Quotes about discipleship

[Jesus] plan called for action, and how He expressed it predicted its success. He didn't say "you *might* be my witnesses," or "you *could* be my witnesses," or even "you *should* be my witnesses." He said "you *will* be my witnesses.

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience.

The repentance we are called to is about choosing one audience over another.

A big part of me needed something outside myself to tell me who I was. The thing that had been designed to tell me who I was was gone.

No language about God will ever be fully adequate to the burning mystery which it signifies.

Followers of Jesus do well to spend more time engaging him than explaining him.

The road that leads to heaven is risky, lonely, and costly in this world, and few are willing to pay the price. Following Jesus involves losing your life-and finding new life in him. Follow Me, pg. 11

Everything that is online is not necessarily in line.

A student was given a mentoring opportunity, "in the hope that when you had somebody to lean on you, you would begin to stand a little steadier yourself, and get manliness and thoughtfulness.

Some people will not make the decision to give Jesus love back no matter how great his love is. These folks are who I call “grace users”. They just take advantage of the Lord’s love and kindness. True disciples will love the Lord back. When someone truly opens their heart and falls in love with Jesus, wanting to be his disciple will come naturally to them. Christ’s love is compelling.

When you are loved well, you want more of it. The only reason I believe anyone would not desire to be a disciple of Christ is because they fail to realize just how well loved they are by him. How could you not want to be with someone who loves you well?

We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.

I'm of the opinion and quite certain that our 'personal histories' with God are meant to be well informed by the Scriptures

We would do our theology better if more was at stake in what we said.

Most principles are limp until they are tested.

A soul that is happy in the things of God can overcome tremendous obstacles.

That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away

One Cardinal entered his cathedral for the first time at his funeral.

Let our liberty be practically exhibited by serving the Lord with gratitude and delight.

Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer. Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open.

Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults that we would like. It's the only way we grow.

The fundamental human experience is that of compassion.

Tomorrow's freedom is today's surrender.

Mythology is to relate found truth to the living of a life.

With passion you want to possess. The conversion of passion into compassion is the whole problem of marriage.

To give to others is but sowing seed for ourselves.

Backward we are naturally to all good things, and it is a lesson of grace to learn to go forward in the ways of God.

The imitation of Christ is the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.

Don't make peace with the sin in your life.

The further you go, the more you're going to need the people you started with.

We entertain God's Truth not as a guest but as master of the house.

In the earliest days of World War II when London was undergoing the blitz but the United States had not yet been drawn into the hostilities, the US ambassador walked the streets during the hottest of the bombing and ask people at every level of British society what he could do to help. What a picture of our role as ambassadors of Christ's coming Kingdom!

It was the responsibility of a senior fireman to teach as well as to do.

A student is engaging, attentive, notes details, and shows effort in learning.

Spend some personal time with Jesus and he will reveal himself to you on a deeper level.

When we get to Heaven, we can try a monarchy, perhaps." John Hay

When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order.

I should not mistake her calm probing for the absence of anger.

there was a common understanding that religion generally served the powerful, who manipulated the words of the gods and prophets to justify their greed and lust for power. Yet Christianity comes in numerous guises; mystical to dogmatic; it is used by some as a reason to justify their wars, their oppression and their hatreds. Others use it to oppose those wars and other injustices.

Are you following Christ's ambitions for your life or expecting Him to help you reach yours?

Desire for and delight in God's Word are inseparable.

Students are taught how to do things, but many are not forced to reflect on why they should do them or what we are here for.

My job is not to get between YOU and God. My job is to put your hand IN God's hand.

The person who asks a lot of questions has room for their faith to grow.

The seed of acceptable devotion must come from heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which comes from God can go to God.

That's the whole point of being 20. You could be a lot of things. I am much older than you are. I AM things.

Why do we calculate our forces, and consult with flesh and blood to our grievous wounding? Jehovah has power enough without borrowing from our puny arm.

The Church, like her head, has a glory, but it is concealed from carnal eyes, for the time of her breaking forth in all her splendour is not yet come.

Salvation is the creation of new desires, not just new goodies.

Youth and age touch only the surface of our lives.

