Instruct

Hannah keeps showing me the way when it comes to discipleship.

And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. – 1 Samuel 1:26 ESV

Who would have remembered her promise – only God – and for God’s sake, she came and put her son Samuel under the care of Eli to disciple, instruct and enter him into service as a servant in the temple. I found out that normally a person would start training at age 25. I wonder how Eli felt having the young boy around him?

Remember when Jesus said that to be a disciple one would have to give up everything – even their children. Hannah was our example. Where is that kind of integrity today – this resolve to be faithful to our commitment to God whatever may come our way.

Paul wants to point us to the Holy Spirit as the person we need to come to in order to receive this kind of resolve.

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by^[a] the flesh? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith – Galatians 3:2-3,5 ESV

To even come to the idea that we can fall back to what was, that never worked, does not make sense. If I am a learner, a disciple, to shut my mind is the end of discipleship.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” – Galatians 3:10 ESV

When will we see that no one can keep the Law – cannot fulfill the Law at all – why do we keep going back to it when all it brings is a curse.

So we give ourselves up and we give others up to a new family – the family of God. St. Augustine said something to this end – “It is greater for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than the mother of Christ” (Sermon 72).

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave^[g] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28 ESV

I am so thankful that God has provided us individuals all around us to share the Gospel with and whom we can disciple.

Shout for joy to God, all the earth – Psalm 66:1 ESV

Rest in ourselves and in another

When someone who is competent comes alongside us we can truly understand what rest means as they undertake for us in so many ways. So when I rest in Jesus I am saying that I have found – in the words expressed in the book of Ruth – my advocate, brother, friend, kinsman, Saviour, and Redeemer. When I enter into His rest, it is like I can cease striving on my own works – something like the way Mary and Martha interacted.

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? – Ruth 3:1 ESV

More importantly, Galatians points out my true rest for my righteous come in Jesus because of the work He did.

Yet we know that a person is not justified^[b] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. – Galatians 2:16 ESV

I know that I cannot, nor can the ministry of the Navigators, fulfill the Great Commission on our own. To do so would open a window to competition and conflict. However, as I accept my particular assignment given to me by God and when it is confirmed by the leadership of those in ministry around me, there is harmony.

The Navigators have what we call a Wheel Illustration that helps put together the core disciplines of our walk with Jesus. At the hub of this wheel is Jesus. It symbols total surrender to His authority and lordship. That probably does not happen right at the moment when we ask Him to be part of our lives, but it will become a necessary act of our will.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20 ESV

I believe that God even creates the desire to obey so that we have the opportunity to express His lordship in our lives.

“When we are fully surrendered, we are fully functional.”

So my life as a disciple has another added element. I am a disciple when I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour, yielded to Him as Lord and received Him into my life.

Prayer and Ministry

The Lord’s Prayer – Hillsong Worship

I am not too sure why praying is the last resort for most of us who serve in ministry because it is so essential to living in the kingdom of God.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” – Mark 11:17 ESV

Even though this verse offered a rebuke, it also offered us an insight to how Jesus viewed the traditions of worship in relationship to the law. He did not come to destroy it but to fulfill it. As long as the temple remained He honoured it and encouraged His disciples to do so. He kept its feasts, and taught and healed those who came to worship. This act of cleansing came because of the act of desecration they had committed to an appointed house of prayer.

Isaiah actually quoted these words first:

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.” – Isaiah 56:6-7 ESV

What is the body language of my ministry? A ministry becomes a praying ministry by praying.

Jesus statement to me, especially in my role as a fund-raiser, is to ensure that I do not use religious acts of worship to gain financial resources. At the same time, in my act of ministry, I am to focus on calling His people to a true relationship with God. A relationship that flows from prayer and intimacy.

What is one thing I need to do to be a disciple?

When I engage with the idea of stepping into the kingdom of God and living there, I am finding more and more these days that it has to be something I want more than anything else. It was a place I lived as a teenager and somehow have lost that intensity as I married, had children and lived out my calling in my ministry. I loved so many things more.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:26 ESV

There is no doubt that the family is one of the most important institutions God ordained that represents Himself in the Trinity and His call to honour mother and father is all over the sixty-six books of the Bible – but this verse speaks about the intensity of my relationship with Jesus has to be more than that. In fact, if not, how do I take the next step in calling myself a disciple? Disciples put Jesus first.

I can go really dogmatic here because Jesus is putting some strong words forward. But dogmatic Jesus is not. He loves and wants to draw us into His love and needs us to know how He expects us to live out our lives. He wants to challenge me to go beyond being an observer to being a committed disciple of Jesus. A committed disciple of Jesus knows that His words are everything and will commit themselves to following them.

I find myself repeating the same thing again – I come to Jesus as a disciple without reservations – I set Him first. Other relationships are definitely of lower priority than faithfulness and obedience to Jesus.

Jesus scared people away by the things He taught. People would flock to hear His teachings and after they heard they often quickly leave Him. One time an entire crowd walked away only leaving the Twelve.

Maybe the hardest words are not about priority of love, maybe it is simply ” I cannot be His disciple.” Grace is such a big part of our language these days and the radical call to complete sacrifice is also true. I believe that grace initiates and provides, so am I still called to make this life-altering, priority choice? When it comes down to it, fellowship is not the same as discipleship and seeds and soil causing germination is not the same as fruit bearing.

More and more I see my love relationship with Jesus is not a give-and-take proposition in which I sacrifice some things and hold tightly on to others. It’s everything. My love for Jesus has to be real, maybe even perfect, definitely strong, so that everything else kind of disappears in comparison. I must be prepared to surrender everything.

If I were to look at the following verses from Luke chapter 14, here would be the summary points of what it means, or what the requirements would be for me to walk as a true disciple.

Love God supremely
Take up Jesus’ cross
Follow Jesus
Count the cost
Fulfill my one purpose in life

Loyalty

From Over Hill and Plain

One thing we can all say about Ruth is that she was loyal and dedicated in following Naomi.

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. – Ruth 1:16 ESV

Her example is the kind of loyalty that marks a good disciple of Jesus. It looks like a loyalty that will assume any risks – accepting whatever losses are called for and steadily committed to following.

Ruth’s trust in God was real and her response was an expression of faithfulness. She was turning her back on her people in Moab. She was going to stay with Naomi until death. She does not mention her god, but instead appeals to Yahweh. Makes me think of Jesus’ expression of a disciple – forsake all and if not, you cannot be my disciple.

Naomi does that – she says count the cost if you keep following me. Ruth persevered. She was not diligent one day and lazy the next. I am challenged in the same way to approach God every day. It is not the person who starts well that wins the race but the one that perseveres.

I love that God honours a gentle and quiet spirit displayed in genuine humility. I am taught once again to offer sacrificial service.

Her trust may not have been well informed, but it was real. Simeon remarks, “Her views of religion might not be clear: but it is evident that a principle of vital godliness was rooted in her heart, and powerfully operative in her life. In fact, she acted in perfect conformity with that injunction that was afterwards given by our Lord, ‘Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple’. – Leon Morris

Paul must have struggled too, especially in the first few years following his transformation. After three years he plans a trip to Jerusalem hoping to see Peter but he needed Barnabas’ help just to get in. I think he saw his loyalty but others had not the chance to see it until later.

They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one. – Psalm 53:3

This Psalm is upsetting as it describes what happens when we are not loyal. A good word for me to heed to today as I commit and persevere today in being loyal to following Jesus.