Go: Leave Your Dark Past and Follow Jesus At Last!

Go 1

Leave Your Dark Past and Follow Jesus At Last!

By Andy Borero

Every person has his own story.

Just take a look at someone’s Facebook page and sure enough, you’ll find yourself staring at sneak peeks of that person’s life.

All of us have our own story to share. Admittedly, we love to chatter when the subject is about us. Our favourite food...our favourite movie...our opinion on this and that. We love to share stories about ourselves.

But, in all honesty, we don’t share EVERYTHING about us.

Who would want to broadcast their share of shameful dark pasts?

A character in the Bible had his story to share.

In Mark 2:13-17, we find the story of a man named Levi.

Jesus went back again to the shore of Lake Galilee. A crowd came to Him and He started teaching them. As He walked along, he saw a tax collector, Levi, son of Alpheus, sitting in his office.

Mark 2:13-14a

Levi, before he was known as Matthew an apostle of Jesus, was a man living in the darkness of his sins. As mentioned in the verse above, he was a tax collector. During those times, tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government. They were in charge of collecting the payment of their fellowmen to the government. However, tax collectors were known extortionists of money. They would add high interests, forcing their fellow Jews to pay more than they could earn.

Tax collectors were so corrupt that the Jews utterly despised them. They stole from their own people.

Levi was one of them. He was greedy. He wanted all the money he could grab, not caring of the fact that he was stepping over helpless Jews.

That was Levi’s dark past.

He was an evil, self-loving, corrupt tax collector.

But despite this, Jesus told him:

“Follow Me.”

All the while, Levi was in his tax collector’s booth.

Jesus action shows that God can us you no matter what your past is. You are called to do something.

However, let’s take note of the detail: Levi in his tax collector’s booth.

A dozen of excuses must’ve ran through his mind for a split second.

You might be experiencing the same thing too. You might hear the voice of God, calling out to you, impressing on your heart your purpose but you keep running away, throwing excuses. Well, the Bible has exposed excuses used by characters when they are called. But God actually used them, despite of who they were:

1.       The NOBODY

“I am nobody!”

In the book of 1 Samuel, there’s the story of Samuel looking for the next appointed King of Israel. He was lead by the Lord to a man named Jesse who had seven sons. Of course, Jesse presented the best of his sons, leaving out the youngest.

David was nobody special in the beginning. He was just your typical shepherd. Handsome, yes he was, but he wasn’t a soldier like his brothers. He was just a nobody.

Not until he is revealed to be the chosen King by God. The plain shepherd was apparently destined for great things. Little did he know that he would be the one to defeat the giant Goliath, the King would be loved by his people... a man after God’s own heart.

2.       The MURDERER

“I’m not much of a talker!”

Out of anger for seeing his people being mistreated by the Egyptians, Moses found his hands doused in blood once had murdered an Egyptian.

Moses never saw himself as a speaker to a nation, let alone to a crowd. He felt as if he didn’t deserve to, being a murderer and unworthy person he was. He had no confidence in his speaking abilities.

But the Lord said otherwise:

“Who gives a man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or dumb? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? It is I, the Lord. Now, go! I will help you to speak and I will tell you what to say.”

Exodus 4:11-12

God will qualify you. His calling is your only qualification and you can be assured that He will help you along the way.

3.       The PERSECUTOR

“I might be rejected!”

Paul was absolutely rejected at first. You can’t blame the Jews for hating him. Paul, who was then known as Saul, was the number one enemy of the Christians. He hunted them, killed them for their faith. His passion was finishing off the Christians.

However, when he encountered Jesus as written in Acts 9:5-6, Saul became Paul. His life was changed.

You can imagine the difficulty he had to face and making the people see that he was a different person. He might have been discouraged at first but he knew that God was on his side.

Same applies to us!

God will be with you every step of the way! He chooses us, not for who we are but for what we can be...all for His glory.

So how did Levi respond?

HE FOLLOWED.

When Jesus calls us, there should be no hesitations.

However, some of us are still stuck in our own tax collector booths. We sometimes just refuse to let them go.

We SIT because we love to stay where we are. We wallow in our bitterness towards our families, jealousy at our friends and anger at our enemies. We hold on to these vices that are actually killing us inside.

But, when we STAND, we make our decision to obey but it’s all in the head. Our mind is telling us to go but our feet are still planted on the ground. It’s all head and no work.

In order to fulfil this, we have to WALK, to make the decision and to actually do it!

The result?

In Levi’s case, as written in Mark 2:15, he became Matthew. Jesus came to his house and was able to minister, not only to Matthew, but also to his fellow tax collectors. Souls were saved that very night and Matthew began a  changed life in the Lord.

Leave your past and follow. The Lord can use  you, despite your dirty past, and allow you to create an impact all for His glory. Follow Him and you will be contagious to others!

You might think: “But I’m so filthy and dirty! That can’t be possible!”

Jesus did say in verse 17: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.”

Jesus is for you and me, not for the religious ones.

So stop fretting!

Listen to His calling, forget your dirty past and follow Jesus...at last!

Written by: Ashley Petallano (c)2013