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Here, from one of Yahweh’s ministers just returned from a nationwide baptizing tour this summer, is a pointed lesson each member of the Body of Messiah needs to learn.

      “As the result of your repentance of your sins, and your acceptance of Yahshua Messiah as your personal Savior from your sins, I now baptize you into the family name of Yahweh, and Yahshua Messiah for the remission of your sins. Amen.”

      This summer hundreds of new brethren heard these words shortly before they were plunged into the symbolic watery grave. Seconds later they were raised from this “grave” and helped to the shore of the river, lake, or stream and they then received Yahweh’s Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands by an ordained elder of Yahweh. Tears were streaming down the faces of many as we welcomed them as brethren into the Congregation of Yahweh.

      Does this sound familiar, brethren? It certainly should to every baptized member of Yahweh’s Congregation. No doubt you can easily recall the time and place of your baptism, the names of those who performed your baptism, and can still hear those words.

Counting the Cost

But you will also remember, brethren, that the actual baptism is only the final outcome of long hours of counseling. All of these new brethren were first challenged to count the cost! They were told in plain words that this life as a disciple of Yahshua is not easy! They were soberly warned of the very real danger of “falling away” and the unpardonable sin. Doctrines such as tithing, the Holy Days, Yahweh’s way of divine healing, the truth about divorce and remarriage and many others were thoroughly explained.

On the average over fifty percent found they were simply not ready – or in many cases not willing – to be baptized. Finally, those who were ready were taken to a suitable place where the baptism was performed. In the course of the counseling many learned for the first time what it really means to count the cost. They learned it the same way you learned it – the same way the followers of Yahshua Messiah learned it nearly 2,000 years ago.

Luke Fourteen

In the fourteenth chapter of the book of Luke, Messiah makes plain the cost every person must pay if he wants to be His disciple or follower. In verses 15 through 24 He shows how Yahweh looks at those who “make excuse” (verse 18). Notice that Yahweh calls them just that – excuses, not reasons!

How many excuses we hear on a baptizing tour! Most fall into one of the three categories listed here – property (verse 18), job (verse 19), or family (verse 20). But once in a while someone will come up with a real lame, even humorous excuse, like the man who didn’t think he could quit chewing tobacco because if he did his teeth would all fall out! He gave this same excuse last year!

How does the Almighty Elohim view such carnal-minded reasoning? Notice verse 21, “So that servant came, and showed his Master these things. Then the Master of the house [Yahweh] being ANGRY.” Yahweh is not persuaded by these weak excuses, and neither are His servants! Yahweh is angry when a man puts anything – from foul tobacco in any form, to his own wife – higher than Yahweh and His priceless calling to eternal life! Yet how many people do put cigarettes or chewing tobacco ahead of  Yahweh the Father and His Son Yahshua Messiah! And how many husbands put the opinion of their wives ahead of baptism, the forgiveness of sins, and Yahweh’s Spirit!

How many cannot be baptized and receive eternal life because they refuse to stop working on the Sabbath and seeking their own pleasure on Yahweh’s Holy day.

Human nature was no different in Messiah’s day. That is why He turned to the crowds of people that followed Him and said, “If any man come to me, and hate not” – that is, love not less by comparison (see Mat 10:37) – “his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

Have YOU as a member of the Congregation of the Living Elohim really come to understand that verse? Of course, almost any professing Christian would claim that he or she loved Messiah more than any living human being – but would his works confirm this (Tit 1:16)? How about when there is a conflict between what someone else says and what Yahweh says? Take Yahweh’s Sabbath commandment, for example. Hundreds had to face this test this summer. When your boss or employer, the man who gives you your check every Friday, says you must work until five o’clock on Friday but the Sabbath begins in the winter at four forty-five – who comes first?

When your teenage son works in a gas station on the Sabbath, or your daughter is a cheerleader  and  goes  to the basketball games Friday nights, but Yahweh says in Exodus 20:10 that  your son and your daughter living  in  your home must also  keep  the  Sabbath  – then who comes first? Or when an unconverted mate insists on your going to the show or doing the shopping on the Sabbath – again, who comes first? Yahweh? Or man?

Many – over half of those counseled – were unable or unwilling to meet these and similar challenges. But Yahweh’s Word is plain! “We ought to obey Elohim rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). And again, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” (Isa 2:22). Can any man give you eternal life? No! Then why put man before Yahweh who alone can give this gift (Rom 6:23)? This also breaks the First Commandment by setting up man as an idol before the True Elohim. This is why Messiah said we must love men less than Yahweh.

