Does Jesus need a PR guy?

Here's a neat, unedited post from my pastor's daily encouragement email entitled "Morning Glories," I thought I'd share. It shows what a great pastor I have at Church of the Lakes...

"Then He [Jesus] called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." -Mark 8:34

You know, if you were trying to come up with a new religion that would be a sure-fired success, you might go to a Public Relations firm and seek advice from them as to what this new religion should offer and what its expectations should be. A good P.R. expert might say things like, "Well, make sure that you offer all kinds of "feel good" talk and "no-guilt" messages. Never mention the need to repent or deal with sin or selfishness or anything like that. Keep it simple and easy and pleasant and just tell the people, 'If it feels good, go ahead and do it.'" Seems like that might work, what do you think? Obviously, Jesus never visited a P.R. guy and yet Christianity is the largest religion in the world today.

More than 1/3 of the population of the planet are Christians, at least in name. And did Jesus make it easy to be a Christian? Nope. In fact, He set the bar higher than anyone had ever done before. He didn't offer a "feel good" religion at all; He said that if a person were to be a true follower of His, they would need to "die to self daily" and allow Jesus to be in control. Tell me that doesn't go contrary to what many people want!

Why did Jesus tell us that "self-denial" and "Christ-acceptance" would be, of necessity, the hallmarks of being His followers? Because, out of all the created things in the entire universe, the only things that aren't working to Swiss clocklike perfection are human lives. People are out of control, because they want to be in control. Does that make sense? Here's the reality of the situation: we are born with the ability to make choices. We can choose this or that, right or wrong, us or God. We can choose to do our own thing and go our own way. We can choose to reject God's Word and rebel against God's law. We can choose to live a very selfish life. And God will let us do those things, because He gave us free will. We will, however, pay a pretty hefty price for our self-directed choices. In time, we will discover that life doesn't work when we're in charge. We are too ignorant, too silly, too sinful and too blind to make it work. We stumble, we falter, we hurt others and we embarrass ourselves. At some point, hopefully, we realize that our desire to control our own life is a bad desire and a stupid decision. We begin to long for someone smarter, wiser, stronger and more righteous than we are, to take over. And hopefully, someone tells us that that is just exactly what Jesus wants to do for us!

Even then, after we've made a mess of our lives, and even when we've heard about Jesus, we still wrestle with our own thoughts and desires. We're not at all sure that we can trust this Jesus. But, and I encourage you to reread the Gospels, Jesus has never tricked or messed over anyone. He said Himself, "I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullest." (John 10:10)

So, even at the moment when we are convinced that we need to yield to Him, there may still be doubt and unbelief. Get past it! Read the Gospels. Talk to your pastor. Pray! Then, having counted the cost, give up your control and let Jesus take control. It will positively amaze you what Jesus can do with a surrendered will. Let me summarize it like this: When Jesus is in control, life works! And life only works when Jesus is in control. Trust Him, and then sing the hymn "I Surrender All."

This is Pastor Bruce