No Sissies Allowed!

If you listen carefully in many churches that “preach the Gospel”, the appeal to repentance and faith sounds more like a sales pitch to join a local 24/7 gym.  “You can have it all on terms that are convenient for you and God will be available to you any time, day or night.  All you need to do is sign on the dotted line….”

Contrast that approach to that penned by the saint who authored The Cost of Discipleship: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him ‘Come and die’.”  This simple sentence written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his death at age 39 speaks volumes to those who will listen.  Bonhoeffer gave his life in 1945, a victim of Nazi hate.  Believers are always more happy to hear the Bible passage that declares “Whosoever will, come…” But the full text is found in Mark 8:34:

And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

There it is in plain English (King James Version, no less!)  Everyone is welcome to come.  But being a disciple involves:

1.    Self-denial

2.    Assumption of personal risk, possibly even death

3.    Following in the footsteps of Jesus – who already has shown us what #1 and #2 look like

None other than the great theologian, Johnny Cash, said, “Being a Christian isn’t for sissies!”  I’m sure that last word has long since passed from the politically-correct lexicon, but he said it, I didn’t.  But I certainly agree. 

21^st Century faith in America seems but a faint shadow of what it must have been to our Christian forebears who plowed new ground in the 1^st Century.  Yet even in this age, followers of Christ in other parts of our world are waging war against the powers of darkness by enduring suffering and even death.  But they are winning! God is being exalted, the lost are being rescued from sin and death, and Christ is being proclaimed even with the last breath of believers. 

It’s been estimated that one million Christians have been killed in just the first 10 years of our century. I know it sounds unbelievable, but here’s the link to check it out:

http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/research/documents/csgc_Christian_martyrs.pdf

That’s 100,000 of your fellow believers who give their lives every year just because they are Christians.  Do you think “…take up his cross and follow…” means something different to them than it does to you?  Why is that??

It’s because we’ve bought into the idea that we can do #3 in the list above without doing #1 and #2.  WRONG!  Jesus said we need to love Him more than anything or we can’t be His disciple.  He said if we’re not willing to handle #2, following Him just isn’t going to work for us.  (Go back and read Luke 14:26-27).  There are some serious challenges to walking with Jesus!

I don’t know about you, but I need to wake up to the fact that getting up to go to the early service and sitting in an air-conditioned building isn’t “suffering for Jesus.”  Even if it’s raining and the sermon runs long….

There’s more expected than what I’m giving,

Jacob