Quotes & Sayings About Discipleship

Luther had said that grace alone can save; his followers took up his doctrine and repeated it word for word. But they left out its invariable corollary, the obligation to discipleship ... The justification of the sinner in the world degenerated into the justification of sin and the world. Costly grace was turned into cheap grace without discipleship. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Because evangelicals view their primary task as evangelism and discipleship,1 they tend to avoid issues that hinder these activities. Thus, they are generally not counter-cultural. With some significant exceptions, they avoid "rocking the boat," and live within the confines of the larger culture. At times they have been able to call for and realize social change, but most typically their influence has been limited to alterations at the margins. So, despite having the subcultural tools to call for radical changes in race relations, they most consistently call for changes in persons that leave the dominant social structures, institutions, and culture intact. This avoidance of boat-rocking unwittingly leads to granting power to larger economic and social forces. It also means that evangelicals' views to a considerable extent conform to the socioeconomic conditions of their time. — Christian Smith

He found his irritation that the American memory could be short. — James Carl Nelson

It is easier to lose a thousand disciples than to win over one. — Matshona Dhliwayo

Of Teddy Roosevelt and his siblings, the author writes they were, armed with an innate curiosity and discipline fostered by his remarkable father. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

If I can hold God's attention, I can hold the world's.. — Dolly Parton

It is easy to get faith into our heads. It is hard to get faith into our bloodstream. — R.C. Sproul

The obedience which God's children yield to Him must be loving obedience. Do not go about the service of God as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run in the way of His commands because it is your Father's way. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

This wasn't a legalistic play. He simply wanted more and more of God. — Matt Chandler

Sometimes the imagination could be even crueler than the bone saw. — Robert Kurson

I'm the only English thing they can vent their anger on. — Harold Holzer

Alas! it is but little we have done for our Master's glory. Our winter has lasted all too long. We are as cold as ice when we should feel a summer's glow and bloom with sacred flowers. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The church is the primary arena in which we learn that glory does not consist in what we do for God but in what God does for us. — Eugene H. Peterson

When God does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so according to the spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

God never loses sight of the treasure which He has placed in our earthen vessels. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

When the range and depth of the suffering of others and what we do to one another are no longer bothers us, nor moves us to remedy the situation and stop the pain, then we have lost a part of our own humanity, our own soul. — Megan McKenna

You never graduate from the school of discipleship. — Howard G. Hendricks

Worship may produce an outward change, but our inner condition will eventually be revealed — Richard J. Foster

The overemphasis on standardized tests forces teachers to teach the same restricted, unintuitive curriculum. Longtime educator Brent Evans has said that today's schools are organized as assembly lines, "(running at a set speed) and with each worker (teacher) at designated places (way levels) on the assembly line performing predetermined actions on products (students) considered to be somewhat generic (one-size-fits-all) and passive (waiting to be filled or formed to the desired shape). — Brent Evans

The main focus of this group is to help bridge the gifts and abilities of the pastor (and other staff) and laity in the church. Building the bridges that will link the faithfulness of the past with the possibilities of the future is crucial. — General Board Of Discipleship

Discipleship is all about living life together rather than just one structured meeting per week. — Francis Chan

A husband's work as provider will be so difficult that it can only be fulfilled in the power of the Spirit and a transformed life. — John F. MacArthur Jr.

Many of your relationship problems are not really relationship problems. They're personal problems that spill over into relationships. — Rick Warren

Resilience is rooted in habits we can cultivate and change. — Andrew Zolli

We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price. — Stanley Hauerwas

The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us. — Andrew Murray

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience. — John Calvin

God does not discipline us to subdue us but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness. In His wisdom, He knows that an uncontrolled life is an unhappy life, so He puts reins on our wayward souls that they may be directed into the paths of righteousness. — Billy Graham

Let our liberty be practically exhibited by serving the Lord with gratitude and delight. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Any believer who has not encountered the Cross is not yet a follower of Christ — S. E. Entsua-Mensah

The Mother Thing makes our world. — Robert A. Heinlein

I am convinced that what drives most people away from Christianity is not the cost of discipleship but rather the cost of false fundamentals. — Rachel Held Evans

The onslaught of scruples is a problem well attested in the spiritual life, especially among the young, where religious observances must be done perfectly to achieve a certain result. — Philip Zaleski

