The Cost of following Jesus

          Did you ever notice that Jesus is like a life-coach?   

          He is not interested in making disciples like one would run a business (i.e., the more customers the better), yet He gently but firmly pushes us off the shallow shores of our “religion” to true faith in Him.   

         “When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.” (Matthew 8:18)

          That’s it, just crossing over to the “other side of the lake”, sometimes that is enough to challenge us from following. It separates the “crowd” from “disciples”.    

          What is this “lake”? In this passage, Jesus warns us that following Him means leaving our comfort zone to where He leads (Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.) and trusting in His timing to when He leads (verse 21-22).   

           Is there a “lake” too large and dangerous to cross in your walk with Jesus? Can you name them, and lifting that up to Jesus; asking Him, to give you the courage to follow Him? 

         跟隨主耶穌的代價  

        你曾否注意到主耶穌就像一位人生導師嗎？    

        在建立門徒的時候，祂並不在意要求我們要好像經營一盤生意一般 (愈多“客戶”愈好)，而是祂會温柔地，卻堅定地把我們在從“信仰”中的淺水岸灘推出去，推往在主耶穌裡才能找到的真正無偽信心之處。    

        18 「耶穌見許多人圍著他，就吩咐渡到那邊去」。(馬太福音8:18)

         就是這樣，只是渡到湖的對岸，湖的另一邊，有時候已足夠成為一個挑戰，測量我們是否真正願意順服，跟從主耶穌的吩咐。這就是已經把“門徒”由“群眾”中分別出來。    

         究竟這個“湖”到底是什麼？在這段經文裡，主耶穌警告我們跟隨祂是要我們離開我們安舒區，往祂所帶領我們要去的目的地 (「狐狸有洞，天空的飛鳥有窩，人子卻沒有枕頭的地方。」) ，及信靠祂的時間，在祂所定的時候引領我們往祂要我們去到的目的地。(馬太福音8:20)    

         在你與主耶穌同行的經歷裡是否有一個“湖”是太大及太危險？你可否將它一一提名，將它交托給主耶穌，讓主耶穌賜給你勇氣跟隨祂?