Accept or Follow?

So I was scanning through some of my favorite websites tonight while I was lying in bed.  In case you're wondering, my top 3 most visited sites (outside social networking) are mcphersonguitars.com, churchmarketingsucks.com, and right now, yahoo.com (specifically for fantasy football).  I was reading a post from Brian Gaffney on churchmarketingsucks.com and got to thinking.  What's the big difference between ACCEPTING Christ, and FOLLOWING Him?  I know, I know, there's a huge difference, right? Then why do we become okay with just accepting Him, rather than truly following?  This is a question I feel I'm going to ask myself everyday for the rest of my life.  Wake up in the morning, hit the snooze button. Wake up again in ten minutes, then think, "Am I going to be okay having accepted Christ in my life, or will I follow Him today?"  As much as I want to follow Him, I can recognize plenty of areas in my life in which I tend to just be accepting.  I wholeheartedly believe that me spending time NOT following means I'm wasting hours, days even, with mundane activities and religion, yet not doing much to further the Kingdom.  I don't know about you, but I want that Kingdom to be rocking with people when I get there, and I'm pretty positive He'd like that too.

It's interesting.  Back in the day, you would have this wonderful scenario with a rabbi and his disciple.  Yeah, they had their own disciples.  Remember, a disciple is defined as "follower, adherent, student, devotee, learner".  So these disciples wanted to learn everything they could from the rabbi.  It wasn't that they chose to accept the rabbi's authority and then hoped to hear them say some cool stuff along the way.    These disciples spent their whole day, whole life, devoting themselves to following every step the rabbi took,  literally.  They would stay so close, in fact, that the dust from the sandals of the rabbi would be caked on the cloak of the disciple by the end of the day.  Ever thought of Jesus as our Rabbi?  Or about being a real disciple?  Can you see the dust from His sandals on your legs? Accept Him, or Follow Him.  As for me, I choose to follow.

With His Love
><>