Why I Started This Blog



"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ" - Philippians 3:8

This blog will serve as a collection of devotions for encouraging believers around the world to follow Christ Jesus, no matter what the cost.  Having a relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important necessity for any human being on the planet.  All men and women enter this fallen world as sinful individuals, who are spiritually dead and alienated from God (Colossians 1:21).  The Bible makes it clear that there can be no forgiveness of sins, without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22).

There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).  God has declared through his word, that we are forgiven of our sins, and justified before God by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (John 3:18, Romans 4:4-5, Romans 4:23-25, Galatians 2:16).  If you have received this gift of grace from God to believe; being born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit, you are a child of God (John 3:3, Titus 3:5-7).

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole wold, and loses his own soul?" - Matthew 16:24-26

The life of a Christian is difficult!  Make no mistake, it is a joyful thing to live for God, and as his Children, we will have joy in him.  However, this is the joy of a resurrected Christ, the joy of living for the Eternal God and serving Jesus, and the joyful hope of one day being with Jesus.  In this life, we will endure suffering, we will face many trials, and we are promised to have tribulation until our time on earth is over.  Jesus did not save us to live for ourselves, but to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18, John 17:3); we are alive with Christ and he is our life (Colossians 3:3-4).

This is a great truth revealing the amazing work that God has done; we are a new creation in Christ, and, being complete in him, we can give Glory to God with our lives by following Jesus and being conformed to him.  We have been made alive with Christ, to walk in a new way (Romans 6:4).  Every follower of Christ must carry their own cross.  Jesus exhorts those who desire to follow him to consider what it means to be his disciple.  They must count the cost (Luke 14:26-33), and choose whether they can and will follow him.  Jesus is not saying that we earn our salvation by our suffering and service to him, but he is making it clear what it will take to follow him.  Many upon hearing this, sadly, will turn away.  On Matthew 16:24-26, Charles Spurgeon had this to say:

"This is the law of self-sacrifice, based on the sacrifice of Christ, and leading up to the complete sacrifice of the redeemed. We are not our own; we are bought with a price. To try to keep ourselves to ourselves, would be acting contrary to the whole spirit of the redemption which Christ has wrought for us; and that is the last thing that any Christian should think of doing."



I do not believe most people, including myself, really understood the full cost of following Jesus until we actually began the journey.  Some believers will lose their jobs, others may lose close friends or family members, some may suffer financial burdens, and others may actually lose their lives.  However, it is the daily cross-bearing that is often overlooked and ignored.  No matter who you are, if you are in Christ, there is a cross in it for you.  And that brings me to the purpose of this blog.

The Apostle Paul, along with many other men and women, came to realize that the excellence of Jesus Christ was supremely better than anything else in life.  Anything that he already lost, or was still yet to lose for Christ's sake, he considered rubbish and gladly suffered the loss of all things that he might have Jesus instead.  This is the heart of a Christian, and my prayer is to encourage believers to follow Christ, no matter the cost because he is worthy.

Realizing what we have in Christ, our union with him, and the promise of God to keep us (1 Peter 1:5), we have nothing to hold back.  Without God, this will merely be a collection of words, but by His Grace, I pray that my journal entries, devotions, and articles will be used to stir up the brethren to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, no matter the cost.

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