“he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt 10:39, KJV)
In the previous manna we started examining the reasons people enter the Kingdom of God on the grounds of wrongful motives, and are therefore tied to the horns of the altar in a wrong manner. According to Zech 1:19-21 the horns then fulfil the function of scattering instead of gathering, as the Strongs states, ”to be tossed about, cast away, dispersed”. The root of the word scattered is: to be estranged, which according to Websters means “alienation; a keeping at a distance”. In Eph 2:13 Paul writes that we “who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ”, an experience these believers have never been privy to. Thus they feel like strangers, never at home in the Kingdom of God.
Earlier we noted that there exist two such groupings – those that cling to God in the heat of a crisis situation but fail to commit to Him once the heat is off, and those who were forced into the Kingdom through either fear or manipulation, or both. A third grouping are marked by the fact that the gospel was presented to them as the answer to all their problems, where God exists to satisfy their every whim, God the friend of all and just too happy that men deem Him worthy enough to serve.
Oswald Chambers considers this type of relationship one based on an ethic of consumerism – “If we have never had the experience of taking our commonplace religious shoes off our commonplace religious feet, and getting rid of all the undue familiarity with which we approach God, it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and familiar are those who have never yet been introduced to Jesus Christ.”
Os Guinness calls it “the soft-gospel invitation of our convenience-loving age”. This is indeed a false premise on which to approach God. The Word remains clear – you need to count the cost before you enter (Luke 14:28); you need to be willing to lay down your life if you desire to approach Him (John 13:38). Matt 10:38-39 spells it out in no subtle terms – “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
- Sela: Ask God to forgive you for an attitude marked by the feeling that He owes you something.
- Read: 2 Sam 13; Prov 17; Heb 11
- Memorise: Heb 11:1 & 10
- For a deeper understanding: Read http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080695 to see how an outsider sees the Christian consumer society. Do not miss the irony.
