Find the cost
I recently came across this song from the past. It is a powerful two minute song that speaks much to us who consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus. We can forget there is a cost.
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.
Mother earth will swallow you. Lay your body down.
(CSN&Y, 1974)
We know that Christ paid an ultimate price to redeem us. He laid his body down for us, but there is more. That was the opening which allows us to begin the journey. Look at Jesus’ words in this passage from Luke.
For which of you, wishing to build a farm building, does not first sit down and calculate the cost [to see] whether he has sufficient means to finish it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to complete [the building], all who see it will begin to mock and jeer at him, Saying, This man began to build and was not able (worth enough) to finish. Luke 14:28-30 (Amplified)
We see that we are to use our judgment before we begin projects. Jesus wanted to remind those who wish to follow him that things are not easy. In fact in the next sentences of Luke 14, Jesus eludes to war and its cost.
Jesus was not wishing to discourage us, but to remind us of things to come. There are those believers who feel that once their salvation process has begun, through accepting Him, that things will be easy. It is far to the contrary. There is a cost in this earthly life. We need to allow our personal goals and dreams to die and begin to see through new, spiritual eyes.
I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. John 12:25 (Amplified)
We are called to follow Jesus and in the ways he has uniquely created and gifted us, to reach out to those around us. We must be willing to take up our own crosses or we will not be found to be true disciples. In Matthew 10:39, Jesus reminds us that we too are to lay our body down, Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (ESV)
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.
Mother earth will swallow you. Lay your body down.
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.
Mother earth will swallow you. Lay your body down.
(CSN&Y, 1974)
We know that Christ paid an ultimate price to redeem us. He laid his body down for us, but there is more. That was the opening which allows us to begin the journey. Look at Jesus’ words in this passage from Luke.
For which of you, wishing to build a farm building, does not first sit down and calculate the cost [to see] whether he has sufficient means to finish it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to complete [the building], all who see it will begin to mock and jeer at him, Saying, This man began to build and was not able (worth enough) to finish. Luke 14:28-30 (Amplified)
We see that we are to use our judgment before we begin projects. Jesus wanted to remind those who wish to follow him that things are not easy. In fact in the next sentences of Luke 14, Jesus eludes to war and its cost.
Jesus was not wishing to discourage us, but to remind us of things to come. There are those believers who feel that once their salvation process has begun, through accepting Him, that things will be easy. It is far to the contrary. There is a cost in this earthly life. We need to allow our personal goals and dreams to die and begin to see through new, spiritual eyes.
I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. John 12:25 (Amplified)
We are called to follow Jesus and in the ways he has uniquely created and gifted us, to reach out to those around us. We must be willing to take up our own crosses or we will not be found to be true disciples. In Matthew 10:39, Jesus reminds us that we too are to lay our body down, Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (ESV)
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.
Mother earth will swallow you. Lay your body down.
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