Is it real? Do you believe in heaven and hell? Do people really go to hell? -- the short answer is an emphatic “yes.” One of the overarching teachings of the Bible is that our response in this life has meaning. Do we accept God’s offer of salvation? Do we promise to live a life dedicated to glorifying Him and serving Him, no matter the cost to ourselves? Do we promise to repent when we fall into error? In this age of pluralism, it might be tempting to want to believe that the sufferings of Hell and the eventual Judgment described by Jesus in the Bible are metaphorical or not-really inspired. Yet over and over Jesus describes both as a reality. For those who accept Him, glory for all eternity awaits; for those who reject Him and His offer, a tragic and serious reality awaits.
In our Gospel lesson this week, Jesus describes the anonymous rich man as in agony. Worse, it is a permanent agony. “A great chasm has been fixed.” What’s even worse, though, is that he sees the situation with his own eyes, the rich man’s hardness of heart continues. “Yo, Father Abraham, send that bum Lazarus to care for me, please.” Even in the afterlife, the rich man thinks that Lazarus is beneath him. Seemingly, because of His wealth, he has forgotten the vertical relationship between himself and God (love the Lord your God with everything), and, as a consequence, been unable to hear God’s call upon his horizontal relationships (love your neighbor as yourself). That hardness of heart continues even after death!
And while Jesus’ words often remind us of the reality of both heaven and hell, so does His witness. Our society might like to tell us to mind our own business, that all faiths are equal and that all people are basically good and going to heaven, if it exists at all; yet there remains the wisdom and foolishness of the cross. If our responses in this life have no real consequence, then why the cross? If everyone is basically good and going to heaven, why was He tempted, tormented, and killed? Was He most to be pitied as the victim of a cruel circumstance? Or is He the God Incarnate, Man divine who died and rose again that we might be brought back into right relationship with our Father in heaven for all eternity? Our answer, and the answers of those around us, have incredible consequences: one of eternal joy and the other of devastating torment.
That all being said, of course, Jesus does not spend a ton of time dwelling on hell. Is it a place of actual fire and physical torment (I lean to this given His discussion of fire and even the rich man’s thirst)? Is it a place of exclusion, of knowing that one has rejected the source of love, the hope of eternity, and so a place where one agonizes over bad choices? Does it really matter? In either case, the agony would be unbearable. There are a few statements which acknowledge its existence or reality, but Jesus’ manner of ministry is not to scare us out of hell but to love us into His Kingdom (For God so loved the world. . . ). And, as His disciples, we are charged with the same mission: love and serve others so that they will want our joy, our peace, our hope, and His promise. For us, hell ought to be, perhaps a motivator, but not our focus. If the Gospel writers were inspired to remember what God would have them remember, and if Jesus meant what He said and was not trying to trick us, and if the cross was really required to atone for our sins, the existence of hell probably ought to startle us at those moments of sloth or procrastination; but it should never be the focus of our faith. Rather, our faith and our focus ought to be on the prize and a desire to share that prize with as many as we can in this world.
How do you respond to His call on or in your life? Do you love your neighbor as yourself and serve them as He first served you, in hopes of drawing them into that wonderful embrace in their Father’s bosom? Or do you step around, step over, avoid at all cost the consequences of the needy in your life. We don’t stand on street corner’s pronouncing that others are condemned to hell (He is that judge). Yes, as we have discussed the past few weeks, the calling might be temporarily costly; but the rewards of faith last eternally with each of us in that loving embrace of our Father. Our job is to remember that He came not to condemn but to save, and to share that Good News wherever we go, and to act as first-born inheritors of His power and resources to the glory of His name!
Peace,
Brian†
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
A matter of perspective . . .
Let me get this straight, you think Jesus expects me to love Him more than anything else in my life, and He expects me to use everything I have for Him? Is He kidding or are you mistaken? – Versions of those questions have abounded the last couple weeks. To remind you of our recent readings in Luke, Jesus has told those who seek social standing by following Him that He has no place to lay His head. He has told those who first want to take care of worldly things that they are not fit for His kingdom or are themselves dying. Finally, last week, He reminded us that the cost of following Him is a death of self and a cross to bear. Certainly, as we joked last week, He needs to find a good PR firm and quick!
But as we also discussed, He is most certainly serious about the costs of discipleship. Jesus understands all too well the life to which He calls us, and He wants us to make an informed decision. Still, it seems a bit too much to our sensibilities. If I give my time, my money, my talents for His service, what happens to me? How can I take care of me? How can He ask such a thing of me? It’s too much. I have bills to pay. I need more sleep. I need me time.
