Disciples are people who want to be like Jesus. But to be like Jesus we must know Him and see Him as He is revealed in God’s Word. Today’s excerpt from Disciples Making Disciples is found on page 18:

“Jesus Christ is exalted in glory, reigning at the right hand of God in a glorified body, carrying on the work He began on earth of destroying the works of the devil and advancing the Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit of God. Many passages of Scripture give us glimpses of Jesus exalted—in the Psalms and prophets, in Revelation, even in the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John. It can be difficult to bring all these glimpses together into one cogent and beautiful portrait of Jesus exalted in glory, but this is precisely what Paul intends for us to do. He even prayed for us—when he prayed for the church in Ephesus—that the eyes of our hearts may be opened and the Spirit of God might illumine our minds to the beauty and wonder and majesty and greatness, and to the finished work and glory of our exalted Savior and King.

“This is the work of prayer, meditation, and lively conversation with other disciples. Our hearts will be wondrously warmed, and our love for Jesus will increase dramatically, as we seek the Lord with all our heart, to know, love, and serve Him better day by day.

“To seek Jesus like this is to encounter jaw-dropping beauty, and to have our minds filled with the scope, majesty, and power of His work of redemption and restoration. If we seek Him, we will find Him, when we seek Him with all our heart. Then we will want to be like Jesus, to shed everything that makes us ashamed or reluctant to be in His Presence, and to join in His work with all our soul and strength, as true disciples and eager disciple-makers.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What can you do to keep the vision of Jesus, exalted in glory, more consistently before you throughout the day?

2. How do you think you would benefit from doing this?

We cannot follow Jesus if we don’t know Him, and to know Him we must search throughout all the Scriptures, because all the Scriptures teach us about Jesus. Starting in the gospels is good, but we must be able to see and hear Jesus everywhere in Scripture if we’re going to develop a clear and compelling and constant vision of Him. Share today’s podcast with a friend. Encourage your friend to listen to the podcast and subscribe. Set up a time when you can get together and share what you’re learning about seeing Jesus. Pray together and encourage one another in following Him. You can download a free copy of Disciples Making Disciples by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post To Be Like Jesus appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Being a disciple of Jesus involves knowing and following Him. The more we consider Jesus, the more we can help others know Him. Today’s excerpt from Disciples Making Disciples is found on pages 16 and 17:

“We cannot follow what we do not know. And we cannot encourage other followers of Jesus if we are not seeking Him ourselves. If we do not know Jesus, if our vision and understanding of Him are vague or merely general, following Him, in any sense, will be an act of self-deception.

“As disciples, we say that we know Jesus. To know Jesus Christ is to have eternal life. To know Jesus is to be conveyed into the Kingdom and glory of God and to have embarked on a life above the merely mundane plane of existence, life ‘under the heavens,’ as Solomon explained it, rather than merely ‘under the sun.’ To know Jesus is to recognize and delight in Him. To know Jesus we must consider Him carefully and well. Otherwise, we will not stay the course of our discipleship, following Jesus, even if necessary, to death.

“The writer of Hebrews understood this. Twice in his epistle he instructed us to ‘consider Jesus’ We must consider Jesus—seek Him with all our heart—if we have any hope of growing as disciples and persevering in our calling. And we must consider Jesus if we are to run our race as fully and swiftly as possible. Following Jesus, it seems, means considering Him carefully.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What is your approach to “considering Jesus”? How frequently do you do so?

2. Why is it so important that “considering Jesus” should have a large role in our spiritual life?

When we’re considering something we’re thinking about it, gathering more information, asking help from others, and in general assembling a clear picture of what we’re considering. So it should be in our discipleship with Jesus. We can’t follow Him if we don’t know Him, and we won’t know Him if we don’t take the time to consider Him. Share today’s podcast with a friend. Encourage your friend to listen to the podcast as well. Set up a time when you can get together to talk about better ways of considering Jesus. Pray together and encourage one another in following Him. You can download a free copy of Disciples Making Disciples by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post Consider Jesus appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Everyone who professes faith in Jesus is a follower of Jesus, a disciple. No exceptions. The question is not whether we are disciples, but what kind of disciples we are. Today’s excerpt from Disciples Making Disciples is found on pages 13 and 14:

“Make up your mind to be such a disciple. The soul that rests on Jesus grows from a mind set on Christ, a mind devoted to studyingHim in the gospels, meditating on Him in His glory, and seeking Him in all the ways He reveals Himself day by day.

