Saints,
In this age of cheap grace and anything goes Christianity, counting the cost of discipleship is a rare doctrine and practice. But those saints who truly love God must count this cost frequently…and carefully.
The “free” and gracious gift of God is not free at all as western Christians count free. These people mean no strings attached. God means all strings are attached. The doctrine of grace in the Word of God is the doctrine of patronage.
He is the ultimate Patron and we are His obedient servant clients. Inherent in that reality is that we are at His beck and call at all times 24-7 to do His bidding, His will. Anything He demands with no questions asked. This is love, my friends.
Do not believe the heretical leaders and teachers who proclaim Father God is an old softie, a permissive grandfather, or conversely Rambo Father when you need your enemies killed who threaten your money. And, of course, many truly believe His Son is the baby manger Jesus.
Our friend Steve Kilgore has counted the cost of discipleship here in the west, so he is uniquely gifted to write this excellent piece.
Brother Steve is the type of man that you can trust with your life. This life of a little Christ, a “Christian,” is not for the faint of heart.
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Counting The Cost Of Discipleship – By Steve Kilgore
Introduction
There is a popular misconception taught these days that because Salvation is the free gift of God there is nothing for us to do but accept it and go on with our lives as we wish. This, willingly or not, forgets God’s command to go and make disciples of the nations.
But before we can go and make disciples, not just converts or professors, we must be sure we are disciples ourselves.
We are not commanded to do anything except believe to receive the gift of Salvation. Using John 3:16 as one of many examples, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Therefore, believing in Jesus Christ can be done anywhere, by anyone, (whosoever) who comes under the convicting Spirit of God. It is not a thing you can decide to do whenever you want, but because it is the gift of God, (Eph. 2:8 For by grace are you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.) You must receive it when God calls you.
But while nothing is required for Salvation there are many things commanded after we are converted.
These are the costs of Discipleship that Jesus exhorts us to count before we commit to following him.
Baptism is your public confession that you believe in Jesus and you acknowledge him as the Lord of your Life and have committed your life to Him. Even so how do you know you are following Him and are not deceived through lack of knowledge or false teachers? Examine your life and prove to yourselves that you are truly following the Word of God.
There are many Scriptures to direct our actions and thoughts; I will only touch on a few to point the direction for you to start your study to determine whether you are walking with God, according to His Word; or not, because of ignorance of the Word or error.
2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
This is the most important question we can ask ourselves, because our Salvation depends on it.
Are you living by faith in Jesus Christ or have you been deceived?
Deception these days is running rampant. In the world today almost everything is misleading or an outright lie. In organized religion it is not much better with a multitude of the servants of Mammon posing as Ministers of the Word of God. They love the world so much they willingly lead many astray to accumulate the world’s treasures for themselves. This is one reason why you must study the Word for yourselves.
1 – Did Jesus do it all?
We know absolutely that Jesus accomplished on Calvary everything necessary for o
ur salvation and his resurrection proves it was acceptable to God.(John 19:30)
When Jesus Christ finished His work, dying for the sins of all men, (Rom. 5:18) it was to enable each of us individually, through faith, to begin our own works of righteousness in serving God, yet not ours, but the Spirit of God working in us to will and to do. (Phil. 2:13)
However, there are many who think that repentance is all that’s necessary for a normal Christian life; that since Jesus has done it all nothing remains for man to do but repent, and their lives reflect a character no different than the unsaved around them. And if they bear no spiritual fruit it is because there is no spiritual seed in them. It is written, by their fruit shall you know them (Luke 6:44), and not by their profession.
John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples…”
So there is no such thing as an inactive Christian life as we are told here.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
So you see that first comes faith in Jesus Christ and afterwards come good works which show the obedience of faith and the possession of faith. Without these works (acts of obedience to the Word of God) you have only an intellectual understanding of faith based on what you have heard, proven by the fact it has no impact on how you live your life. You may hear of Jesus and believe the things you hear, but until you yield your heart to Him in obedience it is a vain belief, no different than what the demons believe. (James 2:19)
2 – Love God, deny self
Being born again is just the first step of our walk by faith. We are instructed to do many things once we have received the Spirit of God through the new birth.
