“Paying The Price Of Discipleship”

 (Matt. 16:24) "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."  There is a price to pay to truly walk with God. 1) Deny yourself.  To deny means to place your will and plans 2nd to the will and plans of God for your life. Jesus is waiting for you to do this. 2) Carry your cross. Jesus already carried his. Jesus expects those thatcome after him to endure the same hardship by obeying his will, even if it means rejection, persecution, and the death that he endured for us on his cross. 3) Follow him.To follow means you have to stop trying to lead. You can't properly follow until you totally surrender yourself to the direction of God. (Matt. 16:25) "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." The end result of life will totally depend on the amount of you that you surrender or pay back to God. Losing your selfish life to gain his bountiful life is well worth the cost. So, why hold on so tightly to that which you can't keep anyway?

“Israel Lost Their Children In Just One Generation

…and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:" It doesn't take long for Satan and the world to move into the home of God's people, if God's people neglect the spiritual training of their children. In the above verse, the Holy Spirit tells us that once the great men of Joshua's day died after giving Israel freedom, another generation arose that didn't know the Lord or appreciate all that God had done for Israel. As a result they forsook the God of their fathers for the gods and sin of the world around them. Sound familiar?  The longer I live the more I am convinced that the future of this country is not found in just religion, but in spiritually training. The word "Baalim,"above, describes the different forms of the many false gods of the Bible. As Christians today we are responsible for our generation, if we neglect our responsibility to spiritually train our children, they too will go the way of Baalim and sin!