Obedience to follow Him

Ames, Iowa

    Day 2 of reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, and the next chapter talks about the call to discipleship and how Christian's should be willing to obey the call of Jesus to follow Him without making excuses for yourself and to believe and trust in Him. The last chapter talked about Cheap Grace v. Costly Grace and part of costly grace is giving up your life to live the only true life and part of that also is answering His call to follow Him without hesitation.

"There is no road to faith or discipleship, no other road - only obedience to the call of Jesus."


    In the book, Bonhoeffer talks about a passage out a Luke 9: 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: 59-62
    Breaking this passage down, the two men are caught up in their own priorities and aren't allowing themselves to obey to Jesus' call to follow. They find excuses to stop them from following Him. What I took out of this passage and from the chapter in this book is that you shouldn't let other objects, whether it be duties bound by law (burying the dead) or setting your own rules to follow Him, get in your way. You need to follow Him and give up your life without second guessing yourself, without finding ways of escaping his call.
    Now I am not saying that you should give up your family in order to be closer to God, but I am saying that his calling for you to follow is extremely important and you will need to find what is distracting you from allowing yourself to give your life to Him.
    Only those who obey believe. Bonhoeffer tells about a scenario that happens all the time to pastors dealing with people struggling to overcome their disobedience to God. He talks about how they will come to the pastors telling them they have lost the faith they once had and are having really listening to the sermons he is preaching. Bonhoeffer says that they should just grab the bull by the horn and say:

"Only those who obey believe. You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing in his grace. You cannot hear Christ because you are wilfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins."


   With this he is trying to get the once believer back into following Jesus and giving up his life to Him once more. If you obey His call you are truly believing.
    My challenge to anyone reading this to sit down and think about anything in your life that is distracting you or blocking you from listening to Christ and try to find ways to get those out of your life or fix them so they won't hurt you from the word of God anymore. Once you clear that distraction, you will start to feel closer to Him and will start to obey his call.

"As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him." - Mark 2:14