33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Luke 14:33)
Christ can’t have me following him with all the junk I want to carry. He knows I won’t make it, so he calls me to jettison my junk to obtain his treasure.
How simple can it get? In Luke 10 a lawyer asks Jesus a question. Okay, check that. When the lawyer is the one asking the question, it’s never simple.
But here is the issue: a simple question was asked. A simple answer was given.
Continue reading “We seek to justify ourselves”“I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travelers, fellow sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already carry. My prayer from day to day is that God will so enlarge my heart that I will see you all, and live with you all, in love.” — Dorothy Day (from The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus)
“Freedom in Christ is to be released from perpetual inner conflict into ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Rom. 8:21) where we are enabled to live, not by our own tyrannical wishes, but for the love of others.” — Fleming Rutledge
In Mark 10:17-22 we have the story of the rich young man coming to Jesus and asking what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. He finds out that it is more than checking off a pretty good list. Continue reading “Jesus knows what holds us back”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:34-36, NIV)
I can remember a seminary professor saying, “You don’t need to go looking for a cross. One has been readily provided.”
Lord, too often my aversion to the cross steers me away from the glory of your resurrection. Keep me in the shadow of your cross and may its daily work have an ever deepening impact on my life. Amen.
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matt. 5:13, NIV)
A disciple of the kingdom who does not LIVE like a disciple of the kingdom is worth about as much as tasteless salt or invisible light.
