Count the Cost

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  My wandering thoughts flit from subject to subject.  The early hour and darkness speaks of yesterday's frustration not left behind.

"Can I never get cut a break?  Do I always have to wake up to the war?"

The Holy One knows my sense of humor so He responds, "I told you long ago, you need to learn to love the war, 'cause it's going to be your life."

"OK, OK, but could you help me get into my armor today?  It's all kind of disheveled.  The buckle of Truth is half way around my waist, my Peace laces are untied, my Breastplate is a little crooked, my Shield is very heavy and I'm still fumbling with my Sword!  At least my Helmet is secure, but I really need your help today just getting dressed for the battle."  (Ephesians 6)

And so it goes.  We laugh together and cry together and look out over the landscape like Lewis and Clark.  So what priceless nugget of wisdom am I about to receive from the Holy One?  It's not long in surveying the horizon that I hear Him say, "Count the cost".

He takes me back to the words of my Jesus in Luke 14:28, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.  Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?"  The same passage talks about a King going to war against another King and the necessity of considering what it means and whether or not he has the resources to fight and win the war.

The point is well taken.  The Holy Spirit touches on the subject of being a Disciple of Jesus Christ.    To be a Disciple of Jesus requires sacrifice.  Jesus does not want a blind naive commitment that expects only blessings.  As our relationship with Him grows, so does the requirement to surrender to His ways.

That is why so many fall away.  The cost to be a Disciple, after a while, can be like a bucket of cold water on our hot passionate heart.  The road is narrow and treacherous.  Sometimes we lose sight of Him.  Dark forces call out to us to abandon Him; to join in the revelry of rebellion and the comfort of a flesh way station.  A way station which is, in reality, a dark prison from whence there may be no escape.

The cost of being His Disciple is complete surrender.  And complete surrender is costly to our flesh.  The good news is that once we go there, once the mental battle in resistance has been won, the Holy Spirit takes us the rest of the way in His strength.  While the highway of Holiness is a difficult path, for every temptation to turn back, there is a way of escape.  I Corinth 10:13.

Today I look at the war and I remember.  For a moment (or for days) I forgot the cost and what has already been invested.  Today, I am brought back to the moment when I said, "Here I am Lord, send me".

Counting the cost also requires vision.  It's not just what must be sacrificed in counting and paying the cost but we must also remember the goal and the reason.  Jesus, when looking at humanity in the depths of our depravity and what it would take to redeem us, counted the cost and paid it willingly.


I wonder what the vision of redeemed humanity was like for our Savior?  As He suffered so much alone on the Cross of Calvary, was  He thinking of the day He would hold us in His arms?

The battle we fight, the race we run, the puzzle we work; however you look at life to compete and complete, it's in Eternity with our Creator, in the arms of our Savior and in the paradise of where we truly belong that we will find our reward. This life is but a vapor in the context of Eternity, a passing through on our way to the real place of ultimate contentment.

I am thankful for our early morning conference today.  When the road is hard and the cost to inch forward seems high, I am thankful to be reminded by the Holy One of the end, when all my hopes and dreams will become reality.   And, when the cost of following Jesus will seem as nothing compared to the cost He paid for me. 

"The one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus"  Phil 3:13-14

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

  

Narrow Gate, Narrow Road

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Choices abound and we must make them.  The election is soon to be over and the direction of our Country, the "One Nation Under God" Country, ordained and founded upon the principles of Biblical righteousness, Country, will be in the hands of people elected by the vote (choice) of those governed. 

Just as in all the issues of life here, our Eternal destination brings a choice.  I think about the choices I see people making and shudder.  The Holy One says, "Enter through the narrow gate.  Narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few will find it." Matt 7:13-14.  These are haunting words spoken by the God of all Creation and the One who inhabits Eternity.  His words make me ponder.

If I look at the statement as a challenge to my sin nature to get straight, live by the rules, don't make any mistakes,  hopelessness ensues.  How many times in how many ways have I missed the mark.  All the rules and regulations "required" to live a Holy life are overwhelming, simply impossible to follow longer than a few minutes  How exhausted and weary we all become in that place of human effort.

Does that mean we are on that broad road to destruction?

The question really becomes, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?"  The answer to that question tells us whether we are on that broad road to destruction or on the narrow road that leads to life.  For you see, JESUS IS the narrow gate.  JESUS IS the narrow road that leads to life. The narrow gate and the narrow road is not about sin or lack thereof.  It is about God's only provision for a restored relationship with Himself.

For all the religions that have shuffled out over the course of the history of man seeking God.  There is only one way to God.  God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, bridged the gap and became the gateway, the very narrow gate between man and His Creator.

Choices abound and if we insist on finding any other way into the Presence of Holiness, other than the one way that He Himself provided, then we are on that broad road to our own destruction.

