In one of my recent posts, one of the comments made me think. I appreciated his candor and openness so please do not think this is in any way critical of him. On the contrary, his comment hits home.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is credited with saying, “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (Cost of Discipleship)
It seems that the whole idea of dying to self is long gone in much of today’s church world. Look around and many (myself included) are enjoying a “good life.” Of course, there are those who are REALLY enjoying a good life, especially those who get rich off others. Yeah, I am talking about the TV dudes/dudettes who spout off their aberrant prosperity garbage.
BUT THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER DAMAGING PHILOSOPHY BEING SPOUTED OFF.
It is the teaching that we can do whatever we want-without sorrow, without repentance, without giving up anything. It is the old “license” thing: do whatever you want, ask God to forgive you, and He will. Tragically, many almost all use it as a license to just go ahead and do whatever it was without any consequence. What a crock! What a trap! Allow me to use a biblical example.
In I Kings 19 Elijah came looking for a successor to his ministry. Elisha was the man, but when found he was in the field plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. That gives you and indication of his wealth. I wonder if Elijah approached him with safeguards up and a wary eye. To follow God meant Elisha would be leaving a lot behind-his family, his friends, his wealth, his career. When Elisha heard the invitation to follow, he did some incredible stuff. He slaughtered his 24 oxen. He then got together all of his farm plows and lit them on fire. He BBQd the oxen for the community and served it all up. He was serving notice that he was leaving it all and would not be looking back. I have never plowed looking backwards (I am from Pittsburgh after all), but I have tried cutting grass by looking backwards. That line was as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.
WHEN GOD CALLS A MAN HE BIDS HIM COME AND DIE.
Never, never, never, were we promised an easy path. Never are we told, “Come to me and you would be okay. Everything you touch will be blessed. Everything you try will be blessed.” (Contrary to popular religious thought) Being a Christ-follower is hard. It is meant to cost us something…no make that everything. Everything we hold dear. Everything we aspire for, to be, to accomplish may all be laid to waste. Jesus wants our whole-hearted affection. Confession: I am nowhere near that.
Where do you find yourself these days? Do you struggle with this whole surrender idea? Are you a follower not a fan of Jesus?
Bill, we like options. We don’t mind our child going into ministry as long as they had a good major in college to fall back on. I don’t think God gives us back-up plans. Jesus didn’t say, “Follow me, unless it doesn’t work out and you can go back to fishing.”This. Peter tried, but Jesus wouldn’t let him.
Totally agree with you Larry. i know of many who had the whole ministry/job-to-fall-back-on syndrome to deal with. Good point.
Even more than referring to an easy or tough life, Jesus is telling us to give up on ourselves to come up with ANY righteousness on our own…by what we do. He has put all of that…our bad…and our good…to death, with himself on the cross.
My 2 cents.
Thanks.
You are right, of course, Steve. We have nothing to commend of ourselves. he was complete surrender.
Galatians 5:22-23 has been eating at me lately as I have been going through some personal struggles. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The troubling thing is that if I don’t have these gifts, does that mean that I don’t have the Spirit and God is not with me? Maybe this is more a sign of not having the particular fruits that I crave the most. It is hard to surrender when you don’t really know where you stand.
I think, without sitting down and talking, that you have put your finger on the whole “problem” Daniel. no one is going to have all the gifts, but your struggle may be you are not exhibiting the ones you really crave. You are HIS.
I think that none of us are up to it.
That’s where we stand.
But He died and forgives the ungodly…real sinners…the kind that we know are.
Reminded of Jesus’ words, “Without me you can do nothing.” Good thought Steve.
Hi Bill,
You state:
‘Being a Christ-follower is hard’. To me, it’s not that hard to be a follower of Christ at this time. As believers, we aren’t facing severe persecution, and life threatening conditions. Many believers have in past generations while they were following Christ.
It takes the Holy Spirit to follow God. I think as believers we have to pay attention to this fact. God says that his yoke is easy, his burden is light. He says we are to come to him for rest. If you’re thirsty he says, come and get a drink. I am the bread of life God says.