The first is to love God with all your heart (Matt. 22:37-39) and love your neighbor as yourself. If this love is the guiding principle you use to determine all your thoughts and actions you will fulfill all the law and commandments to the good pleasure of God our Father.
Without this love your profession and faith are worthless (1 Cor. 13) and all your works are of no account regardless of how good they appear to you or the world.
Secondly, Jesus said, if anyone will come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23) This is the normal daily life of a Disciple of Jesus. This obedience from the heart is the outward expression of the love we have within. You can say you love a million times but it is what you do that makes the difference. (Matt. 7:21)
And even what you do can be corrupted if it is done with the wrong motive in your heart.
Let me ask you a simple question, if Jesus sent an angel to you right this minute who said the wedding feast is ready let us go now, would you rise and go or would you have an excuse why you could not, as did those the King bid to the feast in Matt. 22?
Many of you will say you are ready but you want to do this or that first, then go. You believe you have a good reason not to go now and sincerely believe you will go later, but based on your timing instead of God’s. All your reasons are the desires of self and you have placed the things of this world ahead of following Christ. You have put Jesus Christ second in your life behind whatever you desire to do before you are ready to go to Him.
That is the same idolatry as that of an unsaved person who deceives himself saying, I will get saved later after I have enjoyed life awhile. You are in effect saying, I have something of this world to take care of first but I will come later.
For many there is no “later”, none of us know when our appointed time to die will arrive.
Whatever it is, however important in your eyes it seems, you have set it between yourself and God.
Those who think they can get saved later overlook the Word of God in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Denying yourself is yielding your will and desires to God’s will, thus living according to His Word. Bearing your cross means more than believing the Gospel; it requires yielding yourself and your complete life in total commitment to Jesus, as he yielded his life for you. (1 Cor.6:20; Heb. 10:12) Your body and all you have belongs to God, you are merely a steward of it for him. The idea that bearing your cross means suffering the pains, sorrows, and afflictions of this life are missing the point. The godly and ungodly alike suffer such things because of sins effect on the world, although we also sometimes suffer such things as chastisement.
3 – Bearing your cross, forsaking the world
Our cross bearing begins by putting the good of others above our own desires and continues with suffering the ridicule of others, persecution, unjust treatment, including the loss of all things if necessary for Jesus’ sake and in service to Him. It is putting the service to Jesus ahead of all our interests, forsaking self-seeking, reputation, and ambition to be something in this world. It is humbling ourselves to do his will in every situation in our life. Once you take up your cross you can never lay it down again, it must be borne unto the complete death of self. Anything less and you cannot be a Disciple of Jesus. Meditate on the following again.
Luke 9:23-25 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?
The whole world and ten thousand more cannot be compared to the promises of God to those who love him.
Luke 14:33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Forsaking everything does not necessarily mean giving up all your material possessions; it could require that, as it did the rich young ruler Jesus told us about. But even if not, you will find you no longer have any interest in the things of this world, and your attraction to whatever remains in your possession will decrease over time as being unnecessary and willingly given to better use. Anything we have has no value beyond being instruments you can use to help others and glorify God in so doing.
But more than this it means forsaking everything we have a natural affection for that would hinder us loving Jesus most of all. And especially it means forsaking our self-esteem, our ego, our pride, and self-love. We must not allow persecution or tribulation to affect our holy character or cause us to exhibit a carnal attitude toward the cause. We must be full of forgiveness for every offense against us.
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
And never allow a grudge or spirit of bitterness to develop because your pride was wounded by someone’s actions or comments. Any time you say, but they did this, or they said that, it is only your flesh becoming offended. Everything is just between you and God and concerns no one else. They are simply the instruments whereby God is revealing to you what you really are so you can repent and grow in love, holiness, and faith.
Your responses are the working out of your own sanctification and are what you will stand in Judgment for before the throne of God. All others will answer for themselves.
