Tag Archives: commitment

Kiss Your Plans Goodbye

Christian Life, ,

KISS YOUR PLANS GOODBYE

“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce? Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good bye, you can’t be my disciple.” Luke 14:31-33 (The Message).

That’s how radical the loyalty is that Jesus demands of His disciples. There is no other spiritual leader on earth that requires a commitment as close as that. Why is discipleship of Jesus so all-or-nothing? Why can’t it be simple adherence to a belief system like Buddhism, or sticking to rules and rituals like Islam?

It’s the difference between following a religion and being personally united to a person. Jesus does not call people to believe what He taught (and He did that), as much as He invites us to believe who He is. That makes all the difference in the world. If He is not who He is, then everything He taught is empty, hollow and meaningless babble.

Counting the cost of radical discipleship is a necessary prerequisite. The image of warfare is appropriate because Jesus came to earth to take back what rightfully belongs to Him – the right to rule over His own creation. Satan is the usurper who won the allegiance of God’s son, Adam, and the entire human race, by deception. Jesus unmasked and evicted the squatter and his hoards of demons by defeating him through the cross. His call to discipleship is a call to all-out war. There is no place for slackers or deserters because anything less than a total sell-out to Him would mean disaster.

This sounds like a no-win situation for those who take Jesus seriously, but the opposite is true. It’s our plans and our self-will that ruin our lives and take us off course and away from what God intended for us in the beginning. When we heed His call to become fused to Him, submitting ourselves to His plans and His will and obeying His words, we enter a realm of living that is secure and restful and has a guaranteed destination because we are on the way to eternal life in the presence of the Father.

What does that mean? It means that we no longer have to take responsibility for ourselves. He has set the course and He promises all the resources we need to follow Him and to get where He is taking us. The most comforting of all is that He accompanies us, or rather, leads us every step of the way. It is not for nothing that He is called Immanuel – God with us. He promised, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5 (NIV), and “And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Matthew 28:20b (NIV).

What more can we desire? Yes, kiss goodbye to your plans, but it is no loss because our plans are selfish, open-ended and are not guaranteed to succeed. God’s plans are perfect, sure, energised by His power and part of a much bigger picture which He put in place before the foundation of the world. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV).

When we entrust ourselves and our lives into the hands of Jesus, we place ourselves and our destiny into the safest hands in the universe. Not only are His plans good and sure but they are directed by one who loves us perfectly, passionately, and unconditionally and we can relax and follow Him with perfect confidence. It takes all the sweat and uncertainty out of living since we have now given Him driver’s seat of our lives and we can enjoy the ride!

Futile Faith

Christian Life, , ,

FUTILE FAITH

“A bystander said, ‘Master, will only a few be saved?’ He said, ‘Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life – to God – is vigorous and requires your total attention…'” Luke 13:22-24 (The Message).

Jesus consistently refused to pander to mere curiosity-seekers. His response to this man’s question seems rather rude until we understand what He was saying from His perspective. What would be the point of His self-sacrificial mission to earth if all it produced was people who gathered useless information to satisfy their desire to know about God and not to know God?

Jesus did not come to earth and lay down His life to gather around Him a crowd of freeloaders who have no interest in the meaning and purpose of life in the kingdom of God. There is a tendency today of ‘accepting Jesus’ as an escape route from hell and a solution to all our problems rather than a commitment to the life-time invitation to become who we are, sons and daughters of the living God.

The life we have been given is an apprenticeship for the life to come. What we do with it now will determine what God does with us in the hereafter. He gives us the choice and then works with us according to the choices we have made. This is not a joy-ride to heaven. It is vigorous and requires our total attention. The Apostle Paul reiterated Jesus’ sentiments in Philippians 2:12b, 13 – “…Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”

Jesus was constantly referring people back to a consideration of their own lives before God. Those who reported the cruelty of Pilate who murdered worshippers in the sanctuary, were warned they that would suffer a similar fate if they did not repent. If we have any involvement with Jesus of Nazareth, it can only be a personal and lifetime commitment to Him as our Master and Lord.

There is a world of difference between the present-day gospel message which is essentially saying, “Come to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins so that you can go to heaven when you die,” and the message of the apostles who declared, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” Acts 2:38 (NIV).

The good news of the kingdom of God was never intended to be an escape route from earth. It is a promise of hope and the renewal of a corrupted earth and a mandate for those who recognise and bow to the Lordship of Jesus, to bring heaven to earth. By living out the life of Jesus in the power of His Spirit here on earth, His Father’s benevolent and gracious rule can be extended through His people wherever they are.

God’s promise is that every knee will bow to this Jesus whom He has elevated to the highest place and given a name above every name. Even those who refuse to acknowledge Him now will bow, including His arch-enemy, the devil, and that will be their admission of defeat and their self-inflicted removal from the presence of God forever.

So, once again, Jesus says to every reader, ‘Be warned. You choose….”