"Suppose one of you wants to build
a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough
money to complete it? Luke
14:28
Law in his terrible,
cool, voice, said, .... "If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it
will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead." Those
are hard words to take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women
or patriotism, cocaine or art, whisky or a seat in the Cabinet, money or
science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end
for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it
matter to a man dying in a desert by which choice of route he missed the only
well?
It is a remarkable
fact that on this subject Heaven and Hell speak with one voice. The tempter
tells me, "Take care. Think how much this good resolve, the acceptance of
this Grace, is going to cost." But Our Lord equally tells us to count the
cost. Even in human affairs great importance is attached to the agreement of
those whose testimony hardly ever agrees. Here, more. Between them it would
seem to be pretty clear that paddling [near the shore] is of little consequence.
What matters, what Heaven desires and Hell fears, is precisely that further
step, out of our depth, out of our own control.
—from "A Slip of the Tongue" (The Weight of
Glory
"Now
fear the LORD and serve him with
all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the
River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
But if serving the LORD
seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household,
we will serve the LORD." Joshua
24:14-15
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