Unless we hate our father and mother, brothers and sisters, and our own life, we can't be disciples of Jesus Christ. We can't be his disciples unless we take up our cross and follow Him. It is not a problem in the modern-day church where manmade doctrines of salvation without discipleship rule the day. I call it the thief on the cross theology: ask Jesus to remember you with your last dying breath, and you will be saved. Not everyone is moved to repent on their deathbed. Today is the day of salvation, maybe not tomorrow. No one can come to the Son unless the Spirit draws him. How often one has quenched the spirit or the knock at the door will determine our dying words.

Why become a disciple if it is optional and has a prerequisite of losing one's life to find it? Why not lower the cost and take the easier bronze package? Leave the silver and gold packages for extra credit and the overachievers. There are no different classes of Christians, only the poor in spirit.

Eternal life is free for those who believe Jesus paid it all. But discipleship seems to be the cost of leaving the gang life we were born into. To follow Jesus means to be crucified with Him and resurrected with Him. Freedom always carries a cost. Jesus paid for the new life, and we are paying the cost of disposing of the flesh called living the crucified life. Both are by grace through faith.

"I have my issues with Jesus," West began during the interview, which lasted for over an hour. "There's a lot of stuff I went through, and I prayed, and I ain't see Jesus show up."

https://www.christianpost.com/news/kanye-west-says-he-has-issues-with-jesus-im-god.html

Countless Christians worldwide think quietly like Kayne West recently said about Jesus, God, and himself. I can see the silent agreement and nods permeate the atmosphere. Issues with Jesus and Jesus don't come through.

I give people a lot of grace when it comes to communication. You have to say something repeatedly for me to assume you know what you are saying. And sometimes, once if you are articulate and brass. The quote above I give Mr. West room to explain. Maybe he is frustrated like many Christians get when they find out Jesus is Lord and they are not, which leads to the second quote from Mr. West that I don't give a pass.

'Cause I'm God," he said when asked about his success in the music industry and how he hasn't "disappeared." "And anyone who wants to disagree, I'm the God of me. You can't tell me who I am. I can't tell y'all. I could tell y'all. It's your job to listen. I'm the God of me. I don't know if I'm in heaven already." – Kayne West.

Mr. West seems to have revoked Jesus from being Lord in his life and has returned like a dog to his vomit, thinking he is god, at least thinking he is god over himself. And that is the quiet part out loud. I have no bone to pick with Mr. West; he has never been part of my world. But I hear and see what he said in the Christian world all the time, just not out loud. I do think Mr. West had an authentic encounter with Jesus. Mr. West has suffered a common Christian failure found in 1 Timothy 3. A new convert should not be given a place of leadership because of their wealth, place in society, talent, or communication skills. A time of discipleship in humility is required lest one falls into the same condemnation as the devil.

The hashtag #ChristisKing is making waves in the online world of social media. Some people who are using it are being called anti-semantic. I have checked some posts, and they might be. But most who are using the hashtag are confessing their faith in the resurrected Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings.

The controversy mostly centers around Candice Owens and Ben Sharpio. I will let you search it out if you want to know. But my issue is with the devil and his ability to gaslight Christians. From the Garden, God has set life and death before us and given us the keys of the kingdom to choose life. Our adversary, the devil, who likes to co-opt the principles of God and use them for evil, is doing just that in the #ChristisKing controversy.

The devil sets before us death and death, giving us a sense of autonomy, and doesn't care about our choice because they both lead to death—more on this in a future newsletter.

Is Christ King? Well, that depends on who you are and the timing of God. We are celebrating Passion Week this week, and 'Christ is King' was the issue when Jesus took up His cross and died to take away the sins of the world. The governor Pilot didn't want to judge Jesus for the charges that the Jews accused of Him. Jesus was accused of blasphemy for claiming to be God and could rebuild the temple in three days. Pilot answered the Jews to judge him themselves because it wasn't a Roman issue. But the Jews then claimed Jesus said He was a king and was going to overthrow the Roman empire. The Jews started a political controversy that led to a riot that Governor Pilot could not ignore. History always repeats itself, but not in the same way.