That Was Easy

Several years ago, the Staples company came up with an ad campaign that showed people in an office supply quandary pressing an "Easy" button which immediately would fix whatever their need was. My mother loves to shop at Staples, and one year for Christmas or their birthdays she purchased an "Easy" button for each of my kids. When you pressed the button, the announcer's voice from the television commercials said, "That was easy." And for several months we heard that a lot in the Felts household.

I was thinking about Christianity this morning, and a picture of the "Easy" button came to mind. This is not to say that I think Christianity is easy, because it's not some days. Walking in love towards people who are being idiots is not the easiest thing to accomplish in life. And for that matter trying not to be an idiot so people can walk in love with me isn't easy either. But I think some times that people think, "Well I'm a Christian now, the hard stuff is over and the life of ease has arrived." The really interesting thing is that this is not the life that Jesus talked about at all in Scripture.

I wonder what ever happened to those things spoken of in the Bible like that "take up your cross and follow Me" business, or"love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her" stuff? You know the things that actually make you a disciple of Christ and not just someone who is on the outskirts. Being a disciple isn't easy, it is a challenging life to be sure, trying to walk like the Lord. Because that is what being a disciple of Christ is, becoming like Him.

We've almost made it too easy to become a Christian, you know in church it's like during the altar call, "Please bow your heads with no one looking around, would you like to be born again?" Whatever happened to that Scripture where Jesus in Matthew 10:32-33 NLT "Everyone who acknowledges Me publicly here on Earth, I will also acknowledge before My Father in Heaven. But everyone who denies Me here on Earth, I will also deny before My Father in Heaven."

Those are red letters too, so we ought to take heed when we read them. And that is what makes being a Christian sometimes hard in my opinion. It's seeing Jesus say something in the Word and then not only making a decision to do those things, but to do them with a good attitude and the best of your ability. And that takes time, diligence and dedication to the decision you've made. That is becoming a disciple and there is no "Easy" button for that.

Let's get 'em up folks, and go out and whip something for the Kingdom today!