Bait and Switch Evangelism

As I have observed us Christ-followers in recent months, personally, on Facebook and on Twitter, I have been interested in the amount of exhortation and evangelism that happens out there. This is a good thing, most likely, but a concern has surfaced in my mind. This concern revolves around obedience and… if you read this blog much…you know that is a near and dear topic (though to be honest, not one I am very good at, personally!).

It seems we need to be careful of giving a message that this is all free. While it is true that salvation is a free gift of God, not attained by working at it, so that no one has a reason to boast; discipleship is not free by any measure. I think this is why we read that anyone who can say, “Christ is Lord” is in The Way. The lordship of Jesus is a surrender of everything to his control. True discipleship costs us all that we are…even to the point of death for the Master. That message is anything but “free.”

However, I get it; if we lead with the, “this will cost you everything you have” line, we may not see as many consider joining the family. I just want us to be careful that we use a both/and approach here. Let’s proclaim that salvation is free through the mercy and grace of God; but along with that, let’s also make sure that the cost of discipleship is clear. I am not talking about a list of “dos and don’ts” here. I am talking about taking steps of obedience as God lays them before us, whatever the cost or consequence.

Maybe part of the issue for us is that the cost of discipleship in the US is, or at least seems, minimal in comparison to some cultures where death may be attached to “coming out” as a believer.

May God direct our hearts and words.

Our Juxtaposition God

It is amazing how we, as finite and flawed “jars of clay,” can hold within us the infinite and perfect God. What is even more amazing…and rather embarrassing… is how we continue to make feeble and inadequate definitions of him, as if trying to somehow contain him in our jar; understand him with our mind
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In God exist such completely diverse elements (Monty Python reference) as justice and mercy, law and grace, power and meekness…yes, even free will and sovereignty. Our God has commanded the genocide of complete people groups, including women, children and animals, while also sacrificing his only Son to satisfy the judgment commanded by himself for the sin that those people groups committed. Even writing that last sentence is confusing, awesome, difficult and wonderful, all at the same time.

Though we will never reach the end of this because it exists in him and he is infinite, it has helped me to consider it this way. We, on earth, are enveloped by space in a similar way that all things are enveloped and coexist within God. As we look up into the night sky the view is different in each direction, though the essence is the same. Because we are stuck in one place on earth, there remain a vast number of “views” left unseen and guessed at.

Can I serve a God I can neither grasp nor understand completely? Yes, for he has grasped and understands me completely. He is the potter. I am the jar. May I serve him fully as he has designed, with gratitude!