Quotes About Discipleship

God will never reveal more truth about himself until you have obeyed what you know already

We cannot be tepid disciples. The Church needs our courage in order to give witness to truth.

It is easy to follow a generic God because you can fill the term God with any presupposition you please; it is difficult to follow Jesus, because then you have to take seriously his teachings on discipleship, on what exactly following him entails.

The change from night to day, the battle that is fought during that change, and the transformation into Jesus, can all feel a little bit apocalyptic. No one said that discipleship was easy.

According to the Burman system, there is no escape. According to the Christian system, there is. Jesus Christ has died in the place of sinners, has borne their sins; and now those who believe on Him, and become His disciples, are released from the punishment they deserve. At death, they are received into Heaven and are happy forever.

If we are truly disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will reach out with love and understanding to all of our neighbors at all times.

Your love for Jesus Christ and your discipleship in His cause must be the consuming preoccupation and passion of your mortality.

The longer a person attends church, the fewer evangelistic discussions they engage in with family members and friends. Fewer presentations of the life-changing plan of salvation are given, and fewer invitations to events that attractively present the message of Christ are offered, mostly because Christ-followers have fewer friends outside the faith to whom to offer them.

But to follow Jesus is not to imitate him, for following him does not mean becoming a Jesus oneself. Nor does it mean admiration of a hero and a mystical contemporaneity with him.[48] One follows Christ in one's own response to the mission of Christ at the present day and in taking up one's own cross.

Now I begin to be a disciple. . . . Let fire and cross, flocks of beasts, broken bones, dismemberment, come upon me, so long as I attain to Jesus Christ. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.

God makes us a new creation in Christ, forgiving our sins and forming us into the Church. The purpose of evangelizing is to make Jesus Christ known and to invite people to be part of the company of his disciples in the Church. The motive of evangelizing is gratitude for what Christ has given us. The method of evangelizing entails our own personal renewal in the faith and in living Christ's life in his body, the Church.

To serve the Lord requires personal sacrifices. If one is not willing to pay the price he should never commit himself.

Once we meet a good teacher we should throw away everything else and just get on with it.

When a person is evoked for who she is, not who she is not, the most often result will be the inner healing of her heart through the touch of affirmation. Jesus said you are to love one another as I have loved you, a love that will possibly lead to the bloody, anguish gift of yourself, a love that forgives seven times seven, that keeps no record of wrong. This is the criterion, sole norm, the standard of discipleship in the New Israel of God.

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness. Buffeted by the fickle winds of failure, battered by their own unruly emotions, and bruised by rejection and ridicule, authentic disciples may have stumbled and frequently fallen, endured lapses and relapses, gotten handcuffed to the fleshpots and wandered into a far county. Yet, they kept coming back to Jesus.

I can state unequivocally that childlike surrender in trust is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship. And I would add that the supreme need in most of our lives is often the most overlooked—namely, the need for an uncompromising trust in the love of God. Furthermore, I would say that, while there are times when it is good to go to God as might a ragged beggar to the King of kings, it is vastly superior to approach God as a little child would approach his or her papa.

The Christian commitment is not an abstraction. It is a concrete, visible, courageous, and formidable way of being in the world, forged by daily choices consistent with inner truth. A commitment that is not visible in humble service, suffering discipleship, and creative love is an illusion.

discipleship, or the following of Christ, was not simply the most important thing in life—it was the only thing.

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness.

To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace. Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners. There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness. Buffeted by the fickle winds of failure, battered by their own unruly emotions, and bruised by rejection and ridicule, authentic disciples may have stumbled and frequently fallen, endured lapses and relapses, gotten handcuffed to the fleshpots, and wandered into a far country. Yet they kept coming back to Jesus.

Why do we judge Jesus' criterion for authentic discipleship irrelevant? Jesus said the world is going to recognize you as His by only one sign: the way you are with one another on the street every day.

For the disciple of Jesus, being like a child means accepting oneself as being of little account, unimportant.