{"id":947,"date":"2014-04-14T05:15:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T09:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/?p=947"},"modified":"2014-04-14T05:15:09","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T09:15:09","slug":"freedom-is-overrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/2014\/04\/14\/freedom-is-overrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom is Overrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I read this book a few weeks ago. It\u2019s called Not a Fan, and I liked it. It was written by this guy named Kyle who is trying to get Christians to understand the difference between being a fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus. Good idea. So he gives examples of people in the New Testament who had encounters with Jesus, and by their reactions we can decide if they were fans or real followers. Kyle has a lot of good insights and some very good points, but for the first half of the book I was pretty much just enjoying it. I was challenged by some things he said and encouraged by some things he said, but it was all comfortingly familiar. It kept my thoughts in that vague and fuzzy zone where they look like this: \u201cOf course there\u2019s room for improvement in my walk with Jesus. Hmm… I\u2019m not as bad as that example from Scripture, but I\u2019m probably not as good as this one… Man! There are a lot of people I would like to recommend this book to!\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you know what I\u2019m talking about? I think the problem for me was the term \u201cfollower\u201d. Even with Kyle\u2019s explanation of what he meant by it, I still wasn\u2019t coming down on anything too concrete. If I have any kind of critique of the book at all, it would be the use of that term. \u201cFan\u201d is pretty straightforward, but \u201cfollower\u201d? There are just so many kinds of followers. Which kind should we be? Like, a Twitter follower? A cult follower? A scores-and-highlights follower?<\/p>\n

But that was just the first half of the book. Somewhere near the middle he started using a better word. SLAVE. Now that\u2019s concrete. I know exactly what that looks like. And I think it was exactly what I needed to hear.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so, so simple, and so, so beautiful! If I am a slave of Christ (or bondservant, as Paul calls it) it becomes so exceedingly clear how it is possible to live the kind of life that Jesus says I\u2019m to live. For starters, it means that I\u2019m not my own master. I\u2019m not calling the shots. If something comes up and I don\u2019t know what to do, I just ask my master. I ask, and I trust that he whose work I am doing will let me know my job assignment. Do slaves worry about their master\u2019s money? Do slaves worry about their master\u2019s 5-year plans? Nope. Slaves don\u2019t provide their own food, clothes, or shelter. They don\u2019t choose where to go or what to do when they get there. They don\u2019t get to be lazy. Their job is to serve. And if you think I\u2019m starting to sound na\u00efve and idealistic, then read the words of Jesus and tell me I\u2019m wrong. What does he promise us? The same things a master would promise his slave. Sound too simple for you? It\u2019s supposed to be simple. How else could Paul rejoice in his sufferings? Why else would Jesus say his yoke is easy and his burden is light? How else can we be expected to have faith like a child?<\/p>\n

So the world \u201cslave\u201d really turned the lights on for me. It has actually changed my outlook on life. And, as an added bonus, I finally found my life verse! I never really understood what a life verse was. I have a favorite verse, but it has more to do with my death than my life. (It\u2019s Job 19:25-26 if you\u2019re interested.) \u201cLife verse\u201d just always sounded so… I don\u2019t know… church-y. It seemed like one of those things that everybody talks about but nobody ever really defines. Anyway, I finally understand what it means. And this is my life verse: \u201cWho are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him to stand.\u201d Romans 14:4.<\/p>\n

Why that verse? Because I\u2019m a slave. A very opinionated and judgmental slave (right, Mom?) who is working alongside other slaves who are doing my master\u2019s work and ALL of whom the Lord will uphold and cause to stand, just as much as or more so than me. So I need this verse because it puts me in my place. And I need to stay in that place for the rest of my life, so it will henceforth and forevermore be my life verse. So if you have ever asked yourself, \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d and yourself answered, \u201cHow the heck should I presume to know THAT?\u201d, then next time ask yourself, \u201cWhat would a SLAVE of Jesus do?\u201d and I bet the answer will punch you right in the face.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read this book a few weeks ago. It\u2019s called Not a Fan, and I liked it. It was written by this guy named Kyle who is trying to get Christians to understand the difference between being a fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus. Good idea. So he gives examples of people in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}