Have You Counted The Cost
Luke 9: 57 - 62. What is the cost of discipleship? We live in an age of easy believism...cheap grace...mouth only committment...shallow discipleship. Have you counted the cost of following Jesus?
Jesus is walking along teaching as he usually does and this bright scribe pipes up form the crowd, "Lord I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus must have smiled to himself. Maybe the scribe thought that was the proper thing to say, maybe it was the religiously correct thing to say, maybe it would have made him look good in the eyes of the crowd, but Jesus knowing the need for a distinction between mouthed commitments and commitments of heart and mind and body and will placed the reality of the cost of discipleship right before the Scribe. "Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place t0 lay His head"...
This statement by Jesus flies in the face of those who teach that Jesus was rich and that if He were alive today he'd be driving the latest BMW or Lexus. It is clear that He became poor so that we may become rich, not in this wold's goods but rich in life, the abundant life. He is teaching those who seek to follow Him that the disciple must have a loose association with material possessions, be willing to endure hardship, that is not necessarily going to be comfortable, that it is often lived out in the context of outside the comfort zones of life. How many disciples follow Him as long as it is convenient, as long as it is financially or politically expedient only. One of the saddest stories in the Gospel is the day the rich young ruler walked away from Jesus clinging to his wealth. It is then that Jesus makes the commonly known statement that is is easier for a camel to enter through a needle than for a rich guy to enter inna Zion.
Have you counted the cost...
Comments
a principle that extends into our everyday existence
sadly we all do it ... we saints !!
when will we truly learn to control our tongues ... to truly understand the incredible power that resides there ... when will it become "natural" / second nature for us to use our words to heal and to express love?
A comittment to be obedient to the Lord's leading ... to serve Him where and when He requires me ... will survive only if it's GENUINELY rooted in my heart, mind, body and will.
A comittment that's got to be made only when I know I can put my hand to the plow and not look back ...
no more excuses !!! count the cost ...
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "NO ONE WHO PUTS HIS HAND TO THE PLOW AND LOOKS BACK IS FIT FOR SERVICE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD."
forgive me Lord for looking back in the past (2001)... bring me Lord to the place where I can put my hand to the plow once more ... bless those that have been and continue to faithfully plowing ahead...