"Taking Stock"

"Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of the saints." (Psalms 149:1)

  Before I get too carried away in this, I am reminded again about that time in jail when there was about twelve of us inmates gathered in a circle, without any instruments or accompanying music, singing out and marching in step, and singing that song, "Father Abraham, had many sons; and I am one, and so are you; as we go marching on!" That is more than just relevant to what I am about to talk about; it is the entire point of what it means to be a New Creature in Christ, because we are all one big happy family! I say happy, because our joy is made abundantly possible by the salvation and security that we have in Christ; but our happiness is produced in the way that we share in this great adventure together as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is something that we are all a part of, to work out our differences, to express to each other our challenges, and to share and praise God together for all the victories we have in Christ. Is it all happiness and feeling good? Unfortunately it is not; not yet anyways: but our joy must remain! There is such a huge difference between joy and happiness; something that is akin to the difference between feelings and facts. Jesus was sharing something about what this might look like, as He shared about, "Counting the Cost." It is much like a man building a house, or a General that is preparing for war: The major aspect of the endeavor, whatever it might be, is to assure that the resources are there to complete whatever it is that you are setting out to accomplish. Fortunately, in this thing we call, A New Life in Christ, all of the resources are firmly in place! We never need to be concerned about running out of resources because He has taken care of all of that for us; but we do need to keep running the race! Even when it feels we are failing, He has not failed! Even when we don't feel worthy, He is Worthy enough to include us! Even when we don't feel as though we deserve it, He paid the price in full, and we cannot earn it! When Jesus shared about, "Counting the Cost," He started out talking about bearing our own cross and following after Him; which pretty much represents us changing our whole frame of mind; which means, those things we previously put stock in, such as personal relationships with others and the financial securities of this world, they are no longer number one: but Jesus Christ must be first and foremost above all else, and those things will work themselves out! Does that mean we no longer care about anything else? Absolutely not! What it does mean, is that nothing else is going to cause me to give up on following the Lord...

"Because God's children are human beings -made of flesh and blood -the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power over death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested." (Hebrews 2:14-18) NLT