Heart Tracks - The First Question

"I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me." Acts 20:23-24...."What would you do if the Holy Spirit told you your future would be full of prisons and hardships?" Chris Tiegreen...."The first question we must answer is, have we determined beforehand, that no matter what He requires or asks, our answer is 'Yes?' " Francis Chan

The questions that Tiegreen and Chan ask pierce our hearts with an inescapable reality. They cut to the core of our being. They ask us if even should He reveal to us that following Him would involve sacrifice beyond anything we thought possible, even the loss of everything, would we still follow Him? Even if the following meant severe hardship, prison, even death? In short, if in the call, He placed the cross, His cross, and the death it calls us to before us, would we still come? Would we still follow?

These questions clash with the usual picture given of what it is to "come to Christ." We like to emphasize all the great things that go with entering into the saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We're told that He has a "wonderful plan for our lives." Good things, abundance, provision, relief, all these lie ahead of us. We just need to enter in and the desires of our heart will be ours. Prisons, hardships, a cross, these are not usually mentioned as being part of the package.

To Peter, Paul, and others in the Bible, Jesus clearly told them much of what lie in their future. Death and hardship would be the cost of following Him. He told them that to follow Him wholly would mean they would share in His suffering. He was clear on that with them. He is clear on that with us. He's told us it would be so. So why are we so shocked when hardship and suffering do come upon us? Didn't He tell us it would be so? He did. It's just that we who are to be His voice, are His voice, have chosen to leave most, if not all of that part of His invitation out. Prisons, hardships, suffering, and a cross do not have mass appeal, and we want to appeal to the masses. The cross has always offended, and though we may fully display it in our churches, we rarely do so in our message and witness. So we are ill-prepared for what it is to truly follow Christ. When they come, too often, we go....as far from them as we can get.

To Paul and Peter and others, Jesus gave some details on what lie before them. For most though, He doesn't. He just tells us that to follow Him fully will require the losing of our lives, sometimes literally, but always spiritually. He tells us that there will be suffering, and if we have not settled that first question as to whether we will go with Him anyway, we can be sure that when suffering comes, we won't continue on with Him. In John 6, we're told that most of His followers turned away from Him when He made this very demand. He asked the remaining disciples if they too would leave Him? Peter spoke for all; "Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life."

How do we answer Chan's first question? It cannot be taken lightly or avoided, and it is asked of each of us. Have you already settled on the answer, or, as Oswald Chambers puts it, "Do you shuffle your feet?" The old hymn goes, "Though none go with You, still I will follow." If everyone, simply everyone turns back, will you, will we, still follow?

Blessings,
Pastor O