Discipleship Quotes - Page 3

That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away

We can actually live out the trials and temptations of the day before they come. We can in prayer deal with all our unrighteous aspirations, selfishness, perverse inclinations, impatience, anger, procrastination. This is a form of spiritual creation.

I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven.

It was the responsibility of a senior fireman to teach as well as to do.

Struggle is a prerequisite to surrender.

When people turn other people into selfobjects, they are trying to turn a person into a kind of spare part.

Conversions were easy, but making full-time disciples was hard.

Many pastors would rather preach God's Word and keep their distance than invest in a personal one-on-one counseling ministry. Most pastors counsel because they have to, not because they want to.

Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service, we must experience the many little death of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial

John D Rockefeller read his Bible religiously, but kept his ledger in a different drawer.

The common soldiers did not blame him for his excessive grief. They knew him. They knew his flaws. Indeed, I think they loved him all the more because he was flawed, as they were, and did not hide his passionate, blemished nature.

Even though Paul knew farewells were inevitable, he still formed deep relationships.

Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults that we would like. It's the only way we grow.

The teacher-student relationship evaporated, replaced by a rich and lively exchange of equals.

Freedom in the Gospel does not mean license. It means opportunity.

He was perceived to be intellectually promiscuous, a little too eager to please all groups.

The struggle of today, is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also.

Someone once said that Stephen Austin didn't like preachers at all. He swore that "one preacher could stir up more trouble than a dozen horse thieves." Matthew's Gospel reminds us that it is the role of a disciple of Jesus to stir up trouble by playing an active, resistant role in the struggle of good and evil, by resisting the ways of the world and its power bases – economic, religious, nationalistic, politic, military – which are most often in direct opposition to the ways of the Kingdom of God and the way of discipleship.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend, so I figure I better get moving.

Christ never told his disciples that they would get an Academy Award for their performances, but He did tell them to expect to have troubles.

A colleague like Barnabas could comfort him (Paul) in illness and keep him from overstrain when fit.

As you call people to submit to the Person of Christ, you can trust the Spirit of Christ to lead them to salvation.

Why do so many today want to wander off to South Africa or Kenya or India or Russia or Honduras or Costa Rica or Peru to help with justice issues but not spend the same effort in their own neighborhood or community or state? Why do young suburbanites, say in Chicago, want to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to help people but not want to spend that same time to go to the inner city in their own area to help with justice issues? I asked this question to a mature student in my office one day, and he thought he had a partial explanation: 'Because my generation is searching for experiences, and the more exotic and extreme the better. Going down the street to help at a food shelter is good and it is just and some of us are doing that, but it's not an experience. We want experiences.

Edmondson has incisively discussed the ways college campuses have grown akin to upscale retirement homes for the very young, where the promise of intellectually demanding courses ranks far below the lure of new gymnastic facilities.

Something greater than me was happening. And yet, it was happening to me.

Being that 'reason is not antithetical to faith' (Woods) and that Pentecost established the Reality of super-nature (Lewis) and that 'theology matters' (Wimber), then 'empowered evangelicalism' (Nathan) is the natural expression of discipleship."~R. Alan Woods [2013]

All relationships are teleological, are going somewhere.

Martin Luther used to say temptation is the best teacher for a minister.

True masters deconstruct as well as reconstruct.

Increasingly we confused the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of pleasure.

When an actor reaches down into his emotional well and pulls up a deeply personal response, the audience can sense something special is going on. They may not know exactly what they're seeing, but they recognize it as authentic.

You can leave the Word of God to wound and kill it need not be yourselves cutting in phrase in manner.

In the earliest days of World War II when London was undergoing the blitz but the United States had not yet been drawn into the hostilities, the US ambassador walked the streets during the hottest of the bombing and ask people at every level of British society what he could do to help. What a picture of our role as ambassadors of Christ's coming Kingdom!

The Jesus People experience proved to be a staging area for tens of thousands of young Americans who were making up their mind about marriage, schooling, and careers

Exercise and proper eating habits are very important, since the Bible says that the body is God’s holy temple, but I don’t think that superbodies equate with committed Christian discipleship. Some of the greatest saints I’ve known have been those with physical infirmities.

It is important not only to read God's Word but to interpret God's world in the light of the Word.

God does not discipline us to subdue us but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness. In His wisdom, He knows that an uncontrolled life is an unhappy life, so He puts reins on our wayward souls that they may be directed into the paths of righteousness.

They chose to regard it as a miraculous preservation.

He had a courtly way of exclaiming over whatever was exclaimable in people – especially kids.

Do your best, and your best will be growing better.

Kingdom is a signpost to the holy.

I always have the feeling we are merely fearfully trying to save room for God; I would rather speak of God at the center than at the limits, in strength rather than weakness, and thus in human life and goodness rather than in death and guilt.

[Mary] says her memories Will help those of usNewly come to our Lord’s mercy,To live in His light.

We advise disciples not to follow anyone. Let them follow themselves. Each one should follow his resplendent and luminous inner Being.

Sometimes a citizenry should not simply "be good". You have to leave space for dissent, real dissent.

The author offers Paul Tripp's analogy that most of the strategies for growth in the Christian life amounts to stapling live roses on a dead bush.

The power of the bleeding love of God is stronger than the power of Caesar, of the law, of Mars, Mammon, Aphrodite and the rest. This is the point that Paul grasped. And that is the reason for the Colossians' gratitude. The battle has been won.

Last words of his mother to his father: "Keep eternity before the children.

Our nearness to the king in love is nearness to those who love not the king.

G-rated language is making me a less angry person. Behavior shapes emotion.

I suppose it's unfair, tricks of argument that leave wounds, but with this sort of thing that (C.S.) Lewis does, what I feel is a craftsman's joy at the sight of a superior performance.

My job is not to get between YOU and God. My job is to put your hand IN God's hand.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a visible verbal follower of Jesus Christ at the expense of the ones and things that they hold dear. It's that serious.

It is only when you suffer that you truly understand.

The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards Him.

The most tragic thing anyone could ever say to us is “Oh – you're a Christian? I had no idea!” It is not who we say we are, but how we are recognized. Let's remember, “In Antioch the disciples were first called Christians “ and By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Dear brothers and sisters, let our walk match our talk and be doers of the word...

The author describes a previous Bible study with a lot of turnover as "not so much together as in each other's midst.

On Christ's attitude toward His disciples: "If I gave away My big all to get to you, can you give away your little all to follow Me?

Our task is to carry the Lord's peace into every situation, into every duty.

One of the emotional affordances of digital communication is that one can always hide behind deliberated nonchalance.