Luke 14:25-33 (ESV)
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, [26] "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. [27] Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. [28] For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? [29] Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, [30] saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' [31] Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? [32] And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. [33] So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Billy Graham has said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have” [--Edythe Draper, Drapers Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992)].
Questions to Reflect Upon
1. How have you counted the costs recently before tackling a project at home or at work?
2. What consequences result from not counting the cost before building?
3. How might the crowds have reacted to Jesus’ terms of discipleship?
4. How do most people react to Jesus’ terms of discipleship?
5. What costs of following Jesus seem especially high to you?
6. Why is it worth paying the price to follow Jesus?
Here is a link to an article that Laurie found this week that highlights how we as Christians do not count the cost of discipleship.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html
