We Follow Jesus!

"....Our speaker today had been Nigel Tomes, a very dear elder at the church who doesn't make a lot of appearances during events and I hadn't realized but today's church meeting was no ordinary meeting at all. Today had actually been an absolutely encouraging day to just believe in Christ!

Encouraged by a real message today of hearing the "truth" that our lives are not perfect, what we encounter sometimes in reality is sometimes what we get caught in as we get pressured to do certain things because we're just conforming with other people's beliefs... sometimes we don't wish to get in someone's way or bother someone or getting caught by those who impose their beliefs onto us... we struggle and we fight to keep the faith. I realized how painful it was to follow Jesus as I opened my heart to listen to the opinions of others, elders, brothers and just others... hoping to fix things by complying with their wishes without realizing how much I hated myself afterwards.

Maybe it was because it wasn't a picture perfect message of the Christian life being a typical "marvelous" one. Maybe it was the fact that there was someone else out there who gave a message through his heart and letting us know that there was someone else amongst us that was struggling in their Christian life in having to fight and

struggle against men's ideas/opinions... the horrible feeling of being pressured to conform. I respected the speaker's conviction to not fall prey to conform and to break away to remain convicted to follow Jesus on his own path. Maybe it was just the simple words that Nigel spoke this morning of his simple plea to just follow Jesus that made me want to cry because it was as if there was finally someone giving a real message today that hit me dead centre in the heart... it was this feeling of comfort.... not giving another message of what we "should or should not do" but a real-life testimony of his struggle, the tone of his voice, and despite how awkward the audience may have felt he kept on going with his message... convicted to keep going.

I hung on every word and had a deep wonder if Nigel had planned on speaking such  a message or that the slides provided for his message were being made as he went along since there were no texts or articles but simple images that could be easily found on Google. Nonetheless, I felt a mixture of happiness, comfort, admiration, and a feeling of inspired and loved that my heart once again sparked to follow Jesus... to be reminded that it wasn't necessary to be so self-conscious of other people's thoughts/opinions... to not be troubled by others... to not conform to men's thoughts/ideas but should be taken as mere suggestions... not readily be taken to be imposed onto one's self. I also had to be extra aware to avoid imposing my belief onto others since this was so real...Each one of us have our own personal relationship with Jesus and to follow Jesus on our own accord..."

http://kawasaki-firefox.blogspot.ca/2013/09/following-jesus.html?showComment=1380110873880#c2178486375112969699