Discipleship involves a personal commitment to sanctification, involvement with a church that preaches and teaches the gospel, and relationship with other people that goes beyond Sunday morning. These relationships are as unique as the individuals involved, but they do must have certain elements present. There are some principles that can guide us in developing healthy discipleship relationships, but only as we recognize that uniqueness and the freedom to adapt to the needs o

Over the next three blogs (which will take us to 10) I want for us to explore the ‘How-to’ of discipleship. We have already talked about the necessity of the body of Christ for our continued sanctification; a church that faithfully preaches teaches and ministers the gospel. We have also understood that a disciple of Christ needs to develop relationships that are focused on sanctification; relationships that allow us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour

Once again it has been far too long between blogs. Once again, I apologize to all of you who have been waiting. Due to the distance between blogs as of late, let me summarize briefly where we have been. We have come to understand that when we believe in Christ for our salvation we have become his disciples. In fact, we have seen that disciple and Christian (if we are genuine believers) are really the same thing; a true follower of Christ is a disciple. A disciple is one who i

It has been a while since I have written a blog in this series. I apologize. I have been working extensively on the “Hearing God?” seminar coming up on May 26-27 (more details to follow this week!). If you have forgotten where we have come from in this series let me refresh your memory. We have come to understand that when we believe in Christ for our salvation we have become his disciples. In fact, we have seen that disciple and Christian (if we are genuine believers) are re

Remember Siegfried and Roy? For my younger readers, probably not. They were big cat trainers who played to sold-out shows in Las Vegas for many, many years. Their show involved various large animals, mostly big cats like lions and tigers. They performed various obedience tricks with these animals, but one particular stunt was the show-stopper; unfortunately, on one fateful night in 2003, it stopped the show for good. The big trick involved Roy putting his head in the open mou

I hope that by now, three blogs into this series, you have come to an understanding of what a disciple is, why the church and fellow believers are absolutely necessary for discipleship and the many, many benefits of being a disciple Christ. My prayer is that you desire to leave superficial Christianity behind and embrace the call of God to true discipleship. In the first post of this series we described a disciple thus, A disciple is a person who is in an intimate relationshi

There are some very real, tangible benefits to being a disciple of Christ (this is primary), and to being part of a discipling relationship (this is secondary) that should motivate you to want to get involved in this type of relationship. Remember, we are talking here about a two-fold relationship: a personal commitment to be a disciple of Christ - this occurs individually. a commitment to be a disciple of Christ within a relationship with another believer(s) - this relations

Christ desires his followers to be disciples. Actually, that's not entirely right. True followers of Christ ARE disciples. As we discovered in our last post there are not two categories of people who follow Christ - Christians, and disciples. There are only to be disciples. Somehow we have bought into the idea that we can be merely Christians, have public and private convictions that are Christian, without sacrificing what is needed to become disciples of Christ. In this usag