Today's encouragement comes from Luke 9:23-25, which says this:
"Then [Jesus] said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself de-stroyed or lost?’ "There is a lot of religious talk today about “discipleship”; but I think a lot of it is just that, talk. The the actual *cost* of true discipleship, according to our Bles-sed Savior Himself, is very great. Everything, and everybody must take sec-ond (and subsequent) places to Jesus: be it family, friends, jobs, money, ca-reers, plans, hopes, dreams, etc.
The ironical glory is that, for those churchmen who actually *do* submit to Jesus' discipleship, they get everything back, in return. But they go into it with no guarantees, save that the Lord will be with them, and will redeem and use them.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Take heed of this that, whenever you come to put up any petition to the Lord, you do not forget the duty of thankfulness . . . re-member to give thanks for what you have.” —John Preston, in his sermon, "The Saint's Daily Exercise"]
