discipleship

Not too long ago, I was speaking on the topic of humility. That is a challenging message for me to give because I so often find pride more evident in my life than humility.

As I prepared for the message, I found that God was giving me all sorts of opportunities to be humbled in front of Him and others. My wife, Kelly, half-humorously expressed that she would love for me to do an entire year of speaking on humility, since she was enjoying the difference in my attitude.

How have you experienced the joy of life with God?

It is true that we are citizens of our heavenly home, who are just passing through. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear in his rehearsal of the faith-filled pursuers of God in the Bible. He writes: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

While that is true, it is also true that God is the maker of joy, who longs to bring that into our lives. This came to home to me recently as I read Paul’s words to the church in Philippi: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. – Romans 1:16

Sometimes we get to fearful of what people think about us. What they stop saying as you walk into the room, or what they say when you go out. Sometimes the reason we don’t talk about God to others is because we’re scared they will judge us. Scared they will look at us differently for believing in a God that created us.

It’s funny how everyone somehow contradicts themselves at some point.

Jesus says: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.

"Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10: 11-15).

“A disciple is a person-in-process who is eager to learn and apply the truths that Jesus Christ teaches him, which will result in ever-deepening commitments to a Christ-like lifestyle.” I used to think that once you became born again that you were automatically a disciple. A disciple is someone who follows, goes after, and or imitates a person or groups lifestyle. To simply become born again does not make you a disciple but it makes you a child of God.