³⁵ “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. (Luke 12:35-37, NIV)

Somehow we like to communicate what Jesus can do for us… and then proceed to let people know everything will be okay.

There is a slight problem with that… Jesus didn’t do it. He let them know the power of the Kingdom… and the cost of the Kingdom. To those who reject the Kingdom, there is a severe cost. Yet, no matter what, you don’t take the Kingdom of God lightly. YES, Christ treasures you… and YES, Christ wants everyone in his Kingdom…

And, YES, he talks about those who reject that Kingdom… and the cost.

Dallas Willard, one of my favorite teachers on spiritual formation, speaks constantly about the need to tell people the cost TO following Jesus and the cost to NOT following Jesus. The choice is ours. Let’s just quit hiding things from people. Jesus was not afraid to lay it all out.