Forsaking everything means we and all we have are the possessions of Jesus and we are but stewards over whatever we have received from him, to be used for the Gospel and Kingdom’s sake. Anything that interferes with the doing of the works God has ordained for us must be forsaken or mortified. (Eph.2:10)
4 – Which group are you?
Every congregation can be divided into five different groups that look and act pretty much alike. 2 Cor. 13:5 tells us to prove to ourselves whether Jesus Christ dwells in us or not. So prove to yourself which of these groups you are in.
Group 1 – The first group are those who are unsaved. They have come, some seeking God, others for various reasons, but none are born again. These must hear the Gospel preached until they believe and repent. Some of these know they are not saved and fear, while others pretend sincerity but are simply interested in what benefits they can get.
Group 2 – The second group are those who know about Jesus Christ through knowledge they have received from hearing the Word of God preached. Many believe they are saved by this knowledge but it has no effect on how they live their lives. They know about Jesus but do not acknowledge Him as Lord. This deception is the root of all the vain and empty professions in the Church today. They are on the broad way but think they are Christian. They still love themselves, the world, and its pleasures and believe bringing the world into the church through a social gospel makes them spiritual. Being of a natural mind they cannot understand spiritual things. (1 Cor. 2:14) Believing they are serving God they corrupt the church. Their allegiance is given to many different things but not to Jesus Christ.
Group 3 -The third group are those who profess to believe and do many religious works as those in Matt. 7 but Jesus does not know them. These are the Laodicean’s we read about in Rev. Many of today’s church goers appear to be in this category. They are comfortable in their sins and do not yield to conviction by the holy Spirit, equating godliness and gain.
Thus their hearts are held captive by their love for the things of the world. (1 Tim. 6:5) Again, a lack of spiritual discernment leads to religious errors and deception because of natural reason and understanding. (John 3:3)
These first three groups comprise over 95% of today’s church goers in my opinion.
Group 4 – The fourth group are those who are babes in Christ and looking for spiritual leadership and fellowship. These need godly examples and encouragement from the faithful of the congregation, along with daily practical instruction from the Word of God, through Bible study and prayer.
Group 5 – The last group is those who are born again, walk by faith, and are being transformed into the image of Jesus by the obedience of faith.
These desire Spiritual meat and not worldly entertainment. For such the pleasures of this world are pointless and have no attraction to them. They hunger for spiritual things.
As you read this and examine yourself can you discern which of the five groups you fall into?
Our flesh does not like to hear about God’s requirements for Salvation and Discipleship because it involves the death of self and allowing Jesus Christ to reign as King in our heart.
In order to follow Jesus you must first pass through the strait gate and submit your life to his direction and rule by repentance and baptism. (Matt. 7:13-14)
You must desire to follow Jesus with your whole heart, unreservedly. You cannot follow him through a sense of obligation or duty; it must be willingly and joyfully that you yield your all to Jesus as Lord, because you love Him.
5 – Free from sin
Following Jesus on the narrow way will lead to unexpected events and happenings in your life.
God will show you the sinfulness of sin and the blackness of your natural self. He will show you what a wretched helpless creature you really are. He will crush your pride until you acknowledge you can do nothing and Christ working through the Holy Spirit in you does everything.
God will direct your paths but not in the way you think or expect he will. God will answer your prayers but not in the way you think or expect him to.
God’s wisdom is so far above us that we cannot even comprehend it. He is Sovereign in all things and controls all things in Heaven and Earth.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Those who say their body (life) is their own and they will decide what to do with it belong to one of the first three groups mentioned before. If Jesus Christ is not the Lord of your life, then you are not Christ’s and your profession is vain. There are no halfway measures, either he is Lord or not.
Following Christ is not a sometimes thing, or an off one day and on the next relationship; It is all or none, forever.
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Is God working his will in you or do you demand your own will be done? Doing things your way instead of God’s way is immediate proof you belong to one of the first three groups of unsaved religious people.
