It's been a long-time coming, I know. Life tends to get away from me and I forget to post. Praise God that our lives are not dependent on whether or not I keep up with this blog!!
The next main session was given by Mark Darling in which he tagged on to Tim's earlier talk about the Cost of Discipleship. Mark opened with a WWII movie (couldn't tell you for the life of me what it was) and in it was this quote: "Consider yourself already dead." As a disciple of Christ, the only way that we can truly live for Him is to die for Him. Mark defines the cost of discipleship as this: "dying once, though painful, isn't as difficult as dying a thousand times everyday for the rest of your life." God wants to work a death in our lives every day.
Luke 14:27-33
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
Jesus tells us that we should not even begin to follow him until we have counted the cost; until we have examined what we will have to give up and then have decided if we can make the sacrifices necessary. Are we willing to give everything up to Him?
The great struggle is putting to death the deeds of the flesh.
Galatians 5:24 (NLT) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed their passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
Are we able to let go of the things we hold most dear? Especially the sin in our lives that has become so much a part of ourselves that we can't imagine life without it? I know that sounds strange; why would I want to hold onto something that's keeping me from truly knowing my God, but as fallen human beings we do so often have a hard time letting go of the things that aren't good for us.
God does not make things reasonable. Submission to the unreasonable and unfair things is the hard part. God will take you by the hand and lead you to places you don't want to go.
Don't be fooled, friends! Being a disciple of Christ is not easy. Really, it should be the hardest thing any of us should ever have to do. But, so long as we are in Christ, it does not have to be the most impossible thing we ever have to do!
It's better to know Him than to know what's coming.
Truthfully, if you knew before becoming a Christian all of the trials you would walk through; all of the difficult times, hard decisions, the things you would have to give up, would you have made the decision to follow Christ? I honestly don't know that I would have. I certainly haven't had the same degree of trials as some; worse than a few, far less difficult than others, but I am weak. If I had known then what I would be faced with, I don't know that I would have walked down this road. I am so thankful that I have had God at my side every step of the way, leading me through some of the darkest places I have ever known. I would much rather know my God than know what is ahead of me.
A few closing thoughts:
All of my gifts are meant to be used for God's purpose.
Did you ever think about that? Every gift you have; every ability, they were all given to you by God to be used for His glory!
And finally....discipleship comes down to day to day decisions that we make. Are we counting the cost every day? Giving Him our everything? If He is our All in All, then shouldn't we be giving Him our all?
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