The Cost of Discipleship

Reading a few excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the cost of discipleship with regard to the Word of God.

"...this word which sets us at once to work and obedience, is the rock on which to build our house. The only proper response to this word which Jesus brings with him from eternity is simply to do it. Jesus has spoken: his is the word, ours the obedience. Only in the doing of it does the word of Jesus retain its honor, might, and power among us. Now the storm can rage over the house, but it cannot shatter that union with him, which his word has created.

There is only one other possibility, that of failing to do it. It is impossible to want to do it and yet not do it. To deal with the word of Jesus otherwise than by doing it is to give him the lie. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and say No to his word. . . . However vehemently we assert our faith, and our fundamental recognition of his word, Jesus still calls it "not doing." But the word which we fail to do is no rock to build a house on. There can then be no union with Jesus. He has never known us.

That is why as soon as the hurricane begins we lose the word, and find that we have never really believed it. The word we had was not Christ's, but a word we had wrested from him and made our own by reflecting on it instead of doing it. So our house crashes in ruins, because it is not founded on the word of Jesus Christ."

Wow! We must be careful to not just HEAR the Word, but to DO it. We need to BELIEVE what the Word says and APPLY it to our lives. Really, really believe! Take Jesus at His Word.

Simplicity

"Strengthen me, O God, by the grace of your Holy Spirit; grant me to be strengthened with might in the inner man, and to put away from my heart all useless anxiety and distress, and let me never be drawn aside by various longings after anything whatever, whether it be worthless or precious; but may I regard all things as passing away, and myself as passing away with them. Amen." (Thomas a Kempis in "Little Book of Prayers")

We need to ask God to simplify our life in all areas and to value things that are eternal, not temporal.