A reminder for
today
First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith [your trust and confidence in
His power, wisdom, and goodness] is being proclaimed in all the world. (Romans 1:8)
This is an amazing verse. Paul writes to the church in Rome and
he says that their faith is being proclaimed (announced) all over the world. What
must your faith look like if it is announced all over the world? Why do we not
see that anymore? What happened? Is it God or is it us? When we look at Paul
for example and his conversion. It says in Acts 9 that immediately he began
proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “This Man is the Son of God [the
promised Messiah]!”
Paul argued with other about the gospel. But it goes on a
step further as Saul increased in
strength more and more, and continued to perplex the Jews who lived in Damascus
by examining [theological evidence] and
proving [with Scripture] that this Jesus
is the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed). This continued to the point
where they plotted to kill him.
Now let’s look at what Jesus said about being a disciple/follower
of Him in Luke 14. “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 [in the sense of indifference
to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he
cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a
willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me,
conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My
disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a watchtower [for his
guards], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has
enough to finish it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to
finish [the building], all who see it will 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 who is coming
against him with twenty thousand? Or else [if he feels he is
not powerful enough], while the other [king] is still a far distance away, he
sends an envoy and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My
disciple who does not [carefully consider the cost and then for My sake] give
up all his own possessions.
Jesus says that you must conform to His example and you must
be willing to leave everything behind. You must not calculate the cost but
instead you must be willing to suffer and even die. We see this in the early disciples
as they walked into uncertainty and was hated and killed for the gospel, yet we
are to afraid to stand up and argue for Jesus when the world turns against Him.
We do not stand up for our faith and we try to keep everyone happy by not saying
the right thing instead we say the appropriate thing.
Paul says in Romans 1 that he is not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
It is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God. Not your
good works or your position or whatever else we deem so valuable in this life. It
is the gospel that is the way to salvation. It is the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ and it is something we should defend with our lives. What happened?
We became ashamed and afraid to stand up and argue for Jesus. The gospel became
a nice story to tell.
Come with me today as we arm ourselves with the Word and evidence
of Jesus and let us stand and fight for Jesus.
Lord, guide us and let us grow stronger like Paul did so
that we can fight for you. In Jesus name.
Have an awesome day, dear friend of Jesus.
Cheers