106 results found

THREE SIMPLE COMMITMENTS

January 5, 2024 | choice, commitment, decision, discipleship, fellowship, jesus

“18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And

Doing Discipleship Together

July 9, 2023 | 2 Timothy 2:1-2 | discipleship, life on life discipleship

Many Christians don’t know how to be a disciple and they certainly don’t know how to make one! Many have the wrong impression that discipleship is for super Christians only, as if there were such a thing. But discipleship should be a condition of being a Christian. The fact that the Church has neglected this, that believers have neglected it, thinking they could receive Jesus as Savior without following and obeying Him as Lord, has resulted in a great many believers not experiencing the profound peace and abundant life that Christ came to give.

What can we do? How can we experience the peace and abundant life Christ promises? In the apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he instructed him as the pastor of the church at Ephesus to lead them to be a disciple-making church. Christ commands us to be a disciple-making church.

4 Key Areas of Discipleship

July 6, 2023 | believing, belonging, christian growth, discipleship, great commission, maturity, spiritual growth

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 18:19-20 ESV). “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and

Making Disciples Together

July 2, 2023 | Matthew 28:18-20 | discipleship, life on life discipleship

Jesus has given us a Great Commission to be and make disciples together! Yet, we often neglect this command. You can decide to be a disciple of Jesus and to obey His command to come together and make disciples.

In the gospel of Matthew, the resurrected Jesus commanded his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. We call this the Great Commission. This commission was given to all of His disciples together, which is another way of saying He commissioned the Church. We can obey Christ’s commission to the Church by making disciples together.

4 Devotions of Life Changing Small Groups

June 29, 2023 | Bible study, discipleship, fellowship, prayer, small groups

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 ESV). We’re not a church with small groups. We’re a church of small groups. Our church started in my living room with seven people. So, we’ve considered small groups to be one of the keys to fulfilling our

A Vision for Spiritual Formation

February 26, 2023 | Ephesians 4:11-16 | discipleship, spiritual growth

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave them a vision for being a church that builds up believers in love, growing them to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus. We can get a vision for being built up in love, growing up to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus.

Renovating our Relationships

February 12, 2023 | 1 John 4:7-21 | discipleship, relationships

All along, we are being shaped by these various relationships. We seek acceptance, but we are so bent and broken by sin, that we often experience rejection and in like manner, cause others to feel rejected by us. This is the human condition apart from God. We are all deeply wounded relationally. We are hurt. And hurt people, hurt people.

We’re relationally broken and only a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ can heal us and renovate our relationships. And what is the chief way that God moves to heal us? Love. In the apostle John’s first letter, he wrote to encourage believers to let the love of God heal and renovate their relationships with Him and with others. We can let the love of God renovate our relationships.

Renovating Our Body

February 5, 2023 | 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 | discipleship

How we view our bodies and how we use our bodies matters to God. How do you view your body? Do you have a love/hate relationship with your body? Do you struggle with your self-image because of your appearance? How much of your identity is connected to your body… its color, gender, height, weight, age, health, etc.? Have you ever wondered how God wants you to view your body? Does He call it evil or good? And what’s its real place in following Jesus? What’s God’s purpose for our bodies?

It just so happens that we’re not the first believers to struggle with questions about the body. The believers in Corinth had some of the same questions and God inspired Paul to respond to them. In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he responded to their questions about the body by challenging them to recognize God’s good and spiritual purpose for the body, so that they might submit their bodies to God for renovation. We can submit our bodies to God for renovation.

Renovating Our Will

January 29, 2023 | Romans 12:1-2 | discipleship

Have you learned to pray as Jesus did? Asking for the Father’s will in your life? Do you struggle with knowing and doing God’s will? Most Christians don’t have trouble knowing it, they have trouble obeying it. Why? Because we have what Willard calls “the splintered will.” This is a will that has been “splintered,” corrupted and turned against itself by choosing to its own way, rather than God’s. The splintered will asks, “How can I get my way?” Rather than, “How can I please God?” Manipulation, deception, seduction, and malice replace transparency, sincerity, and goodwill, as exaltation of self replaces submission and service to God.

But what would it look like for our hearts, our wills, to be in total alignment with God’s heart and will? Is this way of life even possible? In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he appealed to believers to fully submit themselves to God for renovation of the will, transforming it to know and follow God’s will.

Renovating Our Thinking

January 15, 2023 | Ephesians 4:17-24 | discipleship

What kind of ideas and images inhabit your mind, your thinking? Where did they come from? Do you have a mindset, a worldview, shaped by the Word of God as applied by the grace and Spirit of God? Or is your thinking shaped by the culture you’ve grown up in? The truth is, as believers, we all struggle with being “double-minded,” having competing ideas and images in our thinking. Some from God and some from the world.

God wants to renovate our thinking so that we have the mind of Christ. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught believers to yield their minds, their thinking, to Christ for renewal, for transformation, for renovation. We can yield our minds, our thinking, to Christ for renovation.