That whole relationship with King Saul and David was definitely out of sorts. So I tried to apply it today and I think of have found a connection. First, did we not see this in the disciples? One or two try to be the greater, the most favourite the most liked/loved? Today, maybe I should say in ministry, we see competition, jealousy and self-assertion. Why is all of this messy? Because David was Saul’s most faithful servant and yet Saul is threatened by his competence and his success.  Why? If God has given each of us a spiritual gift or gifts, to enable us to excel in a certain area of ministry, can we not joy in the strength that God gives others?  We can either seek to benefit or we can resist them with a competitive spirit. It does make me wonder how much of this competitive spirit has created ministries all because their doctrine is rooted in jealousy and envy when it should be in faithfulness to God and His Word.

Faithfulness to God is an indispensable virtue. May I find it in myself as I grow as a disciple.

I am reminding myself one more time that a disciple is not only a Christ follower who grows in Christ-likeness but also produces Christ-like disciples. A spiritual parent, like the apostle Paul, and maybe someone I could be, is one who is intentional about living out the mission of raising disciples who can make disciples.

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless^[b] guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent^[c] you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,^[d] as I teach them everywhere in every church. – I Corinthians 4:14-17  ESV

I think more easily in calling myself a guide, but Paul is passionate about his role as a spiritual father who has a very special relationship with the church.

His imagery of a parent, both the mother and the father, are used to describe his earlier role as a discipler within the early church. I believe it best illustrates that discipleship is my life and that my spiritual DNA is to reproduce into the life of another.