All or nothing

It's becoming clearer to me that with Jesus it is all or noting.

Mat 12:30 ESV(30) Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Luk 9:23 ESV(23) And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Rev 3:15-16 GNB(15) I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!(16) But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth!

1Co 10:21 ESV You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Mat 6:24 ESV "No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money."

Jesus wants our whole being. Our whole life, that's what it means to take up your cross- the cross symbolized dying - dying to our old self. Jesus says to do this daily. It is really hard to imagine the fullness of that statement. The song "getting into you" by relientK explains it quite well, when they say "do you know what you are getting yourself into?" I have committed my life to Jesus, but there is probably parts of my life that I still have that I would have a hard time giving up. If it was God's plan for me to never get married, would I be okay with that? There is such magnitude when you give your life up. But, just as the disciples did, we need to give up our lives and follow Jesus. They dropped their fishing poles and left their families and followed Jesus. That would be the same as if someone who is who has a successful job decides to quit and become a missionary. But when we make that sacrifice it just opens up the opportunity for God to work in our lives more than we could imagine, and certainly better than we could ever do on our own. The disciples all went on to be such strong leaders. We can do the same if we let God take over.

'Whoever does not gather with me scatters.' This was convicting to me. Jesus is saying if I am not bringing people to Him then I am basically pushing people away from Him. That is the last thing I want to do. So I need to make it a point to spread the Gospel. But I find this so hard to do in a regular day setting. It's such a serious subject, which makes it more important to talk about, but how do you incorporate that in conversation? Some say that by the way we live we can spread the Gospel. "My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples." (John 15:8) Can you see fruits of the spirit in your life daily? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Gal 5:22-23) But is that enough? "Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other." (John13:35)

My prayer is that God would reveal to me the things that are keeping me from him - things that I have not given up. And that God would train me so that I would be able to talk to others about Jesus with ease.