"Following Jesus"

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." (Zechariah 13:7) On the Mount of Olives, shortly before His arrest, Jesus applied this passage to what was about to happen to Him and His disciples (Mt. 26:31; Mk. 14:27). When we look at the suffering the our Lord had to endure, we have to wonder what kind of life we can justify as the life He would have us live. I know, you are wondering if I am still stuck on the stuff, and if we should really be attached to it all; but I am talking about something else right now, and it has to do with humility. I think that we can have all that God will allow us to have, as long as we remain humble. A good example of that would be Solomon, and his asking for wisdom and knowledge, that he could go out and come in before the people of Israel (2 Chr. 1:10). The thing that most people remember Solomon asking for was wisdom, but he actually asked for both wisdom and knowledge; because neither one by itself can do a man any good. Wisdom alone will just make one wise, and the Bible says, man's wisdom makes him a fool; knowledge alone is not going to get you anywhere, unless you have the wisdom to use that knowledge: the two go hand in hand. So what does that have to do with following Jesus? Quite a lot, if you are one of His sheep; because the thing that His sheep must do first is to know their Shepherd, which is the beginning of knowledge. Then the sheep must hear His voice and obey, which is the beginning of wisdom. Now, after we have established the beginning of these two very important things, what remains is called humility; which is the fence around obedience to the Shepherd... "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."