Tag Archives: worth

Stay on the winning side (Luke 14:31-33) December 4, 2016

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 John 4-5

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 14:31-33
Jesus: Or imagine a king gearing up to go to war. Wouldn’t he begin by sitting down with his advisors to determine whether his 10,000 troops could defeat the opponent’s 20,000 troops? If not, he’ll send a peace delegation quickly and negotiate a peace treaty. In the same way, if you want to be My disciple, it will cost you everything. Don’t underestimate that cost!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I spent almost my whole career in the Army studying, thinking about, and planning for combat. That’s what the Army does. It’s purpose is to fight and win America’s wars. It doesn’t start them. It doesn’t want them. No soldier that I know enjoys going into combat. But when the country calls on its soldiers to fight for the freedoms we hold dear, they go. And my job as a medical planner was to figure out how to put the right medical support on the battlefield and at every step between the battle and a soldier’s home to make sure he or she got the best care possible.

Consequently, I know about planning to go to war. I worked hand in hand with the warfighters and understood their tactics intimately because I had to know how their tactics influenced the potential number of casualties both we and our enemies would experience. You see, Americans are one of few countries that extend mercy to our enemies once defeated. We tend to our enemies wounded in the same way we tend to our own wounded. It’s what the Geneva Conventions after the World Wars said we should do, but few countries carry out those concepts as well as the United States.

So my job took into account what the warfighters thought would happen in each phase of each battle and throughout the campaigns they planned both for our side and the enemies. It sounds like a daunting task and in some respects I guess it might be. But there are ways to determine what our capabilities really are and what the enemy’s capabilities are. Then you run all that information through different analyses tools and figure out if you can win and at what cost.

The good news for those who have never served, but who have loved ones or friends in the military, I never met a commander that wasn’t averse to losing soldiers in battle. No one I ever met wanted to see soldiers hurt or killed even though we all knew the possibility and sometimes the probability of casualties happening. But our mission, given to us by Congress and the President, was always to fight and win the war. And sometimes that meant we knew it might cost lives or severe injuries to do battle with the enemy. Our opponents often don’t cherish human life the way Americans do and so will fight very different kinds of warfare than us. We have to be prepared for those battles.

ISIS is a good example of the difference. While we can put a smart bomb through a window as Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom demonstrated, we sometimes have civilians caught in the fray because ISIS and terrorist groups like them will surround themselves with civilians to keep us from attacking. We never do. We keep our bases separate from the civilian populace partly for that reason. We never want to be accused of using civilians as shields.

But we take all those tactics of our enemies into account, too. We want to know the cost, both in dollars, in potential injuries, and in potential lives, enemy soldiers, friendly soldiers, and civilians before the first bullet ever leaves the barrel of a rifle. So people like me would spend days and weeks and months locked in vaults planning for all kinds of contingencies just in case something were to happen in some part of the world. The plans were never executed the way we wrote them, but they were always a good starting point rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper when the chips were down.

All that work in the Army reminds me every day of the war we fight in the spiritual world. There is a cost to serving in God’s Army. There will be battles fought when the odds seem insurmountable and losses will be heavy. Sometimes it may even appear as if we’ve lost the battle. But remember that wars are not about one battle. They are campaigns in which a series of battles lead to an ultimate conclusion with victory by one side.

I hope you are on the winning side. In the end there will only be one victor and God’s word has already announced who that will be. There is really no sense in wasting time fighting against Him. He’s already won. Future history is already recorded if that makes any sense. Every promise God makes happens and He promised victory for those that follow Him.

So what are you waiting for? Go tell someone about the wonder of God’s love. Yes it will cost a lot, everything you have and everything you will ever have. But is it worth the cost? You bet it is. Stay on the winning side. It’s worth it.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Is it worth it? (Luke 14:26-30) December 3, 2016

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 21-22

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 14:26-30
Jesus: If any of you come to Me without hating your own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yes, even your own life, you can’t be My disciple. If you don’t carry your own cross as if to your own execution as you follow Me, you can’t be part of My movement. Just imagine that you want to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to be sure you have enough to finish what you start? If you lay the foundation but then can’t afford to finish the tower, everyone will mock you: “Look at that guy who started something that he couldn’t finish!”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Sometimes we Christians give non-believers the wrong impression about the Christian life. We kind of let people think the Christian life is easy. Just let Jesus be Lord of your life and everything will be great from there on out. You’ll always have plenty of money. Friends will pour in from every direction. Jobs will fall into your lap. God will do incredible things for you all the time. You will always have a smile on your face because God is a God of love and He will make things perfect for you, right?

Well, that’s not the Christian life that I’ve experienced and if you ask most Christians, they will tell you that their walk has not been a bed of roses. The Christian life is not an easy one. Jesus hinted at the difficulties we would face as He talked to those who followed Him. He continually talked about suffering, taking up our cross, being despised by the world. He didn’t say much about easing through the world with lots of comfort. He talks about the rewards at the end, but until then, He indicates life can get pretty hard since the world doesn’t understand us and because of that failure to understand us and believe in Him, they will hate us intensely.

Jesus laid out the costs of following Him throughout His ministry. He scoffed at the wealthy because they put their faith in the wrong things. He told the rich they already had all that would come to them if they didn’t let go of their golden god and embrace the One, True, Living God. Then He said count those costs and see if you want to pay them before you sign up. I don’t think He wanted anyone to be disillusioned about want it means to be a Christian. He didn’t want anyone to think everything would turn out just the way you want when you decide to give your life to Him. Because it won’t.

We don’t know what just right means because we’ve lived in a tainted world that tells us our whole life what right means but the world is wrong. So what we think is right is probably not what God thinks is right. So expect to be disappointed sometimes. Expect to be angry at what God allows to happen every once in a while. Expect to scratch your head and wonder why things progress the way they do because they just won’t make any sense to you. But remember God is God and we are not. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what is best for us and His world. He knows how to make His plans work through our lives. And He will when we let Him.

When you count those costs, though, you’ll also find that the costs are well worth the price. The price is everything. It is all you have, all your material goods, all your dreams and aspirations, all your relationships, all of you. The cost of following Jesus is a commitment of everything you can think of and everything you can’t think of now but will pop up in the future. It’s all or none with Him. That is a pricey commitment. There is nothing else that will cost you so much. Nothing demands so much of you as following Jesus.

But in the end, when time finally comes to a close and the last tick of the clock has sounded, you will discover the cost has been infinitesimally small compared to the reward you receive. Despite the sorrow you might experience here, there will also be indescribable joy. An inner peace that can only be explained by the presence of God Himself living inside you. You will find that God really does meet your needs. Not your wants, but your needs. We often get our wants and our needs confused in our materialistic world, but God never does. He knows what you need and provides it at just the right time when we stay in the center of His will.

God also gives you opportunities to serve others as you serve Him. He puts you in places and situations at just the right time to share what He is doing in your life so that you can introduce Him to others in a way that allows His spirit to stir their hearts and so allow them to come to know His saving grace as you do.

Are the costs worth the prize at the end? Absolutely. But don’t be surprised by the cost of being a Christian. It will never be an easy life. God never told anyone who stayed in His will that He would make life easy for them. But He always promised it would be worth it. And it is. Trust Him. He never breaks His promises.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.