Boiled Christians

"27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying,  'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'"

"The devil you know". You've heard the expression. He's the guy that's better than the one you don't. Truth is, they're both bad. Some of you have heard the "boiled frog" story. It appears that when you place a frog in hot water, he will jump out immediately to escape danger. However, if you place the frog in warm comfortable water, and then gradually raise the temperature to a boil, you end up with frog soup.

As Christians trying to live for Jesus in a totally secular world, we find ourselves constantly seeing the world around us becoming more and more hostile toward us.  If we get too comfortable, we begin to unconsciously compromise our walk, and eventually find ourselves in hot water. James puts it this way, "…don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." The end result is that end up having to do something drastic to get out of our respective "soups," or end up cooked, quite literally.

Jesus cuts to the chase. The bottom line is that being a "true" Christian is a costly proposition. It can cost you friends, your job, and who knows what else. If you're going to call yourself a Christian, please know that you are on display. Everyone is looking to see how "your tower" ends up. And believe me, they will ridicule you when you don't finish what you start. Having said this, its important to know that whatever it is that you have to change or abandon for the sake of Christ, it is well worth it. What you get back in Christ will far outweigh anything that you give up. God likes His Christians hot, not boiled.

Luv ya,

Pastor Mario