Discipleship Quotes - Page 2

Our awareness of God starts where self-sufficiency ends.

The Holy Ghost is no temporary gift, He abides with the saints. We have but to seek Him aright, and He will be found of us. He is jealous, but He is pitiful; if He leaves in anger, He returns in mercy. Condescending and tender, He does not weary of us, but awaits to be gracious still.

Many pastors have been reduced to secular "mentors" and "coaches" in exchange for authentic disciplers of men.

It is one thing to know what is to come. It is another thing to confront it.

Salvation is a gift. Godliness is the pursuit.

(William) Deresiewicz offers a vision of what it takes to move from adolescence to adulthood. Everyone is born with a mind, he writes, but it is only through introspection, observation, connecting the head and the heart, making meaning of experience and finding an organizing purpose that you build a unique individual self.

She chose to look at her surroundings where they "think missionary" mind-set.

We think in terms of apostolic journeys. God dares to put His greatest ambassadors in chains.

The imitation of Christ is the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.

Alex had cooked, and coaxed, and helped Mark form borders around the shapeless days. Alex had given meaning to the word "servant".

Do what you are doing. Monastic motto

You will only learn in a fight how much you've got to learn.

She had been carried away by the need to defend herself.

To understand desire, one needs language and flesh.

While he was conscious of improving at every stroke, he did not feel that the other was asserting any superiority over him; and so, though more humble than at the most disastrous period of his downward voyage, he was getting into a better temper every minute.

Never go into venture capital if you want a peaceful life.

The wings of the dove are as soft as they are swift. Gentleness is a sure result of the Sacred Dove's transforming power: hearts touched by His benign influence are meek and lowly henceforth and for ever.

She would know a good thing to do without thinking about it.

What makes a mother? Looking at your child and identifying emotion

There are no shortcuts to maturity in discipleship; it was, is, and always will be learned over time and under pressure walking in union with Christ."~R. Alan Woods [2013]

...there is still a need for those of us nestled deep within the Christian bubble to look beyond the status quo and critically assess the degree to which we are really living biblically.

A sacred space is not a place to hide out. It is a place where we recognize ourselves and our commitments.

You cannot force people to walk with God. You cannot force them to repent. All you can do is live with integrity and invite them to do so as well. Take things a step at a time. Give them consequences when they refuse to deal with serious issues, and pray. Pray like the dickens. Pray every step of the way.

Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we received as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety.

God is the I AM that I AM not the I AM that we wish.

I have traveled millions of miles, speaking to Christians. I have counseled privately with hundreds of them about their beliefs and lifestyles. What I have found has to be one of the most tragic ironies of all time: A tiny group of believers who have the Gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story.

A Christian atmosphere is no protection against preening egos.

He (Peter) doesn't know if he's looking into the eyes of a madman, or the eyes of a King.

Despite the huge crowd, He speaks to His disciples as though no one else is there.

Yanked out of the present, Adam discovered the richness of the past in people's stories.

The call of God is a call according to the nature of God; where we go in obedience to that call depends entirely on the providential circumstances which God engineers, and is not of any moment. The danger is to fit the call of God into the idea of our own discernment and say, “God called me there.” If we say so and stick to it, then it is good-bye to the development of the life of God in us.

You can't guide someone into adulthood. The experiences are unique to each person. Deanna Troi

The desire to experience new kinds of community led a number of thoughtful and idealistic people to reject the patterns of vocation, family life and religion with which they had grown up. Their attempt to establish new patterns of social bonding in uncontaminated rural retreats can be seen as a secular monasticism, but they often discovered that to abolish the boundaries of authority, family and property created a whole series of problems which they did not have the spiritual and personal resources to solve.At their best, such groups have opened up new horizons of discipleship, but they have often learned some hard lessons about the intractable sinfulness and selfishness of partly-redeemed human nature.

A disciple can be forgiven if he does not have great mental ability. He can be forgiven also if he does not display outstanding physical prowess. But no disciple can be excused if he does not have zeal. If his heart is not aflame with a red-hot passion for the Savior, he stands condemned.

You should train disciples and followers to work and perform better than you did

It was well to be Martha and serve, but better to be Lazarus and commune.

Development is a voluntary process. You need a positive decision to make the right steps, but it starts with introspection.

The purpose of prayer is not for the disciple to give information to God. The purpose of prayer is intimacy with God.

Workers who can consistently decide with clarity and ease which tasks are most important when under pressure are the most prized in every organization. Highly focused in pressure-cooker situations, they rise to meet the challenges of an opportunity-saturated workplace that demands tough calls at every step.

We have to grow into Scripture, like a young boy inheriting his older brother's clothes and flopping around in them, but he gradually builds out and grows up. Perhaps it's a measure of our maturity when parts of Scripture that we found odd or even repellent suddenly come up in a new light. Our sense is overtaken by a sense of the whole thing, wide, multicolored, and unspeakably powerful.

If I am to have faith when I pray, I must find some promise in the Word of God to rest my faith on

Many beginners also at times possess great spiritual avarice. They hardly ever seem content with the spirit God gives them. They become unhappy and peevish because they don't find the consolation they want in spiritual things. Many never have enough of hearing counsels, or learning spiritual maxims, or keeping them and reading books about them. They spend more time in these than in striving after mortification and the perfection of the interior poverty to which they are obliged.

God never encourages self-reliance.

If we spend our days trying to avoid the landmines of stepping out of God's will, then will be afraid to take any risks for his kingdom. But when you know there is a net of grace, when you know that God will catch you and set you back on his path when you fall, then you'll feel the freedom to pursue the adventure that kingdom living is all about.

God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out air-quality. He knew it already. It was I who did. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the day all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize that fact was to knock it down.

You think you're a role model, and they (protégés)turn around and tell you you're a negative role model.

Knowledge (curriculum) and behavior (pedagogy) are embedded in everyone’s core beliefs about the nature of God, humanity, and the world.

The Jesus Movement had survived the fad phase and was settling down for the long haul.

The counselee should be aware that you are not God. Better yet, she should be aware that you are aware that you are not God.

The Church, like her head, has a glory, but it is concealed from carnal eyes, for the time of her breaking forth in all her splendour is not yet come.

Kings can only use their best tools.

We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price.

My feelings are important for many things. They are essential and valuable. They keep me aware of much that is true and real. But they tell me next to nothing about God or my relation to God. My security comes from who God is, not from how I feel. Discipleship is a decision to live by what I know about God, not by what I feel about Him or my neighbors.

I think I should be allowed to be only fair, or even mediocre, for a while.

We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.

Pain is holy ground in a person's life.

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.

The seed of acceptable devotion must come from heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which comes from God can go to God.

There are only three ways to teach a child. The first is by example, the second is by example, the third is by example.

God's way leads always into trial, so far as sight and sense are concerned. Nature always will be tried in God's ways.