But, as Jesus also understands far better than we, and as one of the lessons in this week’s hard parable, we are reminded by Him that our perspective must needs shift when we become one of His disciples. We are reminded, as we were by our opening Collect, that we should be focused on the eternal rather than temporal. You and I and all His disciples are not “of” this world. Our home is with Him. Our mission is what He gives us. Our promise is His Word.
How else can we face the trials of life with determination, hope, and joy? Our health sometimes fails us; relationships break down, addictions rear their ugly heads, our friends betray us, our coworkers stab us in the back—how can we ever face the trials of life with joy and peace and an absolute certainty that we will win in the end? The answer, of course, lies in the fact that He died for our sins and was raised to new life! And because He was raised and has promised to raise us as well, we can face the problems of this life as citizens of an eternal kingdom. We can face death and disease, sad at their occurrence, but certain that our grave will not be the last spoken of us. We can work to mend relationships with others because He crossed the chasm that existed in the relationship between God and us. And we can use the gifts He has given us, confident that our Father in heaven, the creator of all things, wants nothing but the very best for each one of His sons and daughters, and He will gift us everything we need.
How do we face life and all it throws at us? How we answer that question may be the best sermon a friend or family member or even a stranger ever hears. Because, if we answer that question with the joy and belief of one of His disciples, with the perspective of those focused on His promised Kingdom, others will want to know about our joy and how they might share in it in their own lives.
Peace,
Brian†
But as we also discussed, He is most certainly serious about the costs of discipleship. Jesus understands all too well the life to which He calls us, and He wants us to make an informed decision. Still, it seems a bit too much to our sensibilities. If I give my time, my money, my talents for His service, what happens to me? How can I take care of me? How can He ask such a thing of me? It’s too much. I have bills to pay. I need more sleep. I need me time.
But, as Jesus also understands far better than we, and as one of the lessons in this week’s hard parable, we are reminded by Him that our perspective must needs shift when we become one of His disciples. We are reminded, as we were by our opening Collect, that we should be focused on the eternal rather than temporal. You and I and all His disciples are not “of” this world. Our home is with Him. Our mission is what He gives us. Our promise is His Word.
How else can we face the trials of life with determination, hope, and joy? Our health sometimes fails us; relationships break down, addictions rear their ugly heads, our friends betray us, our coworkers stab us in the back—how can we ever face the trials of life with joy and peace and an absolute certainty that we will win in the end? The answer, of course, lies in the fact that He died for our sins and was raised to new life! And because He was raised and has promised to raise us as well, we can face the problems of this life as citizens of an eternal kingdom. We can face death and disease, sad at their occurrence, but certain that our grave will not be the last spoken of us. We can work to mend relationships with others because He crossed the chasm that existed in the relationship between God and us. And we can use the gifts He has given us, confident that our Father in heaven, the creator of all things, wants nothing but the very best for each one of His sons and daughters, and He will gift us everything we need.
How do we face life and all it throws at us? How we answer that question may be the best sermon a friend or family member or even a stranger ever hears. Because, if we answer that question with the joy and belief of one of His disciples, with the perspective of those focused on His promised Kingdom, others will want to know about our joy and how they might share in it in their own lives.
Peace,
Brian†
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sometimes, there are simply too many toads to kiss--I sometimes think that the parables this week best encapsulate what our attitude as a church ought to be. More specifically, I often wish it was the attitude expressed by the wider church, rather than the attitude above which we see play out in the world time after time. So often, we encounter in churches , and perhaps we wish our church was, a place where the righteous isolate themselves from the world. It is understandable. The world is a tough place. There, people put us down. There, diseases and worries and unemployment and wars and storms and disasters lurk. In the church, God is present. And maybe, just maybe, for a brief time, we can forget the cares of the world and feel safe again. While the attitude may be understandable, it certainly is not biblical, as Jesus reminds us this week.
As the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin remind us (and most seriously the Cross), we exist for the lost, the abandoned, and the forgotten. Our primary job is to bring the love of God and the hope of His salvation to the very people that the world has forgotten or cast aside. Yet, so often we concern ourselves with secular concerns. Do we need to build a bigger building? How will cover the expenses of ___(fill in the blank)___? How do we increase our income? Or how do we cut our spending without affecting our program?
