Do you believe? I read this passage out of Luke this morning. Have you ever really thought about the words that Jesus said and exactly what the implications are?
Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
I believe that salvation from the wrath of God that we all deserve for our sin is a gift, by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. But faith is not without legs, is it?
If I am standing on a rail road track and I believe that a train is barring down on my position, am I not going to get off that track and out of the way of the train? Like wise, if I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that He promised eternal life to His disciples, was crucified dead and buried then on the third day arose from the dead; am I not going to follow Him, thereby forsaking everything that prevents me from following Him?
What if you had to really forsake your father and mother to follow Jesus? Would you?
What if you had to really forsake your wife or children in order to follow Jesus? Would you?
What if you really had to forsake your brother or sister to follow Jesus? Would you?
What if it really meant pain, suffering, and loss of life to follow Jesus? Would you?
What if Jesus said, "go make disciples" and in order to do obey Him you had to risk losing family, friends, job, home, freedom, life and any number of things that you love in this world? Would you?
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
I was thinking back today, to a time when I thought I believed, but my faith had no legs. I spent much of my childhood in a Methodist church in Garland, Texas. I knew that Jesus was called Christ and was the Son of God, but that belief had no effect on me. In fact, once I left home and joined the army I didn't go to church, but if you asked me what religion I was I would have said that I was a Christian or Methodist.
So what is the difference today verses then? I believe now that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But the faith I have now has legs, it causes me to do things. True faith begets fruit! The honest answer is, I did not believe. Praise God for opening my eyes!
