Devotionals
I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and a devotional book that have really been challenging on discipleship. And in my small group we have been reading through Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount.
The thing to do is offer our whole natural self. A whole sacrifice. We renounce our rights to ourselves and the connection to our old self. That relationship between us and our natural self is severed (by the cross), and we are to go on believing that truth and forsaking any connection to it. When we come into Christ, we believe that we are, all in all, pretty swell, pretty fit for discipleship. What Christ has to show us is our utter unsuitableness for it. He does that in teaching form in his Sermon on the Mount. He says we not only have to do the law, the things outwardly required. We have to fulfill them to every last ounce. One of the most challenging things, which I am thinking on right now, is renouncing our rights to ourself in terms of getting angry at people, holding onto self at the expense of being compassionate. We have given over our rights to ourselves, and that means we have offerred our bodies to Jesus for His purposes. God wants to show grace to the evil person, the person being unjust and unfair, so that that person can experience the cleansing of their own heart and the joy that comes therein. So what Jesus says is, "I don't want you to go out there and live as if you're all done. Everyone else does not need work. You need to come into my shop."
The hard part is we want to go on now and show just how amazing we really are. We want to show off our badges of discipleship. It is imperative to us that other people see it. Therein has to die that living for the approval of man.
What is grace comes to us as a call. That is the brilliant shining truth that comes out of that book, The Cost of Discipleship. The grace comes to us as a command, a rigorously difficult call. But, with the call comes obedience and with it comes the promises of Jesus. All of the realities of Jesus - the peace, the happy life, the spiritual bliss - are opened up to us.
It begins with a prayer - "Jesus, work on my heart. Cleanse me and use me for your work." It is not divorced from that mission toward others. God attacks selfishness. We really begin to receive when we are asking for others. The Sermon on the Mount says, "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also." This teaching is interested in the person. We are to care more about the person.
Christianity is discipleship. Discipleship is Christianity. Bonhoeffer - "Only he who is obedient believes, and only he who believes is obedient."
What is Jesus doing?!! What a roundabout way to get people happy. What He says he is doing is making "little Christs", CS Lewis' phrase for the whole point of the Christian life. And why? Why the rigors and hardship? I can go no further. But I remember that "we walk by faith and not by sight."
The thing to do is offer our whole natural self. A whole sacrifice. We renounce our rights to ourselves and the connection to our old self. That relationship between us and our natural self is severed (by the cross), and we are to go on believing that truth and forsaking any connection to it. When we come into Christ, we believe that we are, all in all, pretty swell, pretty fit for discipleship. What Christ has to show us is our utter unsuitableness for it. He does that in teaching form in his Sermon on the Mount. He says we not only have to do the law, the things outwardly required. We have to fulfill them to every last ounce. One of the most challenging things, which I am thinking on right now, is renouncing our rights to ourself in terms of getting angry at people, holding onto self at the expense of being compassionate. We have given over our rights to ourselves, and that means we have offerred our bodies to Jesus for His purposes. God wants to show grace to the evil person, the person being unjust and unfair, so that that person can experience the cleansing of their own heart and the joy that comes therein. So what Jesus says is, "I don't want you to go out there and live as if you're all done. Everyone else does not need work. You need to come into my shop."
The hard part is we want to go on now and show just how amazing we really are. We want to show off our badges of discipleship. It is imperative to us that other people see it. Therein has to die that living for the approval of man.
What is grace comes to us as a call. That is the brilliant shining truth that comes out of that book, The Cost of Discipleship. The grace comes to us as a command, a rigorously difficult call. But, with the call comes obedience and with it comes the promises of Jesus. All of the realities of Jesus - the peace, the happy life, the spiritual bliss - are opened up to us.
It begins with a prayer - "Jesus, work on my heart. Cleanse me and use me for your work." It is not divorced from that mission toward others. God attacks selfishness. We really begin to receive when we are asking for others. The Sermon on the Mount says, "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also." This teaching is interested in the person. We are to care more about the person.
Christianity is discipleship. Discipleship is Christianity. Bonhoeffer - "Only he who is obedient believes, and only he who believes is obedient."
What is Jesus doing?!! What a roundabout way to get people happy. What He says he is doing is making "little Christs", CS Lewis' phrase for the whole point of the Christian life. And why? Why the rigors and hardship? I can go no further. But I remember that "we walk by faith and not by sight."
Labels: Bible / Christianity
posted by David at 9:12 AM
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