But as Jesus’ teachings remind us this weekend, we are a commissioned people. We are sent to seek out those Lost Sheep of God’s. You and I are called together each week to share our worries and our joys, to be instructed better in what He demands of us, to be fortified by His sacraments, and to be reminded that the outside of the Church is our mission field. And then He says simply, “Go, find, love.”
What might frustrate us even more is the simple truth that we are often called to seek and love those people who are sometimes not at all interested in being loved or found by God or served by another human being. Certainly, in our many ministries, we have found many people to be ungrateful, not at all thankful, and simply dismissive of our presence. We give sacrificially to help many, only to sometimes have sand kicked in our teeth as they sometimes declare us to be hardhearted when there simply are not enough resources available to meet all the need. And that rejection can begin to wear on a disciple, cause one or more to stay in the safety of the sanctuary, rather than to go.
Yet, God promises that His Word and His service are never wasted. Sometimes, another person may take years before they are even drawn into serious reflection and conversation. Sometimes, it may take a life-changing even in their life to cause them to question their attitude. And you and I are engaged so that we can begin to help the see the answer, His Gospel truth.
And the rewards? Notice in the parable that the location of a lost sheep or a lost coin leads the finder to call his or her community into celebration. God wants us to share in His desire to draw the world to Him and His joy over the decision of a sinner to choose Him over death. We are told that the celebration in heaven over the repentance of just one person is greater than the celebration over 99 righteous persons. Think about that for just a second. As happy as God and the angels and saints are this very second, you and I have the opportunity to magnify that joy through faithful service. You and I can bring joy to His kingdom, and we can even share in it ourselves.
But to experience that joy and to experience that satisfaction, to find those princes and princesses of God that come from disgusting toads, you and I have a lot of work to do. It may not be easy. It may not make sense. But then again, neither was nor did His work to save us easy or make much sense. It may be over a hand of bridge, it might be through a game like Farmville on-line, it might be a divine encounter, or even someone sitting next to you this second. The next toad that gets turned into one of His princes or princesses may even be you.
Peace,
Brian†
As the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin remind us (and most seriously the Cross), we exist for the lost, the abandoned, and the forgotten. Our primary job is to bring the love of God and the hope of His salvation to the very people that the world has forgotten or cast aside. Yet, so often we concern ourselves with secular concerns. Do we need to build a bigger building? How will cover the expenses of ___(fill in the blank)___? How do we increase our income? Or how do we cut our spending without affecting our program?
But as Jesus’ teachings remind us this weekend, we are a commissioned people. We are sent to seek out those Lost Sheep of God’s. You and I are called together each week to share our worries and our joys, to be instructed better in what He demands of us, to be fortified by His sacraments, and to be reminded that the outside of the Church is our mission field. And then He says simply, “Go, find, love.”
What might frustrate us even more is the simple truth that we are often called to seek and love those people who are sometimes not at all interested in being loved or found by God or served by another human being. Certainly, in our many ministries, we have found many people to be ungrateful, not at all thankful, and simply dismissive of our presence. We give sacrificially to help many, only to sometimes have sand kicked in our teeth as they sometimes declare us to be hardhearted when there simply are not enough resources available to meet all the need. And that rejection can begin to wear on a disciple, cause one or more to stay in the safety of the sanctuary, rather than to go.
Yet, God promises that His Word and His service are never wasted. Sometimes, another person may take years before they are even drawn into serious reflection and conversation. Sometimes, it may take a life-changing even in their life to cause them to question their attitude. And you and I are engaged so that we can begin to help the see the answer, His Gospel truth.
And the rewards? Notice in the parable that the location of a lost sheep or a lost coin leads the finder to call his or her community into celebration. God wants us to share in His desire to draw the world to Him and His joy over the decision of a sinner to choose Him over death. We are told that the celebration in heaven over the repentance of just one person is greater than the celebration over 99 righteous persons. Think about that for just a second. As happy as God and the angels and saints are this very second, you and I have the opportunity to magnify that joy through faithful service. You and I can bring joy to His kingdom, and we can even share in it ourselves.
But to experience that joy and to experience that satisfaction, to find those princes and princesses of God that come from disgusting toads, you and I have a lot of work to do. It may not be easy. It may not make sense. But then again, neither was nor did His work to save us easy or make much sense. It may be over a hand of bridge, it might be through a game like Farmville on-line, it might be a divine encounter, or even someone sitting next to you this second. The next toad that gets turned into one of His princes or princesses may even be you.
