As the intensity of the Crucible fades to memory the lessons that have been learned remain to be sorted and taken to heart.  Over the last three weeks I have been impressed with one amazing concept that is the imperative of every Christian.

  

I believe that in saving us Jesus Christ calls us to be His disciples.  However, in the process of becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ there is the call to suffering, rejection, and death.

  If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.Matthew 16:24  

Throughout His earthly ministry Jesus often described the cost of being His disciple.  The Gospel record is filled with instructions on what it takes to be a disciple of Christ.  It meant forfeiture of self.  It meant and still means today that we must humble ourselves.

 

In the echo of the Crucible, the call to true discipleship rings strong and clear.  Too many of us are comfortable in our own lives.  Too many of us are satisfied with our definition of being a disciple of Christ.  Too many of us think little of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  We think that going to church and reading our Bible and praying to God constitutes an adequate offering of being a good disciple of Christ.  How many of us would give up our lifestyles in a moment to spend the rest of our lives ministering for Christ’s sake in the filthy, backward countries where life goes on day-to-day with no promise of tomorrow?  How many of us would set aside our schedules to be inconvenienced by a Divine appointment of sharing our Faith with someone else?

 

Jesus Christ calls us to be His disciple.  He calls us to learn of Him and to mimic Him.  The road of the disciple is difficult and involves suffering and self denial.  The Cross is not a pretty, gold object that we wear around our necks or on our lapels.  The Cross is torture.  The Cross is humility.  The Cross is life.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in World War II Germany, wrote about the common perception that we often have toward being a disciple:

 "He wants to follow, but feels obliged to insist on his own terms to the level of human understanding. The disciple places himself at the Master’s disposal, but at the same time retains the right to dictate his own terms. But then discipleship is no longer discipleship, but a program of our own to be arranged to suit ourselves, and to be judged in accordance with the standards of rational ethic." 

We are a selfish bunch.  We want things our way.  We want God to transform us but as conveniently and painlessly as possible.  We want to believe that once we are Christians all is going to be idyllic.  We deny the necessity of pain and suffering in the process of shaping and refining us into the men and women of God.  We treat God as a genie in the Bible – we deceive ourselves into thinking that God is in the business of serving our needs and wants.  We become the center of reality.

 

It is only natural that in the Crucible of God He takes the opportunity to shape us into disciples of Christ.  It is only right that in becoming Christ’s disciple, we set ourselves aside to make room for the only One who matters in this life and the next.  We can run and hide from the suffering that is promised or we can embrace the concept of true discipleship knowing that the glory of eternity far outweighs the shame of the present.

  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.Romans 8:18