Bullets for the Battle

The Bullet of Real Life: Dried Bones or Juice Steaks

One of the biggest misunderstanding most “non-church” folks have about Christianity is that being a serious follower of Christ involves “giving up” something worthwhile. Nothing could be further from the truth! This is like saying I gave up being alone to fall in love, or I gave up my prison cell for the freedom of 40 acres, or better still, I gave up my ignorance for wisdom! (Remember, ignorance is bliss only if you remain ignorant!) The worth of Jesus Christ is so fantastic that nothing is worth keeping if it cheats us out of having Him! A man is a fool if he keeps something cheap when it could easily be replaced by something of superior value and quality!

I like to illustrate this truth by what I call the “Meat Bone” Philosophy. Let’s say a hungry, stray dog walks by you carrying an old dried-up chicken bone in his mouth. You reach down and try to take the bone! What happens? He growls, runs or perhaps even tries to bite you. No stranger is going to get “his bone.” But what if you had dropped a large piece of steak, cooked to medium rare, in front of him? Why, there’s not a dog in Dogland that wouldn’t drop his bone and grab the steak. In essence, that’s what the Gospel is all about. Why gnaw on bones of human limitation when you could just as easily eat the steak of God’s fulfillment?