I am still riding the wave of Eric's blog posts in regard to discipleship; it is actually one of the reasons I love Eric so much...the fact that He loves the ideal of discipleship as much as he does. So, today, can we just go on a little journey about discipleship?

When you hear the word DISCIPLE you probably think of the standard definition: a great Rock Band from Knoxville Tennessee...but alas this is not the only definition.

For the longest time the word meant a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower. Now this is a better definition that hits closer to home. In being disciples of Jesus that means we adhere to His teaching and follow in His footsteps. This takes time and study to see how He saw the world, how He treated people, and most importantly, how He grew in relationship to His Father. We could literally spend all of eternity unpacking what this means.

In John 17:3 Jesus is praying to the Father and even tells us that THIS is what eternal life actually means, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." How different is that from most people's understanding of eternal life? KNOWING GOD.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19 said For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, V19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. In verse 19 Paul says that we are to KNOW this love. It is more than an emotion, the love of God is something we as believers are called to "know".

The earliest variant of the English word "disciple" came from two words, dis "apart" AND capere "take"...TAKE APART. Why do we pursue discipleship? Because God will take us apart, rebuild and renew us, and make us into the Children, disciples, and people he wants us to be. Knowing Him, knowing His love, and walking in His truth.

Why has the modern church done so poorly living this eternal life that Jesus made possible? We know that so many Christians are among those caught up in the sad epidemics we see today. Christianity has become viewed by many in the world as powerless, archaic and irrelevant. Either the Gospel is not true and doesn’t work, or we just don’t understand how God works in and through us!

Every believer in Christ is called to become a disciple of Jesus. Our mission as the Church is to make disciples from every ethnic group on the planet and to teach them how to really live the way Jesus taught and lived. Matthew 28:19-20 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, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

The sad truth is that the church is filled with undicipled disciples. An estimated 25% of Americans profess an evangelical conversion experience. William Iverson observes that “A pound of meat would surely be affected by a quarter pound of salt. If this is real Christianity, the ‘salt of the earth,’ where is the effect of which Jesus spoke?” In many churches today it is believed that one can become and remain a Christian without any signs of progress in following Jesus in his example, spirit, and teachings. Too often discipleship is presented as an “option” for those with a special calling.

A big part of the problem is that we have not been faithful to our own message—we have failed to take discipleship and transformation into Christ likeness seriously as a practical issue to be dealt with in realistic terms.

Jesus introduced a revolution of character and life to his first disciples. He said “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is where God’s rule and God’s will are done. It’s about what God is doing in the world, and everyone is invited to now become a part of His activity. This is the blessed life. This is the safest place to be. This is where we can be anxious for nothing, because we are seeking first the Kingdom of God. It is here that our deepest needs are met. It is in the realm of God’s Kingdom that our transformation takes place as we allow God to rule in our hearts, minds, bodies, and relationships. The heart of the Gospel is this: Because of God’s mercy and grace, we can become like Jesus in character and in power, and we can realize our highest ideals of well-being and well-doing.

Discipleship is not just for Super-Christians! It is a prerequisite for every believer. The disciple is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of Christian, but the first level of basic transportation in the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ promises are for his disciples! The New Testament is a book about disciples, written by disciples, and meant for disciples of Jesus Christ. ALL of the assurances and benefits offered to humanity in the Gospel by Jesus are in the context of a life of discipleship - apart from that, they don’t even make sense!

Check back as we explore what the life of a disciple should look like and how we are to follow Jesus in our day.

I was inspired I tell you, INSPIRED. I, like so many of you, read Element's blog and had the privilege to read what Eric wrote (I also got to read his next one as well that you won't get to see for another week). His post relates to something that we at Element have been pouring our hearts over for awhile: Discipleship. So I thought I would piggy back on that thought.

Now, I know that we at Element can have fun (and I do believe that this is a very godly thing) but our lives cannot all be about recess on the playground. If they were we would never know how to do real life; math to balance bank accounts, reading and writing to communicate, history to know where we came from, and science to understand how it all works. This is the idea behind discipleship; it is how it all works, the meat for our bones, the food for our souls.

It's not that discipleship cannot be fun and enjoyable (though honestly, sometimes it is not because it is when Christ deals directly with all the junk in our souls), but it is where we truly grow deeper in becoming more like Christ.

The word disciple is used 258 times in the New testament alone, it must be important. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 "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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." We see a few things here:

• Making disciples is a process,
• those disciples should be baptized,
• and true disciples learn humble obedience to Jesus' words.

In Jesus' day it was a great honor to be able to be a disciple of a rabbi, in the next few months (and hopefully for as long as Element is in existence) you will hopefully get a better idea of the great privilege it is that Jesus called you to be His.

When you hear the promises of Jesus spoken about at church or read them in the bible, do you ever feel like your looking into another world? It’s because the scriptures describe a reality so different than what many of us normally experience. They describe a divine world with a divine life!

Our world is filled with stress and distress from political revolutions, wars, famines, epidemics and economic disasters. All of which are usually always the result of human choices—the expressions of the human spirit. Individual disasters abound all around us and everyone is impacted directly or indirectly by depression, suicide, loneliness, drug and alcohol abuse, out of control sexual perversion and violence. These aren’t new problems. Humanity has struggled with them for ages. But they are spiritual problems that can only be addressed by a spiritual solution.

Think about these words: John 4:14 “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus promised his followers “living water,” the Spirit of God Himself that would keep them from ever being thirsty again - from being driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires. How about these words: John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” This is not just merely getting by with a bare existence. Jesus is talking about receiving everything needed for a fully blessed and satisfied life—this is an eternal quality of life.

At Christmas we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her King! Let every heart, prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing!” We are reminded of the angels words in Luk 2:10-14 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

The news of Jesus entering our world is that God had come to make a way for things on Earth to really be different. The powers of evil and sin could now be broken so that people can be freed from their bondage and become transformed in righteousness and goodness - to really live an eternal kind of life - to become like Jesus. This is what the “Good News” is all about!

We start our trek home today, but before we did we stopped at another orphanage and had the best time playing with some kids. It was one of those moments that made me a little sad to leave...because the people of Haiti have a spirit that will not quit.

We met a girl who came down to work with Gcom from Louisiana. She was in college when Hurricane Katrina hit. She went home and proceeded to spend the next 6 months just trying to find her parents. She made a comment about the Haitian people that they are so resilient. Six months after Katrina she said “New Orleans was sitting in rubble and people were devastated and didn’t know what to do; six months after the Earthquake in Haiti the people are looking at the their homes, salvaging what they can, and getting on with life as best they can.”

We will be letting you guys see the videos we are making for Gcomintl.com soon. Keep checking back on the blog and keep praying for the Haitian people.

As an update, Doctors Without Borders is trying to fly that little boy (I told you about yesterday) to the US for treatment (but it is 400.00 just to get him seen). His mother had 8 children and he is the only one who is still alive. Haiti’s infant mortality rate is 97.1 per 1000 births; in the US it is 6.5. His mom is in high spirits though and is thankful for all the team is doing for her son here. Keep him in your prayers.

Talk to you soon,
Aaron