The Cost of Discipleship

[Christsfreeservant]

“Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’” (Matthew 8:18-22 ESV)​

If we are going to be disciples of Jesus Christ, which we must be to believe in him, in truth, it means death to our old lives and us now walking in the Spirit in the new lives God has given us to live for his purposes and for his glory, in his wisdom and power. It means we give up ownership rights over our own lives, and over our own bodies, and we follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads us in doing whatever he has planned for our individual lives.

For belief in Jesus Christ is not just an escape from hell and a free ticket into heaven when we die. We cannot just give lip service to the Lord and then go on about our lives as usual, doing whatever it is that we want to do. Jesus made it clear to us that if we want to come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow him in obedience to his commands and to his will and purpose for our lives.

We don’t get to chart our own course. We don’t get to decide how we are going to live and where, and the things that we are going to do in this life. When we believe in Jesus with genuine God-persuaded faith in him it means death to our old lives, and now we live our lives in obedience to the Lord for the glory and praise of God, and not for our own glory. And this may cost us friends and family members who will not like who we have become.

And this may mean leaving behind everything to follow Jesus wherever he sends us so that we can do his will for our lives. For if we are his true disciples, it is not a life of comfort and ease. Now some of us may have it better than others of us, but when our lives are sold out to Jesus Christ, to do his will, it is going to cost us something, and maybe a lot, and we will be hated by some, and rejected, and cast aside as unnecessary and unwanted.

Especially if we are teaching the Scriptures the way that Jesus taught them, and the way that the New Testament apostles taught them, then we are going to have enemies just like they did. And it can be a very lonely life. For we will not fit in with most groups, not even with many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, because our lives are surrendered to the Lord to doing his will and to saying whatever it is he commands us to say, rejection included.

So, please understand that faith in Jesus Christ is not just forgiveness of sins and heaven as our eternal destiny. Faith in Jesus, which comes from God, and is persuaded of God, and is gifted to us by God, and is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of humans – must result in us dying with Christ to sin and us now walking in obedience to his commands, in practice, in holy living, for it to be genuine believing faith in Jesus.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Hymn lyrics by William Williams, pub.1745
tr. by Peter Williams, pub.1771
Music by John Hughes, 1907

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more (2X).

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield (2X).

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold.
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer
Sin and Satan and the grave (2X).

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee. Amen (2X).

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An Original Work / January 23, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

[timewerx]

I lost all my friends. Many of them are Christians that are deceived by the false "prosperity gospel". We all depend on people, on each other to thrive or even survive. Without friends and without a permanent job, I kept on losing income until it started to affect my ability to get basic needs. I kept getting thinner and thinner until I'm underweight.

People seem to sense if you're all alone and struggling and they reject your presence. They don't want your misfortunes to "infect" them as well out of superstition maybe but they're also Christians. I don't feel the love among other Christians anymore especially when the push comes to shove. It's every man for himself.

 

[Christsfreeservant]

I lost all my friends. Many of them are Christians that are deceived by the false "prosperity gospel". We all depend on people, on each other to thrive or even survive. Without friends and without a permanent job, I kept on losing income until it started to affect my ability to get basic needs. I kept getting thinner and thinner until I'm underweight.

People seem to sense if you're all alone and struggling and they reject your presence. They don't want your misfortunes to "infect" them as well out of superstition maybe but they're also Christians. I don't feel the love among other Christians anymore especially when the push comes to shove. It's every man for himself.

I am sorry that you are having to undergo such trials as these. How is that impacting your faith in Jesus Christ?

 

[timewerx]

I am sorry that you are having to undergo such trials as these. How is that impacting your faith in Jesus Christ?

I'm still doing my best to obey the Lord. He sends me messages and instructions through dreams. If work needs to be done, I do them.

 

[Christsfreeservant]

I'm still doing my best to obey the Lord. He sends me messages and instructions through dreams. If work needs to be done, I do them.

Are you studying the Scriptures, taught in context? Are you obeying what Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught us that we must do, as followers of Jesus Christ, in daily practice? I believe God can speak to us through dreams, but we must be grounded in the Scriptures, and whatever he might show us through a dream, in the way of instructions to us, must not contradict the New Testament Scriptures and what they teach us who follow Jesus with regard to what our Lord requires of us. And you do not have to answer these questions to me. But you should answer them for yourself between you and the Lord.

 

[Johan2222]

I lost all my friends. Many of them are Christians that are deceived by the false "prosperity gospel". We all depend on people, on each other to thrive or even survive. Without friends and without a permanent job, I kept on losing income until it started to affect my ability to get basic needs. I kept getting thinner and thinner until I'm underweight.

People seem to sense if you're all alone and struggling and they reject your presence. They don't want your misfortunes to "infect" them as well out of superstition maybe but they're also Christians. I don't feel the love among other Christians anymore especially when the push comes to shove. It's every man for himself.

I don't feel the love among other Christians anymore especially when the push comes to shove. It's every man for himself.

Anymore?

I haven’t been crucified yet, nor scourged, nor cast into a fiery furnace. Have you?

I am glad for you that you once felt the love of Christians but truly I tell you they did not love you because of your faith, neither have they done so in thousands of years.

2 Corinthians 12:15 KJV
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

Truly I say to you on the day you feel yourself loved, be very afraid.

1 Peter 4:12-14 KJV
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: [13] But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. [14] If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Luke 11:24-26 KJV
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. [25] And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. [26] Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Make sure you find the rest, for those who do not, who return to the house of the flesh, shall find themselves wishing that the hatred of man was all they had to fear.