I got an email this week with these assertions:

• You use 200 muscles to take one step.
• The average woman is five inches shorter than the average man.
• Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.
• A pair of human feet contains 250,000 sweat glands.
• The human brain cell can hold five times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
• The average dream lasts two to three seconds.
• At the moment of conception, you spend about half an hour as a single cell.
• Your thumb is the length of your nose. You really want to test that, don't you?

It's all interesting, but not very relevant to our lives. For many of us, heaven and "the glory that will be revealed in us" seems the same way. We're glad that we'll go to heaven rather than the alternative, but how many of us want to go now? How many of you want Jesus to come back today? We have unfinished business--dreams to fulfill, goals to meet, children to raise, work to do. We want to go to heaven when we die, but not before then. And not any time soon.

So it's hard to see heaven in the future as the reason to suffer for Jesus today.

Our culture rewards a certain level of faith, but no more. It's fine if you want to attend church and Bible studies and prayer meetings, but don't invite your colleagues or friends at school to go with you or you've crossed the line.

Keep religion and the real world separate. Give what you can spare of your money and time. Meet your religious obligations along with your other charitable work and volunteer commitments. But don't pay a sacrificial price for your faith. Don't sacrifice your time or money or popularity or success to follow Jesus. Live in two worlds, and be happy in both.

But that's not biblical Christianity. Jesus wants not some but all. He calls us to take up our cross and follow him, to be willing to die for him. He wants us to give our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). He wants to be Lord of every moment and every dollar we have. He wants to be Lord of our families and work and schools. He wants it all. "Jesus is Lord" is the central claim of the Christian faith.

What is your next step in following Jesus? What person must you forgive? What sin must you stop? What witness must you share? What step of faith must you take? Why pay such a price? Paul has an answer for us.