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God, Ghosts, and Gospel

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Blog Post 5

What does it mean to be a disciple? The Oxford Dictionary says a disciple is one who follows a leader, teacher, or a philosopher. Jesus said in Mathew 4 to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” The brothers left their nets and followed Him. Jesus then called two other brothers to follow him, James and John. They left their boat and their father to follow Him. They became His disciples.

In this age of the internet the word follow means something different than what Jesus met when He called his disciples. Jesus did not mean “follow” as a button you click to make sure you are getting updates about a person. No, this follow is more like a shadow. In the story Peter Pan Wendy sews Peter’s shadow on to his feet when that shadow gets away from him. She sews it right on the bottom of his shoes. The shadow is forced to go everywhere with Peter. When we follow Jesus, we should be just like His shadow. The difference in the stories is that we are not forced to follow Jesus, we are called. Like the four fishermen Jesus called, we willingly leave our old life behind and follow, or shadow, Jesus.

Matthew 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Jesus commands that we should take up our cross and follow Him, we need to do like He did. Does that mean that we should be crucified and resurrected like He was? Of course not! There is only One that is the Son of the Living God, lived a perfect life, and gave Himself to be the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. We can however try to walk in His footsteps of how He lived when He was here on earth. We can love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We can love the people we interact with like we love ourselves. We can live out our fear of the Lord by following His commandments.

Jesus says in John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus taught us all we need to know about the Father and about how to walk in his footsteps. Jesus also said in Luke 6:40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” There is no way we could ever be like Jesus in this life, but we can try to like Jesus and turn to Jesus for help whenever we walk out of His steps. We can show our love for Jesus by loving the people who are created in His image and who He brings across our path.

What is discipleship? “Discipleship meant much more than just the transfer of information . . . it referred to imitating the teacher’s life, inculcating his values, and reproducing his teachings. Therefore, Christian discipleship connotes a relationship with a master teacher, following them, and adhering to their way of life because their teaching shapes your own worldview.” Grace Theological Seminary. I could just drop the mic here, but I need to address how to imitate the Teacher’s life.

I like analogies, if you didn’t already notice, so I am going to try to make it relational with another analogy. When Nicodemus speaks to Jesus in John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” So, let’s look at discipleship as one who is a baby again, a baby Christian. When our babies are born, we do not expect them to be able to walk. When our babies do learn to walk, we know to expect that they will fall. They will fall many times a day, which is good that they are short, so they don’t have far to go. When they do fall, we don’t yell at them: “What’s wrong with you, you know how to walk now, why are you falling?” No, we make sure they are okay then we pick them up so they can try again. So often we- I- fuss at new Christians when they fall down or leave the path Jesus laid out for them to walk, and attack as though we think even though they are new- or babies- Christians they should have everything figured out.

Children as they grow older learn to walk without falling as much. They still fall a lot as toddlers- hence the name. They still fall in early elementary school, and as they grow and learn how to stay out of situations that may make them fall, like standing on the monkey bars, they fall less. They still fall though, and we still first make sure they are not hurt before we may talk to them about their choices that put them in a situation that they could fall. They may fall a little more in middle school as their bodies grow and become awkward. In high school we expect that the only time they fall in when they have made a bad choice. Adults usually fall less, and it could be a bad choice or just weather conditions that make them fall.

Littles are close to the ground, made of rubber, and can take more pain than older children. God created them like that because He knew they would fall a lot. We should also expect new Christians to struggle more with walking away and temptations because they are learning how to hear their Master’s voice and follow Him. Adults fall less but hurt more when they fall, and as grown Christians when we turn away from the One that we have developed a relationship with as Savior, it also hurts more.