Mt 4:19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

New Years evening, I watched as a neighboring abandoned house burned to the ground. This house had been an object of struggle between the town council and it's owner/investor for many years. As I watched, the blaze, fanned by the gusting winds, billowed against the night's sky showering embers across our small town.

Passersby drove slowly, as the local church congregation gathered for their Sunday evening services, seemingly without notice of the blaze. 911 was called and the fire department came later. In the meantime the house was fully engulfed with flames that topped the nearby trees. The crackle of the flames could be heard across town.

Only after the fire department arrived did the citizens take notice of the fire. By this time the house had collapsed into ashes and rubble.

Prayers whispered under the breath for the safety of everyone involved were soon answered by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He began to reveal the similarities of lives that are abandoned by His church, His people. These lives are sometimes caught in the struggle of religious red tape known as tradition and are lost in the process waiting for the promise of restoration that never comes. Meanwhile, they crash and burn without notice. We judge by our sense of worth and value, never seeing the plan and purpose that Jesus had in mind when that particular life was created.

As with the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33) we need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on all the lost, to be ready to come to the aid of an individual, not looking at the package but looking through the eyes of our Father in Heaven. No human eye can see the heart but only our Father in Heaven. Picking up our cross and following Him into the lives of what our society calls the "throwaways," but Jesus calls "His children", is where that cross may lead us. Let us take notice before the crash and burn. Let us take notice of the life not the aftermath of the rubble that makes up the ten o'clock news. Let us therefore follow.


A New Year has come to us. It is new to us but it has always existed with our Father.  Let us take advantage of each new day with all the promises of Heaven at our disposal. Let us come together to seek His face with all our hearts then keep our ear tuned to His voice and follow.

The message Jesus gave to His disciples was for them to come and follow. The same message is heard today if we will but incline our ears to hear. We are not only to be hearers of the Word but doers.

So come and follow. Jesus is the Way.