The Christian mandate is total surrender. Unless you have given the Lord your entire life - all your time, ability, money,etc - you cannot rightly call yourself a Christian. You could pretend to be a Christian, just as many people do, but what good is that? Who are you trying to impress, and what is their importance? Do not all people die? But a Christian has only one thing in mind: to please God. It means to give everything over to Him. 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God'. Our Lord's standard is very high. Some will think this is impossible, and with man it certainly is, but what is impossible for man is possible for God. Some will try to explain it away, saying something like 'Jesus was just exaggerating', but I wonder if they'll call Jesus a liar to His holy face. The Christian response to this revelation, to the realization that Christianity demands obsession, is to believe. The response of faith when faced with an overwhelming task is to pray. The voice of wisdom tells us to start somewhere. The Church of Jesus Christ will accept anyone just as they are, but She will not let any of Her members stay as they are. Being a Christian means being changed, completely changed. Start somewhere. Start with something that you know you can do. Pray. Read your Bible as often as you can. Help the helpless as much as you can. Put forth effort. Prayer and effort really are the keys to success.
But why? Why would anyone give up everything and do many things just to be persecuted and hated by the world? What's the point? Heaven. Being with God for eternity, that's the point. 'But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.' To accept Jesus you must deny yourself, but gaining Jesus is beyond words - I'll do my best. Some people, mystics mostly, have had the tendency to deny heaven or treasure or any kind of rewards. They say that the only reward we should seek is Jesus Himself. I think they are really missing something here. I think they quite often, if not always, have no idea who Jesus is. Jesus is the Son of God. 'If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!' The Lord gives generously - 100 times on earth and eternal life in heaven. I can't possibly imagine, much less describe, what that is. I do know that the rewards from God are great and I want them! I may sound selfish but so be it. I won't lie, it was my desire to enter heaven and avoid hell that drove me to accept Jesus. And that's ok. The mystics would rather be sentimental about some kind of grand romance between man and God, and that a man must love God only and not heaven or anything from God. They use language that Jesus never used to express the 'romance' of a 'relationship' with the Lord. The thing they miss is that God is not our next door neighbor. Man and God are separated even at this moment. The guests of the wedding feast must come in the proper attire. There must be life before anyone can be in a relationship. You see, there are all these other things that must happen before we are finally reunited with our Creator and the real relationship begins. These are the things that Jesus talked about - life, love, liberty, wisdom, obedience, fruits of the Spirit, etc etc. These are the rewards God gives, or at least a taste of the rewards God gives. Our God is our Father who gives gifts, rewards and life abundant. Its good. Its really really good. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Mark 8:35-36
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