By the new birth and receiving the Holy Spirit into your heart you become a completely new creature in Christ with new desires, thoughts, and affections. Now you can discern spiritual things which the natural man cannot. (1 Cor.2:14)
Your spiritual eyes have been opened and the Bible takes on new meaning for you, it is no longer a dull book. Now you can hear from God through His Word and converse with him through prayer, and witness His working in your life.
Baptism is your public confession that you have died to obeying sin and now live in obedience to Jesus. This means self-denial because sin no longer rules your thoughts and affections, but it will try its utmost to do so with temptation and persuasion. But now grace gives you the ability to overcome all temptations just as Jesus did by applying the Word of God to your own life in obedience.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What an exceedingly great blessing this is, that we are no longer the slaves of sin, to do its bidding and reap its miserable fruit. We are now free from sin so we can serve God by faith.
Until now we have lived our lives as captives of the powers of the air, ruled by sin and totally opposed to God because we knew nothing of spiritual things.
But now, by Grace we have received faith and our eyes now see things we never did before. Now, by the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us, we can enter into fellowship with God and all His family.
Obedience, like sin, is a word missing from the vocabulary of many professing Christians today in America. A disobedient and rebellious spirit hates these words and desires to live only according their understanding of the Law or their own fleshly lusts. They selectively apply verses from the Bible out of context to make them appear to justify their evil behavior, to fulfill their lusts, and obey whatever evil influences they serve; thus we have a multitude of Denominations all claiming to follow Jesus Christ. They want to have their life in this world without giving up its pleasures and still claim to be Christian so they can go to Heaven, but Jesus said they are condemned already in spite of outward religious appearances. (John 3:18)
6 – Ready to begin
Now we are born again, we have received the Holy Spirit and Grace to deny our self-life 
and its evil desires; we are willing to take up our cross to fight against sin on our flesh and wherever we find it. Having done this we have entered through the Strait Gate and now are ready to follow Jesus on the narrow way. We confess Jesus as our Lord and King and follow wherever he leads.
However, this is not the end of our Salvation as many believe but is only the beginning of our pilgrimage through this world and life.
At this point we have been Justified but still possess a body that must be sanctified. This sanctification comes from following Jesus on the narrow way. Though we are internally sanctified by Jesus Christ, our external sanctification consists of acquiring personal holiness by the mortification of the flesh to conform our life to his. This is done through the Holy Spirit that dwells in us as a result of the new birth,
The born again child of God desires to do the will of God in spite of the pull of their flesh away from him and everyone must take up his own cross to follow Jesus. This cross is a painful burden to the flesh, but that burden is regulated by Jesus so we are never required to carry a burden that is too much for us. Jesus has already borne all our sin so he knows exactly what we need to make us into holy and righteous children of God. This cross bearing is a part of the everyday life of a Christian and will be until the Resurrection.
Our cross is appointed to us by a loving Father who is earnestly desirous to see us transformed into the image of His Son Jesus, for his own glory. As we are changed day by day and step by step into the image of Jesus, by the working of the Holy Spirit in us, our obedience glorifies God and honors the sacrifice of Jesus.
What an exceedingly great and wonderful promise God gives us in Rom 8:29.
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren..
Romans 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
In these verses God tells us it is He who had determined our future and it is He who shall fulfill His Word. We have this promise that we will be raised up to sit with Jesus and that we will be made just like him in all things as part of his body.
7 – Separated lives
Godlessness shall reign in the Last Days.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.
All these things just listed above are the things we, as children of God, must separate ourselves from.
All these negative attributes are used to describe religious people in the last days, and if the professing church fits this description, what is the state of those who know not God? It requires little discernment to determine what you should be removing from your life and who you should be fellowshipping with or avoiding.
I Tim. 6:11 tells us to flee certain things found in verses 1-10 and let our life exhibit the things that glorify God; righteousness, godliness, faith, love, peace, patience, meekness, and such like.
These things (vs 1-10 above) describe what you expect to see in the life of a natural man, ignorant of the things of God. It should be a warning to us that such things are found not only in the world but in the congregation around us.