Peace,
Brian†
Friday, September 10, 2010
Kissing toads . . .
Sometimes, there are simply too many toads to kiss--I sometimes think that the parables this week best encapsulate what our attitude as a church ought to be. More specifically, I often wish it was the attitude expressed by the wider church, rather than the defeatist or overwhelmed attitude which we see play out above in the world time after time. So often, we encounter in churches , and perhaps we wish our church was, a place where the righteous isolate themselves from the world. It is understandable. The world is a tough place. There, people put us down. There, diseases and worries and unemployment and wars and storms and disasters lurk. In the church, God is present. And maybe, just maybe, for a brief time, we can forget the cares of the world and feel safe again. While the attitude may be understandable, it certainly is not biblical, as Jesus reminds us this week.
As the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin remind us (and most seriously the Cross), we exist for the lost, the abandoned, and the forgotten. Our primary job is to bring the love of God and the hope of His salvation to the very people that the world has forgotten or cast aside. Yet, so often we concern ourselves with secular concerns. Do we need to build a bigger building? How will cover the expenses of ___(fill in the blank)___? How do we increase our income? Or how do we cut our spending without affecting our program?
But as Jesus’ teachings remind us this weekend, we are a commissioned people. We are sent to seek out those Lost Sheep of God’s. You and I are called together each week to share our worries and our joys, to be instructed better in what He demands of us, to be fortified by His sacraments, and to be reminded that the outside of the Church is our mission field. And then He says simply, “Go, find, love.”
What might frustrate us even more is the simple truth that we are often called to seek and love those people who are sometimes not at all interested in being loved or found by God or served by another human being. Certainly, in our many ministries, we have found many people to be ungrateful, not at all thankful, and simply dismissive of our presence. And that rejection can begin to wear on a disciple, cause one or more to stay rather than to go.
Yet, God promises that His Word and His service are never wasted. Sometimes, another person may take years before they are even drawn into serious reflection and conversation. Sometimes, it may take a life-changing even in their life to cause them to question their attitude. And you and I are engaged so that we can begin to help the see the answer, His Gospel truth.
And the rewards? Notice in the parable that the location of a lost sheep or a lost coin leads the finder to call his or her community into celebration. God wants us to share in His desire to draw the world to Him and His joy over the decision of a sinner to choose Him over death. We are told that the celebration in heaven over the repentance of just one person is greater than the celebration over 99 righteous persons.
But to experience that joy and to experience that satisfaction, to find those princes and princesses of God that come from disgusting toads, you and I have a lot of work to do. It may not be easy. It may not make sense. But then again, neither was nor did His work to save us easy or make much sense to mortals.
Peace,
Brian†
As the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin remind us (and most seriously the Cross), we exist for the lost, the abandoned, and the forgotten. Our primary job is to bring the love of God and the hope of His salvation to the very people that the world has forgotten or cast aside. Yet, so often we concern ourselves with secular concerns. Do we need to build a bigger building? How will cover the expenses of ___(fill in the blank)___? How do we increase our income? Or how do we cut our spending without affecting our program?
But as Jesus’ teachings remind us this weekend, we are a commissioned people. We are sent to seek out those Lost Sheep of God’s. You and I are called together each week to share our worries and our joys, to be instructed better in what He demands of us, to be fortified by His sacraments, and to be reminded that the outside of the Church is our mission field. And then He says simply, “Go, find, love.”
What might frustrate us even more is the simple truth that we are often called to seek and love those people who are sometimes not at all interested in being loved or found by God or served by another human being. Certainly, in our many ministries, we have found many people to be ungrateful, not at all thankful, and simply dismissive of our presence. And that rejection can begin to wear on a disciple, cause one or more to stay rather than to go.
Yet, God promises that His Word and His service are never wasted. Sometimes, another person may take years before they are even drawn into serious reflection and conversation. Sometimes, it may take a life-changing even in their life to cause them to question their attitude. And you and I are engaged so that we can begin to help the see the answer, His Gospel truth.
And the rewards? Notice in the parable that the location of a lost sheep or a lost coin leads the finder to call his or her community into celebration. God wants us to share in His desire to draw the world to Him and His joy over the decision of a sinner to choose Him over death. We are told that the celebration in heaven over the repentance of just one person is greater than the celebration over 99 righteous persons.
But to experience that joy and to experience that satisfaction, to find those princes and princesses of God that come from disgusting toads, you and I have a lot of work to do. It may not be easy. It may not make sense. But then again, neither was nor did His work to save us easy or make much sense to mortals.
