I didn't, Did you?

Read:  Luke 9:22-26 

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? ²⁶ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Think:           I didn't...... I just didn't. ... Count the cost. No body told me. 
Or maybe i just missed it. 
What I heard was pretty clear the day I surrendered and gave my life to the Lord.              Not knowing much about him other than the fact that I heard he loved me, and he did something about that love he had for me! I heard the message of the gospel and felt like I really understood the decision I was making. But I didn't know the whole picture and the depth of what I had experienced.

I was 14 yrs old at a summer camp called "camp alpha" but little did I know that my life was about to be changed forever, so much so that when my other friends fell away from their proclaimed faith.... I didn't. I knew I have seen to much, have gone to far to turn back now.  I knew Jesus.. I mean I really knew him. I could feel to the depths of my soul the grip he had on my life. I could feel him so strongly there were days I would come home from school walk in my room and fall strait to my knees knowing he was longing for me to spend time with Him and in his Holy word. He wanted me to know Him and to have a relationship with Him. Not just a Sunday-Wednesday thing or when it was convenient for me. A day by day even moment by moment. He wanted me to know His name, His presence, His love and His call on my life. The next year at camp the Lord gave me a vision that I would  reach out to the students around me and tell them of how he had changed my life. But it was deeper, he was calling me to give up everything I wanted in life go where he wanted me to go carrying the message of the gospel and speaking it unashamed to any teen he put in my life. 
Though when I was 14yrs old the night of June 30 2000 I did not understand how that one decision would profoundly impact my life....
Not that they would know the fullness of what God would call me to. What I mean is they at that point did not tell me of the cost of following Christ. Or maybe I just missed it. See what I mean is I came to salvation but i was not discipled until my late teens. When once again my life would change when a Youth Pastor started investing in me.  And at my high school graduation I began to get a glimpse of it. The cost that is... 
That is when it happened. The door opened for me to answer my call. And 5 years later here I am doing exactly what he had called me to do when I was just a young teen.

But still another thing I didn't fully do... I mean I came into a relationship with Christ, I began to be discipiled, I started to walk in my calling... But yet here I am now at 25 and I am just relizing the cost... But what was left ... I mean after all that? 
I had to look at what Jesus himself said about following him? And take him seriously.


Ok, don't get me wrong here. I have know the things he has said in the scriptures.
But as I began to really let them challenge me and really take him seriously 
Consider this for a moment... Would you say you are submitted and under the authority of Christ and of Gods Holy word?
Well if you said yes or I think so... then let me take you a little further.
Because I thought I was following him but in the light of what HE was saying was to follow... I felt like I was sitting.


Consider this- If you want to follow Christ. How does He say we have to follow? 
Not what a preacher says or your youth pastor or a church or your parents....Jesus.
I mean where was Jesus even going when he asked the disciples to follow him?
Where?            
The answer: The Cross 
And that is where He is asking us to go also. 
Just consider the very words of our Savior and ask your self if you have "Counted the cost"??


Jesus Words "The cost of following"

 Luke 14  25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
   28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

   31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

   “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Matthew 4:18-23 

¹⁸ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁹ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ²⁰ And they left their nets at once and followed him.

 ²¹ A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. ²² They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
 ²³ Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.

Luke 9:57-62 

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

 ⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
 ⁵⁹ He said to another man, “Follow me.”
   But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
 ⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
 ⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
 ⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.