But they should not be found in the followers of Jesus.
However, we all still have the evil impulses of this body we carry around even though they are not in our heart nor rule us any longer.
Whenever God allows events that catch us off guard and cause us to do or say something we shouldn’t, we are dumbfounded that such evil still exists within us, and we immediately repent in tears and anguish on our faces before God because we have sinned against such love as He has shown to us and against His Holiness. The child of God hates sin and it grieves us to no end when it is revealed in our own lives because we know that it caused Christ to suffer because of us.
8 – Our Advocate
But, praise God, we have an Advocate (1 John 2:1) And what does our Advocate do for us? This is a wonderful thing to understand and will fill you with joy unspeakable.
I will quote from the Commentary of John Gill an excellent description of our Advocate.
Christ is not an advocate for sin, though for sinners; he does not vindicate the commission of sin, or plead for the performance of it; he is no patron of iniquity; nor does he deny that his clients have sinned. Or affirm that their actions are not sins; he allows in court all their sins, with all their aggravated circumstances; nor does he go about to excuse or extenuate them; but he is an advocate for the non-imputation of them, and for the application of pardon to them: he pleads in their favor, that these sins have been laid upon him, and he has borne them; that his blood has been shed for the remission of them, and that he has made full satisfaction for them; and therefore in justice they ought not to be laid to their charge; but that the forgiveness of them should be applied unto them, for the relief and comfort of their burdened and distressed consciences; and for this he is an advocate for his poor sinning people ”with the Father”…
We must separate our lives from the pleasures and desires of the flesh (Luke 16:15) because what the world loves is an abomination to God. In spite of the multitude of preachers claiming gain is godliness and lusting for wealth we must seek heavenly riches instead of worldly prosperity. (Matt. 6:19-20) We must forsake all the world offers in entertainment that distracts us from seeking first the Kingdom of God. (Matt. 6:33)
9 – Guides for daily living
We see, as an example, the lives of professing Christians are indistinguishable from the world around them. Instead of separating from the world, they bring it right into the Sanctuary and this has diluted and dishonored the worship of God with carnal filth and vanity.
Some assembly halls (I hesitate to even call them churches) are no different than rock concerts with the loud music, lights, smoke, etc.
All the while these people believe they are worshipping God and praising Him.
Did Jesus die on the cross to bring such works of iniquity into the midst of the congregation? Do you believe he receives praise and honor from such carnal minded activities?
How did this happen? Because those who teach such things are seeking praise and honor for themselves instead of God; and they are proud of their own self- righteousness.
They preach to satisfy the greed and love of money of their followers, not the Word of God. This is nothing more than pride and arrogance ruling a carnally minded vain professor of faith.
Some guidelines for separation we have all heard before;
* Do not go where you would not take Jesus with you.
* Do not associate with folks who draw you away from Jesus. (2 Cor. 6:14)
* Do nothing Jesus would not approve of
* Do not listen to those who would lead you away from the Truth.
* Do not allow the cares of this world to interfere with coming together for worship.
*Do not allow the cares of this world to interfere with your prayer life.
* Do not allow the cares of this world to interfere with your Bible Study- not mere reading.
* Seek to do the will of God in all you think, say, or do.
* Render none evil for evil… (1 Thess. 5:15)
John Wesley has these rules for living:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you can…
If such things as these are not your daily guides then you are on the wrong path.
10 – Expect suffering and tribulation
As we begin our walk down the narrow path following Jesus we will find God’s ways are 
much different than we expected. We will find our cross involves surprising and unexpected suffering as the Holy Spirit reveals to our discernment things we did not know were in our life. We will be chastised because God loves us. (Heb. 12:5-8)
Through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
Thus it is clear we cannot follow Jesus without suffering in the flesh and in the world of our daily life. But it is all appointed by a loving God for our benefit even though we many times do not see what God’s purpose is. (2 Cor. 4:15)
Our path may be dark and rough, a narrow restricted path. And a hard way for the flesh because the flesh opposes the Spirit constantly and must be subdued by faith and Grace.
