Tag: disciple

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, Quiet Time, She, Volume 2

Mary Magdalene

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Adapted from the study, She Volume 2, pp41-44

Read: Mark 16:1-15 and John 20:1-18

SHE WATCHED HIM DIE ON THE CROSS.
SHE SAW HIS BODY BURIED INSIDE THE TOMB.
SHE WAS THE FIRST TO SEE JESUS AFTER HE HAD RISEN.

SHE, VOLUME 2, P41

Mary Magdalene is the Mary from whom Jesus cast out seven devils (Mark 16:9), and according to Mark’s gospel (16:9), she was the first to see Jesus after He arose from the grave. Her master and teacher, whom she had seen brutally tortured and crucified, was no longer in the grave but standing behind her calling her name (John 20:16). She had seen HIm, but had mistaken Him for the gardener (Jn 20:15), until He said her name: Jesus saith unto her, “Mary,” and she immediately turned and called Him Master.

Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 

John 20:16

I love that the study guide for this journey points out that “He knew her name, just as He knows ours,” but I am just as moved and somewhat convicted by the evidence that even though she did not recognize Him when she saw Him, when He called to her, she recognized His voice. “Knowing the Lord’s voice indicates experiential knowledge through a relationship with Him.”1 This is an important lesson Jesus had taught the disciples earlier in His ministry. May we never be so busy or preoccupied with life that we fail to see Jesus, and may we always know His voice when He calls our name.

“…she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher..”

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him”

John 20:1-2

“Mary neglected to remember what Jesus had said would happen.”

We know from Mark’s writings that Jesus had taught His disciples that men would take Him and kill Him, but that He would rise again on the third day (Mark 9:31). However, when she found the tomb was empty, she forgot what had been said and panicked she found the tomb was empty. In her panic, rather than running with the jubilant cry that Christ had arisen, Mary Magdalene ran to tell the others His body had been stolen, and we do not know where He is.

Friends, we would be wise to learn from Mary Magdalene and not allow fear or other distractions to cause us to forget what we have heard and seen from Him.

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, Lent, LGG Study, Quiet Time

A True Disciple – Love Says it All

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based on the Love God Greatly Study, Lent – A Season of Drawing Close to God / w6d2

THE JOURNEY (SCRIPTURE AND OBSERVATION)

Scripture: John chapter 13 / SOAP: John 13:34-35

34 “I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35 NET
LIVING THE JOURNEY (APPLICATION)

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure if I was in the position of knowing my death was imminently soon that I would be getting up from the table to wash the dirty feet of others. However, this is exactly what Jesus did. Not only did He realize His death was near but He had inside information that He would be betrayed by one of His twelve disciples – but there Jesus was – removing His outer clothing and tying a towel around Himself, and then grabbing a basin of water He literally began to wash the feet of His disciples – and not just to wash them but to dry them with the towel He had tied around Himself. Their Lord and teacher stooped to the lowly position of a servant shortly before His death in order to show these disciples how they were to treat one another – more specifically, as He points out in verse thirty-four, how they were to love one another, “Just as he had loved them.”

Of all the things Jesus could have left them with – it was an instruction to love as He had loved them. Love would be the sign of a True Disciple of Jesus.

Me from the Inside-Out 🦋

Jesus could have spent the bulk of His time venting or teaching about the betrayal – how hurtful and wrong it was to Him and His ministry, but instead His focus remained on the way to love. The importance of surrendering to the task of a servant would be a crucial part of their witness when He was gone. For, as He explained to the disciples then – by living and loving in this way – others would identify them as the true disciples of Jesus and this would be key to their ministry of making more disciples that lived and loved like Jesus.

Reflection From the Journey

Do others know that You are a disciple of Jesus? Is it your intent for others to know

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY

Father, help us to live and love like Jesus – so that others will see and know that we belong to Him. Use us as instruments of Your Gospel so that more and more disciples will be born. You are not slow or forgetful in Your return but rather You are patient and full of mercy longing for as many people as possible to come to repentance and to place their trust in Christ. The additional time is an opportunity for more to be saved. May we faithfully work at this task in word and deed. Help us to work well while we wait for Your long awaited and greatly anticipated return. – In and for the glory of Father, Son, and Spirit – Amen

THE MORE WE KNOW

Understanding John 13 and Jesus’s motives and purpose

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout, He Sees He Knows He Cares, He Sees He Knows He Cares, He Sees He Knows He Cares, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time

TAKE UP YOUR CROSS

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Today’s Scripture: Luke 13:10-14:35; SOAP / Luke 14:27

Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple

Luke 14:27 NET

I believe to fully appreciate, understand, and determine to carry our “own cross” we must first have an understanding of what carrying one’s cross means. The Holman Christian Standard commentary defines it like this:

To take up one’s cross daily is to expect painful situations everyday because of allegiance to Christ.

HCSB Commentary

Knowing this helps, but we will find even more help if we read the verse in the context of the verses that surround it, namely verses 26 and 28 where Christ tells the crowd of listeners a very perplexing, if not disturbing statement. He tells them they cannot be His followers if they do not hate their own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even their own life. Since we know from far too many other Scriptures, words spoken by Christ Himself, that we are to love and honor our parents, that we are to love others as ourselves, that we are to love even our enemies – we surely know that Christ is not telling us to hate others. but rather to understand that loving Him above all else, even at the cost of everything else (v28), is a must when we choose to follow Him.

