FOLLOWING JESUS HURTS

'No one who commits to following Christ, and does so, lives a life of ease. No one. If your Christianity has not brought discomfort to your life, something is wrong. A committed heart knows the discomfort of loving difficult people, the discomfort of giving until it hurts, the discomfort of putting oneself out for the ministry of Christ and his church, the discomfort of a life out of step with modern culture, the discomfort of being disliked, the occasional experience of having nowhere to lay your head.' 

R Kent Hughes, Luke (Vol.1): That You May Know the Truth, p.372. 

FRIENDSHIP

'Today friendship has fallen on hard times. Few men have good friends, much less deep friendships. Individualism, autonomy, privitization, and isolation are culturally catchet, but deep, devoted, vulnerable friendship is not. This is a great tragedy for self, family, and the Church, because it is in relationships that we develop into what God wants us to be.'

R Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, p.64.