In These Growing Dark Times It Is Vital To Know Who Possesses Your Love

Being a disciple of Jesus is a rather simple matter: It's all or nothing. Yahweh has never held back from those he has called his own, those who call on him by name. He has said from the beginning he requires complete devotion, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind". It makes it pretty clear when he commands this of us that we are to have no other god before him. Anyone who has ever read through the Bible can plainly see that it grieves the heart of Yahweh and forces him to take action when his people turn from him to idols.

Jesus also made it crystal clear that following him would cost us everything. He told us that if we don't love him above everyone else, we can't be his disciple. He told us we would have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. He told us that if we try to save our life we will lose it but if we lose our life we will save it. He told us that the world would hate us because of him. He made it clear, loving him would cost us everything.

The heart is always what has mattered to Yahweh. He always looks to the condition of our heart from which all things flow. We could sacrifice everything but if our heart is divided then the sacrifice has no value. We could be kind to everyone, generous to everyone, caring for everyone, but if our heart is possessed by idols then such things have no value. How many times do we read in Scriptures that Yahweh does not look at the appearance of things but instead at the heart? A simple example: Yahweh rejected Saul, a man who looked like a king but had a rotten heart, and chose a simple shepherd boy to be king because that boy loved him.

As Ezekiel met with the elders of Israel, Yahweh spoke to him:

Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and have put sinful stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all? (Ezekiel 14:3)

These important, great men who were responsible for leading Yahweh's people did not have a heart for Yahweh. They were divided, having set up idols where devotion to Yahweh belonged. There are so many idols, so many distractions in our own age, so many things to divide our hearts, to water down our love, to seduce us away from our devotion. How many of us have gone deaf because of the idols we have set up in our hearts? You know what I am talking about; you feel it even as you read this. The Holy Spirit hasn't given up on you; he is still convicting.

It has always been about our heart. Yahweh is not willing to share your love with any other. He created you, knit you together in your mother's womb, he has made you special just for himself, he died for us on a horrible cross, he completes us when he abides in us. Don't throw that relationship away over something that is here today and gone tomorrow. There is nothing that we can find in this world that is worth walking away from the love of Jesus and from eternity with him. He is the treasure of the field, the pearl of great price. It is certainly worth giving up everything to be possessed by him because we will experience no other love so priceless as his.

Check your heart. See where you stand with Jesus. If there is anything that you value over him you have set up an idol. If he is not your every waking thought; if you are not living just for him; if you are trying to do your own thing with Jesus on the side, you have a divided heart and you are in trouble. All or nothing, is what he told us. You can't have a foot in both worlds, is what he told us. Where our treasure is so is our heart, is what he told us. We can have no other love that compares to our love for him, is what he told us. Simply because we love him, we will obey him, is what he told us. It is a matter of the heart.

It's All Or Nothing

You can't serve two masters. You can't be double-minded. You can't have a divided heart. It is either all or nothing.

There is nothing "normal" to being a follower of Jesus Christ. There is nothing about it that the world can accept and reconcile it's thinking toward the Church. Jesus was totally radical in everything he did which was contrary to the heart of man. Love your enemy? Pray for those who persecute you? Those who are last will be first and the first last? Those who try to hold on to their life will lose it but those who give it up will save it? Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him? If you are luke warm he will spit you out?

This is not the foundation of some new humanity make over. It is not some new world order. It is the Kingdom of God in the hearts of man. It is the visible outward sign of an incredible inward transformation. A transformation not achieved by good thoughts and good deeds but brought about by the transforming power of the blood of Jesus Christ applied to those who make the decision to give up their lives for Jesus.

I hope you heard that: Who give up their lives. Repeat: give up .

There are no half measures with Jesus. He said we are either with him or against him. To make a decision not to make a decision is to have made a decision against him.

There can be no mistaking what the Word of God clearly tells us. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot have the world and Jesus. We have to decide which master we will follow and obey. If you say to yourself, "I will serve no one. I serve myself and humanity", then you have chosen the world; you have chosen rebellion; you have chosen death. If you choose Jesus then you have chosen light, life, and love. You have chosen a new birth, a transformation, a radical change:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

It is a decision.

It has always been a decision.

We make the decision to accept Jesus' invitation to follow. We make the decision to step into his love which gives us the power to decide to put off our old self and to put on the new self. It is nothing we can do but it is a decision we make. A work of art cannot create itself. It is our Father who transforms us through the blood of Jesus but we have to allow the transformation. We have to make the decision. We have to deny ourself to take up the cross to follow Jesus.

We can try to serve two masters but we are only lying to ourselves because the Son of God has told us that we can't do it. We can try to have both Jesus and our desires but we will be total failures because Jesus told us that it can't be done. He told us plainly and simply, it is all of us or nothing. Either everything is surrendered or nothing is. Either he has all of our heart or none of it. There are no half measures. There are no moments of our day that belong only to us. Jesus cannot accept a portion of our life, he has to have the whole thing.

And when you truly know his love, you wouldn't want it any other way.