Category — Discipleship

Paraphrased excerpts from Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds.

“We are on a constant search for better methods, more clever plans, and new ways to organize in order to advance the church. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men and women. The church needs men and women whom the Holy Spirit can use—men and women of prayer—mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through people; people wholly yielded to Him.

The personal character of leaders has more to do with the revolution of nations than any other factor. The character and conduct of followers of Christ have more to do with the impact of the Gospel on a nation than any other factor. The individual makes the servant of the Gospel. God must make the individual. The individual, the whole individual, lies behind the work of God. Our work is not the performance of an hour; it is the outflow of a life. Our work for God must be a thing of life. Our work grows, because we grow. Our work is holy, because we are holy. [Read more →]

The Scripture is clear that followers of Christ obey Christ. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

God’s Word also plainly distinguishes between the kind of obedience that was demanded of the Mosaic Law and the kind of obedience we strive for as followers of Christ. This distinction is crucial because many well-meaning Christians have merely exchanged the Old Testament set of laws for a New Testament set. This exchange is not God’s intent at all! [Read more →]

Enthralled with God

God created us for relationship with him, but what does that look like? How do we interact with God? What does he expect from us? We are to love God, but what is this about enjoying him? Two-way communication is a hallmark of any relationship, so how does communication function in our relationship with God? How does God speak to us? How do we recognize his voice? What do we do with what he tells us? Rob seeks to answer all these questions and more through the Scriptures and lots of examples from his own life, so that you too may be enthralled with God!

Enthralled with God–Cultivating a Joy-Filled Relationship with Him is available on Amazon.com! You will find the book in both soft-cover and e-version.

Below is the brief introduction from this book that I’m sure you’ll want to read. [Read more →]

With our economic downturn, rising costs and joblessness, hardships are on the rise. Yet hardships provide fertile ground for personal growth and blessing. Wait a minute, there are benefits to hardship? Yes! Really? Hardship, trials, suffering—who in their right mind would want those!? Our natural response in any trial or suffering is to pray first for deliverance. We shouldn’t feel bad for wanting out of a painful situation, but all too often we seek only deliverance without considering first how to extract the benefits of our hardship.

A short time ago, I prayed with an individual in the hospital who had been there nearly three weeks. I challenged that person not to miss the good things God might have for them in the midst of their suffering. Predictably, this individual blurted out, “I just want to get out of here!” That response is okay. It’s normal. But there’s more to any such tough situation that we won’t want to miss! [Read more →]

In her short book, The Liberty of Obedience, Elizabeth Elliot reveals a code for obedience to Christ espoused by the prominent Christian schools of the second century. Students were told they must: abandon all colored clothes and opt only for white; stop sleeping on a pillow; sell their musical instruments; stay away from white bread; and refrain from bathing and shaving. “To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His work.”

Those second century rules seem ridiculous to us now, just as our own rules will no doubt appear foolish to others in the future. Since the beginning, mankind has always tried to establish our own rules to define what obedience to Christ looks like. The Christ-followers in Colosse fell into this trap and Paul dealt with it head-on: [Read more →]

I’m excited to announce that my new book, Enthralled with God–Cultivating a Joy-Filled Relationship with Him is available on Amazon.com! You will find the book in both soft-cover and e-version.

Below is the brief introduction from this book that I’m sure you’ll want to read.

Introduction

A few years ago, a young woman named Amy was living with us. One evening we heard the front door open and my wife and I went to the top of the stairs to greet Amy. She was returning home from discipleship training at our church. I called down to her and asked her how it went.

Amy had a huge grin on her face and stood there speechless for a moment. Then she blurted out, “I’ve been a Christian for many years, but tonight I discovered that I can enjoy God!—This changes everything!”

It’s true! Enjoying God, being enthralled with him does change everything! My experience and that of countless others have been every bit as dramatic and life-changing.

If you long to know God more deeply, seeing him as your joy and delight, then this book is for you! You are embarking on a great adventure with God!

© 2010 Rob Fischer

To order your copy of Enthralled with God please click on the link: http://www.amazon.com/Enthralled-God-Cultivating-Relationship-ebook/dp/B004CRSSZ6/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290529603&sr=1-4

As we saw in the last post, we often misunderstand God’s motivation for seeking our obedience. But we also confuse our own motivations for obeying Christ. Based on God’s love-motivation for our obedience, our motivation should reciprocally flow from our love for him, but often it does not. When we suspect God of lesser motives, our motives become perverted as well.

One of the greatest lies many Christians have come to accept in the context of obedience is that it is simply our duty to obey Christ—no more, no less. That statement may shock you and certainly there is just enough truth in it to make it sound reasonable. But sheer duty to obey Christ fails to recognize Christ’s complete and selfless love for us. Let me explain what I mean. [Read more →]

God is very clear on his motivations for requiring our obedience—it’s because he loves us and wants the best for us! Deuteronomy 5 and 6 provide a classic passage in which Moses rehearses with Israel the “commands, decrees and laws” of the Lord. The context for this passage is God’s loving, merciful, gracious deliverance of his people out of Egypt, his loving care for them for forty years in the wilderness despite their constant rebellion and fickle hearts, and his benevolent promise to bring them into a rich fertile land. Over and over again, God expresses his motivation in wanting his people to obey him, “so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29)

“So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days.” (Deuteronomy 5:32-33) God’s motivation for our obedience is for our good. His great love for us motivates him to instruct us for our good. Our obedience gives strong testimony to God’s love and brings glory to him. [Read more →]

Obedience to Christ is a hallmark of his followers. We cannot claim to follow Christ and not obey him. To those who think otherwise, Jesus asks, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

When Jesus gave his disciples (us) the Great Commission, he told us to, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20 emphasis mine) Jesus’ disciples obey him. [Read more →]

Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

We all have many things we hang on to from the past: hurts, regrets, broken relationships, failures, patterns of sin, poor choices, etc. Sometimes we even hang on to good memories or the way things were, but in an unhealthy manner always longing for what once was. But when we turn to God and put our trust in him and follow him, he invites us to “forget the former things” and to “not dwell on the past.” [Read more →]