[Darris McNeely] Have you ever started a project that you didn't finish? Is there something laying around your house, a project, a job that your wife, your husband wanted you to get done, but you just haven't completed? Probably so. We've all found that facing us at times in the past.

On Beyond Today here I've started a series on becoming a disciple and looking at what the Bible tells us about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It's a big subject. It's an important subject, perhaps one of the most important ones we could ever master within our lifetime.

Last time I talked about the fact that a disciple is really a student or a learner. We covered that. And it's a lifelong process really of becoming a disciple in this sense, but the word really means nothing more difficult than being a student or a learner, sitting at the feet of a master teacher and learning what that person has to teach and to impart to us about their topic. Certainly sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ and learning about God, eternal life, all of the matters of how we are to live today is a lifelong process of becoming a disciple.

In Jesus' teaching, there is one point that He made that as we think about becoming a disciple and applying ourselves to this process we probably should learn and think about. Christ did talk about starting out as a disciple, but counting the cost, making sure that we have enough to finish what we begin.

In Luke chapter 14 Jesus addresses this in detail in a passage that is one that I regularly turn to to remind myself and also teach others. But Jesus turned to the multitudes that were following Him along with His disciples in verse 25 of Luke 14,  and He said that, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life he cannot be My disciple." In other words, putting Christ first requires that all those others, even our own life, take a secondary relationship to becoming a disciple with Him. It went on to say, "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." Second time that He mentions it here in this passage. The cross is a symbol of our burden of responsibility and our life. If we take up our life and go this way of becoming a disciple, it will be challenging - rewarding, yes - but it will be something we've got to think it through. And then He goes on, He says, "Which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it? Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'" (Luke 14:25-30). Kind of like a lot of the other projects perhaps we may have started with good intentions, the resolutions we may have made and we didn't finish because we did not count the cost.

We did not consider what it will take to stay with the goal of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. That's what He is pointing out here. That's what He is encouraging us to remember and to think about.

To become a disciple of Jesus Christ is probably a central tenant of our whole life and our relationship with God, and it is a lifelong process of learning as a student at Jesus' feet of what eternal life is all about. But before we start we have to count the cost because if we don't consider all that is going to be involved and what we will have to sacrifice, what we will have to commit in our life, in our time, in our energy, then we may not have enough to finish and we may wind up being - as a part of this example that He used - those that are looked at and mocked because they didn't really consider and count the cost.

Being a disciple is an important business. Count the cost and consider.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.