In every historical period, the religious groups that grow most rapidly are those that set believers at odds with the surrounding culture. — Nancy Pearcey

[God says] Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend - it must transcend all comprehension. Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own comprehension, and I will help you to comprehend even as I do. Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. My comprehension transcends yours. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If all you are doing is spending time with the struggling members of your church and you are not building proactively into your church's culture, and you are being shortsighted and limiting the effectiveness of your ministry. — James MacDonald

There was no keenness in the eyes; they seemed rather to be shedding love than making observations; they had the liquid look which tells that the mind is full of what it has to give out, rather than impressed by external objects. — George Eliot

When I look back upon my own religious experience," says Andrew Murray, "or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ - alas! how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus. — D.L. Moody

How my emotions starred as I played! During one of this tug-of-war contest between knowing right and doing wrong, I wrote the words to a song on my own for the first time. — Jeremy Camp

Your love for Jesus Christ and your discipleship in His cause must be the consuming preoccupation and passion of your mortality. — Jeffrey R. Holland

Evangelism cant be our focus! We must not stop sharing the good news, but here's the deal, here's the wonderful thing, it gets done along the way as you do discipleship. Great commission is just about going to disciple the nations and you know what happens ... as you disciple them evangelism takes place, because it's done in the context of discipleship.
Here's the issue: We have to reframe evangelism within the context of discipleship — Alan Hirsch

In racing marathons, one does not see the dropouts make fun of those who continue; failed runners actually cheer on those who continue the race, wishing they were still in it. Not so with the marathon of discipleship in which some dropouts then make fun of the spiritual enterprise of which they were so recently a part! — Neal A. Maxwell

When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

It was not because I had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, but because Joe had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, that I worked with tolerable zeal against the grain. — Charles Dickens

Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd. — Sinclair Lewis

The desire to experience new kinds of community led a number of thoughtful and idealistic people to reject the patterns of vocation, family life and religion with which they had grown up. Their attempt to establish new patterns of social bonding in uncontaminated rural retreats can be seen as a secular monasticism, but they often discovered that to abolish the boundaries of authority, family and property created a whole series of problems which they did not have the spiritual and personal resources to solve.

At their best, such groups have opened up new horizons of discipleship, but they have often learned some hard lessons about the intractable sinfulness and selfishness of partly-redeemed human nature. — Ian Breward

Alex had cooked, and coaxed, and helped Mark form borders around the shapeless days. Alex had given meaning to the word "servant". — Davis Bunn

Apprenticeship assumes that knowing a trade not only comes by numbers and outlines but also by watching and inhabiting. Knowing is found in these forms, because teaching is. We teach not only by our words and assignments but also by the manner of our words and the ways we ourselves already embody the assignments we give. — Zack Eswine

Discipleship is the art and science of helping people find, follow and fully become like Jesus. Discipleship happens as God's people show love, share truth and live life with one another, making new disciples along the way. — Brandon Cox

Peter's denial was not just a personal weakness. He was in a leadership position, honored as the one who spoke for the group, and was second in command (when Jesus wasn't around). But his choice to publicly deny his place in the community at the side of Jesus had massive repercussions for the other disciples. They ran and hid, and from this point on in the Way of the Cross there is no mention of the disciples again in the Passion narrative. The sheep are scattered, routed, and demoralized. Peter's sin tore open the seems that held them together. — Megan McKenna

It's remarkable how very many things there are that a king may not do. — Geraldine Brooks

Mine is to chew on the appropriate texts and make them delectable. — Gregory Of Nyssa

One of the consequences of sin is that it makes the sinner pity himself instead of causing him to turn to God. One of the first signs of new life is that the individual takes sides with God against himself. — Donald Grey Barnhouse

Like many men who experience fatherhood relatively late in life, Martin Luther was a devoted parent. Luther wrote his children letters of touching intensity, patiently converting the joys of the Christian life into a language of storytelling fit for the very young. A home with children brought out the best in Luther in a way that theological disputation patently did not. — Andrew Pettegree

God's word tells us that righteousness is a gift; it cannot be earned. But godliness is not a gift. We must pay a price to touch godliness through a daily decision to die to self and embrace the cross. God calls us to learn godliness in the classroom of life among people as we sit on airplanes and buses, walk among our neighbors and labor at our factories or desks. — K.P. Yohannan

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the church — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