Count the Cost

This is why He talks to the people (and by extension, us) about “counting the cost”, giving them examples of what can happen if the cost isn’t accurately computed. He doubles down on the emphasis in verse 33, with yet another statement that not one of them (not one of us) can be His disciple if they are not willing to renounce all they own – or anything that seeks to take lordship over them.

My pastor said it like this, this morning, “not everyone who follows Christ is a true disciple”; and this is what Christ knew and was teaching in this passage. While large crowds may have gathered and followed Him wherever He went – He knew what the coming days and years would bring and He wanted/needed them to understand that those who were “true disciples” would need to be willing to forsake all others and anything they held dear for the sake of following Him.

Carrying Your Own Cross

As I was rereading verse 27, the phrase, “carry his own cross”, jumped out to me. No one is exempt from carrying their own cross, salvation is not corporate but personal – and it’s important that we understand this. We are certainly called to help bear one another’s burdens and to help those in need – but our salvation is a personal relationship with God, the Father-Son-and Holy Spirit. It is based on a personal faith in Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10:17 – Thus to place faith in Christ is to understand the cost and still choose Him above all else – be it people, situations in life, possessions, money, earthly desires, and self – Christ must be first to be Lord of our life.

How DO We Do This?

Seek God’s Word for understanding about what it means to follow truly Christ. Regularly review and evaluate yourself in the light of His words in this passage. Ask yourself, is there anything or anyone keeping you from being a fully engaged disciple of Christ? Remember, there are benefits as well as costs. The list I made looked something like this:

Count the Cost
  • Selflessness
  • Daily struggles
  • Hardships
  • Loneliness
  • Weariness
Consider the Benefits
  • Forgiveness
  • God’s provision and protection
  • The power of His Spirit
  • The 24/7 presence of His Spirit
  • Eternal Life

Both of these lists may look different for each of us, for the benefits of following Christ are as endless as the costs that each new day may hold. However, the benefits will always and forever far outweigh the costs. Thus, I – and I pray you – are left with the obvious conclusion to take up our cross daily. Knowing we may face painful and challenging situations every day – but choosing to trust that He will carry us and give us the strength to follow Him despite our cross.

“Whatever cross we’re carrying grows light when we let Jesus carry us.”

Ann VosKamp
Response to God’s Word

Father, thank you for making Jesus, The Way – The Truth – and The Life, known to us through Your Word, so that we might choose The way of Christ – forsaking our own self and desires and other loves to follow Him. Help us to be faithful followers, to stand firm in the face of painful or difficult situations and choices – knowing You are with us. Blessed be Your Name O Lord! Blessed be your Holy Name!

Want More?

Check out today’s LGG Blog post

Posted in From the Insideout

Loved – to the Very End

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If I am to imitate Jesus – to be a good reflection of who He is – I must know Him well. I must know how He talked, the habits He had – the company He kept, and the way He spent and prioritized His time. I must know how and even why Jesus loved and lived. I must know and understand His character and what made Him who and how He was.

I can only truly find these details in God’s Word, the depth of which is not meant to be examined here today but the crux of which is this – He was from God. God, who had loved the world so much that He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son, to suffer and die so that all who believed in Him might live. Everything He did and said, the way He lived and loved, how He responded, and the things He thought all hinged on Him being from God. Yes, He was Himself God, but He took on human form, making Himself also a man*, and it is that reference that I found myself examining in the passage I read today from John 13:1-17.

Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray Jesus. 3 Because Jesus knew that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 he got up from the meal, removed his outer clothes, took a towel and tied it around himself. 5 He poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel he had wrapped around himself.

6 Then he came to Simon Peter. Peter[n] said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 (For Jesus knew the one who was going to betray him. For this reason he said, “Not every one of you is clean.”)

12 So when Jesus had washed their feet and put his outer clothing back on, he took his place at the table again and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and do so correctly, for that is what I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example—you should do just as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the solemn truth, the slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who is sent as a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

His habits were Holy and Righteous – why? Because He was from God. He was found most often in the company of His disciples – but also – in the home and the company of sinners. Many questioned this, but we know it was simply and profoundly – because He was from God, sent to seek and save the lost. Because He was from God – He spent His time feeding the hungry, healing the sick, teaching the masses about the Kingdom of God, and communicating with the Father. He came to give life to the full – why – because He wanted us to be one with the Father just as He is. This oneness can only be experienced when we know God, which is precisely what Christ desired for all people – because He was from God.

Jesus wasn’t just their Lord and teacher. He was God Himself, yet, here we find Him, just before His imminent suffering and death, to have gotten up from the table and removing all hindrances prepared Himself outwardly to perform a ‘servant-like’ expression of His love. As Matthew Henry said, “He taught them the value of spiritual washing and the cleansing of the soul from the pollutions of sin,” and He did this through the lowly act of washing their feet. In preparation for His departure, it seems He wanted them to not only witness an act of selfless love but to be the recipients. So, Jesus gave them a very humble and passionately moving example of serving others from an attitude of love and humility instead of from a position or status. He did this throughout His ministry as an example of how we are to live and love and serve. He loved beyond who and what He was and knew He was entitled to*. Jesus lived and taught a love that served not self but others and spilled out in actions that proved His love was not only genuine but one that endures to the very end.

*Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, 2 complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. 3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. 4 Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. 5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, 6who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. 8 He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross! Philippians 2:1-8