The Call to Christ
🎉If you are reading this, you have officially made it into the 2026 New Year, embraced with God’s love and grace among the land of the living. Big shoutout to God, who is still at work in your life, and a special thank you for taking the time and energy out of your busy schedule to read about the things that God is imparting into my heart and translating into words on these pages. I am grateful, even if it is only for a short time. Your receiving these words means a lot to me.
Today we will focus on the call to Christ and what it means to follow Him. Let’s walk through the story of the “good news.” In the beginning, God spoke life into existence. God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).
🜲 God gave both me and you dominion and rulership through His triune authority. We are made in God’s image; therefore, in the beginning, we reflected the essence of who He is.
After God made heaven and earth, God formed Adam from His breath and Eve from Adam’s rib. They were the first man and woman born of God. There, in heaven, God had the beautiful Garden of Eden, filled with trees that were pleasing to the eyes and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:8-9).
God gave Adam (Eve was not yet created) a command: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
God had trusted Adam to listen in obedience to His command. The severity and weight of mankind rested on this truth and the command to listen to and follow God.
We move on to the next chapter, where we see Eve being enticed by a crafty serpent, a wild animal the Lord had made. He questions her understanding of the truth of the command God gave to Adam. The serpent tempts her with deception. He appeals to her desires, and he casts doubt and temptation on God’s motives. Eve eventually takes from the tree and eats.
This is known as the fall of man. Through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, mankind had fallen from their appointed position. This is when sin entered the world, ultimately altering the relationship between God and his people.
However, God did not leave us to perish; He had a plan from the beginning. The Bible says, "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (John 1:9-13).
God came to earth in the flesh through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. Jesus was sent to save us from the penalty of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). Because of the fall in Genesis 3, we were destined to die. However, through Jesus's death and resurrection, His blood atoned for our sins. In His mercy, God has passed over our former sins (Romans 3:24-25), offering us salvation and new life as His children.
The call to follow Christ is costly. It requires dying to ourselves so that we can become new creations. This means putting aside our old way of living and taking up our cross daily, emulating what Jesus did for us. To follow Christ involves reflecting God's character, but it also means living in a world affected by sin. However, God provides us with a way out of sin so that we can recognize and escape the schemes of the serpent.
Following Christ means seeking God in everything we do. Psalm 100:3 reminds us, “It is He who made us, and not we ourselves.” God desires a deeper devotion and relationship with us, which will strengthen us and make us better believers. He wants our obedience—listening to His voice, following His commands, and clinging to Him as the good shepherd and guide.
Finally, above all, we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. Also, love others around us as God loves them. We are called to be one body, built up in love and forgiveness as God forgave us. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Jesus’ death has offered us eternal life and restored what was lost in the Garden of Eden.
You can receive this gift today by asking the Lord into your heart and verbally inviting Him to come into your life and stay with you forever. Stretch your hands to heaven and ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins. Acknowledge that your life was paid for by the precious blood of Jesus and receive the free gift of salvation.
Prayer (Ephesians 3)
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.