Of Wheat and Towers

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." (John 12:23-28, ESV)
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
(Luke 14:26-30, ESV)
The above two passages of scripture are the true heart of Christian living. What passes for Christian living in many parts of the world is diluted milk and bears no resemblance to the Christian living that Jesus called His disciples to. We often read our Bibles and even marvel at the sacrifices made by the early Christians; Stephen was the first martyr, followed by James and then others. John was put into exile at a time when the church underwent heavy persecution. Heavy stuff. Surely not for the timid or the weak. Or perhaps we will read the stories of missionaries or Christians who lived in more recent times and we begin to twitter like birds in a tree. We may even get goose bumps or shed a tear or two. But again, not for the timid or the weak.
True Christian living is dying, dying to self and dying to the demands of this world. It’s not about taking care of Number One (self) or climbing the ladder that includes stepping on others or pushing them down in order to achieve. True Christian living is about saying no more often than not. It’s not about my rights, unless that right is the right to give myself for others. It’s not about my rights unless it is my right to give my life for my Lord.
There are a myriad of cutesy, warm little Christian stories that constantly circulate on the web, daring you to be the one to break the chain of sending the story on for fear of losing your friend or even your soul. That’s not what Christian living is all about.
Instead of reading the warm little stories, what if each of us decided to be a story? What if we decided to take our Christian walk seriously and began to do more than warm a pew on Sunday morning (some churches are even adding a “user-friendly” Saturday evening worship) or put a pittance in the collection plate. What if we challenged ourselves to get out of our warm, comfortable circumstances and to get down and dirty, helping the truly needy, the unloved, the forgotten ones.
Many years ago, living in southern Japan, we rented a very small house and lived in it for a year. The rats ate the insulation on the electric cord for the refrigerator, or you could hear them running overhead at night. Large spiders, the size of tarantulas, but harmless (unless being scared out of your wits counts as being harmful)would crawl up the walls of the bathroom while you were sitting in the tub. These problems were nothing. Most folks in that part of Japan dealt with the same things. But one thing that even some Japanese visitors didn’t like was the non-flush toilet. That’s right. An outhouse, connected to the house. When you opened the front door, especially on a hot summer day, the smell could be overpowering. Many visitors would open the front door, catch the odor and say, “It was nice visiting with you.” They never once stepped foot inside the door.
That was harmless. We didn’t mind so much, because we were reaching folks with the gospel. There are many places in the world where people are living in much worse situations, even squalid conditions, and we who are to be the light of the world don’t want to be involved.
It’s time for us to count the cost of following Jesus. Many start strong, only to grow soft as the days and years go by. We start out to build a tower and we stop before we have even built an outhouse. We love our lives here on this earth, and we are unwilling to let go of things that make the creature part of us comfortable or happy. Some will angrily challenge any idea of God not saving anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian, without really ever changing into what God wants – a servant who is willing to die for Jesus.
Perhaps I am wrong. Maybe I don’t understand what Jesus is saying. But I don’t believe it was to the apostles only that he taught self-sacrifice. It would appear that in the coming years, we will have many more opportunities to give of ourselves to others. When we serve others, we are serving Jesus. (Check Matthew 25:31-46 on sheep and goats and doing for others.) When we give of ourselves to the point of doing without, we are beginning to live our lives incarnadine, the blood color that all Christians should be covered with, because our Master shed His blood for us. Forget the fuzzy little stories. Forget about forwarding tear-jerking anecdotes. Let’s get out of the overstuffed chairs, our from in front of the big waster of time, let’s forget about constantly checking our e-mail, and begin to live our lives for others. Our spiritual lives depend on it.

Will I Find Faith?

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
(Luke 18:1-8, ESV)
I have pondered over the above parable since I was a youth, hearing people tell me that it meant something that just didn't seem to fit the text. I have often heard it said that Jesus questioned if there would be any believers left on the earth when He returned. Since He is planning on returning “like a thief in the night” I suspect most people will be living their lives as usual, those practicing righteousness continuing to follow the Righteous One, while those given over to evil, continuing in their evil ways. Jesus compared His return to the times before the flood, at which time only eight folks were saved. What is the Master really saying in the above parable? I think it is quite simply this: those even who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will begin to doubt whether or not God will hear their prayers or believe that He will answer those prayers. Prayer requires the praying one to believe the One being prayed to, to trust that He will not refuse His children their
requests. But what are we praying for? Elijah certainly knew what to pray for. He knew what God had told Moses about turning the sky to brass (i.e., no rain would be falling)when the people forsook Him and turned to worship idols. Elijah knew Solomon's prayer after the dedication of the temple, asking God to listen to the people when they forsook Him and He sent drought upon the land. (See I Kings 8:35-36) Elijah believed God and prayed accordingly. That is the prayer of faith.
Our problem is we do not often know God's heart because we have failed to diligently
study His word. Elijah was a man of the Book, as was Jesus, the very Son of God. Those who meditate on the Word of God will grow in faith and will begin to know how to pray. For example, is it right to pray for someone caught up in sin? If we understand Simon, the Samaritan sorcerer, it is something that we should regularly be doing. Simon asked Peter and John to pray for him; Simon was a believer. Those who would relegate Simon to the ashes of hell miss the point: it is right and necessary to ask others to pray for us when we are so caught up in sin that we really don't know how to get back on solid footing with the Lord. God had to send Nathan, the prophet, to help straighten out King David. Did God forgive Simon? I believe that He did, because Simon is in the act of repenting when he asks Peter and John to pray for him.
How about justice for Christians? Are we not God's elect? Have you never been in a
situation where it just seemed that justice would never come? I have, and believe me, it was rather uncomfortable. Something that should have been completed in 30 days took two years to complete. The transaction was held up by deceit and lies and shady negotiations. I even called the district attorney's office to try and get some relief, all to no avail. Finally I literally cried out to the Lord, laying prostrate before Him. After that, the matter was settled within a few days. My stubborn heart must have been faithless in thinking that my Lord would not take time to help me on something that should have been very straightforward and simple. Two years, yet I did get justice. God listened to my prayers.
We are to be like sheep, gentle and docile, willing to be mistreated by the world. On the other hand, our Master Shepherd is at the ready to assist us, to listen to our cries, to help us in any and every situation. Being faithful about asking for His help in small things is what He wants from us. Contrary to opinion, the small stuff is worth sweating over, not by stressing over it, but by spending time in prayer, being faithful in prayer.
A young Japanese Christian man I know is working for a chain of stores that sells clothing. The home office is here in Sapporo. He is being transferred to Tokyo, to take command of a new outlet there, the first in the capital city for this company. I told him that one day he just might make president of the company. He laughed and said that he would just like to be store manager one day. I replied, “Every president must first be the manager of a small store” to which he smiled and agreed. So it is. We must be faithful in prayer about the small things in life, or will Jesus find faith when He returns? Those who choose to live their lives incarnadine will be those who faithfully pray to the Father about as much of life as they can. They will truly want to pray down “thy will on earth as it is in heaven.” Only prayer can change nations, presidents, prime ministers, kings, barbarians
and the course of life itself. God is listening and He wants to find faith, faith in prayer.