{"id":4196,"date":"2017-07-05T16:17:02","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T21:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4196"},"modified":"2017-07-05T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T21:17:02","slug":"the-heart-of-a-disciple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/07\/the-heart-of-a-disciple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of a Disciple"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>When I was a young mom, a friend opened up my dusty bible and showed me that what Jesus had done on the cross two thousand years earlier was for <em>me.<\/em> Until that time, I hadn\u2019t understood that heaven was a promise from God, guaranteed by His Son\u2019s death. It took me two years to accept that eternal life was so simple and to invite Jesus into my life.<br \/>\nI soon discovered, however, that <strong>although receiving Christ was simple, living His new way of life was not!<\/strong> Much of my spiritual foundation had been tradition, religion, and misguided thinking. I realized that I needed to know more of the Bible so I would not miss anything God had for me. I joined a Bible study led by a woman named Elaine who deeply loved God and knew His Word. Whenever group members asked her a question, she would direct us to the Word and often would quote it. It was obvious to me that the Bible shaped Elaine\u2019s life and relationships. I asked her, \u201cI\u2019ve met many Christian women, but your love for Jesus stands out to me. Why?\u201d In response, Elaine told me about discipleship, which she described as one person helping another grow in the Lord, allowing the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to change that person\u2019s life. Many years before, a friend, Chris, had discipled her. I realized that a discipling relationship like that was exactly what I needed and wanted. I blurted out \u201cWill you disciple me?\u201d Little did I know that for years Elaine had been praying someone would ask her that specific question.<br \/>\nElaine and I began meeting together, using discipleship books by The Navigators. It was not just studying the books that radically changed my life, however. It was also the experience of having another woman sit with me and open her life and heart to me. Elaine lived out 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8: \u201c<em>We prove to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives<\/em>\u201d (NASB, NIV).<br \/>\n<strong>It\u2019s Not What You Know, It\u2019s Who You Know<\/strong><br \/>\nElaine\u2019s authenticity and vulnerability about her personal challenges and sin created an atmosphere where I could candidly share my struggles. Elaine listened and did not try to fix me. She continually encouraged me to look to the Bible and trust the Lord. She taught me how to have daily times with Jesus in His Word and how to apply the Scriptures to my life.<br \/>\nElaine\u2019s love for Jesus and His Word was contagious. Before long, I had caught her passion; my excitement about Jesus became so uncontainable that others started to notice changes in me. I asked Elaine to disciple my friends also but was disappointed to hear her say she didn\u2019t have time to teach them.<br \/>\n\u201cWho will teach them if you don\u2019t?\u201d I asked.<br \/>\n\u201cYou will,\u201d she replied.<br \/>\nFiguring that she might not have noticed, I relayed my lack of credentials: \u201cI have been meeting with you for only two months. I don\u2019t know much at all. What if they ask me something I don\u2019t know?\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cYou are not growing because of what I know,\u201d Elaine assured me, \u201cbut because of Who I know.\u201d Although she continued to meet with me, Elaine lovingly moved me out of the \u201cnursery\u201d and helped me begin to teach others.<br \/>\nClearly I was discipling women not because I thought I was capable but because I wanted them to have the opportunity to know Jesus the same way I knew Him, I trusted the Lord to help me. Through the experience of seeing Him use me, a young Christian, to teach another, I discovered that my heart\u2019s passion was discipleship. <strong>I loved teaching others to love Jesus and obey His Word.<\/strong><br \/>\nMy life was like a pebble thrown into the middle of a pond, making one ripple upon another ripple until the ripples met the shore. One life lived for the Lord and invested in another could have impact for generations to come! Jesus had given the Great Commission: to go and make disciples of all nations. The twelve people Jesus discipled went on to disciple others who in turn discipled still others. Now I, too, was part of His Commission, and as time went on, the women I discipled also went on to disciple others.<br \/>\nBehind us are many people who have given their lives so others would know Jesus Christ. Before us is the challenge to keep discipleship going from generation to generation. This is the discipling vision. Go and make disciples. Look\u2014don\u2019t you see it? The fields are ripe for harvest!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>You\u2019ve been reading \u201cReflections from the Heart of a Discipler: Life-Changing Friendships on the Journey,\u201d by Gigi Busa, an excerpt from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/womans-journey-of-discipleship-3-friends-on-the-journey\/9781631465383\"><em>Friends on the Journey<\/em><\/a>. Part of the three-book discipleship resource titled A WOMAN\u2019S JOURNEY OF DISCIPLESHIP, <em>Friends on the Journey<\/em> equips you to invest your life in others who will in turn invest their lives in future generations. Now available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/womans-journey-of-discipleship-3-friends-on-the-journey\/9781631465383\">navpress.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was a young mom, a friend opened up my dusty bible and showed me that what Jesus had done on the cross two thousand years earlier was for me. Until that time, I hadn\u2019t understood that heaven was &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"The Heart of a Disciple\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/07\/the-heart-of-a-disciple\/#more-4196\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Heart of a Disciple<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Heart of a Disciple - The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/07\/the-heart-of-a-disciple\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Heart of a Disciple - The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was a young mom, a friend opened up my dusty bible and showed me that what Jesus had done on the cross two thousand years earlier was for me. Until that time, I hadn\u2019t understood that heaven was ... 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