Counting the Cost

In Luke 14:25-33, two parables and an exhortation urge us to forsake all that we have as a mandatory condition for becoming Christ's true disciples.

Bill Onisick, reflecting on grandiose, prideful building projects that have terminated because of cost overruns, cautions us to carefully count the cost of our spiritual building project. We are God's building, God's field, and fellow laborers with God on . . .

We assess costs and values all the time in our daily lives. We should employ the same process to God's love for us in giving His Son as the sacrifice for sin.

Some years back, I had the opportunity to drive through southern Illinois several times. ...

Christianity is not for the faint of heart. As we have seen, Jesus urges us to "count the cost" of discipleship to see if we have what it takes, and many of the patriarchs had to choose between God and family ...

Mike Ford, asking us to thoughtfully calculate the cost of our discipleship, warns us about the perils of looking, using the metaphor of plowing a furrow with a plow behind an animal. Looking back is dangerous because we may plow a crooked furrow and get h. . .

John Ritenbaugh, acknowledging that most professing Christians are aware of the New Covenant, cautions us not to fall prey to the insidious error that much of the Protestant—especially the evangelical—world teaches. The error lies in misconstru. . .

Clyde Finklea, referring to a book by billionaire J. Paul Getty, How To Be Rich, which discusses being a rich person (that is, living as one) rather than becoming a rich person, asks the question, "How can God's People Be Christian?" Christ, at L. . .

God has provided the God-plane marriage relationship to teach us how to submit to one another, sacrificing our self-centeredness for the benefit of our spouse.

There must be something to prove we are one with Christ and in union with the Father and the Son. That something is the manner in which we conduct our life.

Although God never intended the Old Covenant to endure eternally, the spiritual law (shared by both the old and new covenants) lasts forever.

Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on the exploration of Lewis and Clark, asks whether we would have what it takes to help in the exploration, such as having health, strength, courage, motivation, observant, patient, and enduring hardships. Our trek to the Kin. . .

Richard Ritenbaugh, beginning a series on "Principled Living," focuses on the aspect of drafting (a racing term describing a lead vehicle "punching a hole in the air," enabling trailing vehicles to increase speed, pulling ahead of the p. . .

John Ritenbaugh contends that those who believe in the "once saved always saved" doctrine foolishly fail to see that God has a more extensive and creative plan for mankind than merely saving them. One can fail to bring forth fruits of repentance . . .

John Ritenbaugh explores several nuances of the term grace, describing a generous, thoughtful action of God, accompanied by love, which accomplishes His will, equipping us with everything we will need to be transformed into the Bride. Even though we, like . . .

Like the marriage covenant, counting the cost is the most serious part of the baptismal agreement, not something to be taken lightly.

John Ritenbaugh admonishes the greater church of God that we make a conscious effort to feed the flock (devoting more effort, time, energy, and money than for preaching the Gospel as a witness for the world) until we get ourselves straightened out first. T. . .

Far from being blind, faith is based on analyzing, comparing, adding up from evidence in God's Word, our own experience, and our calling by God's Holy Spirit.