Kindle Notes & Highlights
You cannot make a man see moral truth by persuading his intellect. 'When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.’
Jesus put the disciples through crises to reveal them to themselves and bring them to the place of receiving the Holy Spirit. They could not see their need to receive the Holy Spirit until they found out that they were spiritual paupers.
howdoes this truth affect the waywe make disciples today whrn our cuture expects the easy and simple. my journey is evidence that i did not fathom this when i actsed in obedience going to Orlando( or otherwise)
The preaching of the gospel of temperament will not do for the making of disciples; nor will Jesus shield us in the slightest degree from any of the requirements of discipleship.
As makers of disciples, we havto approach the teachings of Christ with this in mind
The early disciples were honest, sincere, zealous men; they had given up everything to follow Jesus; their sense of the heroic was grand, but where did it all end? 'They all forsook Him and fled.' They came to realize that no human earnestness or sincerity on earth can ever begin to fulfill what Jesus demands of a disciple. Then after the Resurrection Jesus 'breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost'.
Again, being a disciple in the earnest meaning of the term, is beyond our ability, understanding, even with the best of intentions. it only ever comes from th power of Christ at inception and from thereon. why does it amaze me that i cannot follow in obedxience after having gained the knowledge of truth? Is it any different to beome hungy and weak after the finest meal? i know i must nourish again, and the bewilderment of my prolonged weakness that occrus when that meal has passed, is the true mystery
The first thing a man needs is to be born into the Kingdom of God by receiving the Holy Spirit, and then slowly and surely be turned into a disciple.
