Reading
SAA Notes
Jesus has some searching words on discipleship for us as believers. He asks you and me to count the cost. What is the cost of not heeding His call, of not being willing to pay the price of discipleship?
SJA Notes
* Holy God, please teach us today – May we be teachable.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
These words from Jesus can seem very strange.
Didn’t Jesus come down from the cross? Isn’t the cross a most hateful and repugnant symbol of pain and agony? Is the picture a reminder of the physical and spiritual anguish that our Lord endured?
The way of Christ, the path of following Jesus – It is a narrow road, and few there be that find it.
Those on the broad road will bring down mockery and hatred on those walking the narrow.
As Jesus bore the wooden cross on His shoulders in anticipation of His sacrifice, so when we are brought to Him, and each day after on this earth, we are to take up and bear our own cross as we go about His will in the world.
This is the cost that Jesus calls out.
We cannot be friends with the world.
We cannot pretend at righteousness.
* Gracious Lord,
You have called us to be set apart, broken yet redeemed, once lost and now found, once dead in sin now alive in Christ.
Thank You God!
Please help us to be salt and light in the world today.
Please help us take up our cross each day, in joyful obedience, looking forward to the destination You have for us – eternal life!
Hallelujah, what a Saviour You are!
Amen.