“He cannot be my disciple”. – Luke 14:26, 27, 33
I have a great interest in the subject of discipleship, as all Christians should. As I started to write an article about it I ran across this quote from the late Vance Havner in my notes, so I decided to use it instead. It’s bold and blunt, but in this day of lukewarmness it’s exactly what we need to hear rather than a little feel good sermonette. He said:
“We have too many casual Christians who dabble in everything but are not committed to anything. They have a nodding acquaintance with a score of subjects but are sold on nothing. ‘Of course I’m interested in church—but with my club and my lodge and my golf and my bridge and my stamp collecting and my ceramics and my African violets, I just can’t get too excited about religion.’ Our Lord had no place in His program for casual disciples. It was all or nothing.
If we hate not family and even our own lives; if we bear not our cross and come after Him; if we forsake not all that we have, we cannot be His disciples. He does not say we will be poor disciples, He says we cannot be His disciples at all. Tone it down all you will, the cleverest exegesis cannot do much with this threefold test. Why is it that we are so silent on such texts today? We have let down the bars and we take all comers. Our catch-all invitations gather in a motley mixture, a mixed multitude. Screen them with these three ‘cannots’ and see how much wheat is left when the chaff is gone!
These words were spoken to a great multitude. We would be flattered by such a following, but our Lord immediately thinned His crowd. Is it not time we whittled down Gideon’s unwieldy band to a hard core of effectives? But, alas, this is the day of statistics, and we must make a good showing on the books.”
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
