Faith & Insight: Resolve to follow Christ in 2013

As we prepare to welcome in a new year, let us reflect upon the One who makes all things new and resolve to follow in His steps.In Christ, one finds life-new and forever. The apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”The new life requires a death to the old life of self and sin. We must die to live. Again the words of Paul are instructive, “If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” Paul sums up his own life thusly, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”Jesus calls us to follow Him. He seeks not admirers, but followers. His call is not to decision, but to discipleship. He said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”The late Dutch philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard understood our Lord’s words perfectly. He wrote, “The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in word he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires.” By God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, let us resolve to be more than admirers only of the Christ. Resolve to follow in His steps in 2013!• Ken Haskins is pastor of First Christian Church in Carson City.