Take God Seriously

   Do you take God seriously?  Now, stop and think.  Hold in your indignation and your questions and your confusion and your outrage that I should even ask such a question.  Before you decide never to read anything of mine ever again... stop.  Take a moment.  Really contemplate the question. Do you take God seriously?
   Now, I know what you're thinking.  "I'm a Christian.  Of course I take God seriously!  I love Him.  I do my best to please Him.  Michaela, what in the world are you trying to say??"  But here's another question: What are you willing to give up to follow God?
   You see, "whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it."  To follow Christ you must pick your cross daily and die to yourself.  To follow Christ you have to make sacrifices.  To follow Christ you have to make Him #1 and let nothing get in the way of your utter devotion to Him.
   Jesus might ask you to sell everything you own and give away the profit.  God might tell you to pick up and move to another country to spread His love.  Jesus may want you to do things that you're friends think are completely crazy.  Christ may tell you that your father's funeral doesn't really matter.  He might ask you to abandon your home, your business, your family, and your reputation.  He might ask you to give your life.  Truth is, Jesus might -no, scratch that.  Jesus absolutely will ask you to do something that you really won't want to do.
   But this is the moment of truth.  This is what Christianity really means.  This is truly following Christ.  How far are you going to follow Him?  You've gone to a certain point with Jesus, but when will you cross the line?  When will you realize that following Him means sacrifice?
   Jesus has said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  He promised us that we will be persecuted, killed, and hated because of Him.  He specifically commanded us to "go."  We -you, me, and every believer- are the church, and we are meant to be teaching, loving, baptizing, and making "disciples of all nations."  We are to proclaim the good news, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and "freely give."  Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things [!!] than these."  What will you do for Christ?
   We, as the American church need to make a change.  We need to examine our own hearts and lives and seek the will of God.  We need to take the advice of David Platt and "take an honest look at the Jesus of the Bible and dare to ask what the consequences might be if we really believed him and really obeyed him."  We need to dare to take the words of Christ seriously.