#disciple

I do not politicize Christianity nor my discipleship as Jesus did not politicize either His divinity nor his humanity. ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#discipleship #humanity-humans #politicization #r-alan-woods #r-alan-woods

Don't get me wrong, I like NASCAR and shopping at Nordstrom's, but discipleship is intrinsic as a lifestyle." ~R. Alan Woods [2013] ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#lifestyle #r-alan-woods #spirituality #r-alan-woods

To me there is no more tragic sight than the average missionary. …We have given so much, yet not the one thing that counts; we aspire so high, and fall so low; we suffer so much, but so seldom with Christ; we have done so much and so little will remain; we have known Christ in part, and have so effectively barricaded our hearts against His mighty love, which surely He must yearn to give His disciples above all people. ↗

— Amy Carmichael

#disciple #love #missionary #tragic #love

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

God is not preparing you for anything; obedience is its own end in the purpose of God; be faithful to Him. ↗

— Oswald Chambers

#faith

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

My life is too short, and God’s work is too great for me to think of making a home for myself in this world. ↗

— George Eliot

#home

When in situations of stress, we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capabilities perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and were found equal to our tasks; and therefore, let us continue but with a more determined discipleship." (Ensign, Feb. 1979, 73.) ↗

— Neal Maxwell

#succeed #equality

By giving us control, our new technologies tend to enhance existing idols in our lives. Instead of becoming more like Christ through the forming and shaping influence of the church community, we form, and shape, and personalize our community to make it more like us. We take control of things that are not ours to control. Could it be that our desire for control is short-circuiting the process of change and transformation God wants us to experience through the mess of real world, flesh and blood, face-to-face relationships? ↗

— Tim Challies

#discipleship #idolatry #change

Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision. ↗

— David Kinnaman

#regeneration #transformation #faith