Following?

"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.""  (Mark 8:34)

There are a lot of things to follow - aren't there?  We can, especially during the winter, be following the weather.  (I, personally, don't pay as much attention to the weather person as I do to the radar.)  We can be following a particular sports team.  We can "follow" the posts on Facebook and other websites.  There is a lot we can be following!

The Gospel reading, this morning, is Jesus talking to the Disciples and to the crowd.  He has been explaining about what is going to be happening when he gets to Jerusalem.   Peter questions (rebuke v. 32) and Jesus "rebuked Peter" (v. 33) but then Jesus points out to them it is NOT going to be easy to be a follower of Jesus. (v.34)   He is still telling us that today!  We must each, still, take up our cross to follow Christ.  The question is do we believe it? Do we believe in/for Jesus?  Jesus tells us, in John 14, "you believe in God believe also in me."  (John 14:1)

​Our foundation is Scripture so who are we following?  Do we REALLY believe?  Can we follow where Jesus is leading?