There is a principle throughout Scripture that I read this morning. Maybe the most concise statement of this principle is found in Mark 8:34-38 where Jesus taught on the cost of discipleship:
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Here are some cross-references: Matt. 10:37-39; Luke 17:32-33; John 12:24-25)
In the 1980’s, I read about a construction worker who was working on the roof of a high rise building in Columbus, Ohio. He was carrying a sheet of plywood when a huge gust came up. This gust caught that piece of plywood in full force. Instead of releasing the plywood, the man clutched tighter to it and was carried off the roof to his death.
Proverbs 14:12 states, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.It seems right to us in our fallen nature to grab tight to our way, to our own thinking, to our agenda, to our ideas, to our time, to our money, to our possessions, to our pleasures, to our goals, to our relationships, to our reputation, and to our life. The Scriptures clearly and repeatedly expose the deadly folly of such thinking. It boils down to what we put our faith in – us or Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
So instead of clutching to our way, focusing on getting, being tightfisted, greedy, miserly, stingy, tight, and selfish, we, by God’s grace, give up our way, and begin focusing on giving, releasing, passing on, being generous, openhanded, and selfless. It is so exciting to see this transformation take place by the power of God and His Word! And once we find the “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46) and are brought from darkness to light (Acts 26:18), this process of being changed into His image continues until we get to heaven where we are glorified and there is no more sin!
May the Lord continue to help us all in this process for His glory alone. Here are some more related verses and quotes:
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts 20:35c
“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.” — Prov. 11:24
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” — Luke 6:38
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.”
— from The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
— Jim Elliot, from his journal on Oct. 28, 1949
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Keith Neds