Discipleship ...

Monday, March 14, 2016. Part of human life is to learn, to be trained. Usually, we learn from a teacher, and for more complicated things we need to learn personally, we need to work with a teacher, need to see him do things and then do it ourselves. Discipleship is important when it comes to science - where after studies we usually work as PhD student or postdoc with some professor. It is a form of discipleship.

Learning from Jesus …

In the New Testament we hear about the disciples of Jesus from the very beginning. The twelve apostles are also called the twelve disciples. But the name is also used for the 70 disciples, and then for everyone who follows him, who believes in him and has trusted his life into the hands of Jesus.

It is important to see that discipleship is a a very natural part of human life. We are all disciples of someone in some periods of our life, when we learn and when we are trained. God is just using the mechanism which he created himself, since we are all made by him. Humans grow up, and they learn from their parents. We can learn from our father in heaven - through his son Christ Jesus, and through the other disciples, who are ahead on their path of faith.

Today, we have many tools and helpful things when it comes to discipleship. First, we have the bible itself. We have the stories and reports about Jesus, but also the Old Testament with all its comments and stories about the life and the experiences of people of faith in the living eternal God. It is a fantastic resource. But it is not all we have!

The Word and the Brothers …

We have brothers and sisters in faith. We have all the other Christians, who follow Jesus. We have all those, who trusted their life into his hands, and who live with him day by day. Of course, we are all not perfect - except for the perfect grace which we receive through Jesus. We are all on the way, all walking, all traveling in a strange world, all struggling with some part of our life, and all gifted with the gifts of the holy spirit. We are all worthy, all made worthy to serve and to act and to talk, through the grace of God in Jesus.

Yesterday morning, the senior bible reading circle led the worship service in our church. These are the 60+ people of our church - and they started by saying that it is a characteristic of age that you have a lot of experiences. Then, they talked about their experiences, four stories about hard times of life, and how they kept faith, how God went through these difficult times with them, and how they found back to his grace. It was just very moving, and very inspiring as well!

Discipleship starts with the decision that you want God to shape your life. It starts with the decision to trust Jesus, to trust your life into his hands, all of it. Then, he can start to shape you, to move you by his love, to give you his patience and grace and mercy. Let go, what you try to control yourself, and trust it into his hands! Discipleship is the path to grow in faith, to live in faith, to walk in faith! We have wonderful templates in the apostles, in the evangelists, in the many people the bible talks about. And we have further inspiration and help by our brothers and sisters in faith, who walk with us, every week, every day! What are your next steps of discipleship? Where are you going with the Lord? (RWEP) ... more texts