How is this difficult? We must seek the Holy Spirit, and not be afraid. My struggle right now is setting better and frequent devotional times with God. This is discipline of my flesh and mind.
I’ve been watching some of the Olympics. The discipline, the long and arduous training for a few more seconds of time gained in the timing of their performance in their sport is astounding.
We have something far greater to discipline ourselves for, to make time for in our lives. It’s hardly a hardship. It’s a privilege and a benefit to our lives in tremdous ways. And life eternal. Works don’t get us to heaven, but they get us prepared for heaven.
I realize that many are not facing persecution, at least physically. Many are. but I still think it is “hard” to be a Christ-follower if one wants to take a stand. Maybe not like the early christians but we have our own set of “chains” to deal with.
I agree Bill that there are obstacles, but once those steps start to be taken it gets easier and easier to follow God in my experience.
My past situation was that I was not the one earning the family income over the years. I didn’t have to be concerned about a job or what other people thought. I didn’t have as many ‘chains’ to break off as many others do.
Is it worth it? I think it is. We have to stuggle against the flesh and the mind. There were times in my simple experiences where what I feared was the ‘worst’
was actually the ‘best’.
I gained considerable freedom over those many years.
You and I are different Linda. I consider the life of following Jesus a long-distance run. I will hit the wall and fall backwards but then the key is picking myself back up. It will always be a struggle for me no matter who “close to jesus” I get. In fact, I have noticed the more I desire Him and His presence the more the enemy pursues me. Freedom comes but in increments.
Hi Bill,
Persues you with temptation? Persues you with life’s difficulities or opposition?
Sometimes we need other godly men and women to lay hands on us and pray.
I was at church on Sunday. The pastor said ‘take a block of time from say, 7:00 to 11:00 o’clock, and spend it with God. Somewhere in that time He will meet with you’.
I look at the life of following Jesus as a long-distance run too Bill. Life long.
My two men boarders backed out of renting from me, but now there is the possibility of a woman and 2 children coming here to rent while she attends post secondary school. She is from Bermuda.
This is going to be challenging for me. I like living alone. I like my privacy. I like quiet, and 2 young children might be moving in with me. I just feel like its time to open up my home.
This is a win/win situation. I get some rent money to help me with income, and they get a place to stay that is affordable. My basement is a 1,000 square feet. They have the use of that, my laundry facilities and my kitchen that are located upstairs.
Not easy. But I’m going to try it. We’ll see if she agrees to rent.
Bill,
I’m setting my mind to surrender what I may be asked to surrender. I surrendered my grandchildren, which was something I thought I could not do. But I did it. And I’m doing ok. I’ve surrendered my daughter and son-in-law. I’m prepared to surrender other family members if I have to.
I’ve been setting my mind to surrender my assets if I have to. My little 1/2 duplex, and my present way of life, if I have to. Right now, my duplex is the same cost as for me to live in an apartment or a room really. Not much more. So, I’m going to stay here for now.
I trust God more than I trust the police. And certainly more than I trust the justice system. These systems are only as good as the people who work in them. In our day this is pitiful service indeed.
Surrender is not easy.
I love that book- in fact each Monday I post on a chapter from it (The Cost of Discipleship).
I think more of our churches need to grasps the costliness of grace and not the cheap grace we sometimes give the world.
I have never read the whole book TC, only parts of it. That may be heresy to some! 😛 But I do agree that churches need to grasp the costliness of grace.
I think I would have worded it that He calls us to be dying. That is the challenge. It’s not a once and done thing. It’s a series of dyings. I believe the apostle Paul said something to the effect of “I die daily.” Every day it’s a choice to die or not to die. And there are so many trip wires along the way….
Bonhoeffer would agree Susan. His writings (from what I have read) seem to be a daily dying is required. And yes, there are trip wires all along the way.
The dangerous “theology” you mentioned is getting more and more prevalent…not just through people living that way but promoting the “Christian leaders” who promote it. I’ve watched with sorrow in my heart some Christians I really respect re-tweeting and posting things from people I know in my heart are false teachers because they refuse to call anything a sin that’s not “politically correct” and they call out Christians for scorn who follow the Bible.
