Jesus spells out for us the cost of being a disciple. Jesus reference to hating one’s family is a Jewish idiom meaning a disciple must love Jesus more than loving their own family and their own life. Our life needs to revolve around Him. He needs to be the King of our Heart. We also hear that the cross, suffering and persecutions, are accepted and carried by his disciples out of love for Him and being united with Him. And thirdly, whoever does not give up all their possessions cannot be a disciple of Jesus. A disciple clings to Jesus and not their possessions. How would you explain this to someone who is not a disciple? Our answers would all have to relate back to the one, Jesus, who asks for this decision. You and I voice our decision to discipleship when we pray, Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Luke 11:2
Being his disciple doesn’t mean we are perfect, it means we have made that decision to follow Him and in that we rely on Him, what He can do, not on ourselves in what we can achieve but in Him and what he can achieve in and through us. Jesus relies on you and I, His disciples, to spread the Good News and help others encounter Him, to invite others to get to know who He is. Then, they can make an informed decision whether they want to be his disciple or not. ALPHA is a great way to invite others to get to know Jesus. We invite them to dinner, a movie and a conversation. A lot of people like those things! Alpha is an engaging and relevant way to get people to know Jesus. Everyone of us is to invite to Alpha. The first step is to pray for them (like the verse # from Luke why not pray at 11:02 each day). Consider 3 people you can invite, people you would like to see in Heaven. The second step is to actually ask someone to attend Alpha! You can accompany them to Alpha to make them more comfortable. Come to our video series on how to invite. The information is in the bulletin. Who will you invite to Alpha?
