Jesus doesn't call us to be "convenient Christians", he calls us to be committed Christians who put Him first above everything else — even if that means dad, mom, siblings, kids, work, vacations, playtime, money, homes, friends. This is where the Living Bible translation fits in. Jesus is saying to us as His followers, "Sit down, count your blessings and then renounce them all for me." Would you still be His disciple if you lost your job? If you lost your savings? If you lost your health? If you lost your home? If you lost your wife and kids? Job said, "Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust Him." Horatio Spafford lost all his earthly possessions in the Great Chicago fire. A short time later his wife and children were sailing to England when the ship sank and his children were lost. Immediately he went to join his wife in England. As his ship got to the spot where his children drowned he wrote these words, "When peace like a river attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll — whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.'"

It is this kind of Christianity Jesus is looking for ... not a convenience thing, not a faith that we turn on when we want to or when we need it! Jesus is not looking for followers. He is looking for disciples. He is looking for people who will count the cost of being His disciple who will then say, "Yes!"