Counting the Cost.

I decided to follow Christ when I was eleven years old. My Dad is a Pastor, has been for my entire life, but never did I understand true cost of following Christ.

Did you know that the way Christians live today in the United States is not normal? Everyday we hear reports of persecuted Christians. They know the risk of following Christ, and yet they continue to follow. Christ said that the world would hate Christians. (Matthew 10:22 "You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.").

I found myself sitting in church thinking, "This is what the God who says he loves us is asking us to do?" There are things on this earth that I enjoy and that I want to experience. I haven't given those over to God yet. I think that He is using this past Sunday sermon to pry apart the grip I have on those things.

The cost of following Christ is high and I don't think I ever realized how high.

"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. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14:26-35)

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of GOd, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm." (Ephesians 6:12-13)

I understand what God asks of me now, and I feel like I'm kind of starting over. I'm learning about the God I chose to serve six years ago. I've learned that he isn't just some fluffy worship song. God is intense, merciful, awesome, gracious, forgiving, loving, and - I hope to know someday - totally worth it.

"We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die
For the sake of the call." - Steven Curtis Chapman; For the Sake of the Call