Follow Me

So, I have started reading the book Follow Me by David Platt. And I decided to start a blog about my journey through the book and how I apply it to my daily life. Sounded good to me. 
I am almost to the end of chapter 1. And I have read the prologue, so I thought I could do some notes after each chapter. 
Prologue:
"I am convinced that certain qualities should always be true of Christians and the church." (page ix)
I was hit by this for a number of reasons, but mostly because I have always thought the same thing. But was never able to really put it into words. In the rest of the paragraph above this quote, he (Francis Chan, the author of the prologue,) talks about how what he read in the Bible felt really inconsistent. And how his life, was nothing like the life of Jesus. I relate to this extremely well because my life (after cross examination) does not line up with Jesus' either. I knew that I would get a lot of this book, and that God was trying to tell me something BIG. SO, I kept reading. 
"I told people to make disciples while I spent my days dealing with problems and preparing sermons." (pg x) Immediately I thought of something I had learned at my leadership program this past summer: to lead by example. And I had started to. But then things got complicated in life, as they always do. I started to slip up. Not that there is anything wrong by that, because we all do (that's why we're the humans and God is God). But what is wrong with slipping up, is that I still continued to ACT like I was leading by example. When in reality, I was leading the people who looked up to in the COMPLETE WRONG direction. I didn't look to God first as I should have. I was sure that life would be okay, and that everything would be okay. And as Francis goes on to say "It's weird how uncertainty can actually bring peace while ease causes the opposite." (pg x), I found it true. I was so sure, that when it didn't get better when I thought for sure that it would, I got anxious and panicked. Versus if I had just turned to God and followed the example that Jesus gave me, I would've had a lot more peace in my life at this time. 
Chapter 1: Unconverted Believers
This chapter talks mostly about dying to yourself every day. And that when Jesus said "Follow me.", he wasn't talking about just saying a prayer and being a good person. 
"Jesus said, 'Slay yourself.'" (pg 3)I was kind of taken back at this. I have never read this verse, nor heard of it in church or at a conference. Never have I heard of this being said by Jesus. But after I looked it up, I saw it. In this section, David Platt shows that that is what happened to the fisher man Jesus had called to follow Him. "Peter was crucified upside down, Andrew was crucified in Greece, James was beheaded,and John was exiled." (pg 3).It just kind of hit me that being a Christian is more serious than the people at church let on. And then I got mad because I am supposed to learn from these people. I felt kind of stupid after because I was so focused on following the way they acted rather than Jesus. It all kind of ran through my mind at once.

There's a lot of notes I took in this chapter, but I think this is enough for now. If you are curious as to what other notes were taken on this chapter, feel free to comment and I will post them.