Someone I could live for.

My wife Ruth has been off work sick for a month now as a result of being pregnant (it hasn’t been an easy by any means) which has meant that I have been driving into work on my own. One of the plus sides to this is that I get to listen to music at some wonderfully unsociable volume. A CD that I have been listening to is one that friends once bought me, and I am glad they did; ‘Revolution’ by YFriday.
Over the past few days I have been finding the chorus to one of their songs, ‘Someone I could live for’, particularly poignant.

You are someone I could live for
You are someone I could die for
You are someone I could live for, You.

This echoes Jesus’ [uncomfortably] challenging description of discipleship:
“And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me.” Matt 10: 38 (Amp)
Is this what you would say if someone asked you what it was to be a Christian? Of course not; Jesus can sometimes be the greatest liability of the Christian church! (I’m being deliberately absurd of course :o) But if we are honest we want the security of salvation with out the cost of discipleship. That is not how Christianity works though; it is not something that saves our lives, it costs our lives!

"Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut — make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law — cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me.
"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.” Matt 10: 34-39 (Msg)

Is Christ worth living for?

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” Rom 12:1-2 (NLT)

YES HE IS!!!!!