Even Demons Believe

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8.Shaking The Salt Shaker

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Let us shake the salt shaker just a little and see what a man or woman should consider before calling themselves a disciple of Jesus. The terms of peace, the cost of having true faith in Jesus, are three fold. We each have sinned against the God who is One, but manifested in three in the Trinity, so our repentance is threefold. First, we must hate those around us. Second, we must hate our own life. And third, we must pick up a cross and follow Jesus.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning tothem he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hatehis father and mother, his wife and children, his brothersand sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross andfollow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25–27)

Of course this is not a worldly kind of hate that seeks to do harm to others. Yes, God is love and He desires that we love others. However, we can only love God and others by “hating” and carrying our cross as we follow Jesus.

The following list shows just a few things to consider before you make your decision to follow Jesus. Please keep in mind these are only a few things that you should consider long before calling yourself a Christian.

A complete rejection of all that is sinful.
Aim for perfection … (2 Corinthians 13:11)
A despising and hating of money.
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Luke 16:13)
A total focus only upon the will of God.
Why, you do not even know what will happen Paulorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:14–15)
A willingness to have all pride put to death.
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope. Let him oer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be lled with disgrace. (Lamentations 3:25–30)
An utter rejection of one’s opinions and thoughts.
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. (Proverbs 18:2)
A new way of doing everything in daily life.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:16)
A hatred of one’s time, rest, comfort, fun, and joys. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25)
Let God transform you into a slave.
… and whoever wants to be rst must be slave of all.
(Mark 10:44)
Prepare for the possibility that there will be great division in your family.
Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be ve in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ey will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-inlaw. (Luke 12:51–53)
Burn all your bridges to the life you now live.
Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)
Be ready for the whole world to hate you. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mark 13:13)
You could easily lose your job and reputation.
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and
goat skins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:37–38)
If you join a church truly of the Lord, you will be falsely accused of belonging to a cult.
“We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect …” (word “sect” is the same as cult). (Acts 24:5)
Die having made yourself poor for others.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
A complete rejection of the ways of the world.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. en you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2) A complete rejection of the things of the world. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does —comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15–17)
A willingness to be persecuted for Jesus.
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, … (2 Timothy 3:12)
A perseverance to suer against sin until you are dead to sin.
But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by
persevering produce a crop. (Luke 8:15)
A complete rejection of a good self-esteem.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. (Romans 7:18)
A resolve to do God’s will no matter what family,
friends, wife, brothers, or sisters say about that will.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—
yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
A realization that God regretted making you.
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was lled with pain. (Genesis 6:6)
A sense of weakness, of being unable to live the
Christian life.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in diculties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
An absolute surrender and death to every aspect of self.
For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (Galatians 5:17)
No attachment to anything in the world.
On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the eld should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:31–33)
To work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing you could lose it.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)
A resolve, if married, to live as though not married.
What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none. (1 Corinthians 7:29)
To not look for a wife or husband if unmarried, but to wait on God.
Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. (1 Corinthians 7:27)
To pray all of the time.
… pray continually … (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
To be devoted to church.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)
Be prepared to stop associating with anyone who claims to be a Christian but is a hypocrite.
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually
immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. (1
Corinthians 5:11)
Come into the Light where your whole life is open before God and the church.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

Are you willing for these things and more to be worked in your life by the power of God? Once a man or woman willingly strives to do only God’s will, then comes the actual obedience by picking up the cross and following Jesus. Do you see why everyone must be a disciple? Just as Jesus carried His cross until He died on that cross, we cannot hope for a resurrected life without first carrying the cross the Holy Spirit gives us. The apostles of Jesus gave up all and taught others the same.

Peter said to him, “We have le everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28)

To “follow” Jesus requires that everyone leave “everything” behind. Only those who hate their lives surrender all. Only those who surrender will let the cross crucify them to the world. 50 And only those who allow themselves to be crucied unto death experience the resurrected life.

Truths To Ponder, Beliefs To Examine

What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?

What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?

What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?

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Even Demons Believe, Chapter Eight