“Daily devote your heart to following Jesus. The soul that rests on Jesus involves a heart captivated by the loveliness of Jesus, in awe of His majesty and strength, delighting to see and participate in Him, and eager to love Him more.

“Make sure that Jesus defines all your values and priorities. The soul that rests on Jesus has Jesus, and pleasing Him, as its priority in all things. Its conscience is tuned to the priorities of God’s Law and the agenda of the risen Christ, and nothing is more important than what Jesus wants at any moment.

“The soul of a disciple is a soul set on Jesus, leaning on Him for repose, and following Him where He leads. With their Christ-focused mind, heart, and conscience, disciples reach forward to Jesus, to know Him better, love Him more, and serve Him more faithfully in everything they do. And they reach out to their fellow believers to help them grow in loving Jesus above all.

“The soul that thus loves Jesus will be eager to prove its love for Him in words and deeds of complete and ungrudging obedience. And it is in obedience that the rewards of such love will be known, chief among these, the unfailing Presence of Jesus.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Is your soul resting in Jesus? What does that mean?

2. What distractions keep you from resting more fully in Jesus? How can you deal with these?

Share today’s podcast with a friend. Encourage your friend to listen to the podcast as well. Set up a time when you can get together to discuss what you’re learning from our book, Disciples Making Disciples. Encourage one another in resting your soul in Jesus. You can download a free copy of Disciples Making Disciples by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post Call to Obedience appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Churches are busy places. There’s always something going on, and usually something to offer every age group or interest group. Yes, churches are very busy. But are we busy about the right things? We begin a series of readings from our book, Disciples Making Disciples. Today’s excerpt is from page 8:

“This is the great challenge, the gauntlet thrown at the feet of every believer: Follow Jesus. Disciples are those who follow a master, and Jesus is the Master above all masters, Whom we must follow. Not merely confess but follow. We are disciples of Jesus when we are following Him, walking the path He walked, embodying and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, making disciples as we are going.

“Jesus is the journey and destination of God’s call on our lives. He is with us always, His Spirit dwells within us, and we are seated with Him in heavenly places. Jesus leads us up and above the worldly fray and ways, into the realm of Kingdom righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Our lives have been hidden with Christ in God, and He is the great prize toward which we press, as we are daily transformed into His image, toward that day in glory when we shall see Him face to face and be like Him.“

And yet we often seem more concerned about other things, lesser things, than about the great business of following Jesus for which we have been redeemed and called—the business of being disciples and making disciples.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What specific efforts in your church are aimed at making disciples?

2. What are you presently doing to help others become disciples and followers of Jesus?

Making disciples is the great challenge Jesus left for His followers. Yet today, we seem to be more interested in making church members, helping folks find a place to fit in within our church’s programs and people. Making disciples, for most churches, is just not on the radar screen Share today’s podcast with a friend. Encourage your friend to listen to the podcast as well. Set up a time when you can get together to discuss what you are doing to help your church fulfill its calling to make disciples. Get your copy of Disciples Making Disciples either in book form or as a free PDF by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. You can share your free PDF with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post The Great Challenge appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

A final communal discipline to consider is that of fellowship. Fellowship in the New Testament was nothing like what we think of as fellowship today. So we may have some re-learning to do. Today’s excerpt is found on pages 126 and 127:

“Fellowship, as we see it in the book of Acts, makes three requirements of us that are not commonly found in many local churches today. First, fellowship requires renunciation—that disciples make up their minds that, not only are they not their own but belong to God through Jesus Christ, but nothing they possess belongs to them, either. They are stewards of resources which, like their time, are entrusted to them by God to be used to show neighbor-love as often as is required. 

“For the first Christians fellowship meant, second, a readiness to share homes, possessions, and wealth with their fellow believers, as well as with congregations in need elsewhere. This included making provision to meet the needs of those in their membership who struggled or were unable to provide for themselves—such as widows, the sick, and the poor. The first Christians understood that you can’t have a true body unless all the members invest the totality of their strength in providing for the wellbeing of all the other members, and that meant bringing of their resources, as need indicated, freely and abundantly.

“Finally, for such fellowship to exist, the first Christians had to resist every selfish inclination and submit to the wisdom of church leaders as they, wise shepherds, worked to ensure the wellbeing of all members of the local congregation”

For reflection or discussion
1. What does fellowship look like in your church?

