It Could Cost You Your Life

It could cost you your life…

As my teachers talk in class at New Tribes Bible Institute and I think through what I’m learning, this is what I keep coming back to; the realization that if I continue to pursue overseas missions that I could be giving up everything I have ever had. I’m not just talking about the promising and prosperous life in the States that many friends and family seem so sure I’m guaranteed to have if I stay here. I could be giving up the very breath that I breathe. People can, and do, die on the mission field, and I can’t just say something along the lines of, “Oh, that can’t happen to me”, because it could happen to me, as it could to any other missionary on the field. Trying to reach people who have never heard the Gospel of Christ could easily cost me my life.

Ant the more I’ve thought through this, the more I’ve come to realize that I am okay with it costing me my life. Why? Because it already has.

My life is immaterial, nothing more than a breath in eternity. Yet Christ came down from His perfect heaven and died for mere breaths; sinners like me who deserved eternal hell. He took our punishment upon Himself while we rejected Him, and to accept that gift of salvation, all we have to do is believe in Him and what He did for us.

I’ve come to the realization that I want to please the God who did that for all of us. I know that that won’t make a difference in being saved; my works are not what cause my salvation. I’m grateful for the work that He has already completed, and as a follower of Christ I want to live for Him. And if I truly follow in His footsteps, that means I die with Him.

The thing about that is this; I have died with Him. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

This is why I have come to be okay with the idea of losing my life for this. I no longer belong to myself, I belong to Christ, and nothing better could happen to me. God opened up my eyes to what is Real, and what is Real is Him. I find my identity in Him, and He died for me. Therefore, I will live for Him.

I’m not perfect, nor do I show Christ perfectly. I am still human and still struggle with sin. However, He continues to grow in me and though I know I will never be perfected as long as I live in this human body, He is faithful, as He always has been.

He knows what He has planned for me. That doesn’t mean His plans are going to be easy or simple. That doesn’t mean I won’t get sick or always be safe. What it does mean is that I can rest in Him and His faithfulness. I can rest in the fact that here I serve Him and when I die, I will be with Him.

And that’s something else- I’m going to die someday anyway. It’s a fact of life; no one makes it out alive. So why shouldn’t I spend my life sharing the only thing in this life that has kept me alive. I attempted suicide once, and it is by His grace that I’m here. If it wasn’t for God and what He’s taught me, I have no doubt that I would have tried again. He has given me joy that has stopped me from a second attempt and He reminds me that, though in myself I have not worth, because of the gift of His Son, I have infinite worth. Because He gave me the gift of life, both spiritually and physically, my life is forfeit to His will. I have no qualms about sharing His gift with those who have never heard and have no chance to hear unless someone brings His Word to them.

The best part is that He has given me new life, and it’s His. So yeah, it will cost me my life, and it already has.