The Cost and Joy of Following Jesus

There is no way to sugar coat what Jesus said about being his disciple.  "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23  He tells us up front it will not be easy. 

What Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship brings that more into light, "To deny oneself is to be aware of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us."

But with all the reality of costs there is also the reality of great benefits.  Many people can try to sell you on the benefit side but it helps to go back to something else Bonhoeffer said, knowing that it comes from a man who followed Christ all the way to his death in a Nazi concentration camp.

"If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us?  What decisions and partings will it demand?  To answer this question we shall have to go to him for only He knows the answer.  Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow Him, knows the journey's end.  But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy.  Discipleship means joy."

There is a cost.  There is a joy that makes it all worth it.  That is what we will look at Sunday.  As you come to worship Sunday, watch for a sign on containers that asks you to take one of the contents into worship with you.  It will be a way that you can mark your journey in discipleship.  See you Sunday.

For the journey...