Dare to Disciple

This week in the office we are spending time studying up for this summer. For ten weeks I will be in Costa Rica with 5 different teams this summer, starting June 3rd! Anticipation for the summer has kept me on my toes. I’m excited to be with students seeing God work in powerful ways through the students but also in them. This summer we will be using a trip book (which is a Bible study) called Dare to Disciple. My boss and I spent lots of time researching in order to put this Bible study together. The process was challenging but fun and I am so excited to use it.

This week we are watching a DVD series that helped inspire our idea of studying passages on being a disciple of Christ but then also becoming a messenger of Christ. The DVD series is called In the Dust of the Rabbi with Ray VanderLaan. It is as close to a tour of Israel I may ever have, but has made me want to go even more. I highly recommend the series, not only does it bring lots of historical and cultural aspects of the first disciples life, but it is challenging me to dare to be Christ’s disciple. Today’s session was on Christ’s belief in the disciples, He truly believed He could use them and work through them. I don’t know that the disciples really got it until Christ left earth. At first (John 21) they go back to fishing, but eventually they receive the Holy Spirit and began to realize God could and would work through them, and the Acts church begins.

The disciples came from a small fishing village and had already taken on their family trades. They had been schooled in the Torah and perhaps had even followed a Rabbi for a time but didn’t have what it took to continue to be a disciple of a Rabbi. But Christ came to them and called them to follow Him and be his disciple!! Incredible! Christ chose them and He chooses us as well, He wants to use us to carry out His work! We also talked about fear today in our staff devotions. It made me realize once again that so often I fear because based on my own abilities I should fear! But when instead I focus on my Christ who chooses to work through me, my fear should subside, because it is Him who does the work. Good reminder though of my need to be disciplined in my time with God so I truly am relying on Him and not myself.