Luke 14:28-35 KJV
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
35 It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

How many people weigh in their minds and on paper what a project will cost? You ever start something and not planned it and it still turned out okay. You either had money backers, or enough funds to cover it. Yet how many homeowners start on a project that cost them more then expected and had to wait to be able to finishing it. It nothing new. A house wife might begin to gather things for decorating her house, but move from room to room purchasing items to fit in a particular room. Maybe even paint and redo floors before decorating it with new items purchased. When the project is complete you have a nice room. Yet if you only can add picture, lamps or pillows a little at a time then it all fits together as well, and looks as it been planned for months when finished. It possible that friends will laugh if you finish not a project, but some will not. Why was not the project finish, health reason good excuse, but because you had not money to finish is not a good excuse.

A king who doesn't decide if his army is strong enough to fight the battle against a larger army. A king that tries to make peace before he gets fired upon to protect his people. Even under the worse rulers sometimes safety of people in general is far greater then the fight. It depends if you can win and what the other king or power is seeking. President of Ukrane and Russia have been fighting for several weeks now. Despite who has a large force, it who has more power on their side at this point. Godly people on both sides of the line you got a bigger problem why can't godly people negotiate. Is it because war was enacted before the cost was thought out. Who slaps someone without thinking about the cost. Did Will Smith think before he acted during the Oscar award ceremony? Who knows or was it a publicity stunt for a new hit movie, no pun intended. I am sure Will Smith can hit hard then that. He did not even knock Chris Rock down. Okay, the cost of such action yet to be determined.

Yet it like anything in life do we decide or just leap into action. If we walk by the Spirit, there are times you leap and time you think before jumping. No one jumps over a cliff and lives without a parachutte, or a glider to sail with the wind. If you hope to live without those things, there better be a deep body of water, if you jump with no parachutte, bungee cord or glider. God is not going to ask you to jump without some form of protection, or something to help you safely land like a body of water that deeper then 12 ft if the cliff is heigh enough up. Let us think before we leap, is God's door with protection. Paul walked from town to town with what protection, God saving power. Paul even was beaten and stoned, but he rose up to fight another day. Is it mockery. If you are saved you got the best life insurance that faith can buy. You know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To plan not means that the project is less then 100 days and a flood is not coming. Noah built and ark, took 100 years. God knows how to have you build and even proves you with instruction. An also knows how to instruct his children with instant instruction, if the believer will only be still and listen to God.

Do we fail to hear God? Do we fail to listen. If you are going to fight in God's army, you need to read the Bible, even when you do not understand it. Be prayed up, and most of all have faith even if it is as small as a mustard seed at times. We wear our salvation, meaning we rely on Jesus to protect us from sin and if we fall to temptation know his blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness. God is willing to forgive us. If we just look to him. God will show not only his handiwork, but markers he been here and still with us today. Be prepared for what God wants to do in your life. Mold you into a vessel pleasing to him. We often broken by his word, but we are then transformed by the molding of his hands on our life. When one gets saved we are given our military gear, that we had to also grow into it. Growth is good thing even when it painful. However to not grow to be stagnated like salt loosing it saltiness, means it lost it's ability to be what it is suppose to be, then it can not season a thing. Man tosses many things out. If the trash is not worthy of even being sent to the landfill to allow it to decay what good is the it.

If the purpose God created you is not fullfilled what point is there to the will of God? God's will, will be done and if you refuse to do his will, he use that for his purpose and yet you find yourself in hell. Meaning if not saved, and do God's will or not God's will you have no hope of the eternity that God has designed for his children in heaven. Be on the side of God's will that leads to eternal life and not be in a place that you weigh not the war you start with God with no peace insight. Choose Jesus as Savior and you have peace with God. God will use your life to bear fruit for his will.

One more thought on the subject how many prophecy tell us about God's unchanging plan for his Son's life. God planned his death and told us about it and yet he also resurrected him for life eternal. What a special gift to give us that foresight with our hindsight of God's perfect will in our life has everlasting life within to all that believe.

Dear Heavenly Father, create in us people that walk by your Spirit. Help us to recognize the call on our life is sometimes a quick jump with protection and sometimes a long term project like the ark, Noah built. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: 1 Peter 3:17-22 KJV
17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.