
Aren’t Christians Supposed to Follow Christ?
The word “Christian” does not mean “one who admires Christ,” nor “the recipient of Christ’s blessings,” nor even “one who believes in Christ.”
The personal site of Jonathan Hayashi
The word “Christian” does not mean “one who admires Christ,” nor “the recipient of Christ’s blessings,” nor even “one who believes in Christ.”
Apologetics is the study of, “Defense of the faith.” Why should you read this and believe in these truth claims?
The greatest pastor theologian in American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” Jonathan Edwards penned these words the year of 1722 a resolution that he devoted himself to the aim for godliness and the glory of God.
For quantity doesn’t always correspond to quality, especially on the Internet. However, sometimes, articles that have a broad readership indicate that a powerful idea or formative truth has been shared.
Discipleship is not simply staffed by elite paid clergy by the few for the few. Instead, it is God’s call for all the saints (priesthood of believers) to biblically counsel and disciple all.
What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts, your own dear Son? Herein is wonder of wonders: he came below to raise me above, was born like me that I might become like him.
As we even celebrate the 500th year of Protestant Reformation with Martin Luther, which has influenced Protestants since the 16th-century hated the New Testament book of James so much that he wanted it completely OUT of the Bible as it seemed to contradict the doctrine of Sola Fide (Latin: by faith alone).
“Making disciples of Jesus is the overflow of the delight in being disciples of Jesus.” ― David Platt, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live.
God is unimpressed by human speed. Go deep, not just wide. Grow members, not just numbers. Serve your successor, not just yourself.
This has changed my life and I hope with my whole heart that it will change yours.
In the book of James, the solution to interpersonal conflict is shockingly vertical.
Their whole mission was nearly useless if they didn’t spread it and multiply it.
Today living in the 21st century, we live in a culture where it is no surprise that all entertainment platform is encouraged and empower their users to allow any filthy language, nudity, violence, and other mature content from movies and TV series.
The word “toxic” comes from the German “toxikon” which means “arrow poison”. In a literal sense, the term in its original form thus means to kill (poison) in a targeted way (arrow).
Discipleship is simply this; Disciples are called to know Christ, grow with Christ, and go for Christ.
This is absolutely a counter-cultural model. This radically changes everything of how we think and howe we function as a church.
Huffington Post writes, “Porn sites has more regular traffics compared to Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined all together each month.”
This is a shocking reality. These are not angry fundamentalist conservative Christians but secular culture coming up with these statistics.
The leaders of the first century church did NOT ask each other, “how many came to church last week?” That’s not how God measures success.
My time in seminary was perhaps one of my sweetest moments yet a hardest time of my life. But seminary didn’t teach me everything. It certainly didn’t fully prepare me for ministry.
What if we brought this 1st century principle into the 21st century of living in honest transparent lifestyle as Jesus did?
Jesus envisioned that the victory would be won through witnessing and he depended on the faithfulness of his chosen disciples to this task. That was his only plan. His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but men were to be His method of winning the world.
The Contemporary gospel is an American cultural artifact, namely, you can become a Christian and not follow Jesus, discipleship is optional.
“Just because a church is large doesn’t mean it’s healthy. It could be swollen.” – Charles. H. Spurgeon
The ordinary Christian will always fight the status quo of lukewarm Christianity. The ordinary Christian will always fight nominal, passionless Christianity.