weighty truth

I shared recently about reading The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here is one of the ideas that has caught my attention most so far...these quotes are from the same 2 pages, so just one idea being discussed:

"The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible. Levi must leave the receipt of custom and Peter his nets in order to follow Jesus. One would have thought that nothing so drastic was necessary at such an early stage....he must make it clear from the start that his word is not an abstract doctrine, but the re-creation of the whole life of man. The only right and proper way is quite literally to go with Jesus. The call to follow implies that there is only one way of believing on Jesus Christ, and that is by leaving all and going with the incarnate Son of God." 

"The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible. If he refuses to follow and stays behind, he does not learn how to believe. He who is called must go out of his situation in which he cannot believe, into the situation in which, first and foremost, faith is possible"

"Had Levi stayed at his post, Jesus might have been his present help in trouble, but no the Lord of his whole life. In other words, Levi would never have learnt to believe. The new situation must be created, in which it is possible to believe on Jesus as God incarnate"

"Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanished into thin air, and if men imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics."

I think this part caught my attention so easily is because sometimes when you're involved in ministry, you wonder why people give up so easily. I can't tell you how many times after camp I've been so excited to help girls walk through the first steps of faith just to watch them fall off back into normal life. I really think that sometimes, we want to package following Christ to the point where we take the seriousness of the call out of it. Really, the Christ that we know, the relationship we know to be life-giving demands from us our lives. (Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all) That is a scary thing to hold out to people, but it is the only way to go. We will absolutely miss out on life to the full if we hear and follow a gospel where nothing is demanded of us. 

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" - Phillipians 3:8

"I have come that they  may have life, and have it to the full" -Jesus, John 10:10

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. - Matthew 4:19-20