Real Life Discipleship–Part 6
A Vital Question Can you be a Christian without being a disciple? A lot of discussion exists on this topic today. The thought is common in our world today that a disciple of Jesus is a “spiritual guru.” Some say that being a “disciple” is for the “spiritual elite”—perhaps pastors and missionaries, but not the average […]
Nuggets and Nuances–II Timothy 2:22
Context, Context, Context I remember very vividly my hermeneutics professor in Bible college. One thing he used to tell us in almost every class was “context is king.” I have also heard it said that “context is key;” either way, context is important. We cannot allow ourselves to interpret a verse apart from the context! This […]
Real Life Discipleship–Part 5
Quality Or Quantity As we continue to think about discipleship, I would like to think about the importance of quality time. When it comes to a discipleship relationship, we need to focus on quality over quantity. What do I mean by this? Jesus spent a large amount of time with crowds of people. If you were […]
Real Life Discipleship–Part 4
Where We Are Heading We have been talking about discipleship in these articles, and I have been attempting to help us all understand the nature of Biblical discipleship and develop better discipleship relationships in our lives. Today I would like to focus on the call to discipleship. How did Jesus go about making disciples? Jesus […]
Real Life Discipleship–Part 3
A Crucial Question When talking about discipleship, a question that must be answered early on is “what is a disciple?” Many different definitions have been offered, and most of them are not particularly right or wrong. A disciple is a learner. The Greek word for disciple, mathetes, at its base level means a learner. A disciple […]
Real Life Discipleship–Part 1
Introduction I have been thinking about discipleship. Discipleship is a word that we hear a lot in “church circles”. Sad to say, many believers do not understand what God intends when it comes to discipleship. Too often we think of discipleship in terms of “us” and what we do for God. “I am a disciple […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 9
Where We’ve Been We are nearing the end of our evaluation of leadership lessons from the life of Nehemiah. We have seen so many valuable insights from this man who committed himself to following God’s desires and leading God’s people towards growth and change! Today I would like to focus on the opposition that Nehemiah faced. Every […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 8
Cathching Up We have been walking through excerpts from the book of Nehemiah and making observations regarding lessons in leadership from his example. Last week we focused on how Nehemiah took his plan and made it public as he went before the king to seek permission to return to Israel and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We pick […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 7
Leader’s Lead A pastor friend of mine, one who has been a mentor to me in my own ministry, has told me that “leader’s lead.” The phrase sounds simple and maybe common sense, but the concept truly is profound. We have many “leaders” in our world today, but not all leaders lead. A difference exists […]
