Luke 9:23-27: Daily Discipleship (Please click here for todays passage)

Somebody said that the true measure of a life lies not in its duration but it’s donation. It’s not how long you live but how much you give. Each day provides ample opportunities to die to self and serve others (24). Many of these will be found at home, in your domestic life. The life of self- denial and cross-carrying is to be lived ‘daily’ (23). It is not just for Sundays and special religious festivals like Christmas and Easter. This very day; this so ordinary day, you will find occasion to crucify yourself and give to others. Paradoxically, it is in such giving away that you find your true life. You can have everything and yet nothing (25); and yet you can give away and still have, and keep forever. That is the way of Jesus and it is the best.

I recently wrote about seeing a sign in the Kauri Forest in New Zealand, saying that the giant tree may well date back to the time of Christ, and I noted that someone had tried to erase the the Name of Jesus. As we were talking about this, I said to Jilly, I Just feel I want to shout, ‘I am not ashamed of Jesus’ (26). But it takes self denial; constant death to self, to identify with Jesus in a world system that wants to rub Him out. That’s the context in which we ‘daily’ live out our discipleship.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, please give me the courage and strength to die to myself today, and trust you with the outcome.