orderly and obedient at school, at work, and certainly within our local communities and country.

Much like the disciples, we all have a selfish and ego-centric nature that must be overcome. Which means, all of us will struggle with wanting to be honored, or will wrestle with the desire to be considered “great” amongst our peers. And the only way to overcome these selfish desires, is by doing what Jesus said, and with the help of His Holy Spirit, instead of seeking honor from others, honor others by serving them.

Jesus wants all who call themselves followers, to spend time learning from Him. And like with those first disciples, there’s no shortcut to this. Meaning, we need to be ready to leave some things behind so we can spend the proper amount of time learning from Jesus, what His will and plans are. And one of the most important things the disciples learned, is that baptism is not about checking a box that GOD created. Instead, our baptism is a symbolic demonstration of our death to this life, and the beginning of a new life in GOD.

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between those who are followers of Jesus, and those who are fans, is that followers have always been known for their obedience to Jesus’ teachings and their pursuit of godly wisdom.

GOD is inspiring us to accomplish things for His glory. And this is all possible because our belief or our faith or our trust in Him. Therefore, our the more we come to believe and trust in Him, the more we will be inspired to accomplish for GOD’S agenda.

GOD can use anyone. And when GOD sees that a person needs an attitude adjustment for greater use, He will see to it that they are broken down and reshaped like a clay in His hands.

Even though there’s plenty of evidence to prove that Jesus really did live, die, and rise again, faith is still required if we’re going to believe the entire story of Jesus.

Simply put, GOD can reach anyone. But when GOD does reach someone, what is it that makes them stick or stay at a church?

Truly there is no stain on our souls that GOD can’t remove. All we must do is trust that Christ alone can cleanse us. And once we grasp that, GOD will help us to see how we can used by Him to love others.