#disciples

When Jesus calls his disciples 'brothers' and 'friends', he is contradicting general Jewish usage and breaking through into a new concept of brotherhood which is not tribal, but open to any person. ↗

— David Kirk

#breaking #brotherhood #brothers #calls #concept

The Christian message has a moral challenge. If the message is true, the moral challenge has to be accepted. So God is not a fit object for man’s detached scrutiny. You cannot fix God at the end of a telescope or a microscope and say “How interesting!” God is not interesting. He is deeply upsetting. The same is true of Jesus Christ … We know that to find God and to accept Jesus Christ would be a very inconvenient experience. It would involve the rethinking of our whole outlook on life and the readjustment of our whole manner of life. And it is a combination of intellectual and moral cowardice which makes us hesitate. We do not find because we do not seek. We do not seek because we do not want to find, and we know that the way to be certain of not finding is not to seek … Christ’s promise is plain: "Seek and you will find. ↗

— John R.W. Stott

#christ #cost-of-discipleship #experience

The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said. ↗

— Dallas Willard

#faith #faith

We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live. ↗

— Elisabeth Elliot

#letting-go #life

Fortunately, God made all varieties of people with a wide variety of interests and abilities. He has called people of every race and color who have been hurt by life in every manner imaginable. Even the scars of past abuse and injury can be the means of bringing healing to another. What wonderful opportunities to make disciples! ↗

— Charles R. Swindoll

#comparison #discipleship #god #leadership #witnessing

Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Some people mature into an understanding of God’s will more quickly than others because they obey more readily; they more readily sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God. ↗

— Oswald Chambers

#maturity #obedience #life

It never cost a disciple anything to follow Jesus; to talk about cost when you are in love with anyone is an insult. ↗

— Oswald Chambers

#discipleship #love

Giving up everything must mean giving over everything to kingdom purposes, surrendering everything to further the one central cause, loosening our grip on everything. For some of us, this may mean ridding ourselves of most of our possessions. But for all of us it should mean dedicating everything we retain to further the kingdom. (For true disciples, however, it cannot mean hoarding or using kingdom assets self-indulgently.) ↗

— Randy Alcorn

#discipleship #giving #grip #hoarding #kingdom

Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. ↗

— A.W. Tozer

#discipleship #spiritual-growth #effort

...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. ↗

— Francis Chan

#christian #christianity #counter-cultural #discipleship #normal