Gathering Up Courage

[S] Mark 15:43 --
43 Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

[O] Joseph had to gather up his courage to ask for the body of Jesus from Pilate.  As far as I know he was not that visible during the ministry of Jesus, in fact, he may have been converted while he was still a council member and it's more difficult for him to stand up for his faith all of a sudden.  On the flip side, because he was involved in the social leadership he was able to approach Pilate and ask for the body.  It seems that standing up for Jesus is always a challenging thing and I appreciate reading how Joseph had to muster up his courage to do what he did.

[A] Joseph was used to fulfill the plan of God but that didn't come without a price.  Likewise, I need to pay the price to be used by God to fulfill His plans through my life.  That is to say, not that I need to make more monetary contributions, but in order to be used as His instrument, I must endure through a process difficult or challenging for me to bear.  I seem to be going through one of them now and I only pray that I would make it through to see His big plan for me.

[P] Dear Father, grant me Your endurance to pass through this heat in order that Your plan will work through my life and that You will be glorified.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Counting the Cost of My Cross First

[S] Luke 14:27 --
 ²⁷"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

[O] Two examples follow this verse which point out how critical it is to plan out the cost before taking action; we rarely just jump in without doing any calculation of the resources and costs to accomplish the task at hand much like what we started to do for the church as we are faced with the new year's ministry goals.  This is a very much needed exercise to go through.  However, underneath all of these goals and processes planned for lies a fundamental "cost" I must consider which is whether I will pay the price of carrying my cross and follow after the path Jesus walked or not.  If I am unwilling to meet this cost of action then I shouldn't even bother taking part in the church planning and execution in this new year because I would be fooling myself of doing some great deeds that may just look good.

This article of a teenage boy in Australia sacrificing his own life to save his younger brother and mother moved me because he didn't know how to swim and was very afraid of the water and yet during the split of a second, he made a choice to pay the price overcoming his own fear.  Man, just trying to imagine what was going through his head then choked me up.

[A] I remember picking up a book titled: Disciples are Made Not Born because the title said it all.  My desire to be Jesus' disciple will take much more than my simple desire.  I have to deeply ponder on what price of the cross I must "invest" and be willing to commit to it.  It will not be a smooth sailing and yet be willing to go through the storms regardless.

[P] Dear Father, I want to be Jesus' disciple.  I know this means more than just saying it and when I face the stormy situation like the teenage boy in the above article, may my faith be large enough to take the right path of carrying my cross for You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.