Peace,
Brian†
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
He can't really mean everything, can He?
Our readings from the Gospel of Luke for the past few weeks have provoked some fantastic discussions. Each week, whether in Bible studies or office visits, there have been any number of questions posed about what Jesus has been teaching His disciples and us. Most of the questions center around “Do you think He was serious when He said this?”
To take us back over our readings leading up to this week, Jesus has been asked to wait for a variety of reasons by prospective disciples or He has simply been denied. “Teacher, let me follow you,” are the essentials of the first man. To him, Jesus responds that He has no place to lay His head. “Do you want such a life?” The second man wants to follow Jesus, but he needs to bury his father. Jesus, seemingly heartless, says “Let the dead bury the dead.” As we talked, it is not that burying the dead is bad—indeed, Scripture commands us to bury our dead. It is simply a question of priorities. God has walked among them. Their first allegiance should be to love the Lord with everything and above all else. The third man asks to say goodbye to his family. And Jesus tells us that anyone who looks back is not fit for the Kingdom or its work. Again, what is so bad about saying goodbye? Nothing. But compared to the opportunity to follow God, nothing else should matter. This week, Jesus teaches the crowd that if we do not hate members of our own family and do not give up everything we own, we cannot follow Him. No doubt many of us found this teaching as hard as those who walked with and followed Jesus. Some could not get past the command to hate; others could not imagine giving up everything. And do we really need to carry an instrument of death and suffering around? Certainly, Jesus needs to meet with some public relations firms to get a better message out because nobody is gonna buy what He is selling: you might be homeless, leave your dead behind, do not take time even to say goodbye, hate your family, carry an instrument of death and suffering, and come, follow Me. What in the world was He thinking?
Far better than we ever seem to grasp, Jesus understood that a decision to follow Him involved a tremendous shift in one’s world focus and it involves a tremendous cost. At least He gives us fair warning. Before we meet Him, each one of us is the focus of us. What is good for me? What can I do for me? What I need is . . . What I want is . . .. After we encounter Him, however, His Will, His heart, His mercy becomes the focus of our lives. What is He calling me to do? Whom is He asking me to service? How can I bring honor and glory to Him?--Questions such as these ought to become our focus. And when questions such as these are not at the front of our lives, we are more like all those who rejected Jesus than those who chose to follow Him. Think I am exaggerating?
Consider the Apostles. They left behind the family business (dropped their nets) to follow them. We know Peter had a mother-in-law, but he sure spent more time away from family than with. How many times do they grumble that they have given away everything to follow Him only to have that sacrifice acknowledged and to have Him reaffirm His promises about their rewards? And when given the opportunity to leave, they respond “Where else can we go? You have the words of life.”
The truth is we like to remake Jesus in our image and fashion Him after ourselves. We like to think that He a buddy or hippie or some other such approachable figure with whom we would not mind hanging out. He’s probably a fan of our favorite sports teams, He would likely be proud of the company for whom we work, He probably drinks our favorite cocktail, He probably laughs at our jokes, and He would pat us on the back for going out of our way to be nice to other people. He probably even understands when we sleep in or play golf or just lay around instead of coming to be fed by Him and to worship Him. We do this to avoid the uncomfortable truths with which He confronts us. We need a Savior. We cannot “fix it” ourselves. All our lives are indebted to Him. And He loves us far more than we could ever love ourselves or one another. Add to that His holiness, righteousness, mercy and other characteristics which He reveals to us, and we have a problem.
His solution to our problem is unheard of! Quite frankly, as Paul reminds us, it was simply unimaginable that He would die for us to restore us to Him. Follow Me, and I will lead you in safety to My Father’s kingdom. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot live in two worlds. We are, in poker terms, either folding or all in. Either way, there is a cost. Reject Him, and you come up to short to pay it. Accept Him, and your life is changed forever, but it is also redeemed.
Does He mean what He says? Of course. There is a terrible price to pay when following Him. How many of our Apostles were martyred for their faith? How many in the early Church? How many today are persecuted for their faith, passed over for promotions, not invited to certain gatherings, excluded from specific cliques or clubs, and generally teased for being a “Jesus freak” or “religious nut?” And though we may be tempted to blend in, to mute our voices, or even to remake His teaching by saying “this is what He really meant" in order to make His words more palatable, you and I are called to proclaim to the world a God centered life, a life which glorifies and honors Him for the work and person of His Son, a life which calls us to dies to ourselves and to live solely and entirely in Him and through His grace. Is it easy? No, but then He told us it would be very costly, and He took the greatest cost upon Himself.
