"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:16
Were you ever told that when you come to Jesus everything will be okay? But what if you believed this untruth only to later find out that it is far from the truth? Sadly, this is the experience of many who came to Christ believing that once they said the magic prayer at the end of a sermon, and asked Jesus to come into their lives, then, it will be bye bye to all their troubles and worries, but they have painfully found out that coming to Jesus is different from following Jesus. Yes, you come to Him at no cost to you, He paid all the price, but following Him is an entirely different ballgame. Following Jesus is not a picnic, it will cost you everything, including your very life.
Jesus did not sugarcoat what it means to follow Him, He made it clear to everyone who desires to come after Him, that following Him is not cheap, it is costly. In Luke 14:16, He said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." This doesn't seem to me to be an invitation to a jamboree of some sort. It is man who has made coming to Jesus a jamboree, and the danger of such perversion of the gospel of grace is that those who believe this false variant of grace are easily offended when trials and persecution arise against those who believe.
Luke 8:13
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
Such believers have no staying power because they have believed a lie about the gospel, therefore, when persecution arise on account of Jesus, they quickly fall away and stop believing. This is why it is important that we make sure that what we have believed about following Jesus is true, because following Jesus is not a picnic, it will cost you EVERYTHING.
Toni
Were you ever told that when you come to Jesus everything will be okay? But what if you believed this untruth only to later find out that it is far from the truth? Sadly, this is the experience of many who came to Christ believing that once they said the magic prayer at the end of a sermon, and asked Jesus to come into their lives, then, it will be bye bye to all their troubles and worries, but they have painfully found out that coming to Jesus is different from following Jesus. Yes, you come to Him at no cost to you, He paid all the price, but following Him is an entirely different ballgame. Following Jesus is not a picnic, it will cost you everything, including your very life.
Jesus did not sugarcoat what it means to follow Him, He made it clear to everyone who desires to come after Him, that following Him is not cheap, it is costly. In Luke 14:16, He said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." This doesn't seem to me to be an invitation to a jamboree of some sort. It is man who has made coming to Jesus a jamboree, and the danger of such perversion of the gospel of grace is that those who believe this false variant of grace are easily offended when trials and persecution arise against those who believe.
Luke 8:13
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
Such believers have no staying power because they have believed a lie about the gospel, therefore, when persecution arise on account of Jesus, they quickly fall away and stop believing. This is why it is important that we make sure that what we have believed about following Jesus is true, because following Jesus is not a picnic, it will cost you EVERYTHING.
Toni
