Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Discipleship (02/23/04)
TITLE: True Discipleship By Jenks Brutus 02/27/04 |
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND |
Interior dependence is the true meaning of “making disciples”. Jesus, in Luke 9:23 said to His disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The denying of oneself here is not merely the outward display of material things. The denying here Jesus is referring to is the surrendering of ourselves to Him so that His life will be lived out in us. In John 15:5, Jesus gives us a taste of discipleship. He says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” The secret of discipleship is fruit bearing. Discipleship apart from Christ is vain because without Jesus we can do nothing. Philippians 1:11 tells us that these fruits are “fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ for the glory of God”. What fruits are produce in the life of the believer by Jesus Christ, to the glory of God? Galatians 5:22,23 tells us that the Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Discipleship is nothing more than the believer surrendering his/her life to Jesus, allowing Jesus to live His life in them, producing the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God. Philippians 2:13 says “It is God that worketh in you both to will, and to do His own pleasures.”
The story is told of a famous African missionary who had made this type of commitment and as a result gave up a lucrative medical practice in order to tell the Africans about Jesus. His selfless love for those Africans bore a marvelous transformation in the hearts of all those whom he had come into contact with. He was so loved and appreciated by all that when he died, the Africans he served carried his body 400 hundred miles inland to the coast of Africa to hand over his body to the British government who wanted to give him a royal burial. Now Jesus may not ask that we give up our jobs in order to become witnesses for Him, but this story of this missionary’s life exemplifies what God can do in one man, women, boy, or girl who is willing to say “All to Jesus I surrender”. It was not what he did on the surface that made him a great missionary; it was his dependence on Jesus to help him love those Africans.
Oswald Chambers, a true man of God, states in his book God’s Workmanship, that
“It is comparatively easy to proclaim salvation from sin, but Jesus comes and says, What about you—if you desire to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up that cross daily, and follow me. It has nothing to do with external salvation, or exterior performance, it has everything to do with our temporal value to God…There is something infinitely grander than that, and Jesus Christ gives us a marvelous chance of giving up our right to ourselves to Him in order that we might become the devoted bondslaves of the One who saves us supernaturally.”
Discipleship is a surrendered dependant life given wholly over to Jesus Christ to do whatever He bids us to do. After all, He knows the hearts of men better then we can ever know them.