Want to bet?

      I’m a fan of the James Bond Movies. I’m even a fan of the Roger Moore years.  The purest among you will say that has been only one James Bond, that being Sean Connery, though Daniel Craig the newest Bond to hit the screen would be my choice. (Or at least my second choice right behind Sean Connery)

     In the beginning of the Bond movies there was only one enemy to contend with,” Specter”.     These were the franchise of super villains like Goldfinger. Goldfinger was the only man in history to be able to menace 007 while stroking a cat while delivering lines like “No Mr. Bond I expect you to die!”  That Man was a Death ray away from being the super villain of the century.

     Invariably, sometime during the movie, Bond would find himself arriving at a Casino, his game of choice Baccarat. I always thought that the game of Baccarat looked like a combination of Black Jack and Poker. (In the last Bond flick they were playing Texas Hold-em)  Bond would play until he was face to face across the table from the Bad guy. The game would progress until the very last hand  where Bond would push all of his chips into the center of the table declaring, ”All In” to the gasps of the onlookers.   

     Jesus in Luke 14:25-27 sets out the conditions for becoming his Disciple. He says “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  I don’t know about you but that seems pretty harsh. I have to hate my family? I even have to hate myself?

     Jesus is asking us to bet it all. There cannot be anything that we have that is more important to us than he is. Not our families, not our Jobs, not anything. When we come to Christ it is an all or none proposition. He wants us to go “All In” not leaving anything off the table.  Anything that we leave out can come back to haunt us later keeping us from fully following Christ.

     The disciples left home and family. Some left in the middle of work, leaving their nets and boats behind. Others left lucrative businesses behind. All of them bet everything that they had to follow Jesus. When it came to my turn, I told him that I would follow; anywhere, anytime, and at any cost. But now the time has come for you to decide what you are willing to give up, what it is worth to you to follow Jesus. It’s time for you to decide, if you are going to go “all in” or Fold. Whether you are going to follow or fall away.