RISK AND REWARD

Amid the many facets of the American dream that contradict the core of the gospel, one ideal Americans have embraced coincides subtly with the words of Christ. As James Adams was coining the phrase “American dream,” Franklin Roosevelt was emphasizing how Americans will postpone immediate gratification and even endure hard sacrifices if they are convinced their future will be better than their past. Americans are willing to take great risks, he said, if they believe it will accomplish great reward.

In similar words Jesus said to His followers, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Jesus clearly acknowledged that following Him involves risking the safety, security, and satisfaction we have found in this world. But in the end, Jesus said, following Him leads to a radical reward that this world can never offer. This begs a question from each of us: do we believe the reward found in Jesus is worth the risk of following Him?

The Apostle Paul answered that question: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21 NKJV) 

-- Adapted from David Platt in “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream”

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DYING TO OURSELVES – Part 2

“We don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!”  (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 The Message)

[Jesus] turns the world’s views inside out and upside down. He simply cuts against the grain of how we naturally think, and we realize that to follow Jesus, we need to retrain our minds to focus through spectacles we’ve never worn before. The key to thinking His way is an utter surrender, a giving up of the old ways, which never would have worked anyway. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

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DYING TO OURSELVES – Part 1

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)

How do we die to ourselves?

[As a pastor] I’ve been around my share of dead people. I’ve been in the room before the coroner comes in. I’ve sat with families as their father and husband took his last breath. I’ve stood next to many open caskets as friends and family walked by to say good-bye. And I don’t mean to be coarse, but I’ve noticed something about dead people.

They don’t seem to care very much what other people think of them. They’re not concerned with how nice their clothes are.

Dead people aren’t caught up in their stock investments, nor do they show much interest in getting a promotion. Death renders all worldly points moot. It’s the ultimate, required surrender of yourself and all you have. When Jesus speaks of dying to ourselves, this is what He wants us to think about. All the stuff of the world is dead to us, and we’re dead to it. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

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