Dying for Christ is easy . . .

I have often wondered what would happen if someone put a gun to my head and asked me if I was a believer in Christ, knowing that if I answered, "Yes" he would pull the trigger and my life would be over.

Never having been in that situation, I really don't know what I would do.  I would most likely say, "Yes,"- not because I'm particularly brave or because I have a death wish.  I would say "Yes" because I think it would be the easier of the two options.

I truly think dying for Christ is easier than living for Christ.

To die for Christ in that situation would be a very quick thing.  You say "Yes" and you're dead.  End of story.  However, to LIVE for Christ takes a lifetime.  It takes daily surrender, daily spiritual discipline, daily study, daily battle with Satan, daily battle with discouragement, persecution, temptation, and falling away.

I'm probably more scared of going broke financially than I am of dying.  I think that doing what Jesus said in Luke 14:26-33, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. . . .
In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples," is harder than dying.  

Jesus is saying that the bare minimum requirement of being His disciple is to give up everything you have.  I think I'd rather die.  Seriously.  I truly think that I would rather take a bullet for Christ than give up everything I have.

See, if I were to take a bullet for Christ, my funeral would be grand.  I would be honored as a martyr- people would stand in line at the funeral to tell about what a soldier for Christ I was, how brave I was, how amazing my witness for Christ was.  I would go down in history as a hero.

However, if I were (as an American Christian) to sell everything I have, including my home, and give to the poor as Jesus instructed in Mark 10, I would be regarded as odd.  Strange.  "Extreme."  

I would have to suffer the daily privations that would go along with having nothing.  I would have to depend on God for daily food.  I would take no vacations, have no retirement, no luxuries.  I wouldn't know who won American Idol.  I wouldn't be able to take pictures of my kids and post them on Facebook.  I would have to endure and persevere and press on day after day, month after month, year after year.

That, I believe, is more difficult than dying for Christ.  And yet, most of us WON'T die for Christ.  Most of us will never have that opportunity.  So, we are stuck with the hard, impossible task of daily living for Christ.

But someone says, "Dave, you really aren't giving up anything that matters.  You gain the sweet fellowship with Jesus, the daily encouragement of the Holy Spirit, and you will see the amazing blessings in living the life of faith you just described."

I agree.  In living for Christ, we really don't give up anything that matters.  None of the things that I just named matter in the context of eternity.  Plus, there are blessings in living for Christ- fellowship, worship, family, watching the Spirit move through you to make an eternal difference in peoples' lives, etc.

I think this is why the apostle Paul said, "I am torn- I long to depart and be with Christ, which is much better, but it is necessary that I remain here for you."  

Given a choice between dying for Christ (in an instant) and living for Him over the course of a lifetime, which one would you choose?  Which one do you think is easier?