Tuesday, March 1, 2022

It **MIGHT** cost you everything.......

 https://www.amazon.com/Will-Cost-You-Everything-Follow/dp/1527107035/ref=pd_bxgy_1/131-9003146-9954726?pd_rd_w=eqSr6&pf_rd_p=6b3eefea-7b16-43e9-bc45-2e332cbf99da&pf_rd_r=MBWM5ZJ4DXV8KSNZEN51&pd_rd_r=2381ae1c-4e1b-405f-8483-918da36a6847&pd_rd_wg=37Tky&pd_rd_i=1527107035&psc=1#customerReviews

Probably a sound book, but the title is complete BULLSHIT!  Simply dying, which everybody does, costs everything.  Of course, I mean "Every" thing, as in every thing a person has ever known apart from God Himself.  We will lose our lunch.  We will lose our houses.  We will lose our family.  Some of that we might gain back, who on Earth can say if we'll eat in Heaven or which family members we'll see in Heaven?  Our houses will be more splendid than anything a person might have on Earth.  Who would want to keep their house in Heaven?  The sub atomic particles that everything is made up of, including houses, are tainted with the presence of sin.  Who would want to take that with them when they go except people so ensnared with sin they can't realistically contemplate the idea of Jesus being their Lord?
Following Christ does not cost EVERY THING.  Sometimes it does.  Many missionaries have left everything for God.  The Apostles left everything behind for God.  They still get to eat food, presumably, although it may not be enjoyable simply because different cultures often have a very different idea of what tastes good.  Some cultures eat snails and different kinds of vegetables that are not regularly sold in supermarkets where x and y missionaries were/are originally from.
A guest preacher at my church did a sermon about this concept and primarily focused on an example in that sermon on some guy whose name I don't remember that lost his life trying to preach The Gospel to some lost civilization somewhere in the jungle.  An example of the fallacy of "It will cost you everything" --- the guy was married when he died at the hands of his beloved enemies.  What does that say?  Does that say that every married person is going to be divorced once they become a Christian?  Lose your paternal family, your nuclear family, lose your taste buds, lose your ability to listen to music, watch movies..........  Yeah, EVERY thing!  Because SIN is not EVERY THING!!!!   And that's the only thing that Jesus commands us to repent of.  Not our hobbies.  Not our fleeting bouts of happiness.  Not our love for other people.  He simply wants us to flee from sin and do so genuinely.  In practice, the authenticity of that fleeing is usually something that follows after you take that first step of submission and simply doing what Jesus has commanded.  "Take up your cross" means it's not going to be an easy victory.  It doesn't mean it's going to cost you everything.  

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