I’m guessing that I have photographed more weddings over the years than what I have officiated. Yes, for those who may not know, I use to pastor a church and have presided over ‘tying the knot’ for a good number of couples out there. And one of the customary steps I always tried to get done with any couple who came and asked me to officiate their wedding was to sit down with them for a few weeks to meet in what is commonly known as pre-marital counseling.

I usually would experience at the start of each session, a sense of overwhelming inadequacy as I looked into the eyes of these (usually) young lovebirds who I told them up front that they were about to commit what I called a ‘VUI’ (vowing under the influence). They were going to stand before God, family, and friends and make the most outlandish promises to each other that they could have no way of fully understanding or appreciating given their current state of love and infatuation. Of course they would vow to love and stick with each other through sickness and health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse until death parts them. Yeah...right!

How does anyone ever fully prepare a young couple to embark on such a life journey. What could I possibly tell them up front that would fully equip them for what lie ahead; but we’d still go through the lessons I had prepared and you just pray and hope for the best, hoping somewhere along the way that they’ll figure it out. Not everyone does, as you know.

I only share this after reading in Genesis 15 this past week where God was getting ready to make a covenant with Abram, which you can be sure...was no small thing. I had to chuckle because at the time this was taking place between the two, Abram was childless, and God starts talking to him about all that he’s going to do for Abram and his descendants, covering the next 400+ years (2-5,13-21). I can’t help but to think Abram’s eyes must have glassed over and he probably had so many questions, questions like ‘what on earth is God talking about here?’. Nonetheless, you know the story and all that God said and promised... came to be.

Those of us who have grown up in a Western culture are probably handicapped to some degree when it comes to fully understanding and appreciating what it means to make or ‘cut’ a covenant with someone, let alone make one with God Himself. But a marriage covenant is the closest thing most of us can identify with, and that will work for now, lesson-wise. Yet again, I make the case that few of us can fully appreciate what we are ‘signing on for’ when we do enter such a covenant...’soberly, advisedly, reverently and in the fear of God’.

I would also make the case that few, if not most of us truly knew what we were signing on for when we ‘came to the Lord’ at the start of our walk of faith, when we ‘gave our heart to Jesus’. Thanks to our American way of streamlining to make things easier for all involved, we Christians can easily follow suit as we try to ‘grow churches’ ... so we can go out and change the world. You can’t do that without a sizeable army, you know. So let’s get people to repeat prayers after tugging on their heart strings and get them to sign the card so we can enlist them to get busy serving God in our congregations. I watched a troubling documentary this past week where a popular youth organization for years, was notorious for getting young people to sign up for mission trips immediately after they had just made a profession of faith or commitment at an altar. That’s how we do it here...in America.

But this you can be sure of - neither the gospel we read in our New Testament, nor the ministry of Jesus...ever laid out such a pattern or design in order to increase numbers of followers. On the contrary, you’d think Jesus did and said more to discourage people from signing on. He talked about ‘counting the cost’ and ‘forsaking all’, including family, not to mention some ‘cross’ one would need to be willing to take on and carry daily as they ‘denied’ themselves. I mean...Jesus was pretty selective, was He not? The story of the rich, young ruler proves this point rather pointedly (Matt. 19; Mark 10; Luke 18).

Jesus was not overly interested in getting folks to ‘make a profession of faith’, because He knew the hearts of men and how shallow and empty our words could be (Matt. 7:21; 15:7-9; John 2:24). If I read my Bible correctly, Jesus pointed out that if this gospel message is presented accurately...that there will not be many who will sign on to follow Him. How many did He say would be on this ‘narrow path that leads to life’ in Matt. 7:13-14? And what was He talking about when He said: ‘many are called, but few are chosen’, in Matt. 22:14?

I’ve shared the story before about a conversation I had with a person of another faith years ago on an airplane, and as the plane was about to land, he asked me who I believed would be the ones that would enter the kingdom of heaven. Not fully grasping what came out of my mouth in response at the time...I replied: “I am guessing the only people who will go to heaven are those who love Jesus”. And he was in total agreement with that response. Which then leads one to ask: “What does it mean to truly love...Jesus?” And that is when things can get interesting. Trust me, on that one.

Let’s be honest here: as many did begin to follow Jesus early on...there were plenty who began to realize that He was asking too much of them, and they began to ‘tap out’, and no longer followed Him (John 6:66). This should not come as a shock to anyone given what Jesus shared in John 3:17-21, how many will just flat refuse to ‘come to the light’...because they ‘love the darkness more’. “Loving the darkness more...” (19). More than what, you wonder? Well, Jesus said they loved darkness more than ‘light’...and since He IS...the ‘Light of the world’...it stands to reason that if we love anything more than we love God...do we not forfeit our inheritance? (Luke 10:25-28). It seems I read in the OT a story about a man who did that, by the name of Esau.

Oh, and that rich young ruler I mentioned earlier...was there not something he was loving more and unwilling to lay down ...and in turn, he too walked away? (Matt. 19:21-22)

No wonder Paul cautioned us about signing on to counterfeit gospels, not realizing one could end up following ‘another Jesus’ and receive ‘another Spirit’, especially in these last days. (2 Cor. 11:3-4; Matt. 24:4-5)