Biblical Love & Discipleship

We hear these words a lot lately: "acceptance", "tolerance", "meeting the person where they're at", etc...specially in relation to what love and discipleship should look like. These words and their meanings seem to reflect the current societal mindset of coexistence. while these attributes are indeed good, i think its necessary to break down their implications a lil bit further. Lets compare two differing spheres of discipleship in context to these definitions of love: Christian to Christian; Christian to non-Christian.


Christian. This is an extremely broad term...specially in today's context. Lets define a Christian as believing in Christ and choosing to follow him with your life. This is not saying that there are not differing levels of Christ-following that Christians are operating at, furthermore, there is definitely a necessity in taking into account the spiritual age of a Christ-follower.

Okay. Now...lets look at discipleship dynamics in context of Christian to Christian...as well as in relation to the above termed concepts of love. Acceptance. What exactly are we implying by this? When i look at what acceptance should look like Biblically...this is what i'm understanding: The full acceptance of the person. However...the person should be separated from their non-biblical behaviors...don't you think? Is is not possibly true, that we should indeed accept a person for all that they are, but at the same time should challenge them to act according to who they are in Christ? If not...we are actually not believing that Christ can be fully formed within the individual. For this is love...that we spur one another forward to love and good deeds...that we don't accept less than who they are fully in Christ. It is not loving nor beneficial to let someone sin or sit in their crap. yes...you love them thru their resistance, it is called unconditional love afterall...but God himself gives us a vision...a standard to strive for (strive)...That standard is Jesus Christ, himself! Why does God set us up with such a high and actually unattainable earthly standard? Because if he doesn't...then he is saying we are not perfect within Christ...he would be saying that we are not capable of more...he would take away the striving part of Christianity and we would remain stagnant...not striving for more freedom...not pursuing more of God...ourselves-without Christ- would be enough. I think that refutes Christianity all-together does it not?

Come on Christians...this is true discipleship...this is how Jesus did it...he loves us enough to discipline us...he loves us enough not to leave us how we are. This is the kind of discipleship that we should be replicating. Enter into the struggle...enter into people's crap...but don't just sit in it with them! Challenge in love. Challenge them to not just see but to walk out the more. We have to be held to higher standards than non-Christ followers...sorry...but thats how this life is...if you don't wanna grow...you don't have to choose this life. haha. We have responsibility...no matter how old we are in our Christ-walk...because we have truth living within us. We have responsibility that non-Christians don't...we can't expect people that don't believe in Truth...in God...to act according to his ways! Where is the logic in that? But we are to be set apart from the world...we are to be the example...let's start taking responsibility for our growth...for applying the Truth that we are equipped with.

Non-believers & discipleship. If this is the dynamic...then the picture is painted a lil bit different for us. yes...you can challenge...yes you can love unconditionally (and should)...but our expectations should look differently than that of someone who claims to believe the Truth. Our standards of conduct and morality cannot be set up as a standard of conduct for non-believers...because their foundation is not based on our faith. You meet them where they're at...then you walk with them where they want to go...challenging and encouraging...but their non-biblical behaviors cannot be disciplined...they have the world as their standard. you see the difference??

Let's stop discipling people as if they do not have a Godly standard. Let's stop "accepting" less than what we were created to be in Christ. Let's start pressing forward...toward the goal...to win the prize which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

stepping up to life...life before DTS...

Sometimes...nah...most days i am one of the most stubborn people you will ever meet. but it is stubbornness that keeps me choosing life. I graduated from Transformation Discipleship Training School in March of last year. I thought i was graduating past every former hurt...transformed to the core...healed from wounds that i had not fully attended to...some of them i was aware of, some not so much. These wounds have been seeping through since, and finally fully ripped open, fully exposed before me this week. And i am once again broken...in pain...and having the choice to face the cores of my beliefs at the very roots...being faced with the choice to continue denying their impact...their even existence...and letting God do an even deeper work within me. And i choose that life. I have come to the conclusion that i am no longer capable of choosing death if it is staring me in the face. not just incapable...i merely do not desire it. While this may come as a shock to some of you that i once desired death or highly considered it at points of time...it is true, and i apologize for the rawness of these words...but that was my reality and this blog is one of realness, so that is what i will maintain.

While TDTS last fall did do a major start of healing with many broken areas of my life, i failed to realize that it was a work in progress that i needed to continue in. And in some areas i have backslided without knowing. one of those being my dependence on God. I can't tell you the exact point in which i tried to take back ALL control from God, but the fact is that God doesn't force anything...the decision is ours...and he let me try...lol...he let me fail. Or rather, he let me fall in order to learn once again that i am just not capable of maintaining truth on my own. i am not able to live this life of transformation without Him. What was i thinking?! I mean...i did try to include and incorporate God in my day...but that was just it...i was trying to "make room" for him, while still holding on to some sense of control. The sense of control came for me in trying to keep my past back...trying to believe truth over lies in my own strength...trying to speak in the opposite, trying to make the right choices without having to go what i thought as backwards...but my foundation was not yet strong enough. sometimes you have to go backwards in order to go forward. This is what i am currently facing. A time with God of entering into my past in order to gain a deeper healing...and ultimately a deeper faith and relationship with God. I could benefit from your prayers.

It is impossible to walk without first fully learning how to crawl. I think i was in the wobbly stage of trying to break free from the holding of the hands...trying to make it to the destination on such unsteady legs...not being confident of God's protection and support, and i fell. While the falling hurts...it is completely necessary in learning. I will get back up and i will take God's hand this time without letting go...because he IS my destination! My destination is not ministry...it is him...our relationship. He will never leave me...nor forsake me. He will actually never even fail me. I don't have to be afraid to depend on him with my full trust. When you lose all control, God is able to step back in. What satan intends for evil and hurt...God turns into good and joy...satan’s plan with me will always backfire...because I will always choose to fight. I will always choose life.

please keep praying. Thank you for your support.