The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising discipleship, following Christ according to the sermon on the mount. I believe the time has come to gather people together to do this.
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
I believe when we are in the Lord's will and following Christ, we are His responsibility, and He will look after us. Until He has accomplished His purpose through us, nothing can touch us without His permission - we're 'bullet-proof', so to speak.
I want my teammates to see that I'm following Christ. But, I'm also human, so there are times I slip and make mistakes but I know Christ forgives me.
If we are leading but not closely following Christ, we are misleading.
Don't follow those who can talk a big game about their amazing faith in Christ. Follow people who are actually following Christ.
Following Christ isn't something that can be done halfheartedly or on the side. It is not a label we can display when it is useful. It must be central to everything we do and are.
Following Christ is a daily thing, not just a one-time thing
After he has been following Christ for a long time, the disciple of Jesus will be asked, "Lacked ye anything?" and he will answer "Nothing, Lord. " How could he when he knows that despite hunger and nakedness, persecution and danger, the Lord is always at his side?
Following Christ is not a casual or occasional practice but a continuous commitment and way of life that applies at all times and in all places.
Christ had no interest in gathering vast crowds of professed adherents who would melt away as soon as they found out what following Him actually demanded of them. In our own presentation of Christ's gospel, therefore, we need to lay a similar stress on the cost of following Christ and make sinners face it soberly before we urge them to respond to the message of free forgiveness. In common honesty, we must not conceal the fact that free forgiveness in one sense will cost everything.
Following Christ is a wild adventure full or risk, frustration, excitement, and setbacks. It is not an evening stroll in a planned community along a well-manicured path.
Discipleship means adherence to Christ and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract theology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge of the subject of grace or the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact exclude any idea of discipleship whatsoever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ. . . . Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves.
The demands of following Christ will cost you everything. But you gain far more than you give up. You give up dirt for diamonds.
If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.
Following Christ means following him through life, following him in every word and gesture, following him out of one clime into another.
Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership-either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or a local church. . . . Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.
Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental position of choice in modern life. “I have chosen you,” Jesus said, “you have not chosen me. ” We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally “have no choice.
Cheap grace is the idea that "grace" did it all for me so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of "cheap grace" thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace.
