The Cost of Discipleship

While a cadet at The United States Military Academy, my class was shown a unique geographical site. A ‘point’ on the west side of the campus jutted out into the Hudson River. In fact, this west point is what gave the US Military Academy its colloquial name of West Point.
Across the river on the far bank and inland a way, a rich man started building a castle on par with the great European castles or estates. Unfortunately, he ran out of money before he could complete his construction. The remains of what could have been is now a reminder of what happens when you fail to count the costs of completing a project.
This story is actually used to teach the costs of military operations to West Point cadets.
There is a cost of being a Christian too — a cost that isn’t spoken of very often; a cost that if taught would build stronger disciples of Jesus; a cost that would separate Christians from the rest of the world; a cost that would make a difference.
In Luke 24:25-35, Jesus spoke of such a cost. Anyone who does not love Jesus and is not committed to him over all others, even family and job, isn’t worthy of being called a disciple of Jesus.
In fact, Jesus says that such a person cannot be his disciple. He expects us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him without any hesitation or equivocation. The meaning of the word translated as “deny,” as in deny ourselves, means to “break fellowship with.” To be a disciple of Jesus, we must break fellowship with our self; we must stop doing what gives us our pleasure when it conflicts with God’s time and Godly living; we must not even fellowship with our self, care for our own desires and even needs when they conflict with the call of discipleship to Jesus.
This is a portion of an article in our local paper from a Pastor at a local church. His name is William Thrasher.
I love how he defined the word deny, to break fellowship with. That brings a whole new meaning to the verse for me.