Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and rest for an hour or so in my recliner, and then go back to bed, to ease pressure on my twisted spine. Tonight, as I was resting, an event from twenty years ago popped into my mind. I have learned, over time, that when this happens, the Holy Spirit is giving me a short teaching that I am to share with my brothers and sisters.

 

The event that I remembered is that a brother from Minnesota once invited me to visit him on my birthday. Besides being a brilliant man with a Bible degree that he only used as a lay minister, he was also generous to his friends. He offered very magnanimously to take me out to eat, wherever I wanted in the Twin Cities. I asked, “Anywhere I want?” When he affirmed his offer, I counter-offered, “If I can go anywhere I want, there is a place I’d like to go. I realize it is a bit more expensive than the restaurants you usually go to, so I would be willing to pay for my own meal. Where I want to go is the Mongolian Barbecue. If you combined the cost of your meal and your wife’s, you would only be paying about $4 more than if you paid for all of our meals, at the restaurants that you usually go to.”

 

The Mongolian Barbecue specializes in taking a bowl of mixed meat, veggies, nuts or fruit, of your choosing, all of very good quality, and then adds noodles, puts it all on a large round table grill, and prepares it for you while you watch. I know they have them in the Minneapolis area, but I do not know if the franchise extends to other cities and states.

 

My brother chuckled and said, “I love you brother, but not that much.” He added, “I’ll take you to the Asian restaurant where I usually go. It has a Mongolian Barbecue, but it also has a much greater variety of American and Asian food.”

 

While it was true that the variety was greater than that of the authentic Mongolian Barbecue, that particular Asian restaurant’s version of the barbecue was vastly inferior. Whenever I ate there, at that common Asian buffet restaurant, I often skipped the Mongolian buffet line for that very reason. On one hand, it was a great gesture, greatly appreciated, to receive a free meal on my birthday and spend the day with Christian friends, but I also missed the opportunity to dine where my heart desired.

 

While this brother was very generous, that would not have been the first time, for example, that he offered to take someone, such as his wife, wherever she wanted, but they ended up going to his favorite restaurant, Cucumbers, or the Asian restaurant (the name of which I cannot remember). One of his gifts was the gift of persuasion. Another way to phrase that, is to say, that he was a good and gifted brother, but that he was also very proficient at micro-managing events in his life to get what he wanted when he wanted.

 

What I am saying, is that the story illustrates a common problem we as Christians face in walking with Jesus Christ. While I could say that if we promise something to another brother or sister we should keep that promise, that isn’t the direction I am traveling with this teaching.  My intention, is to show the difference between being a carnal Christian and a mature Christian. We often forget that we can have gray hair, lots of wrinkles, and still be immature Christians in some areas of our lives. We can know all of the right buzzwords, sing the songs, memorize scripture, faithfully attend a church or home fellowship, and yet fail to mature spiritually.

 

One of the key areas that stops the flow of our maturation, has to do with submitting our lives to Jesus. While it is essential to sincerely repeat, some form of sinner’s prayer, it is also important to give Jesus lordship following salvation. It is so important that there is actually serious debate about whether one is actually saved, if they do not eventually make Jesus Lord of their lives. I am not going to discuss this issue more than to note that it is a concern.

 

If you are serious about making Jesus Lord of your life, you need to start praying that the Lord will make you sensitive to this issue, and then begin submitting your goals and decisions to Him. Going back to the analogy of the brother who said, “I love you brother, but not that much,” we can end up being in like situations and saying, “I love you Jesus, but not that much.”  I am reminded of a verse from Jeremiah 12, that says in essence, “if you cannot contend with the footman, how will you contend with the horseman?”

 

As young Christians, many times in our lives, the Lord is asking us to do something, or to not do something, which for the sake of comparison, costs “$4,” as illustrated in the opening story of this paper, but we chuckle or rationalize away the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and say in our own unique way, “I love you Jesus, but not that much.”  During our Christian life, it is not improbable that the Lord will give us the opportunity to sacrifice, in a much greater way, by asking us to do, or to quit doing, certain things where the cost of obedience is much higher.

 

Once again, we have the opportunity to exit our comfort zone, or personal preference, and do the will of Jesus Christ, instead of our own. So once again, we have the opportunity to be obedient, or to say, “I love you Jesus, but not that much.”  The more we say, “I love you Jesus, but not that much,” the more likely that we will lose protection, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and allow our spiritual growth to be stopped or limited.

 

King David once said, when he was being offered a gift to be used as a sacrifice for God, “Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” 2^nd Samuel 24:24

 

So I encourage you, my brothers and sisters,  to seek the Lord Jesus Christ often, whether you consider yourself a young Christian or a maturing Christian. I encourage you to seek the Lord concerning all of your goals, desires and issues.   I encourage you to submit your self-life to Jesus in actuality, rather than just saying, “Jesus is Lord,” but then making yourself lord of your life rather than Jesus. I encourage you to boldly step up to the plate when Jesus asks you to move out of your comfort zone. Avoid the temptation of saying, “I love you Jesus, but not that much.”  Flee the trap of selfishly exclaiming, “I love you Jesus, but not that much,” and then making yourself the captain of your life, rather than Jesus. Instead, make it your goal to selflessly follow Jesus, as both your Savior, and Master.

 

Are you willing to pay the price? Are you willing, like King David, to say, “I will not offer up to the Lord that which costs me nothing?” Or will you say, “I love you Jesus, but not that much?”

 

Blogged on 10/15/2015, Edited book version blogged on 11/15/2016

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