Our path may be lonely at times, even family and friends will oppose and desert us for following Jesus because the cross is foolishness to them. (1 Cor. 1:18)
We who belong to Jesus Christ must walk by faith and not by sight. We must follow Jesus’ example by striving to do God’s will in all things; and it will require striving and effort to subdue the desires of the flesh seeking its own will.
We must follow Christ boldly, there is no place for cowards.
We must not be ashamed to own Christ in the presence of others, even when ridiculed and mocked.
We must be an example of Jesus that others will want to follow.
We must follow Christ rejoicing in our hope of eternal glory. (Col. 1:27)
Can you grasp the greatness of this fact- Christ in you? Compare this hope to the worthless pleasures and entertainment of the world and realize how pitiful the soul is who loves the world.
All the foregoing are only a part of the cost to follow Jesus but the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, as the result of our new birth, will empower us to both desire and to do them for the glory of God.
11 – The cost of not following Jesus and the Judgment
Many declare they will come to Christ in the future after they have enjoyed the pleasures of life first. They do not realize they may not have a future- none know the appointed day of their death, we just assume it will be a long time until then.
Being blinded by the god of this world, Satan, they value the pleasures of the flesh more than an Eternal home with Jesus and fellowship with God, which they do not value at all. They love that golden cup of deception and iniquity; it’s fleeting pleasures blind them to spiritual things to their eternal loss.
Revelation 17:4 tell us about this cup of abominations (Pulpit Commentary- abominations are all things that displease God)
Matthew Mead in 1667 said of these:
The world, so fair, so fascinating! How shall it be given up? How shall the fingers be unclasped from that bright cup which seems so full of happiness?
Says the worldling, surely the sacrifice need not be made yet! The world and its pleasures need not yet be exchanged for the cross of self-denial and sacrifice! Not yet! Not yet!
The world looks so attractive and delightful to the carnal man. It pleases the lust of his eyes, the lust of his flesh, and satisfies his pride. He cannot see it leads to destruction.
Carnal men, after hearing the Gospel, believe it is up to them to decide when they will come to Christ, and they claim they will after they enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But they cannot come and they will not come.”
They have heard the gospel and its calling but they reject it because they love their own life more than they love God. Thus they cannot and will not follow Jesus. They fail to remember that today they may enter Hell for eternity. (Matt. 16:26)
A sad thing is that many sit in the midst of the congregation with this same love for the world not understanding they are deceived; they are on the path of destruction even while believing they are saved by Jesus. Multitudes are seeking any way they can find to receive forgiveness without obedience. Unfortunately there are many wolves in the flock who teach this very thing making merchandise of the Gospel; such will receive the greater judgment.
Everyone must ask themselves these questions:
* Knowing we are all appointed a time to die we must ask ourselves, what then?
* What will be the worth of worldly treasures and pleasures then?
* What good will fame and fortune do us then?
* What will be our condition after death?
Scripture tells us that judgment waits. (2 Cor. 5:10)
12 – Which way will you choose?
How indescribable will be the condition of those who loved the world and made themselves the enemy of God. Then their self-deception will be revealed in their conscience. It is impossible to imagine what it will feel like to hear Jesus say, depart from me ye workers of iniquity. The greatest regret, the greatest remorse, the greatest sorrow and mourning accompanied with tears and wailing shall avail nothing as you are carried away by the holy angels and cast into the lake of fire forever.
Brother Steve Kilgore
The great fallacy affecting all worldly religions including many professing Christians, that an unconverted person can have works acceptable to God. When you compare the living faith with the dead faith James speaks about you see a dead faith has only dead works. Much than men do in their unconverted state is considered good by the standards of men. We cannot fault pity or compassion and such like, but in the unconverted man they are done with the wrong motive of heart and not for the glory of God, nor can they be. (Rom. 8:7)
Now you are aware of the cost of following Jesus and not following Jesus. God will never force you in any way, what you decide to do is entirely up to you and your destiny will be determined by that choice.
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org
