If You Save You Lose

If you Save You Loose  

St. Mark 8:35-37 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

            Most Christian musicians are not well off financially.  Much or these musician’s time is often spent on a second or even third part-time job just to make ends meet financially.  You may be in a place in your life where you are afraid that you are going to come up on the short end of the stick financially.  So maybe I should label this little pep talk the “profit-loss ledger”.

             As one takes a careful look at verse thirty five above one can deduce that if you save you lose, and if you lose you save.  So, what does your profit-loss ledger look like?  Jesus said in verse thirty four “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me.”  You will often need to remember why you are working as a ministering musician and for whom you are working.  

            The ideal for life is to come to the end of your career with a good-looking profit-loss statement.  You have chosen to lose this world’s goods so that you can lay up treasures in heaven.  Matthew 16:26 reminds us that, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  So, be sure that you are laying up treasure in the right place.  Never forget that that you have made the right choice even though it may not look like you have when the going gets rough.

            Remember that “market timing” does not matter as much as “time in the market”.  What that means in Kentucky Greek is that as you stay in God’s work you are laying up quality investments (treasures) in heaven.  Even though you are not able to see God’s ledger, believe me, your eternal investments are recorded there.  When you get to heaven you will see clearly that “It pays to serve Jesus, It pays every day”. (I think that this song means that your eternal interest is compounded daily.