{"id":4407,"date":"2011-03-13T00:36:56","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T04:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4407"},"modified":"2011-03-14T07:57:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T11:57:25","slug":"the-alpha-and-omega-wants-your-a-through-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2011\/03\/13\/the-alpha-and-omega-wants-your-a-through-z\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alpha and Omega wants your A through Z"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4410\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower-73x110.jpg 73w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower-167x250.jpg 167w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/files\/2011\/03\/400px-Burg_Hartenfels_Castle_Tower.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Some things we\u2019ve been learning at church recently about sacrifice and obedience got me thinking about the parable of the tower:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFor which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it \u2014\u00a0 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, \u2018This man began to build and was not able to finish\u2019?\u201d<\/em> (Luke 14:28-30)<\/p>\n<p>This passage is bracketed by Jesus telling us exactly what it means:<\/p>\n<p>Verse 27: <em>And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Verse 33: <em>So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Someone bearing a cross is on the way to death. Jesus is telling us that if we\u2019re going to finish well, we need to understand the cost of discipleship \u2013 everything.<\/p>\n<p>I used to think \u2013 <!--more-->and I may have even taught (forgive me, Lord) \u2013 that being a disciple <em>could <\/em>cost everything. That\u2019s wrong. This passage is very clear that being a disciple <em>does <\/em>cost everything.<\/p>\n<p>That came to my mind Sunday as our teacher was talking about some things that obedience can end up costing you. I was following along, mentally checking off, \u201cDone that. Done that. Done that too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wow, that\u2019s a prideful reaction, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>So what if I have given up A, B and C? The Alpha and Omega says discipleship costs me my A through Z, so whatever my A, B and C are, it\u2019s just a start. It\u2019s simply what\u2019s expected of me.<\/p>\n<p>And of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some things we\u2019ve been learning at church recently about sacrifice and obedience got me thinking about the parable of the tower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[42,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-4407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-character","8":"tag-choices","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}