Page 279 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

Christ leads. A disciple must surrender all they possess to Christ. There is nothing said here about
maintaining a confession in order to be a disciple. Confession and belief is important, but Christ
wants more than mere lip service. He wants men and women to yield their entire lives to Him. He
wants them to live as if they have been purchased by His blood and they no longer are their own.

The qualifications for being a disciple are very high. This is a truth many Christians object to. Those
who are carnal, desirous of avoiding suffering, or reproach, or unpleasant experiences; those who
want to follow their own plans and pursue their own pleasures, will deny the criteria Yahshua set
forth in order to be His disciple. Such ones are self-deceived, and consequently prove themselves
to not be lovers of truth. If you do not love truth, the consequences are dire.

II Thessalonians 2:10-12
Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved... for this reason God will send
upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may
be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

In the passage from Luke I quoted from above, Christ stresses that there is a very high cost to be paid
in order to be His disciple.

Luke 14:28-32
“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost,
to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to
finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able
to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and
take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks
terms of peace.”

Building a tower and going into battle are not decisions a man enters into lightly. They are decisions
which must be weighed. A man must determine whether he is willing and able to commit the
necessary resources to accomplish the goal. Building a tower and going to war are both expensive
ventures in their own way. So too is becoming a disciple of Christ. In another place Yahshua spoke
to those who expressed a desire to be His disciples in the following manner.

Matthew 8:19-22
And a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And
Yahshua said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay His head.” And another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go
and bury my father.” But Yahshua said to him, “Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own
dead.”

If you require a nice home and comfortable life, you will be unable to follow Christ as a disciple. The
disciple must follow in the steps of Christ. The Son of God never dictated to His Father a certain
standard of living or material comfort. Yahshua let the Father determine His mode of living and
experiences for Him. He was content to allow His Father in heaven to take the lead in all such
matters. This is not true of many, indeed most, Christians today.