What It Means To Follow Jesus
Luke 9:18-24 [CEB]
18 Once when Jesus was praying by himself, the disciples joined him, and he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
19 They answered, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others that one of the ancient prophets has come back to life.”
20 He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “The Christ sent from God.”
21 Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. 22 He said, “The Human One[a] must suffer many things and be rejected—by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts—and be killed and be raised on the third day.”
23 Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. 24 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them.
GATHERING FOR SUNDAY
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Hi NewDay!
I am looking forward to being with you this Sunday!
We will be reading and learning together from Luke 9:18-24, and will find ourselves in a conversation Jesus is having with His disciples, as He has just asked them who they say He is, and who the crowds say He is? It seems Jesus was 'a buzz,' as we say, and there was all kinds of speculation about who exactly He was as He was healing people, restoring people, and saying things about God that was getting people's attention.
As this conversation was happening, Jesus shifted to what people would do with Who He was, and he gave them the criteria for discipleship- what it truly would mean to follow Him.
As I follow Jesus, and have been for most of my life, I still find these words breath taking, hard, challenging and wonderful. I realize in our faith community, there are a lot of mature Jesus followers. And, I also realize that no matter who long we follow Jesus, there is still more to learn, and more depths to plumb in our discipleship. It also is a reminder to us of how we are explaining discipleship to others, as we have conversations with people who are weighing what it means to follow Jesus.
I know I have mentioned this resource before, but Practicing The Way, has wonderful resources for discipleship. Check them out! https://www.practicingtheway.org/
I am looking forward to being with you, and thank God for you, as we keep following Jesus together.
****Also, next Sunday, June 29th, we will prayer walk the neighborhood as a church, right after worship. We will also hand out door hangers, inviting our neighbors to our next Pot-Luck and Intergenerational VBS. Please stay if you are able to.
In Christ, Pastor Kari