Your Own Life Also

But even when you have succeeded in putting every other person on earth below Yahweh, you are still not through by any means! Hardest of  all  for  any man is, “his own life also.” The first thought is that Messiah meant we must be ready to die for Him. And this is true – but how? Are most disciples at  this time called upon to face a firing squad or some other life or death situation shortly after baptism? No, in fact very few have “resisted unto blood” for their beliefs; none have been stoned, shot, or tortured to death. Then how do we love less our own lives? We must do so in many LIVING ways!

Discipleship is a way of life, and it is very different from the way of life each of us has lived in the past. It is far different from the way of life – the day- in, day-out manner of living – of the average farmer, businessman, housewife, schoolteacher, truck driver, doctor, lawyer, soldier, nurse, secretary. Think of all the ways the disciple way of life conflicts! There are smoking, make- up, tithing, divine healing, clean and unclean meats, the truth about divorce and remarriage, the Sabbath and Holy Days, and a host of other differences. The average man or woman has to choose which way of life he or she lives most (Deut 30:19).

So Yahweh sets before us this choice between His way of life governed by His divine laws and our own lawless way of life, and commands us to choose His way – LIFE! And what is the reaction of so many people? Do they greet this as a wonderful salvation and deliverance from their own miserable ways? Yes, some few do. But how many did we hear this summer who bemoaned their plight and cried, “Oh, it’s so hard!” Or, as many phrased it, “That won’t be easy!”

Granted, Yahweh’s way is not an easy way! Yahshua Messiah did not promise us an easy, downhill battle all the way! Rather He promised us persecutions, trials, and tests. He said that there is a broad, easy way that many would take to destruction; but that the way to eternal life is straight and narrow – that is, rough, rugged and difficult is the road to eternal life. (Read Mat 7:13-14 and Luke 13:24!)

And Messiah made this same point very clear here in the context of Luke 14. Notice verse 27, “And whosoever doth not bear his stake, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” We must bear our stake just as Messiah bore His! His was not easy to bear either! Yet He willingly and gladly did so for us – and that, brethren, is one of the most vital keys.

Are You Willing?

One of the greatest lessons of all gained from our tour  and  observed  in the lives of  literally  hundreds  of  people is summed up in one verse – John 7:17. Here Messiah stated plainly, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of Elohim, or whether I speak of myself.” Or, as most modern  translations  render  this  verse, “If any man is willing to do His will, he will know the doctrine.”

One man we counseled, when confronted with Yahweh’s Holy Days and the tithe, replied, “Oh, those were all done away!” Why? Because he had proved that point? No, never! But because he was not willing to go to the Feasts or save the tithe. And this was the deciding factor in so many counseling’s. It wasn’t just how much the person knew – many know the Truth – but how much were they willing to do? That was the question.

Some people we met had faithfully put into practice all they had learned as they learned it. These were ready for baptism in almost every case. Others had long since known more than they were willing to do. The amount of knowledge was usually not the important thing. Faithful doers of the Word could be trusted to put new Truth into practice. Faithless hearers of the Word could not.

It was always a joy to counsel with and baptize the active doers of the Word. But it was painful to see people compromising with Yahweh’s Truth and excusing themselves in their sins. Their lives were always full of such curses – and all of their own making. They still hadn’t learned the most basic lesson of the Bible – disobedience results in curses and death, but obedience yields happy, joyful blessings and life!

How About You?

Finally, in Luke 14:28-30 Messiah said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sits not down first, and COUNTETH THE COST,  whether  he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish’.” The point is, brethren, you have laid the foundation which is repentance from dead works, faith toward Elohim, baptism, and the laying on of  hands (Heb 6:1-2). You have chosen Yahweh’s way of life, and in baptism you have already promised Yahweh you would faithfully perform all the things mentioned in this fourteenth chapter of Luke.

But how about it? Are you fulfilling your covenant promise?? Do you still offer up excuses in place of  obedience? Do you ever allow any other human being to come before Yahweh and His laws – even as  close as husband, wife, or children? Are you really laying down your own life daily so that you can say with the Apostle Paul, “I am crucified with Messiah; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Messiah lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of Elohim,  who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20)?

Or does your old way of life still conflict with Yahweh’s? “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Yahshua Messiah were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death [the death of the old man]; that like as Messiah was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

“Knowing this, that our old man [with his old way of life] is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin!” (Rom 6:3-4,6).

Finally, brethren, are you still an active, faithful DOER of the Word? Or just a passive, indifferent, faithless hearer? Why don’t you check up and examine yourself (2nd Cor 13:5) by rereading your CONTRACT WITH YAHWEH in Luke 14? You need to know whether or not you are still counting the cost!