Making Disciples

One of my life long goals is to learn something new every day. I am an information hound who enjoys books, documentaries and museums. But knowing things and gaining information is not the be all end all of the Christian life. Information does play its role, but that is not all that Jesus asked of us in the great commission. He asked for us to make disciples and to teach them and to baptize them.

Discipleship cannot be fully understood outside of the Jewish culture and the ultimate rabbi, Jesus. Jesus called men to follow him in all that he did and to dedicate their lives to imitating him. There were times of formal learning but there were many more times of informal (relational) learning. Discipleship in this sense requires proximity more than information.

After all, our goal in making disciples is not smart people, but changed people. As we follow Christ, may we lead others to imitate Jesus just as the disciples did.

Strength

2 Corinthians 12:10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I’m dwelling on this verse. I know my strength comes from the Lord in all things, but it isn’t easy to “take pleasure in my weaknesses…insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles”.

Each day lately, I’m leaning hard into Him and asking Him to be my strength. That way He will always be glorified when I am strong, for my flesh is weak every day.

In whatever you are feeling weak today, will you thank Him for it and ask Him to step in and be your strength?

Weight

As I prepare to speak at my grandmothers’ funeral, I am struck with the passage in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Two of the phrases stick out to me: light momentary afflictions and eternal weight in glory. Our lives’ heaviest burdens are light and short lived compared to the heaviness of God’s eternal glory. Our limited understanding and experience will be overwhelmed by being in the presence of God. God’s majesty is more than we can grasp, contain, and bear.

As I think about my grandmothers’ life, I see it in a different light that will only be understood in eternity. May the weight of God’s glory burden you to know Christ and live for Him on this earth.