For those of you that don’t know, one of my blog posts was featured on theResurgence.com yesterday.  I was approached a few months ago to see if they could use the article on their site and they posted it yesterday.  I have to say that I am truly humbled that they would ask me and actually post it.  It’s crazy to see my post on the same blog of author’s like Dave Craft, Ed Stetzer, Justin Holcomb, Winfield Bevins, Mark Driscoll, Jonathan Dobson, and Charles Spurgeon.  These guys have been a huge blessing in my life, and I am in awe that I would be published by their side.

Thanks to Mike Anderson and Jordan Buckley for asking and for all you hard work at theResurgence.com.  You and your team do amazing work, and it’s a true blessing to me personally.  If you’re not subscribed to theResurgence.com, you need to go there right now and check out all their stuff.  Once again thanks.

We ended yesterday with the following definition to answer the questions, “What is a Disciple of Jesus?”

A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.

Let me break down this definition a little bit more.  As the lead singer of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler, sings in his song Amazing, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.”[i] Being a disciple of Jesus has no ultimate connotation that you have arrived in any way.  You see in the Apostle John’s gospel that those who were called disciples were simply on the path to being made into the image of Jesus.  Some only took a few steps, whereas some followed Jesus to their death.  The reality is that being a disciple of Jesus means that you are on the path, following Jesus.

Now like most journeys, there are going to be points of interest along the way (salvation, joining a church, special callings in your life, etc.), but these aren’t the ultimate focus.  The ultimate focus of a disciple is Jesus himself.  A disciple isn’t marked by their experience, knowledge, actions, or expertise.  A disciple is marked by whom they are following.  For a Christian, that is Jesus himself.  Our ultimate goal is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

This isn’t by any merit of our own.  The fact that we are disciples of Jesus is strictly by the grace of God.  It is through the blood of Christ that we are called to be His disciples.  You see this over and over again in the gospels when Jesus called his disciples: they were not called base on merit.  There was simply Jesus’ call into their lives to “follow me.”[ii]

Our growth and progress as we follow Jesus is also nothing for us to boast in either. Sanctification doesn’t happen because of our own will, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Peter encourages some exiles of gospel in 1 Peter 1:1-2 by telling them:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.[iii]

We are called by the grace of God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit to become more and more like the Son of God…Jesus.  This is what it means to be a disciple.

My definition of a disciple ends with the sentence,  “As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.” 

As a disciple is being transformed into the image of Christ, there are some clear areas in the life that will be transformed.  Disciples will begin to find their identity in Jesus, worship Jesus with all their life, live in community, and be on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.  That is the out powering from who the disciple is.  These are the actions of a disciple. Over the next few weeks we’ll focus on each one of these more.  Until then, I pray that you grow in your walk with Jesus.

[ii] Matthew 4:19, Matthew 8:22, Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, Luke 1:3, Luke 5:27, John 1:43

[iii] (ESV)

So I got this in the mail yesterday from my niece with $100. She decided to have a bake sale to raise money to help support me going to Re:Train.  I have to say it is completely humbling the support that I’ve gotten.  I’m literally speechless.

I’ve had a few people just come up to me and give me a wad of cash.  I trust in God’s providence, but I don’t have a clue as what to do when it happens.  It’s hard to put into words the emotions that I’m feeling of joy, thankfulness, humility, grace, mercy, and provision.  I simply bumble through my words and say thank you.

By the grace of God, I have received just short of $1,000. In a little over two weeks, God has provided for 1/5 of my total needs for Re:Train.  He’s used friends, family, and complete strangers to help support.  I’ve also had countless people tell me that they are praying for me too.  There are times in our lives when God seems to pour our His grace in a greater measure.  This is one of those times.  I thank God for His provision and for the people He is using.

[If you would like to help support, you can use the Chip-In Widget below.]

For those of you that didn’t catch the live feed yesterday, I thought I would post the video on here. At about 5 pm yesterday, Asa finally figured out how to work his hands into the crawling equation and started crawling. The video below is literally minutes after Asa started crawling for the first time (thanks to my jail broken iphone).

As you know, we moved into our house back in Dec and have to make a lot of renovations. So Shannon and I  took this week off to try and get everything done. Here is our to do list for the week.

- turn half wall into full wall in master bedroom (frame, drywall, and mud)
- tear down fake brick chimney
- paint living room
- paint bedroom
- finish paint cabinets
- finish painting guest bath
- install bucket lights in kitchen

Shannon and I are trying to get this all done by Wednesday, because we head out on Thursday for our 5 year anniversary. Hopefully I won’t die by then.  My hands hurt so bad right now from swinging a sledge hammer yesterday.  It’s a lot of fun swinging a sledge hammer while you’re doing it, but you have a price to pay the next day for all the fun.

I put together the furniture for the nursery yesterday. Thought I would put together a little somethin somethin to remember the moment.

This is just a quick post. I got to feel Asa move for the first time on Friday night! It was so awesome. Shannon has been able to feel him move for quite awhile now, but that was the first time I’ve gotten to feel him move. I was going to post this yesterday, but we had a crazy long day. Hope everyone is doing great.

This is just a quick post to give you and update on the baby.

Shannon had her regular appointment yesterday with our Midwife.  Things are looking good with the kid.  We got the results back from our last ultrasound and everything looks normal.  He is growing at a normal rate and Shannon is doing fine. Shannon is starting to get a little bit of a tummy, and she is able to feel the baby moving (he’s not big enough for me to feel him move yet).

We are also interviewing a couple of doula’s on Friday (tomorrow).  If you don’t know what a doula is, you can read about it here.  They are awesome!  Thanks for everyone’s prayers and thoughts during this time in our lives.  YOU ROCK!!!