#disciple

Play to your strengths.” “I haven’t got any,” said Harry, before he could stop himself. “Excuse me,” growled Moody, “you’ve got strengths if I say you’ve got them. ↗

— J.K. Rowling

#education #encouragement #exhortation #prophecy #education

Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea! ↗

— Wei Wu Wei

#disciples #form #forms #religion #religious

If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation. ↗

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#christ #christianity #discipleship #discipline #fasting

Let not him who accepts light in an instant despise him who gropes months in shadows. ↗

— Elisabeth Elliot

#salvation #life

Jesus-shaped spirituality hears Jesus say "believe and repent," but the call that resonates most closely in the heart of a disciple is "follow me." The command to follow requires that we take a daily journey in the company of other students. It demands that we be lifelong learners and that we commit to constant growth in spiritual maturity. Discipleship is a call to me, but it is a journey of "we. ↗

— Michael Spencer

#internet-monk #jesus #spirituality #spiritual-growth

Many pastors have been reduced to secular "mentors" and "coaches" in exchange for authentic disciplers of men. ↗

— John Paul Warren

#john-paul-warren #leadershio #mentors #men

We listened, as all boys in their better moods will listen (ay, and men too for the matter of that), to a man whom we felt to be, with all his heart and soul and strength, striving against whatever was mean and unmanly and unrighteous in our little world. It was not the cold, clear voice of one giving advice and warning from serene heights to those who were struggling and sinning below, but the warm, living voice of one who was fighting for us and by our sides, and calling on us to help him and ourselves and one another. ↗

— Thomas Hughes

#education #encouragement #mentoring #education

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

— Cindy Jacobs

#truth #change

Nonsense! I have merely come to terms with the fact that I am perfect, and I have decided life must go on, and I must learn to live with myself... ↗

— C.N. Faust

#fantasy #faust #gay #horror #humor

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