This title is kind of an odd statement. As Christians we
hear a lot about this free gift of salvation and stuff, but I think at times
this can be a little misleading. When I was on the world race God talked to me
and challenged me a lot about the act of “counting the cost”. I think this is a
very key ingredient in anyone’s walk with God. But I don’t hear many people
talk about it.
Luke 14:25-35 Matthew 10:37-42
In the Gospels, Jesus makes some pretty amazing promises to
us, but none of them lead me to believe that following him would be easy. Worth
it? Yes. Easy? No. I imagine that in the large crowds that were following
Jesus, a good majority were kind of hanging around trying to get in on the good
stuff that they were seeing but not really wanting to commit themselves to that
kind of lifestyle. Since Jesus wasn’t really interested in half assed
followers, he turned around and says look…… This is going to cost you
everything you have, have been, and are going to be.
Month seven on the world race these thoughts kind of came to a head for me. Most of my life I have been in the crowd on the outskirts. Wanting
to get in on all the good stuff that I could see, but not wanting to make the
sacrifices that I knew it would require. Finally the internal battle became so
strong that I couldn’t bear it any longer, so I took the day off and climbed up
a hill and spent the day with God. I said ok God. I’m done fighting, but if I’m
going to completely surrender, you are going to have to spell it out for me so I
know what I’m getting into. So God began to lay out all this stuff that I would
have to surrender, and things that I would suffer for the name of Jesus. Also He
gave me a lot of promises of his love, protection, and provision. The
conclusion that I came to is that following Jesus costs everything. But he gave
everything for me, so how could I do anything less.
This is by no means, an act of earning salvation………………….. This is freedom.
“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his
life will find it”
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear”
MT
