Not much Christian talk about the cost.

     Perhaps you don't have any idea what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the cost of following Jesus.  First the misnomer is "following Jesus".  As a surrendered to Christ believer, we are led in his will and don't follow with our own will.  Did I just step on someone's toes?  Yes, we again have it backwards.  Jesus did say to follow him but only after counting the cost and leaving all behind to follow him.  He also said that we would be led by the Holy Spirit to Peter and the rest of the disciples.  The Word goes on to instruct us that being a disciple of Jesus' means abandonment of the world and all it contains.  The cost of the decision to have Jesus in your life is mostly focused on evading Hell and spending eternity in Heaven.  By this focus we are so heavenly minded that we are not worldly good.  We are to be in the world and not of it.  Again, the example of Jesus and those who were the 12 is what we should accept and not the status quo of the church today.  There is only one way to be saved and that is through the work of Christ AND giving up everything to do what he has sent us to do.  That would be to make disciples of all mankind, care for the orphan and the widow.  He said he would equip us for this through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, many of us don't give up residence of our lives so that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have anyplace to live.  If He isn't living within you, who is?
     I'm a project kind of guy.  I have several projects going most of the time which I engage depending on what God wants of my life that day and what I can physically do.  I have retired as a disabled man several years ago and constraints are there.  When I consider my day, the first thought goes to what does God want me to engage.  The second thought goes to what my body can put up with today.  The third thought is dual in nature.  I consider where things were yesterday and let them go.  I also consider tomorrow and some of the necessities that life contains.  Notice the hierarchy.  God first.  Mind you I do fail at this from time to time and am certainly not perfect nor the perfect Christian I wish I was.  I drive people (mostly Christians) crazy!  Why?  Because my life with Jesus isn't what many Christians engage.  Being Christians isn't about making it a priority after everything but a priority before anything.  If we can't surrender, we can't be led.  Since I'm a stubborn person by nature, this is difficult sometimes for me as well.  Daily Paul laid down his life so that Christ could live through him.  Daily we need to do the same.
     We are sojourners in this world.  We who call ourselves Christians are not at home here because it's not our home.  The decision to be separate once called out of the world is where we find our reason for God's creating us in the first place.  Without the focus of being who he created us to be, there is no ability to visualize that life.  Without that life, there is no following or being led by Jesus.  He is our purpose.  He is our life.  He is the Savior of the world and you.  Remember, it's always your choice.