2. Do you think we need more or less fellowship in our walk with the Lord? Why?

Fellowship is a discipline we all need to relearn. The basic idea of the word is to share in or participate in the life of others. Fellowship takes time and commitment, but it’s an important part of any congregation’s life. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss your role in the fellowship of your church. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post The Discipline of Fellowship appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

All those who share in Christian community have gifts to bring to the task of strengthening that community and making disciples. There are no exceptions to this fact, so we should make sure we are involved in this important work. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on page 124:

“Believers in local churches are charged with the responsibility of encouraging one another in good works of ministry. All believers have gifts from the Spirit. All disciples have been sent into their own Personal Mission Field to bring near the Kingdom of God, just as Jesus did. Every disciple, therefore, is responsible to identify, develop, and put to work the gifts God has provided, in the normal course of everyday life, for the purpose of making disciples and building-up the local church. 

“The goal of our discipleship does not end in how we feel about, or how satisfied we are, with our relationship with the Lord, the church of which we’re members, or the situation and condition of our own lives. The goal of discipleship is more disciples, growing disciples, united together in healthy, growing churches. And every believer must take up this calling according to his unique circumstances, burdens, gifts, and opportunities.

“The purpose of discipleship is ministry. The goal of discipleship is more disciples and healthy, growing churches. The means whereby this is accomplished is through communities of believers working together as bodies to show the love of Christ to one another and the people in their communities.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What gifts do you think the Lord has given you for the work of ministry?

2. In what ways are you currently involved in making disciples?

Jesus gave us a great commission, to make all the nations disciples. And that work has to begin somewhere, and that somewhere is in the Personal Mission Field of every follower of Jesus. Making disciples is one of those communal disciplines that we all possess in some measure. It would be important, I think, to make sure we are making disciples as Jesus commanded. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss the work of making disciples and your role in that work. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Ministry Together appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

For many Christians, “worship” is what we do on Sunday mornings. And what we do at such times is largely dictated by what certain people think is best for us. But we have to wonder: Is this what God thinks is best? Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 121 and 122:

“In our worship we can have all the right forms and organize them according to a proper flow of worship. We can even keep our focus on the Lord, where it ought to be, and feel as though our worship of God is as complete, full, and joyous as we might hope. But if our hearts are not in it—if we harbor sin in our hearts or are more concerned to gratify our own needs than to exalt the Lord, if we do not worship out of a heart of gratitude unto a life of obedience and fruitfulness, then we can expect God to reject our worship and visit us with His displeasure.

“Worship comes naturally to us. As the image-bearers of God, we are always seeking something greater than ourselves to desire, adore, possess, and extol. But although worship comes naturally to us, proper worship—worship in line with the divine pattern—does not. We must learn to worship the Lord, and this is a labor of the entire community of God’s people.

“In our churches we must insist on worship that fits the divine pattern, revealed in His Word; and we must look to our pastors and teachers to instruct us in the pattern of sound worship, even while we are worshiping, as we come before the Lord together. Worshiping God together is the primary purpose of the local church, but only if our worship is according to the pattern God describes will we have the assurance that this communal discipline, this labor we undertake together is not in vain.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What is the divine pattern for worship, as you understand it?

2. How can we know when our worship—ours and our church—are following the divine pattern for worship?

Worship is a vital community discipline. The root idea of worship is to ascribe to God, by various means, His worthiness in all its parts. In worship we seek to empty ourselves in adoration of God and attention to His Word. He will fill us with Himself when we worship according to His pattern. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss the divine pattern for worship and your place in it. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post A Divine Pattern appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

A disciplined life will include disciplines for improving our spiritual lives, our relationships, and our work. But we also need to practice the disciplines of our communal life as Christians—worship, fellowship, hospitality, sharing, and communal prayer. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 117 and 118:

“How much time do churches spend in corporate prayer? The first believers persisted for 10 days; we hardly give 10 minutes to this important communal discipline. They met every challenge and opportunity in seasons of corporate prayer. Do we do the same? Since prayer is so important to the spiritual life of each Christian, we can only believe that corporate prayer, praying together, must be equally important in the work of maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

‘But in reality, we provide very little—if any—time for corporate prayer in our services of worship, and most churches have given up trying to maintain a weekly prayer meeting. So few people attend, and, in general, the prayers are so small that few believe ‘prayer meeting’ to be an important part of the life of the local church. Groups throughout the church may include prayer in their meetings or activities, but the complaints are universal about the trivial matters which tend to command the focus of such prayers, and most people are merely auditors while the ‘usual suspects’ take up the bulk of the group’s prayer time.

“And as for all the Christians in any particular community—members of all the local churches—joining together for prayer, such an event is almost unheard of in our day. 

