cost of discipleship

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” (Luke 14:25-35, NRSV)

If you do not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be His disciple. Some have said to me how can I hate my family?

Well I can tell you there was a time I hated one of my family members, from my paternal family…

They had done all kind of evil things to us, and took things that were not theirs… I really hated them. But I love them as a family member, but I hated the actions they took against the family and myself.

I think that is what Jesus means. Or as I stated this past Sunday, we have to give up what we fear to lose. We have to love Jesus more than these, and have Him first. So that if these things around us go a different direction we will not follow because we love them more than God, but we will stay with God.

Do you dare to let go of everything and cling only to Him?