True Cost of Discipleship

True cost of Discipleship
“As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 
Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 
He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 
Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” 
                Luke 9:57-62.

Here is something aimed squarely at Christians wishing to serve the Lord.
I know a person who always wanted to become an ordained minister. So he did. After which he stayed at his secular job studied the Bible and did little else with it.
Now I know timing is everything when you are called to do the Lords work. At the same time however you must consider the cost. You must know that you are truly called by God to minister for Him.
Anyone can become a ordained minister all you need is a denomination or church congregation to accept you and usually in order to marry someone a piece of paper from the government.
However if you feel you are truly called to minister God’s word you need to be willing to go where He tells you to go.
You need to be willing to give up your job to give up your comfortable lifestyle, and go to the most remote areas of the world if necessary.
Whether you want to become an ordained minister or not if you feel God is calling you into His service you need to be willing to leave your current life and lifestyle if necessary and do God’s work. You can’t have any doubts about it.
That’s what Jesus is saying in the above scriptures.
That being said. Being called directly into the ministry, be it to be an evangelist or pastor of a church is only one aspect of serving Christ.
As Christians we can serve the Lord in many ways both inside and out of our local church congregation.
There are many ministries that a person can volunteer to help.
All Christians need to remember that no matter what they do they are representing Christ.
The apostle Peter writes,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 
Dear friends,
I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.’ 
                                                                     1 Peter 2:9-12

We as Christians must remember we are preaching a sermon by the way they live and our lifestyle. As Francis of Assisi said,
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today” 
                                                                                               Francis of Assisi 
  Please think about it.