Oh man, Jason, you opened the Pandora box. 🙂 Bust it wide!! I am tired of watching every wind of doctrine being given wholesale approval for the sake of “unity.” Hogwash! Stand on the truth! Quit pandering. Well said my friend.
If I met a farmer that said he killed all of his livestock, destroyed his farm equipment, abandoned his wife, children and worldly goods because he thought God was speaking to him I (and everyone I have ever met)would think he was nuts.
See Zee’s comment below. She says what I had thought about saying only better. 🙂 Are there nut jobs? Sure, but they are the ones who do those things that are clearly not God’s way (killing someone because God told them to, etc). The apostle Paul said, “God uses the foolishness of the world to confuse the wise.”
I read what Zee said. And I have read what Zee has had to say for some time and I very much respect her opinion, her faith and her honesty. As you know I am a secular non believer. While I am very much in favor of the principals that Jesus espoused, I am at the same time as skeptical of the “He is God” as the Jews. But as a realist I don’t think many people are going to buy into the theory that you should abandon all reason and thought for thrift, and family and common sense that the scriptures as written by superstious people might suggest.
I hope you know I was not putting you off or even criticizing you Jeff. Just that Zee expressed it: those who are non-believers do see many followers of Christ as lunatics. I know what Elisha did makes no sense whatsoever. I am not even saying i would do that. It is what he chose to do. It isn’t for all to do that. As for your last sentence I am not sure. Are you saying that superstitious people wrote the Bible or that those who follow it are?
As an aside: I do value your thoughts jeff. You keep me on my toes and make me think. I am not looking for all “yes” men. Thanks for coming by.
And I respect you as well. I don’t know what the right answer is.
None of us like the difficulties of life, but Christ himself said it, “In this world you will have troubles, but take heart for I have overcome the world.” That doesn’t leave a lot of room for wiggle does it?
Nope sure doesn’t Floyd. 🙂
Letting go of our earthly, selfish desires is hard to do, surrenduring means we are letting a God we can’t actually “see” with our eyes have total control. I’m not gonna lie, it can be & has been a struggle, but I am seeing Him work in awesome ways when I release my will & wait on His. Great post.
We walk by faith not by sight. 🙂 Thanks jan.
I don’t struggle with the truth of surrender but I do struggle with the practice of surrender. But when I do surrender…man, that’s freedom!
Well said Jay. Not the truth but the practice. Yep, you just described me.
This is good preaching my brother, keep it up. Can not tell how many times we have heard, “I could never do what you do.” Like surrender is only for missionaries. It is a daily surrender for we know not what our day will hold.
It is hard to live like Christ…He owned nothing, gave of himself all the time, spoke truth that upset rulers. His time on this earth was not all about Him, it was about us. The perfect walked every mile for the sinner, me.
There is so much to distract us here in America from the what real surrender really is. I love New Tribes phrase, “Reach Beyond Your World.” Our life here is to be about Him, not about us but we must reach beyond ourselves.
Let me repeat my brother, keep preaching this kind of message, I need it.
Thanks Betty. You and your husband lived this kind of life for years. You have my admiration. I feel like you should be the one getting the “encouragement” from me. Thanks for your kind words.
Come and die… but die to live 🙂
No wonder Paul says that those who don’t believe regard believers as lunatics. We do believe some mind-bending stuff 😀 And the most mind-bending about it is that it’s the truth. *Shaking head* 🙂
Love your first line Zee. Also, see my response to Jeff’s comment above you. 🙂
hey Zee,
we believers aren’t the lunatics, trust me on this 🙂
I know we’re not 🙂 But to materialist people, we’re nuts 🙂 While our faith is not unreasonable (God has created us with the ability to reason, so obviously He didn’t just add that feature to our brains just for the fun of it – therefore, reason is not something that believers should give up completely), when one doesn’t believe in God, it’s hard to understand why we are who we are and why we do what we do.
It sounds harsh, at first, to say that God wants us to die to ourselves. But he’s not calling us to a lesser path. He’s not calling us to ultimate discomfort. He’s calling us to greater pleasure and joy – although that might look uncomfortable in the eyes of the world for a short time.