Jesus was not born into the depraved world of men to offer a new plan for sin management.  He did not come to present a new improved set of rules that would fuel self-righteousness, and legalistic mumbo-jumbo of relative comparison to others whose sin is worse than ours.  Jesus did not come to merely cleanse us of past sin with the expectation that without a supernatural change of DNA, we would somehow never sin again.

The Holy Lamb of God was sent into the world to bear the sin nature that all have been born with since the fall of man.  The Holy Son of God came to pay the ultimate price that any and all sin deserves:  the wrath of a Holy God against all that is unlike Him.  He came to crucify the "old sin nature" and to offer each one of us the chance to be "born again" with the  new nature of Holiness dwelling within.   By the Power of the Holy One within, the cycle of sin and separation from God can be  broken once and for all.

Of all the religions conjured up in the minds of fallen humanity, there is none who can boast of a Resurrected Savior. None that offers a substitute to pay the price for original sin. None that provides a hope for walking the highway of Holiness with God Himself.

The One who paid that price and bore the sin nature of humanity became the narrow gate. It is by His Name alone, the Name above all Names, Jesus Christ,  that we have access to Heaven, and to the Throne of the God of all Creation.

So the question is still the same, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?"  If not that narrow gate, if not that narrow road leading to the God of all Eternity who is Life, then you have chosen the broad road that leads to destruction.  Are you one of the few who has or will find it?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?



 

More on Grace

The  Holy One calls to me early this morning.  Darkness brings so many doubts into my mind.  Winter is approaching and the chill creeps into my bones.

Death has left it's empty mark.  Funny how the presence of things can seem like such a trial until the absence of the same things with the emptiness and loneliness kicks in.  Sometimes silence can be louder than a rock band concert.  Today is one of those days.

The Holy One is here.  I know He will never leave me nor forsake me.  Yet, He allows me these moments, hours and even longer sometimes, to open up the dark catacombs of thought that need His Light to heal. 

"The age of Grace" has been on my mind as I look around and see life here on earth spinning out of control.  People acting out their lusts for power and control.  Millions of people walking wounded, scarred by an unseen enemy, in a battle they don't even know is raging.  A battle for their very souls.

This "Age of Grace" bears a double edged sword.  On one side we have been given the most outrageous opportunity to lay down our guilty lives.  Guilty from the standard that Righteousness holds and guilty to receive the judgement and wrath of a Holy God.

If we reject the opportunity to have Christ and the Cross of Calvary as the place of judgement for our guilty lives, then we will face Holy judgement on the final "day" before an Almighty Sovereign God with absolutely no defense. 

"Grace" is favor from God given or extended to man.  What is there,  that speaks of more favor than the acquittal of a guilty person on the basis that someone else took the blame and paid the ultimate price the guilty would otherwise have to pay?

Jesus, God in the flesh, in an act of total and unfathomable Grace, came and paid the ultimate price for you and me.  Christ took all the wrath of Holiness and paid the penalty for all that our sin nature could conjure up and do.  That is a fact and that is the basis of our faith.

The "Age of Grace" and God's favor brought a new Covenant between God and man.  God has written it and signed it with the Blood of Jesus.  But this new Covenant can be rejected and many do.

The other side of that double edged sword of Grace is that this life is the only time and place where we can enter into the new Covenant with Holiness, and accept His offering of favor.  The "Age of Grace" in which we live brings total freedom.  There is no awful personal judgment here like unto the judgement at the end of time or that which was experienced by Christ on the Cross. 

Life can be hard or cruel but Holiness poured out all His wrath for sin on the Cross and on Jesus over 2000 years ago in earth time.  Today each one of has the freedom to choose where we will spend eternity and whether we will choose to endure the wrath of a Holy God on our own merits, thus denying a need for a Savior.

The "Age of Grace" in which we find ourselves began when Jesus came to bring the Truth about God's love.  He came and He loved.  He fixed people's lives and the distorted perspective of God that had been twisted by evil.  He call God, "Father".  And He gave to those who will accept His death as a substitute for their own, the privilege to do the same.

The Bible says that there is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved. Acts 4:12  There is only one way to God and that one way is through the death to sin that Jesus paid.  Jesus and the Cross is the only access God Almighty as provided as the "Way" to Himself.

Many will say, "but I'm not all that bad".   If we judge ourselves by ourselves or against the sin of others who are worse, that argument might seem viable to our own minds.  However, the truth about "Grace" is that we desperately need God's favor because it is His standard of Holiness that we have violated.

"The Age of Grace" will come to a close one day.  Our ability to receive it and act upon it will end.  Most likely it will come as suddenly and unexpectedly as Jesus came into the world.  The picture of that day is written in Rev 19:11,  as the Rider on a white horse enters the scene. 

The Holy Scriptures of prophecy shriek out the wrath of a Holy God and Divine judgement of sin not yet atoned for.  Sin, as in wrong doing, (according to the standard of Holiness), lawlessness, rebellion and ultimate rejection of the only name by which we can be saved.

