Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Discipleship

Are we disciples of Jesus Christ?

The word for disciple in the original Greek of the New Testament means "follower", implies a personal attachment to a teacher, allowing the teacher to exercise formative power in the follower's life. It implied commitment and obedience.

Christ said that his followers would:

* Deny themselves, take up their crosses, follow Him (Luke 9:23-25)
* Put Jesus before self, family and possessions (Luke 14:25-35)
* Be committed to His teachings (John 8:31)
* Be committed to personal and world evangelism (Matthew 28:18-20)
* Love others as Christ loves them (John 13:34-35)
* Abide in Christ in relationship, obedience and impact (John 15)

(Adapted from Bill Hull's, "The Disciple Making Pastor")

So, are we disciples of Jesus Christ, or simply American church attendees? This is a tough question that I need to ask myself first.

(We will be addressing this topic from the pulpit in September.)

1 comment:

Qtpies7 said...

That could be a painful topic.

More painful, we are going camping this weekend, so I will miss church again. This should be the weekend the kids should choose to be sick, but since I don't want to go camping and do want to go to church, they will not get sick this weekend.