Are you crazy? Are you out of your ever-lovin mind? Are you telling me your entire life revolves around living for Jesus?! So you were “born-again” and now you have committed yourself to actually serve Jesus as Lord of your life?! And you have chosen to be in a relationship with Him that dominates and permeates all other relationships?! It looks like you love Jesus more than anything in this world! You must have a screw loose! I think you’re crazy! Can’t you just be normal like everyone else and just ‘believe’ in Jesus, pray at mealtime, and go to church once in a while? Why do you have to be so over the top in this Christianity thing? Read II Cor. 5:14-17; Romans 6:1-4 and Luke 14:25-35 and listen to Crazy by MercyMe and then GO CRAZY!
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Romans 6:1-4
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Luke 14:25-35
The Cost of Being a Disciple
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “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. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”