<\/p>\n
\nMatthew 8:18\u00a0 <\/span>Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, \u201cTeacher, I will follow you wherever you go.\u201d And Jesus said to him, \u201cFoxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.\u201d Another of the disciples said to him, \u201cLord, let me first go and bury my father.\u201d And Jesus said to him, \u201cFollow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Luke 14:33<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Isaiah 53:2-3<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.\u00a0\u00a0He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Matthew 19:29<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
With the miracles associated with the ministry of Jesus, following Him might have seemed more glamorous than it really was. Jesus perhaps received many spontaneous offers like this. Jesus didn\u2019t tell the man \u201cNo, you can\u2019t follow Me.\u201d But He told him the truth, without painting a glamorized version of what it was like to follow Him. This is the\u00a0opposite<\/i>\u00a0of techniques used by many evangelists today, but Jesus wanted the man to know what it would really be like. This man did not ask for permission to dig a grave for his deceased father. He wanted to remain in his father\u2019s house and care for him until the father died. This was obviously an indefinite period, which could drag on and on.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The man wanted to follow Jesus,\u00a0but not just yet<\/i>. He knew it was good and that he should do it, but he felt there was a good reason why he could not do it\u00a0now<\/i>. \u201cIf the scribe was too quick in promising, this \u2018disciple\u2019 was too slow in performing.\u201d Jesus was not afraid to discourage potential disciples. Unlike many modern evangelists, He was interested more in\u00a0quality<\/i>\u00a0than in\u00a0quantity<\/i>. \u201cNothing has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ\u2019s army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and to talk fluently of experience.\u201d (Carson)<\/p>\n
Jesus pressed the man to follow Him\u00a0now<\/i>\u00a0and clearly stated the principle that family obligations \u2013 or any other obligation \u2013 must not be put ahead of following Jesus. Jesus must come first. \u00a0\u201cMuch of the concerns of politics, party tactics, committee meetings, social reforms, innocent amusements, and so forth, maybe very fitly described as burying the dead. Much of this is very needful, proper, and commendable work. (Spurgeon)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
What each person must settle in their own hearts and minds – is what I am doing – what I have been called or led to do, and am I doing it for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 <\/span>Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is being one all of the time. All of our thoughts, words, and actions should fall under our careful eyes and be viewed by and through God\u2019s Word to ensure that in all things and at all times we are honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ. Some of the godliest people I have met are not pastors or preachers but those who, in whatever vocation God has led them, give themselves wholly to being a disciple who honors and glorifies Jesus Christ in all they do at all times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 8:18\u00a0 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, \u201cTeacher, I will follow you wherever you go.\u201d And Jesus said to him, \u201cFoxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the … Continue reading “31.y. “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[431,185,6103,235,2382,1802,8010,15598,165,15599,746,241,360,604,516,184],"class_list":["post-136999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-despised","tag-disciple","tag-esteemed","tag-follow","tag-follow-me","tag-grief","tag-hundredfold","tag-inherit-eternal-life","tag-jesus","tag-leave-the-dead","tag-majesty","tag-rejected","tag-renounce","tag-scribe","tag-sorrows","tag-teacher"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136999"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137003,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136999\/revisions\/137003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}