What is Your Faith Costing You?

What is your faith costing you?  What have you been telling your children and your grandchildren about God?  Listen to this:  "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharoah, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.'"  (Ex. 10:1-2)  

(No children or grandchildren?  Read Isaiah 54:1-5)

Did you hear that?  "I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren."

Couple of things here on my mind:  First, why did God harden Pharoah's heart in the first place, and second, does He still harden hearts today?  If you go back to Exodus 4:21, you read that God told Moses He would harden Pharoah's heart.  Three verses later, you read that God met Moses and was about to kill him.  So, I'm thinking here, is this just one example of why we don't talk about this with our children, grandchildren, friends, family etc.?  Is this all just too much and too difficult for them too handle?  Is it maybe better for us simply to share the love of God with others and skip the hard parts, in hopes that they may come to know Him?  

Is this why we (believers of Jesus Christ), say (whine) "the Bible is too difficult to understand?"  Is this why we (believers of Jesus Christ), generally speaking, spend our life studying the Bible and going to Bible studies because we need someone other than Jesus Christ to explain it to us?  Is this why I almost never, ever hear believers talking about such things as this, yet, I am almost always hearing believers sharing and quoting how good God is?  (Oh, I am SO NOT opposed to studying the Bible or Bible studies, but when do we start obeying Him by letting Him be the One to teach us?  When do WE begin teaching others how to go to Him?)

Jump with me to Mark 4:10-12 & 4:34:  "When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables.  He told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.'"  And, "But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything."

Moses was not a man who was feeling called to be a leader for God; in fact, it sounds like he was a man just like most of us; he was scared out of his wits to do what God wanted him to do and God's anger burned against him because of his timidity.  God took an unqualified and almost unwilling man to use in His mission involving an ungodly, heathen Pharoah, for the sole purpose of showing His power and that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth.  In fact, these are the very words God told Moses to say to the ungodly Pharoah:  "But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Now I ask, if God raised up a heathen man such as Pharoah so that His power and His name might be proclaimed in all the earth, what do you think He raised YOU up for?

In my Bible reading this morning, I was reminded that the family of Jesus thought He was out of His mind and they attempted to take charge of Him.  To His disciples only, He explained that only the forgiven are the ones who will truly understand Him and His truth (Mk. 4:11-12).  Even His own birth mother and his birth brothers would not understand Him unless they chose to believe what He said and then chose to obey (which comes only through true repentance) ... and in so doing, would receive the forgiveness Jesus offers; forgiveness that offers peace and freedom.

So, what have you been telling your children, grandchildren, friends and family about God?  Only that He will bless them, that He will prosper them, that He will care for them, that He will help them, that He will love them just the way they are, etc.?  Or are you telling them what God said to tell them, along with the hard truth of His Son, Jesus Christ?  If we don't do what He says we are to do, will He harden our hearts?

What I know for sure today is that if Jesus' own birth family, along with religious people, thought He was out of His mind, and if I choose to take Him at His Word, and believe Him, obey Him and follow Him only ... then I must believe that the same will be thought about me.  So, how is this thing of faith working for me?  Do people think I'm out of my mind?

There are days when I think momentarily, I wish more people understood me, instead of thinking I've lost my mind in my passion for Him.  But it's only momentarily and then I remember that to follow Jesus instead of following the multitude comes with a cost.  He told us what that cost is.  He didn't sugarcoat it at all.  You don't have to look too closely at me to see where I still fall short and where I fall flat on my face at times.  I'm no different than Moses, but I can and will say out loud, "I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and I count it an honor to be thought of as 'out of my mind.'"  Remember, there is a cost and, (there is no such thing as secret disciples).

What is your faith costing you?  Jesus explains everything only to His disciples, and He reminds us in John 8 that, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."