May 16, 2016
I have an independent personality. I’m not saying that I’m rebellious or disobedient (though there have definitely been times those would describe me). I just like to do things myself.
If I can do it well, then let me do it alone. If I think I know how it works, leave me alone and let me work. If I don’t quite know, I’ll get the documentation and figure it out. That is what I have learned about how I work. I didn’t realize any of this before I came to School of Discipleship. I have come to understand just how independent I am since attending this program.
I have learned since being here that I can’t afford to be independent. There are aspects of life that just don’t work doing it alone. I share a house with two great guys, and they are there to help me through my struggles. The days I’m on an emotional roller-coaster, I’ve learned the best help is the help my brothers can offer to me. I used to wade through chest deep problems on my own and tell people I’m fine. I was independent.
When I need advice I’ve learned to ask. I honestly can’t remember ever asking my father for serious life advice. Now I realize that I need advice. God has placed people in my life who know more than I do, or have even gone through the exact same situations. Asking for advice is not something I used to do. I was independent.
The danger of independence is that I could suffocate alone, drown in my own problems, or panic over decisions others have made.
Father keep me dependent.
Empty me of my selfish pride.
And when I am crooked or bent,
Straighten me to be at your side.
Teach me to learn from the others
With whom You’ve surrounded me,
And keep my heart close to my brothers
That my life should be pleasing to Thee.
School of Discipleship US
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Apr 16, 2016
I·den·ti·ty- the fact of being who or what a person or thing is
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:1 & 13
As the year in School of Discipleship continues, it is amazing that one doesn’t just get to know the Lord more intimately, but one also gets to know themselves through this challenging year of being discipled.
In class, the Lord has been teaching me to recognize the importance of knowing my true identity. All of Mankind has identity. Our identity may come from many areas in life including family or friends, job, money, or even the past. The Lord has been challenging me in this regard: In the way I live, where is my identity rooted from? If my supreme identity comes from anything other than Christ Himself, I will soon realize that whatever else I root my life in will be earthly and thus will diminish. As a child of God, I have the amazing privilege to know and be known by an ever infinite God, and must recognize my value in this, rather than anything else that bids for my life. I am ultimately not who anyone else says I am, nor known supremely by my weaknesses or failures, but I am who CHRIST alone says I am!
Does Christ complete me? Do I feel as if I need that one thing, aside from Christ, in order to “feel” complete? What makes my heart race and receives my awe? In what is my identity really found when everything else is stripped away?
Though I have been greatly challenged in learning my need for a complete self-denial, the Lord has been teaching me that my absolute only boast, and ultimately life, must be in Christ. I have and am absolutely nothing without Him, but am everything in Him. It is unfortunate to know that I can go through the daily tasks of serving the Lord, without ever realizing who I am as His blood bought child, and miss out on the relationship that our Father longs for with His children.
So when I am tempted to believe that other things will somehow satisfy, or to ‘amen’ what the enemy would have me to believe, I must remember that as a child of God, He is the one who makes me who I really am. In Christ, my identity is completely sure since He never fails nor changes forever.
—School of Discipleship student
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Apr 13, 2016
It seems unbelievable that we have just over five weeks left until we are finished our year! I remember that the end looked so far away, but yet, how quick the time has flown. I can hardly grab on to one day until the next one budges in. God has and continues to be so very gracious and faithful!
As the year winds up, God has been challenging me to trust Him like never before, as I seek Him for future plans ahead! I am challenged in my walk with Him, questioning myself, “Do I really trust God?” “Am I too proud or smart to let the Sovereign Ruler of the universe lead and guide me?” I believe that it is in these times of my insufficiency that God can even begin to grant me the grace to start trusting Him. I am sorrowed at how often I take the invitation to trust God lightly, sprinkled with a bit of groaning or whimpering! Oh, may He grant me the grace to completely and wholly surrender and submit my all to Him!
So, in closing, I firstly praise God for this year with it’s beautiful times of challenges as well as victories! How unworthily blessed I feel to have been a part in the School of Discipleship program! It has truly been a journey that I believe will impact my entire life! Praise and glory to the Lord!
—School of Discipleship student
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Apr 1, 2016
In the last two weeks, I have learned of the deaths of five different people. Four of them I didn’t know personally. They were friends or relatives of friends, however it does still affect you. Today I was able to take some time to grieve for these people. It was probably not the best to put it off so long, but sometimes it seems easier to ignore the pain in our lives not realising how it is impacting us.
The one I knew personally was kind of the Grampa of the Church that I attended. A few years ago, I had helped him move to the place he was living at. We had precious times with the rest of the Church during Good Friday foot washing services. This is another topic, but it always seemed to connect the younger saints with the older ones. This and other activities with him made him dear to me although I never knew him well.
As I was thinking about their deaths and their lives, I was reminded of a statement about death by a 19th century author, “How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.” Without our God and Saviour, death is a very fearful thing, however, He has passed through death and given us the hope of the resurrection. A sunset on the one hand is the end of a day, but it is also the promise of new day coming. The sun will return and everything will be bright again. This is also our hope for death for those of us in Christ. He will transport us into the new day of His kingdom where we’ll meet those who have passed through the sunset before us.
—School of Discipleship student
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Mar 28, 2016
Just a few weeks ago, I heard the song of a robin for the first time this year and I saw new life beginning to poke out of the ground. It just amazes me how God created His masterpiece so perfectly. How is it that plants, know when it is safe to poke their little heads out of the earth, or hibernating animals know when to wake up from their winter sleep? Or, how about the thought: of how birds know when it is time to come to their summer home.
Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.”
Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened.
God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
—Genesis 1: 20, 24-25
As I ponder this season of new life I also can’t help but be in awe of the New Life we are offered through the suffering of our Lord and Saviour. How precious this gift is and how He delights to give it to His children.
Let’s embrace this promise given to us!
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”
—John 10:10
—School of Discipleship student
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