“We simply do not believe that corporate prayer is an essential discipline for building the Body of Christ and realizing more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom. So how might we begin to rectify this sad situation? Allow me to make a few suggestions.” 

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you describe the state of corporate prayer in your church? What opportunities are offered?

2.. What might you do to improve the discipline of corporate prayer in your church?

Let’s face it: We don’t spend much time or energy praying with our fellow Christians. Is this a reflection of our personal prayer life or just a phenomenon we’ve decided to let slide? What would Jesus say? Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together for prayer—both for yourselves and for your church. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Corporate Prayer appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Jesus, the Scriptures remind us, did all things well. In the work we do for the Lord—all the work we do—we should strive for excellence, so that the goodness of God comes through in all our work. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on page 107:

“Recall Jesus at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. When He turned the water into wine it wasn’t just your off-the-shelf-everyday wine; it was the best and rarest wine. Or when He instructed the disciples to cast their nets for a catch, how they didn’t just pull in a fish or two, but their nets were bursting with the sea’s bounty. Remember what He said about everyday encounters with people we might meet in the course of carrying out our vocation from the Lord: the extra mile, the tunic and the shirt, whatever you have that others need, the other cheek. And how the people admired the clarity, vividness, authority, and loftiness of Jesus’ teaching!

“Excellence thus seems to involve going well beyond what is normally experienced or expected. In everything we’re called to do in the work appointed to us, we must try to envision that work as it would be most excellently accomplished, then go all out to make that precisely the case. Where there are clear standards—as in job descriptions or quality control guidelines—believers must strive to exceed them. Wherever we can go a little further, produce a little more, do a bit better work, acquire better understanding, improve our skills, listen better, or push ourselves just a little harder, there we will be in pursuit of excellence, the excellence that comes from the power of our risen and reigning Lord Jesus Christ.

“Put another way, for the Christian, ‘good enough’ must never be good enough. Excellence in all things, and all things to the glory of God: Whatever it takes to achieve this standard, we must pursue it, in all aspects of our calling.”

For reflection of discussion
1. In what specific ways are you seeking to attain more excellence in your work?

2. Why is it important that Christians be known as striving for excellence in all our work?

We can always improve in all areas of our work, beginning with the attitude we take into work. Is our attitude one of thanksgiving? Resting in the strength and joy of the Lord? Or are we just seeking to get through our work so that we can get on to what we really want to do? Does the excellence of Jesus refract through us in all the work we’ve been given to do? Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss how you can help one another become more excellent in all things. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Excellence appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

We are doing our work in the Lord and unto the Lord when we think of it—whatever our work may be—as an offering to Him. Such offerings must be pure and beautiful, such as would honor Him. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 105 and 106:

“As Paul sees it, every act or deed, every exertion of energy in any activity whatsoever, is a form of work, and all work should be done ‘in the Lord.’ Our calling to the Kingdom and glory of God is a matter of work, good works, and works that are greater and more varied than whatever may be our job.

“When all our work, all our exertions in every area of our lives, are done ‘in the Lord,’ we can have the assurance they will not be done in vain, but will disseminate His grace and redound to the glory of God in Whom and for Whose glory they are done. 

“All your conscious activities are exertions of energy—work. They must all be done ‘in the Lord,’ that is, consciously before Him and for His glory, in His strength, according to His Word, as an expression or extension of His rule, for the demonstration of His living presence and love.  This is what it means to follow the ‘Yes’ path that is Jesus. Paul says we must be ‘always abounding’ in such work. Every moment, and everything that fills those moments, can be done in the Lord and thus bear fruit for Him. 

‘But we must be steadfast about this—set, fixed, determined, unwavering, conscious—so that we engage and perform all our work in the Lord. Prayer can help us to sustain such an outlook. Planning and prioritizing are where realizing this outlook begins. Organizing the time of our lives and being prepared in all things to bring about the obedience which is due to King Jesus—this is what our vocation requires. And we must be immovable, always in all things remaining on task for the Lord, so that our work may demonstrate His presence, purpose, power, and promise.

“And as if that weren’t challenge enough, we must be careful to strive for excellence in all we do.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What do you understand by the phrase “in the Lord”? How does that pertain to your work?

2. Can you see any areas of your work—all your work—that can be improved?

Let’s remember that the work we’ve been given to do is greater than the job at which we work. In all our work, we must have one eye on the Lord, exalted in glory, and the other attending faithfully to the work before us, so that we do it unto the Lord. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss what it means to do all things “in the Lord.” Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Working in the Lord appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.