It will cost you your pigs
There are so many wonderful stories in The Bible. There are hundreds of encouraging and uplifting scriptures.
Words that God inspired to give us hope and build our faith.
Who can forget the first time you heard of Abraham and the promise that he would have a son. Or Jonah and the great fish that swallowed him and then spit him out when he cried unto God.
What young boy raised in church didn’t pretend he was David killing a giant with a slingshot or young woman who didn’t dream of finding a man like Jacob, or David to love them.
Reading the gospels I have always been amazed at the accuracy of the prophecies that were written hundreds of years before Christ was born.
Yet there are some very sad stories as well. Scriptures that point out our nature to rebel and turn away from God.
In fact one of the saddest scriptures that I ever read is found in Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 8:20 KJV
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Message
The crops are in, the summer is over, but for us nothing’s changed. We’re still waiting to be rescued.
Living in the bondage that rebellion brings is hard. When the Jews were in captivity they sometimes spent lifetimes before they realized how good it felt to be free.
There are people today who do not know what it is like to really be free.
When you become honest with yourself. When you look in the mirror and get real you will admit you are not free.
You will never know nor understand freedom until you give your life to Christ and allow Him to be Lord.
Over the years there is one conclusion I have drawn from all the different denominations in the church. They make things too complicated.
Too many rules which in their very nature are irrelevant. Isms and schisms abound.
Jesus kept it simple. Probably because He knew that the most precious attribute we could have was faith.
One day they asked Him this question.
John 6:28-29 KJV
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Message
To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?”
29Jesus said, “Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.”
What Christ is saying is what I said earlier. You must follow Him. You must let Him be Lord.
Here is another passage that leads us in the same direction
I John 3:21-24 Message
And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
With all the evidence of the greatness and goodness of God. With the Biblical examples and the life examples of His grace and mercy there are those who will still not accept Him and believe in Him.
This is nothing new.
When Christ entered the Gadarenes and found a man among the tombs possessed with a legion of devils; He cast them out. Did the people of the land welcome Him and invite Him into their lives?
Mark 5:17 KJV
And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
Message
They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.
WOW! You know why. The devils begged Christ to let them enter a herd of pigs and when they did the pigs ran and drowned themselves.
Having Jesus around cost them something.
People are still refusing to follow Him today for exactly the same reason. It will cost something.
Why are you sending Him away? Refusing the very grace He died to give you because you don’t want it to cost you your pigs.
If and when you follow Christ it will be the most wonderful experience you can ever have but it will cost you your pigs.
You will have to acknowledge the life that the devil controls and turn from it.
The life of the flesh that controls you. I do not care what they say on the talk shows. Living for Christ means turning away from the desires of your flesh and allowing God to make of you a new creature. Rooted and grounded in love and free because of the Grace of God.
In John the sixth chapter Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Capernaum and it was a particularly controversial message.
Those that heard the message said this.
John 6:60 KJV
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Message
Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.
Anytime the spoken word causes us to examine ourselves and the way we live; or as Christians examine our beliefs and traditions it is hard.
It is tough when we become honest and admit we have sent Him away in favor of our own selfish desires.
It is tough when we come to realize as Christians that it is not about what we want or have been taught; it is all about what Christ taught us in the Gospel and the example He gave us to live.
It is hard to swallow.
Listen at what happened six verses later.
John 6:66 KJV
From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Message
After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him.
This is another of those sad passages. They left him because of what He said. It was too hard.
They sent Him away because He cost them their pigs. It cost too much to serve Him.
So what is up with you today. You in or are you out. Will you simply ignore Him or will you send Him away.
Waiting to deal with Christ and make a decision to follow Him another day. When it is more convenient.
