2021-04-11 The cost to follow Christ

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish the tower, all who see it will begin to make fun of him. They will say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000? If he cannot succeed, he will send a representative while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace. In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions. (Luke 14)

count the cost! To be Christ's disciple, you must renounce all possessions! What are your possessions? You know what they are, you cling to them. Do you possess them, or do they possess you? The early church shared everything they have in common. Does this descriptive fact shows how seriously they took Christ's words? How should we steward that which God has given us charge?