Peace,
Brian†
To take us back over our readings leading up to this week, Jesus has been asked to wait for a variety of reasons by prospective disciples or He has simply been denied. “Teacher, let me follow you,” are the essentials of the first man. To him, Jesus responds that He has no place to lay His head. “Do you want such a life?” The second man wants to follow Jesus, but he needs to bury his father. Jesus, seemingly heartless, says “Let the dead bury the dead.” As we talked, it is not that burying the dead is bad—indeed, Scripture commands us to bury our dead. It is simply a question of priorities. God has walked among them. Their first allegiance should be to love the Lord with everything and above all else. The third man asks to say goodbye to his family. And Jesus tells us that anyone who looks back is not fit for the Kingdom or its work. Again, what is so bad about saying goodbye? Nothing. But compared to the opportunity to follow God, nothing else should matter. This week, Jesus teaches the crowd that if we do not hate members of our own family and do not give up everything we own, we cannot follow Him. No doubt many of us found this teaching as hard as those who walked with and followed Jesus. Some could not get past the command to hate; others could not imagine giving up everything. And do we really need to carry an instrument of death and suffering around? Certainly, Jesus needs to meet with some public relations firms to get a better message out because nobody is gonna buy what He is selling: you might be homeless, leave your dead behind, do not take time even to say goodbye, hate your family, carry an instrument of death and suffering, and come, follow Me. What in the world was He thinking?
Far better than we ever seem to grasp, Jesus understood that a decision to follow Him involved a tremendous shift in one’s world focus and it involves a tremendous cost. At least He gives us fair warning. Before we meet Him, each one of us is the focus of us. What is good for me? What can I do for me? What I need is . . . What I want is . . .. After we encounter Him, however, His Will, His heart, His mercy becomes the focus of our lives. What is He calling me to do? Whom is He asking me to service? How can I bring honor and glory to Him?--Questions such as these ought to become our focus. And when questions such as these are not at the front of our lives, we are more like all those who rejected Jesus than those who chose to follow Him. Think I am exaggerating?
Consider the Apostles. They left behind the family business (dropped their nets) to follow them. We know Peter had a mother-in-law, but he sure spent more time away from family than with. How many times do they grumble that they have given away everything to follow Him only to have that sacrifice acknowledged and to have Him reaffirm His promises about their rewards? And when given the opportunity to leave, they respond “Where else can we go? You have the words of life.”
The truth is we like to remake Jesus in our image and fashion Him after ourselves. We like to think that He a buddy or hippie or some other such approachable figure with whom we would not mind hanging out. He’s probably a fan of our favorite sports teams, He would likely be proud of the company for whom we work, He probably drinks our favorite cocktail, He probably laughs at our jokes, and He would pat us on the back for going out of our way to be nice to other people. He probably even understands when we sleep in or play golf or just lay around instead of coming to be fed by Him and to worship Him. We do this to avoid the uncomfortable truths with which He confronts us. We need a Savior. We cannot “fix it” ourselves. All our lives are indebted to Him. And He loves us far more than we could ever love ourselves or one another. Add to that His holiness, righteousness, mercy and other characteristics which He reveals to us, and we have a problem.
His solution to our problem is unheard of! Quite frankly, as Paul reminds us, it was simply unimaginable that He would die for us to restore us to Him. Follow Me, and I will lead you in safety to My Father’s kingdom. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot live in two worlds. We are, in poker terms, either folding or all in. Either way, there is a cost. Reject Him, and you come up to short to pay it. Accept Him, and your life is changed forever, but it is also redeemed.
Does He mean what He says? Of course. There is a terrible price to pay when following Him. How many of our Apostles were martyred for their faith? How many in the early Church? How many today are persecuted for their faith, passed over for promotions, not invited to certain gatherings, excluded from specific cliques or clubs, and generally teased for being a “Jesus freak” or “religious nut?” And though we may be tempted to blend in, to mute our voices, or even to remake His teaching by saying “this is what He really meant" in order to make His words more palatable, you and I are called to proclaim to the world a God centered life, a life which glorifies and honors Him for the work and person of His Son, a life which calls us to dies to ourselves and to live solely and entirely in Him and through His grace. Is it easy? No, but then He told us it would be very costly, and He took the greatest cost upon Himself.
Peace,
Brian†
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