Discipleship part 2
If a disciple is a student of love then that really changes our view of what it means to "make disciples." It seems like we have one of two views on the matter: 1. Saving souls from the eternal, fiery damnation of hell. Or 2. Forcing people to believe exactly the way we do. And I guess these two are really the same because we seem to think we have God all figured out and the only way to save someone from hell is to force them to believe exactly the way we do. But I REALLY don't think that's what this Christian life is all about. I think it's all about love. I think it's all about receiving and releasing the love of the Father. SHOWING people a more excellent way so that they'll run TO God instead of running FROM God. And I think the only way to effectively preach the gospel--the Good News that God isn't mad AT you, but mad ABOUT you--is by taking what you've learned and sharing it. That's the New Commandment: Love one another as Jesus loves you. You don't have to fake it until you make it. You don't have to force it. You don't have to act like Jesus--because that will never be anything more than an act. All you have to do is focus on God's love for you. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've been filled with, and let it flow out naturally. I know I quote this passage all the time, but I really think it gives us a blueprint for how to live this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that is the gift of God: Ephesians 3:16-19, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts be faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." The fulness of God is the fulness of His love. And it's so much bigger than we give it credit for. Did you know that Jesus didn't come to save us from hell? He came to save us from our sins. And did you know that the wages of sin are not hell? The wages of sin is death. We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Jesus came to bring us out of death and into life. He came to save us from unbelief. From living the lie that says you have to do in order to be. To save us from trying to earn something that is freely given. He came to make us His disciples. He came to teach us about love. Jesus said the greatest love you can have is to lay down your life for your friends. And then He went to the cross and did that very thing. And that's what we're learning to do. Maybe not in the same literal sense that He did it, but maybe simply by esteeming others higher than ourselves. Putting others first. When we stop trying to GET and we start to GIVE what we already have... that's when the world will know that we are His disciples, because that's when we begin to truly love one another.