Is God giving you victory this day, if not this whole day, how about this very minute?

A book isn't worth reading if it's not worth discussing.

The insights given by a great professor are a privilege to receive. To be a teacher, by contrast, calls for more ingenuity and patience; it is the canny art of coaxing insights out of the students themselves.

The narrator refers to a character as "an oily scoundrel whose hands were heavy with the money that stuck to them.

The author describes the critic within us as adults as "the selves who live too much in their heads rather than their bodies, who are burdened with too much knowledge about how the world works rather than excited about how it could work or should, who are afraid of being judged and not being loved. Most adults do not live in a world of forgiveness and unconditional love, unless, that is, they have small children.

Make wisdom human to the adolescent mind.

A family that never embraces life's risks never really lives.

The more God-centered our worship practices, the more mercy-centered our life.

it’s helpful to focus your child’s attention on the present moment by deciding together on one thing you may particularly look for.

The author sees Luke's loyalty to the apostle Paul "depicted architecturally in the great church at Rome known as St. Paul Outside the Walls. There, a statue of Luke holding a writing stylus commemorates not only his work as a Gospel author but his faithfulness to Paul.

Your children are going through life with their eyes closed, so YOU'RE the one who has to steer.

You do not become a ‘dissident’ just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances….It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

Explaining a professor's emphasis on teaching over research: "She traded clinical questions with determinable answers for perennial questions with inexhaustible answers.

The author describes a previous Bible study with a lot of turnover as "not so much together as in each other's midst.

He (the Bible study leader) is blessed with a light touch and a firm hand.

It is possible to feel angered by the compromises all around us, while remaining apathetic to the compromises inside us.

A cross centered life is made up of Christ centered days.

We reign over the united kingdom of time and eternity

Innovators "view failure not as a fatal character flaw but as a learning experience.

pessimists see people as liabilities to manage, as burdens or threats that we must minimize.

He was so much the humblest one that Wendy was especially gentle with him.

In the old days, it had been talent and style and brilliance and now it was more and more productivity.

Time served does not guarantee maturity.

I want a faith that's so alive, it can be seen. I want a hope that cannot hide, even when I'm weak.

It is ill to offer God one duty stained with the blood of another.

He was perceived to be intellectually promiscuous, a little too eager to please all groups.

Even in a hostile press conference with hostile questions there was drama, and he could benefit from the drama and the hostility. He mastered the greatest art of television, appearing to be spontaneous without in fact being spontaneous.

Mohr was one of the most talented people on the staff of Time, in print as well as in person—the two are often different.

A missionary deals with all the important people of the community, but he is never really one of them.

He could tune her, bringing out her better instincts and filtering out her lesser ones.

The faster the motion, the less time to think. Fuselage journalism, Hugh Sidey of Time later called it.

He assumed that the shape of renewal is death and resurrection.

Online life is so delicious because it is socializing with almost no friction.

George III was incapable of passing on a sense of mission to his son might a given some purpose to the crown prince's existence

Morning dawns when the grace overcomes nature.

The more the world commits to programs for poverty and education, the greater the gap for those with intellectual disabilities. That’s because money goes where results are quick and quantifiable, which is not likely for people with intellectual disabilities.

the sculpting of the brain’s circuitry during this period of brain growth depends to a great degree on what a child experiences day-to-day.

the real tests of life can come a child’s way at any moment,

although the stress response was involuntary, the relaxation response required practice.[6]

The only way to reduce ugliness in the world is to reduce it in yourself,

Liberty depends on self-restraint. Freedom is freedom only when controlled and limited.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend, so I figure I better get moving.

Not every story started off big enough to notice.

When an actor reaches down into his emotional well and pulls up a deeply personal response, the audience can sense something special is going on. They may not know exactly what they're seeing, but they recognize it as authentic.

Never base motivation or fear, entirely.

The line between spontaneity and stupidity can be very thin.

There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to make a showpiece of Him and not to use Him.

Unlike most politicians who follow their audience, (Robert) Kennedy tried to lead his.

The struggle against the weakness in yourself is never a solitary struggle. No person can achieve self-mastery or his or her own.