Tag Archives: discipleship

June 21
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“‘Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.'”  (John 12:26, NIV)

To serve Jesus is to follow Jesus.  To follow Jesus is to be with Jesus.

It is not possible to truly serve Jesus without also following Him.  If our service consists only of isolated acts — even sacrificial isolated acts — without a commitment to also go where He goes; and to do as He directs; that service is deficient.

To be a true servant of Jesus is to voluntarily subordinate our will to the will of the One being served.  This type of service cannot be rendered at a distance.  It is intimate.  It is persistent.  – Luther

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June 13
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“Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves?  The one who sits at the table, of course.  But not here!  For I am among you as one who serves.”  (Luke 22:27, New Living Translation)

The disciple of Jesus is a servant.

He or she is not a “servant-leader.”  He or she is not an “apprentice-leader.”  He or she is not “doing time” as a servant until something opens up at the top of the hierarchy.  The pinnacle of a disciple’s aspiration is to be like his or her Lord; and the Lord Jesus is “among you as one who serves.”

This is so not like us.  We desire the perquisites that come with leadership; or we see leadership as a reward for being a “good foot soldier.”  But even leadership, in the estimation of our Lord, is nothing more than a greater opportunity for servitude; and “servitude” is to “service” as “being” is to “doing.”

Make servitude for the sake of being like Jesus your sole ambition as a disciple.  Even in the kingdom of God, good help is hard to find!  – Luther

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May 5
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“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple.  And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  (Luke 14:25-27, NIV)

There is a difference between the “crowd” and the “committed.” Crowds are self-interested and fickle.  The company of the committed is in to the finish.

Jesus’ words to the crowd were necessarily pointed: There is no room for competing loyalties; there is no room for followers who are not willing to keep to the path — even to humiliation and suffering (represented by the cross).

As all conditional or contingent statements, these words of our Lord give us a choice.  How have we chosen?  – Luther

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