Are you willing to pay the price?

 Are you willing to pay the price?

Jesus said,

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  

When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46.

This is how important Jesus and the salvation God offers through Him should be to us. We should be willing to sell everything we have to follow Christ.

The gospel of Mark records Jesus as saying,

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Mark 8:34.

Sadly all to many people here in North America don’t count the cost of following Jesus. With all the freedoms we have we can do as we wish with not real consequences providing we don’t hurt someone.

In other parts of the world however following Jesus has a price. It can be anything from being shunned by family, to being force to leave their home, to prison, to being sentenced to hard labour in prison camps to death.

Yet despite the possible consequences people around the world truly believe they have found that “pearl of great value” and are willing to die for it.

Question... If you consider yourself a true Christian are you willing to pay whatever price is required to follow Christ. Are you willing to die for the cause of Christ?

Please think about it.

Lost Value?

Lost Value?
Jesus said,
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46.
I look around the “Christian world” here in North America and sadly see people claiming to be Christians be they in the pulpit, or in the pew that don’t regard the kingdom of heaven as treasure, or fine pearls.
If they did regard the kingdom of God and God’s word as something precious they would not mix their faith with anything else.
For me a good example of this is when Christians mix politics and their faith. Jesus and his disciples never mixed politics with their faith. They focussed on presenting the gospel of Salvation nothing else.
Mixing anything with your faith dilutes it. Particularly politics. As some one once said, “mixing politics with faith is like mixing water and gasoline. The gasoline is unusable, the water undrinkable and the whole mixture explosive. 
This however is happening particularly it seem among evangelicals. This should not be so.
That being said it is not just the mixing of faith and politics. It is also mixing their faith with secular values. For example men and women calling themselves Christian leaders telling those who believe in them that if they give so much money usually to their ministry, God will bless them ten, fifty even a hundred fold.  Such people treat God as a “spiritual sugar daddy” willing to give them what they want.
My bible tells me,
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19.
I firmly believe that we are in a time here in North America with all our freedoms are cheapening the gospel message by linking it to politics and secular values.
Many leaders in the North American church and many in the pews are doing what the apostle Paul said would happen in his letter to Timothy.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2Timothy 4:3,4.
I believe we are in a time when the Christians of every stripe need to look at what they believe.
We as believers in Christ Jesus need to Pray, turn to the word of God, and ask God to show us where we are going wrong.
We need to heed the words of God in Chronicles that says,
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
People within particularly the Evangelical church, are fond of saying we need revival.
    Revival however starts from within. It is messy and controversial as every leader of every revival from the days of Martin Luther to present day knows. But it is necessary if the church is to function as God wants it to function. That being the winning souls for Christ.
Please think about it.

What if

What if.

What if you found something that could transform your life and the life of other people, wouldn’t you want it? Wouldn’t you want to share it?
That is what we Christians believe we have.
Jesus tells this parable,
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”                                                                                                                                       Matthew 13:44-46. 
Now we can’t buy or way into heaven. Salvation is a free gift from God one each and every individual must choose to accept or reject themselves.
However Jesus here is giving an example of how precious salvation is to the believer in Christ. It is so valuable that the believer if they could they would sell everything they had and buy it.
If we Christians think Salvation through Christ is so valuable is it any wonder we would not want to share it with all whom we come in contact with?
We Christians I know from time to time come across as aggressive, even fanatical but most of the time it’s done out of a belief that we truly have the path to eternal life with God.
We believe the worlds of Jesus who said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 
                John 14:6
Matthew 16:13-16 records,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 
                                                                                     Matthew 16:13-16 .
We also believe the words of Jesus when he said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” 
                                                                                                        John 3:16-18.
It is because we believe all of the above that we feel it is the most important thing we can present to the world.
If you had such an important message wouldn’t you wish to tell people about it?
Think about it.