What Will You Give Me?

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Good morning Friend, how are you doing? I trust you had a great week. I also do hope you have found Divine Perspective helpful in your Christian walk of Faith. Perspectives determine everything! Without the right perspective, we could never prioritize anything and without priorities, we could never plan talk more of execute anything. The most important things in your life are not things. The most important things in your life right now are your relationship with God, your fellowship with Him and your service to Him. None of these are possible without your communion with the saints. Anything you claim to be to God must be proven by that same token towards men. Many people say they are only accountable to God and not to men, they are liars. Many say they love God but if they do not love the men He died for, then they lie. Many say they are only led by the Holy Spirit and they listen to no sound counsel from anyone, the truth is they have never even heard God before. Submitting to men will open you up to a very intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, albeit the right men. If you do not submit to someone you see, how can you follow the leadership of someone you do not even see.

Hebrews 13:17 (KJV) Obey those who have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they keep watch over your souls as ones who must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.

Today, we will be considering a question I consider to be one of the most important questions ever asked in the pages of the Bible. It is a question of bargain and negotiation. It is the only valid question in the market place. Whether it is implied or explicit, that question rules the places of exchange in this world. Whether you know it or not, you have an answer to this question in your heart and this answer drives every other thing you do and it creates the thresholds of your Christian loyalty . We will NEVER be able to draw a line until we face ourselves in the mirror and ask; WHAT CAN ANYONE GIVE ME FOR JESUS? This was the question Judas asked the Pharisees that connived to kill Jesus.

Matthew 26:15 (KJV) And said unto them, “What will ye give me if I will deliver Him unto you?” And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

He went by himself to the congregation of devils and asked this very powerful question; what will you give me if I deliver him into your hands? 30 pieces of silver was a lot of money back then, equivalent to approximately $15,000 in today’s worth. To Judas, a $15,000 lure was enough to give up Jesus for. Now yeah, Judas is the black sheep of the 12 disciples and the universal symbol for betrayal and disloyalty, but today’s post is not about Judas. It is about you and me. How much is Jesus worth to you? How much money can someone bring to you, to break the backbone of your commitment to Jesus? Does the Jesus you claim to serve have a price? At your work place, does your Christianity have seasonality? Are there some critical moral questions that if you’re asked will be answered with “it depends on the money involved?” Come to think of it, how much could Jesus be worth? If you sold the universe, weighed the value in a balance, then multiplied the value by a trillion, when you’re done with all your valuation exercise, all that worth compared to Jesus would still end up in a thimble. You don’t even want to go there! To put a worth on Jesus is to say He is worthless… and how far from the truth that is. If the Jesus you serve has no price worth bending for, then this is the way you ought to be talking.

Phil 3:7-8 (KJV) But what things were gain to me, those I counted as loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but dung, that I may win Christ

Acts 4:19-20 (KJV) But Peter and John answered and said unto them, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye; 20 for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Daniel 3:16-18 (KJV) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not fear to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Not many people love to listen to messages or read articles that speak to the integrity of their souls or the morality of their conscience, but this is where every apostle, patriarch or matyr that ever did valiantly lived. They lived in a zone of absolute commitment to that one who was absolutely committed to them. History has it that many believers have gone through their death experiences singing and smiling, beaming with joy while they were being burnt alive on a stake in an amphi theatre. That is the strength that Jesus supplies, even death cannot overpower it. Hey, we are not talking about the commitment that is based on the hope that Jesus will save you from the consequence of your allegiance to Him, but that which believes in a superior life beyond this terrestrial one; the one Stephen saw and chose to be with the Lord than to stay one more day on this earth; that one that speaks with reckless abandon and unreserved apology to the powers that be. The one the Hebrew boys spoke with and defied death to its face. We fear poverty, death and destruction more than we fear God and that is why we cave in when we are asked to choose between God and any of them. Death has lost its hold over you, poverty is nonexistent in your DNA and destruction has finally passed over you. You have no reason to fear or bargain for your safety or financial security with the precious blood of Jesus. There is nothing any man can give you that should be enough to give up Jesus for. NOTHING! Not even a promise to spare your life.

So evaluate yourself. Bible says we must judge ourselves so that we be not judged along with the rest of the world and while you’re at it, you may start with this question; What can anyone give me in exchange for MY Jesus? Have a remarkable week ahead.