Grace begs the question, "From what are we saved?"  What does God's favor really mean?

If we think that it means that a Holy God will wink at our sin, we would be wise to think again.  Rev 19 describes the return of the Lord yet to come.  His 2nd coming will not be as the "suffering Messiah" subject to the torture and power of men.  No, no, no!  His next appearance will be in power so great that none will be able to stand in His Presence or speak a word. 

Rev 19  provides some stark visuals of that day.  "With justice He judges and makes war".  "His eyes are like  blazing fire", "Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword", "He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty".  There will be no escape and no where to hide on that day.

While future ultimate judgment awaits us, the "Age of Grace" still provides a small grasp of what will be more heartbreaking than even physical death.  It has been said, that the wrath of God in this "age" comes through His "slipping away".  If we do not grab hold of Him now, we will not be able to grab hold of Him later.

The dark absence of the Light of life, will be a more profound penalty than physical death.  I felt today, to a very small extent that loneliness brought on by the death of my husband of 31 years. His absence and my loneliness is real.  However, that emotional hole is nothing compared to the darkness of a world and eternity without God. 

Amazing Grace is ours for the taking.

The warmth of His love flows to me.   The loneliness of my circumstances is cured and I am overwhelmed by the sense of His Presence.

By and through His amazing Grace, not only am I saved for all eternity from the wrath my sin deserves, but I am welcomed in the courtyard of His fellowship and love.

People and the love relationship we have with them may pass away from our temporal place and in each case we must deal with the hole in our heart that they leave.  But we will never have to deal with losing relationship with the "Light of life", who is the Savior of our souls so long as we accept His "Amazing Grace".

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  



 

Grace

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It's been a while since I transcribed our early morning conference.  The numbness and shock of my widowhood is blending into my new reality and the Lord has been gracious to me.

The thoughts about "Grace" are heavy on my heart these days.  Grace is something I know I have, yet cannot explain.  The love and favor of God toward man is the best definition of "Grace".  The age in which we live and breathe is called the "Age of Grace".

This period of time in the history of man's days upon the earth was ushered in through the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant between God and man came in the form of the "law".  The New Covenant was signed in the Blood of Jesus and came in the form of the crucifixion and judgment of sin on the Cross of Calvary and it is called "Grace".  God's favor extended has given all men the opportunity for forgiveness and atonement, a price paid for sin, but not by the offender himself.

Lately there has been more and more talk about "Grace" and as Christians we are exhorted to extend it.  But what is this "Amazing Grace" we sing about and yet can be more dangerous than the laws we break?

The "Grace" we claim to live under was not cheap.  It called for the sacrifice of the Crown Jewel of Heaven, God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy One speaks to my heart, "There is the responsibility side of Grace that belongs to those who have received it."

My human mind swirls with what that means.  We are being blasted with the requirement to extend it to others in the same measure we have received it from the God of all Creation.  Knowing that all my sins have been forgiven by the Grace of our God suggests that Grace and forgiveness are inter-changeable.

But then the Holy One takes me to Hebrews 10: 26, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, no sacrifice for sin is left, but only fearful expectation of punishment."  Then in Heb 10:29, "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot and treated as an unholy thing the Blood of the Covenant that sanctified him and who has insulted the Spirit of Grace?"

By these Scriptures, I see the point that Holiness is making to me today.  Grace can be offended.  Grace is deeply personal, and while forgiveness is to be offered liberally to others, my personal response to Grace must be to stop the sin within.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit I can and must live a life that models surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord.

Grace is favor from God.  We cannot earn it, but we can live in humble and sacred appreciation for it.  Grace cannot be fully appreciated unless we grasp the flip side of Grace and look deep into the dread of Holiness and the wrath our sin deserves. 

Religious pride, self-righteous arrogance, and legalistic judgment skirts the entire issue of Grace.  If we continue to look at the sin of others even in Godly forgiveness, but refuse to come to the place of  accountability and repentance for personal betrayal of Holiness, we miss the most important component of Grace:  the ability to stop sinning.

The whole of the subject of God's amazing Grace is beyond our ability to fathom here.  The knowledge of God's Grace is progressive.

Today was an important lesson in the school of God's Grace.  It is sufficient to keep me from sinning, unless of course, I "deliberately keep on sinning:, treating as unholy the Blood of the Covenant that sanctified me" and insulting the (Holy) Spirit of Grace by my decision to keep on in my sin.

Accountability must come before Grace can be appreciated. Unless and until we humbly acknowledge the depth and weight of our own depravity in the eyes of a Holy God, Grace becomes cheap forgiveness.  A superficial, "I'm sorry" for that which required the brutal crucifixion of the Holy One.

The next time we are exhorted to offer Grace, may we first look deep within and understand what it really means to have received it.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?