#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

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

Jesus did not command us to "develop" leaders. He commanded us to make "disciples". The world "develops" leaders, the Church "disciples" them. The two are not the same. ↗

— John Paul Warren

#discipleship #leadership #voice-of-the-nations #leadership

The call of God is a call according to the nature of God; where we go in obedience to that call depends entirely on the providential circumstances which God engineers, and is not of any moment. The danger is to fit the call of God into the idea of our own discernment and say, “God called me there.” If we say so and stick to it, then it is good-bye to the development of the life of God in us. ↗

— Oswald Chambers

#sovereignty-of-god #life

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

There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#charity #disciples #excitement #few #less

As preachers of the gospel of Jesus, do not expect worldly honors: these Jesus Christ neither took to himself, nor gave to his disciples. ↗

— Adam Clarke

#disciples #expect #gave #gospel #himself

Why do so many today want to wander off to South Africa or Kenya or India or Russia or Honduras or Costa Rica or Peru to help with justice issues but not spend the same effort in their own neighborhood or community or state? Why do young suburbanites, say in Chicago, want to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to help people but not want to spend that same time to go to the inner city in their own area to help with justice issues? I asked this question to a mature student in my office one day, and he thought he had a partial explanation: 'Because my generation is searching for experiences, and the more exotic and extreme the better. Going down the street to help at a food shelter is good and it is just and some of us are doing that, but it's not an experience. We want experiences. ↗

— Scot McKnight

#discipleship #inspirational #religion #experience

One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime. Nor is surrender to the will of God (per se) adequate to fullness of power in Christ. Maturity is the accomplishment of years, and I can only surrender to the will of God as I know what that will is. ↗

— Elisabeth Elliot

#salvation #sanctification #life