2025-02-14
Good Morning Dear Ones
Our Lord shows us His way in the Scriptures, and we are told of His wish that we make a lifetime commitment to following Jesus Christ. That’s the big picture of answering the question: “After surrender then what?” Surrender to His ways means walking through that door marked FAITH and proclaiming Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior. We must come to understand that there is a cost to being His disciple, but it is truly worth it. In PR 10: 25, God makes a precious promise. “When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.” If we look back in human history, we will see that God keeps His promises. Jesus has told us, in JN 14: 6-7 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” Think about it, the Lord gives us the key to that door and is showing not only the way but why it’s worth it to open this door and walk through.
Everyone needs encouragement in their lives to thrive and succeed. Our Lord tells us, in MT 6: 20, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” The reason for this directive is found in MT 6: 24, “No one can serve two masters…God and money.” Our Lord shoots straight from the hip! So, what are the treasures of heaven? They are thoughts and decisions that are in line with God’s will. They are actions that uplift others, are unselfish, and that demonstrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit –love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (humility), and self-control [GA 5: 22-23]. All of us are challenged in one way or another, but our loving God gives us the wisdom of 1 COR 10: 13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” We can find comfort in our Lord’s love, tenderness, and compassion by being like-minded with Him and other believers. We are told in PHIL 2: 3, “Do nothing out of selfish-ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
The cost of discipleship can seem very high but so is God’s mercy. PS 145: 17-19, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cries and saves them.” God has no intention of rejecting His people, but the earthly cost of their discipleship can seem brutal. Notice I said, “earthly cost.” I’m our family’s genealogist, and since I’m a Messianic Jew, which means a Jew who has come to accept Jesus, I consider it a responsibility to find both physically dead and living ancestors and relatives. Among these people from my family are the many ancestors who perished in the pogroms of the 1880’s in Russia and Central Europe and in the Holocaust. It is heart-breaking to see pictures and learn about how useful, productive lives were cut off by God’s enemies. And yet, our Lord tells us, in REV 6: 9-11, “When He [Jesus] opened the fifth seal, I [John] I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” The white robe represented the fact that those martyred for their faithfulness to Him would enjoy all the eternal blessings of heaven.
PRAYER: O Most Heavenly Lord, You will never abandon those who love You and are faithful. Of course we must await Your time, but always for righteous reasons. Whether we must simply make hard decisions or take difficult actions or we must pay the ultimate earthly price of our physical lives, we must remember JN 3: 16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” There are no exceptions to Your will not to abandon those who love and are faithful to You [PS 9: 9-10; HE 13: 5]. You deserve our undying love, thankfulness, and praise for all You are and all You do. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m commanded to write more on the cost of being a disciple and God’s merciful promises next week. If the question arises, why use martyred Jews as an example above, let me supply why it applies. RO 11: 25-26, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening [temporary rejection of Christ’s deity] in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob [IS 59: 20-21].’” The lives of all those who have been martyred for believing in God’s word, no matter what their culture or where on earth they lived, have not been wasted! Their faithfulness is their legacy of why we should be faithful too. Praise and thanks for the love and mercy God has for us!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2025. All Rights Reserved.
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