I would like to start out this blog post by saying, “I am sorry,” to all those that had been reading my daily posts and haven’t heard from me in a while. I allowed other things to take me away from writing. I am going to do my best to be faithful to post at least twice a week from now on.
Our plans often don’t work out the way we plan. We may have the best of intentions, yet we somehow get sidetracked by other things. Whether it be projects around the house that never get finished, or a promise left unkept to someone; we don’t start out to fail, but we never seem to complete the task.
My plan is to post encouraging and helpful messages twice a week until the Lord stops me. My old goal of posting daily was a bit too aggressive and I couldn’t keep up with the task. When setting goals we need to realize the costs involved in achieving them. One of my goals as a Christian is to finish the course God has put me on. It is many times, not the path that I would choose, however it is the best path to be on. Being a person that has been saved by the grace of God and being a disciple of Christ are two different things. You can be saved and not be a disciple. A disciple is one that is following the teachings of Christ and comes with a cost. Our salvation has a high price also, but Jesus paid that price by His death on the cross. Discipleship, on the other hand, has a price that we pay as a follower of the Lord.
Luke 14:26-27 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. (Emphasis added)
The Lord was very clear to those that wanted to follow Him that they would pay a price for being a disciple. If they were unwilling to “Count the cost” then He told them that they could not be a disciple.
The point I am trying to make is, let’s not look at our Christian life as another project that we have on our “to do” list; Something that we may or may not finish, like posting a blog every day. Make following and finishing a top priority! We don’t know when our course will be finished, but let’s do the best we can to plan, prepare and pursue to be a disciple of Christ!