Sometimes Christians can easily forget the cost of discipleship and what it really means to follow Jesus Christ. Many of us get into a state of comfort and not realize that our time here on earth is meant to preach the gospel of truth to the spiritually dead (meaning people who don’t know Christ and are not born again).
In Luke chapter 9, you can see a man telling Jesus that he needs to go bury his father first. However, Jesus responds, “Let the dead bury the dead, but you go and preach the Kingdom of God.” What an interesting response. Dead people can’t literally bury other dead people. What Jesus was saying to him figuratively is that spiritually dead people worry about mundane things… like taking care of their inheritance, their savings, saying goodbye to their family members. In Jewish burial customs, if a man had to bury his or her family member, they would bury them immediately and mourn for seven days. If this was the case, there was no time for any disciple to follow through with all of this, it was just simply a “leave of absence” excuse and Jesus was not having it.
The same goes for you, brother or sister in Christ. Be prepared to be hated by your family members. Jesus wants you to love your family even if they despise you and be patient with them until they receive the Lord. But this sometimes isn’t the case for most followers of Christ, sometimes their family members may disown them, but as much as it may hurt, Jesus said, ” For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Be prepared to be despised by atheists, agnostics, and other people of different faiths. Be prepared to let go of the things of the world that you so dearly love, things like even your career, your goods, anything that may possibly be holding you back from following Jesus. Not saying having a career or money is bad, but if those things are holding you back from following Jesus, forget them. You cannot serve two masters.
So today, if you’ve been a lukewarm Christian, it’s time to evaluate your stance with Christ. Time is of the essence and our days are numbered. We cannot concern ourselves with the things of this world, but instead, we must remember the very first words of Jesus when He started His ministry, ” Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
The hour of salvation is now.
GODLY WORDS MINISTRIES 