Life and Doctrine Series Jim Lenahen Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. * Many passages in the Scriptures talk about how Jesus knew he was gong to die (and exactly how, etc.). At first it could seem like this would be a huge hindrance to His joy but I think it may have had the exact opposite effect. Knowing he was going to die may have helped Him see how futile it was to hold on things they are temporary. Maybe thats what he means when he said that we need to carry our crosses daily. Maybe He was trying to give us the proper perspective on the temporariness of life so we can be free to let go and let God. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. * Have we made the decision to love Jesus firmly enough so that we will not give up on Him when various things in our lives go south (and go south for long periods of time and the negative feelings and emotional turmoil because of these various and multiple gone south things in our lives strongly linger throughout the course of ridiculous amounts of time)? Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. (Luke 14:25-33 NASB) * Jim made an excellent point about how because of the uncertainty of the economy, many of us have gotten better at not holding on to material possessions but what we may not be willing to give up for Jesus could be OUR TIME AND SPACE.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 13:19:43 +0000
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