Today I'm going to focus on the choice to become a Christ-follower, and what most don't understand about what's required to make that choice.
Let's look at Luke 14.
Here, again, we see Jesus with a crowd of people! They gathered from all over, just like in Matthew13, and they wanted to hear Jesus speak.
Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (HCSB)
Here's a fun little scenario of what I would imagine the dialogue to be between Jesus and His disciples:)
Jesus - "You gotta hate yourself, your wife, your kids, your family...orrrr you can't follow Me. Ohhh yea, and...you gotta take up your cross and carry it. Okay? Great, thanks!"
Disciples - "Jesus, what are you doing, man? You can't tell people they've gotta hate their families and themselves. What's this deal with carrying stuff?"
Jesus - "Funny, you guys still don't get it, do you?"
Disciples - "Maybe just explain it some more..."
Jesus - "k."
He goes on in Luke 14:28-30 "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?" (HCSB)
Do we really want to spend all this money to build something that we'll never be able to finish because we werent willing to count the cost to begin with?
He doesn't want us quitting half way through. He doesn't want us to say, "well I didn't know how hard this was going to be...I didn't know how much I'd have to believe and sacrifice and do, I didn't know 'I Do' meant forever....I DIDN'T KNOW THE COST"
Jesus didn't want people in the crowd because everyone else was doing it. He didn't want people to build their faith in Him half way and then decide that it was too costly to finish!
We have far too many half way Christians out there and it's time we finish what we've started!
True Christ-followers, who have built their faith and counted the cost of sacrificing all for His Name's sake need to be seeking the "half wayers". We need to be mentoring, encouraging, teaching, disciplining these people into full faith.
The churches and number seekers need to STOP dumbing down the sacrifice Christ requires in order to be His follower! People need to understand up front what they're getting into!
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| Picture Credit |
We don't want to buy a car that we're told is amazing, brand new, only 20,000 miles and has a new paint job -- only to get it half way home; it breaks down, the sticker falls off and it really has 200,000 miles, the paint peels off and then it explodes.
"Half wayers" are like this. They are sold a lie that all Jesus required is for you to recognize your a sinner, repent and believe. Even though this is true, where is the conversation about total loss of self? Sacrifice of your current lifestyle, making other believers as we're commanded, full commitment and fidelity to our spouse, honesty, integrity, upholding of the Word of God, loving others as yourself...etc, etc.
You get the picture.
People get half way in and they say, "I thought you only said I had to believe and repent...I didn't know I was signing up for all this. It's too hard for me."
They end up walking away because we haven't finished our job as disciples. We count our next salvation on our statistic sheet for next years church calendar and we're done with them.
When's the last time someone checked in on your faith?
All of our faith wavers at different points in our life. Do you have a body surrounding you who is more than a body...more like a family. A family who will walk with you and uphold you in your struggle in building your tower for the Lord.
That's what we do here @REACH. We want to see finished towers...we want to see people pick up where they left off and have enough dignity to start the building process again.
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| #takethescalesoff (Credit) |
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