Well, what a an interesting question to ask myself this week - so it means student from the Latin, but I prefer to think of myself as an apprentice to Jesus! For some reason I find that more evocative of what discipleship means to me.
We are on this journey with him, a travelling companion, and as part of that journey, we are being transformed into disciples - none of us are perfect and will make mistakes, but if you look at his original disciples, none of them were perfect either.
So is to be a disciple is ultimately to act like Jesus ? and as part of the journey we are on, as we transform our own hearts, we then can go out to others if we chose to.
I found the Dr Sri podcast very interesting as I thought about the habits of being a disciple, he talked about four:
Prayer, being part of our daily life - a good prompt to me to do that each day, and to find a time that works best for me, usually first thing in the calm of the early morning, but also sometimes before I go to bed - whatever works best.
Sacrements - this one I had to think about - what does receiving Jesus mean? I found a useful definition for me - Sacraments can also be thought of as blessings that are received during an important ceremony, and they are sometimes referred to as ‘rites of passage’ I need to think about this a bit more, so other thoughts welcomed.
Fellowship - we need our brothers and sisters around us, absolutely - as we are together on this course to share experiences, learn together, provide support, and encouragement, and to challenge ourselves and each other.
Feed my mind - as I get older this becomes more important ! But seriously, how to take the time to learn about the teachings of Christ - both from the bible but also from other books. So for example, I'm reading a really helpful book at the moment from Pete Grieg called 'How to Pray that relates back to point one above - I like acronyms, and he uses PRAY - Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield to guide one through ones prayers.
Hi Philip, I too was struck by what Dr Sri had to say. I'm also sat here with a copy of 'How to Pray' by my side. So far I've read the Foreward! I like your idea that Sacraments are blessings. I had forgotten that in my last parish we had used the seven sacraments to make seven penants, one for each church in our benefice. These were, baptism, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, healing, reconciliation and the Eucharist. In each of these we receive blessings and grace from God. In some we commission to do God's work. For the holy spirit to work within and through us, do we need to acknowledge what we have received, and accept God's will. Hope that make sense.
Nicely put Phil.
I, like you, like to think of myself as an apprentice to Jesus. I think I shared with you last week as Alfs apprentice. I followed him everywhere he went, and I mean everywhere! I was like a sheep and Alf was the shepherd. I never let him out of my sight. I listened to, and learned from everything he taught me. Gradually, I became more confident in the things he taught me and was happy to leave Alfs side and do things for myself. Of course I made mistakes and messed things up, but I knew all I had to do was turn to Alf and he would put things right. Very much like our walk with Jesus. At first like little lambs being fed on milk, but then as time goes on, we grow in our belief and step out in faith. Yes we are going to mess up and get things wrong but we know Jesus will be there to pick us up.