Small Steps in Discipleship to Jesus: Living Life, the Outcome of God's Love

With your life.  When I trust someone with my life, I might say, "My life is in your hands."  I might say this to a doctor or an airplane pilot.  For some time, they have a lot of say about my life continuing or not.  I am frightened when I find out they might not be trustworthy.  When my life does not matter much to them, I am worried.

Certainly my trust of Jesus extends at least this far.  I believe in him, so that I "would not perish, but have eternal life."  I trust that he will care about my life.  The truth is that Jesus cares a good deal more about my life than I do.

I am notoriously self-destructive, like all other people.  I tend to care a whole lot more about what I want than how I live.  Perhaps I am "health-conscious" and watch over my body.  Well and good.  Do I watch over my soul?  More often than not, my soul is left to "fend for itself" and I hope that it will be okay.

Eternal life has to do more with my soul than my body.  It is not that I do not include my body as I trust Jesus with my life, but I realize that this is not enough.  If I watch over my soul, my body will receive the care it needs.  If I merely watch over my body, my soul will wither, since it includes so much more.  My soul interacts with my mind and my heart (spirit) as well.  My soul is my life on its most basic, inclusive level.

In a less abstract way of thinking, eternal life is about living my whole life.  I trust Jesus with my life as I might trust a doctor.  I also trust him with my life as I might say to my wife, "I will love you with my life."  Now my life is not only the object that I entrust to Jesus, but also the agency with which I trust Jesus.  I trust him with my life like I might hit a ball with a bat.  I find that Jesus came as more than an insurance salesman, but a teacher and counselor who would instruct me on how life is best lived.  Life as it is best lived is eternal life.

The fact that this life with Jesus does not end is wonderful, but not without this life also being wonderful in itself. Eternal life begins today and stretches into eternity.  There is no use waiting for it.  It grows (as life does), but is not merely is a "savings account" for later.  Jesus explains this clearly in John 17:3: "Now this is eternal life: that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  Knowing Jesus and living with him is what it means to trust him with my life.

Eternal life is a life lived for love, God's love.  This is the most fundamental reality about life.  Each thing that exists owes its presence and reality to God's love and generosity.  Eternal life is a life lived coming to know Jesus.  His roles as Savior, Teacher, Lord, and Friend only scratch the surface of his relationship to each person.  Knowing him is so much more than knowing about him.  Eternal life is a life lived trusting Jesus.  This trust is how I accept this Jesus I know as my life.  Life rightly lived is no more than life lived in trust of Jesus who we are coming to know because of a God who loves us so deeply.

What parts of your life do you find difficult to entrust to Jesus?  Usually fear surrounds these spots.  Can you start to give one of these things away to him?

Small Steps into Discipleship to Christ: God's Love Expressed

Jesus is the Answer.  Who is this "only begotten Son" of God?  What has God given to me in his love?

God gave his Son primarily for three reasons.  The first is so that I might become like him.  Jesus put flesh and bones to the commandments of God.  He came as the Teacher.  His words are Spirit and life.  (John 6)  Honestly learned and practiced, they bring me into a new way of living, called eternal.  It begins, but has no end.  It is continual existence with God, who is eternal.  It is from age to age, outlasting even the known universe itself.

Second, God gave his Son so that I might be redeemed.  Jesus is the sacrifice necessary to pay for my sins.  He is the only effective sacrifice.  I offered myself to sin as a slave and could not hope to be free to come to God without Jesus.  He came as the Savior.  He also came as my Friend.  Before he was my Savior he was my Friend, because Jesus is the friend of sinners.  He befriended me and when the time came he redeemed me, he bought me back from my sin by paying the penalty I had earned.  My sin meant suffering and death.  He took them upon himself.

Third, God gave his Son so that my world might be restored.  Jesus is victorious over sin, Satan, and death.  The old order of things is passing away now.  No longer is sin central to life.  No longer does Satan hold sway over my mind and my body.  No longer is death the inevitable ruler of this world.  Jesus is Lord through his death and  resurrection.  He overcomes everything that opposes light and life in this world.  This age continues to limp along, but is coming to an end.  Jesus has begun that end.

God gave me Jesus for my redemption.  I am brought back through his friendship.  I am bought back through his saving grace.  God gave me Jesus as the perfect person.  He teaches me to be like him.  God gave me Jesus so my life and my world would be recovered and restored.  He is Lord of all things and will bring them all into submission through the power of his grace and mercy.  Friend.  Savior.  Teacher.  Lord.  This is my Jesus.

Which of these aspects of Christ do you find most easy to receive?  Friend?  Savior?  Teacher?  Lord?  Which is the hardest?  What makes it difficult to receive Jesus this way?

Small Steps into Discipleship to Christ: God's Love

I had been pondering discipleship to Christ, hoping to clear the muddy water a little bit.  I began writing some ideas, but found myself floundering a bit.  As with a mucky pond, sometimes the best way to see clearly is to let it settle.  Recently a friend reminded me that walking with God is more about hitting singles than a home run.  I felt a settling.  I wanted to share some ideas that would make discipleship to Christ accessible to small steps and yet also transforming to our lives.


God loves you.  If you don't get this, nothing else will work in discipleship to Christ.  When the famous verse says, "God so loved the world,"  we often think of God standing over the globe, with hands outstretched, somehow wishing it well.  Although God is over and above and beyond and bigger than our world (actually our universe), he is never watching "from a distance."  He permeates this universe much like our spirits permeate our own bodies.

"God so loved the world" indicates God's closeness, his intimacy.  He is "especially fond" of each of us.  He is closely involved in every person's life, to such a degree that even the very hairs on our head are numbered and that he knows what we will ask before we ask him.  These are statements not so much of God's omniscience, but of his intimate knowledge of each of us.  He knows and he cares.


