The Cost To Follow Jesus

Dani, our next door neighbor and a new believer had promised to give her testimony at our next monthly get together, yet three times in a row our "Encuentro" was cancelled because of rain. She told Kelly that God was giving her a few more weeks with her friends before she would loose them all, because of her public stand for Christ.

I asked Dalmiro another new believer if he was afraid of that people would think if he got baptised. He answered and said, "If I was afraid of what people thought, believe me, we would not be having this Bible study at my house!"

Nati, Dalmiro's wife said she was more afraid of what God would think, than what people thought.

I constantly under estimate two things down here in Paraguay. One: how much it is costing these people to truly follow after Jesus. And Two: How the Holy Spirit can so empower people to live for Christ when they know persecution awaits them.

Thought The Fool

Is it better be thought a fool or to be accused of being unfriendly? Many times out here in the rural areas, people come to ask for help or to sell something in order to get a little cash. One particular day a man came wanting to sell some pork from a pig that he was going to be killing the next day. I told him that I would like a certain cut of meat that runs along the spine of the hog. He said he would sell that to me and I waited for the meat to come the next day.

When he brought the meat, it wasn't meat at all, but just the backbone with a few dangling pieces of meat. This wasn't what I asked for. He also charged me for a prime cut of meat rather than for soup bones. What should my reaction be?

I could have demanded my rights and told the man that he was not being fair with me, but I did not. Such a reaction would have been justified, but also looked upon as very unfriendly. The man would probably have told his friends about the transaction and in the telling of the story my character would be described more strongly as angry and hard to get along with.

As it stands now, I just seem foolish in the eyes of this man, and as he recounts the story to his friends, my character will be described as naive and easy to be taken advantage of. Now, I do not relish this second stereotype, it does however, leave the door open to talk with this man and his friends in the future.

One of the hardest things for me to lay aside as a Christian are what I perceive are my personal rights, yet this is what I see the "God become man" doing all the time. It is not about my reputation it is about His. And He was accustomed to being thought the fool.

To be sure, unless the Lord directly shows me differently, I will not be buying things from this man in the future, but I do hope to have a
continued relationship with him.