This is good news.  Actually it is the good news of the Christian faith.  If anything comes before this, we get in big trouble.  God seeks to save each person because he loves each person.  I am not saved so I can go to church.  I am not saved so I can save other people.  I am not saved so I can keep other people from suffering. I am not saved so I can become a better person.  I am not saved so I can love God.  While all of these are wonderful outcomes of salvation, I am saved because God values and loves me.  I could not be lost unless I was worth finding.

The word "For" in "For God so loved the world" indicates this is the reason statement.  It states the "why" in this particular passage.  I believe it goes beyond that as well.  It is the reason for everything: creation, the Fall of humanity, Israel's history, redemption through Christ, heavenly life, etc.  It all happens because God so loved the world.

This is good news because it cuts through all the other reasons and focuses each life on a single point.  So many things are good.  So many things seem necessary.  But when it comes down to it, the only thing that really matters is just you and God.  When that is right, everything comes around right.  When that is wrong, everything comes out wrong.

Over and over again discipleship is about being reminded and realizing God's love for you.  There is enormous freedom in it.  Nothing else matters compared to this love.  Without this as the primary reason, discipleship will either fade into mere sentimentality or harden into some form of self-righteousness.  Discipleship is primarily living in the light of God's love.  God's love is for you as an individual above all else. He doesn't love you because of anything.  He just loves you.  And deeply.

Do you live with God "at a distance?"  How often does God make his love known to you?  In what ways does he show it?  One person wrote "Ninety percent of the time God speaks to me through the Bible.  When he speaks, ninety percent of the time he tells me how much he loves me."  Is this similar to your experience?

Discipleship Inside-Out

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.  Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:45-47)

First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  (Matthew 23:26)

Spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines are words being thrown around with greater frequency these days.   It is easy to share what I feel about these subjects before I adequately define what I am talking about.  Most of these shared thoughts and feelings would come from the people I’ve run into (in person or through some media) who use these words, for good or ill.

One popular (at least on internet searches) notion is that these terms signal “New Age” views and practices brought up under a different name.  They are seen as efforts to add to the gospel and draw people into confusion or legalism.  Paul identifies such dangers in Galatians 1:6-9.  The fear is that spiritual formation adds to the “gospel of grace” so freely given by Paul.  Not only that, but the additions are seen as unbiblical or even pagan in nature.

No doubt such spiritual formation can be found.  If a person looks for a “spiritual director or guide,” there are many varieties to be found.  Even if one adds the word “Christian” to their search, some of the notions of spirituality have little to do with Christ.  Searching in this area is full of potential danger.

However, just because a term is misused, it does not make it unusable or the user wrong.  As with so many other abused terms and ideas, spiritual formation has been the baby thrown out with the bathwater by some groups and individuals.  I feel compelled to rescue this term.  Others have done a better job than I have, such as Eugene Peterson and Dallas Willard.  Such rescues occur frequently in the Church, such as the rescue of “grace” by Bonheoffer in The Cost of Discipleship.  He did not throw out grace, but gave some clarifiers to explain it: “costly” grace and “cheap” grace.

I would like to frame spiritual formation in terms of discipleship.  Spiritual formation is discipleship inside-out.  First, I like the use of inside-out because it reverses something that many people are familiar with, making it seem strange.  Like pants or a shirt worn inside-out, spiritual formation looks at the seams and pockets of discipleship from an angle where they can be worked on.  Rather than the usual mode of discipleship (“God is good. You stink.  Do better.”), spiritual formation starts with the unseemly (pun intended) aspects of my life rather than merely prescribing good behavior.

Unseemly parts of my life are ugly sins, bad habits, and careless words.  They also are day-to-day work, family life, and mundane tasks.  Spiritual formation begins here because these are the things closest to my heart, closest to my insides.  This is where the work begins.  Rather than sewing “letters” on jackets, brandishing special “designer” labels, or showing off my best qualities with the right cuts and shapes, spiritual formation focuses on cleaning stains, ripping out bad seams, and sewing up torn places in my life.

Secondly, inside-out points to the priority of the spirit (or heart) in the life of a person.  Spiritual formation is not about performing certain actions, but having new attitudes.  Spiritual formation is not about what to do, but about how I do it.  Spiritual formation is not about getting what I want, nor is it about doing good, but about wanting to do good.  Human change always comes from the inside out, and spiritual formation takes this seriously.

Putting “Christian” on the front of spiritual formation may help a little bit, but often the view of Christians is all too low both inside and outside of the Church.  It gives some meaning, but not a lot.  I prefer “Christ-centered.”  Spiritual formation (really spiritual re-formation) cannot occur without Christ at the center.  Spiritual formation without Christ at the center  makes as much sense as performing open-heart surgery on yourself, or trying to determine what is real from what is fantasy for a paranoid schizophrenic (like in A Beautiful Mind.)  No, this activity must be instigated, supervised, and completed with Christ or it will end in catastrophe.  Christ-centered spiritual formation is discipleship to Christ inside-out.

What is truly beautiful about spiritual formation is that the tools are right at hand.  Christ is available to everyone through his Spirit.  He comes to everyone who longs for such change.  Such a longing and a seeking for his influence is what Jesus meant with his invitation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  Learning what this means takes a lifetime. . . and longer.  However, it takes only a moment to begin.  And it goes from moment to moment.

His Spirit has also provided the testimony and teaching from lives dedicated to spiritual formation of people from ages past.  These words and stories are the teaching tools of his Spirit, opening our lives to his instruction, healing, and power.  The Bible, read honestly and openly, searches our hearts and minds and lays us open for a new life with God.  That is the result of Christ- centered spiritual formation: Life with God.   That life is being constantly renewed, constantly deepened, and constantly nurtured.  That life is worth every sacrifice.