They chose to regard it as a miraculous preservation. — E. M. Forster

Kingdom is a signpost to the holy. — Jen Pollock Michel

He who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; — Thomas Hughes

My prophetic task would be twofold: to stand up to him, and to stand by him. To awaken his conscience, and to salve the pain this would cause him. — Erik Larson

It is possible to know all about doctrine and yet not know Jesus. The soul is in danger when knowledge of doctrine outsteps intimate touch with Jesus ... Have I a personal history with Jesus Christ? The one sign of discipleship is intimate connection with Him, a knowledge of Jesus Christ nothing can shake. — Oswald Chambers

Far from a source of suffering, their adopted faith had been a source of power. — Barbara W. Tuchman

The home group is a wonderful school of love and discipleship. — Sunday Adelaja

Liberation from ego is what we shramanas are seeking, O Exalted One. If I were your disciple, O Venerable One, I'm afraid it might befall me that my ego would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would survive and grow great, for then I would make the teaching, my discipleship, my love for you, and the community of the monks into my ego! — Hermann Hesse

Our nearness to the king in love is nearness to those who love not the king. — William Shakespeare

Discipline leads us to desire, which matures into delight. — Missionaries Who Love The Arab World

The narrator refers to a character as an oily scoundrel whose hands were heavy with the money that stuck to them. — Pearl S. Buck

Never base motivation or fear, entirely. — Peter Heather

Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won where the way leads to the cross. — Megan McKenna

I have a pretty large experience of boys, and you're a bad set of fellows. Now mind! — Charles Dickens

What am I doing? Tearing myself. My usual occupation at most times. — Charles Dickens

When justice is more certain and more mild, is at the same time more efficacious. — Alexis De Tocqueville

You should train disciples and followers to work and perform better than you did — Sunday Adelaja

If we spend our days trying to avoid the landmines of stepping out of God's will, then will be afraid to take any risks for his kingdom. But when you know there is a net of grace, when you know that God will catch you and set you back on his path when you fall, then you'll feel the freedom to pursue the adventure that kingdom living is all about. — Will Davis Jr.

In the context of today, this WAS heroism. — John Howard Griffin

Don't get me wrong, I like NASCAR and shopping at Nordstrom's, but discipleship is intrinsic as a lifestyle."

~R. Alan Woods [2013] — R. Alan Woods

You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to "clear the numberless ascensions"* in about two minutes. — Oswald Chambers

The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it. — E. M. Bounds

When we deny our pain, losses, and feelings year after year, we become less and less human. We transform slowly into empty shells with smiley faces painted on them. Sad to say, that is the fruit of much of our discipleship in our churches. But when I began to allow myself to feel a wider range of emotions, including sadness, depression, fear, and anger, a revolution in my spirituality was unleashed. I soon realized that a failure to appreciate the biblical place of feelings within our larger Christian lives has done extensive damage, keeping free people in Christ in slavery. — Peter Scazzero

It is only the joy of hearing the gospel and being reminded that our sins are forgiven in Christ that will keep the demands of discipleship from becoming drudgery. It is only gratitude and love to God that comes from knowing that He no longer counts our sins against us (Romans 4:8) that provides the proper motive for responding to the claims of discipleship. — Jerry Bridges

We need both reverence and obedience. If we worship but do not walk in obedience and discipline, we are emotional, lacking self-control and godly character. If we obey God's commandments but are not true worshipers, we become religious and judgmental. As the Pharisees in Jesus' day, we may miss the real meaning and purpose, even God Himself. — Amy Layne Litzelman

If any have more of the government of thee than Christ, or if thou hadst rather live after any other laws than his, if it were at thy choice, thou art not his disciple (331). — Richard Baxter

True love is generative. It is the only kind that makes more of itself as it goes along. — Timothy Keller

Sometimes the right thing to do will cost us our greatest sacrifices, but the rewards will always outweigh our losses — Robin M. Bertram

What Paul understands by holiness or sanctification (is) the learning in the present of the habits which anticipate the ultimate future. — N. T. Wright

It's easy to give God a list of excuses for not feeling worthy or as capable as someone else, in our service to him. The problem is that God doesn't call those who are unprepared or incapable. He calls those who have the talent and ability to serve. He has it all planned out for us. Our challenge is to accept his calling and move out in faith believing in his promises of help and support. — Diane Goold

Being saved by discipleship is not a human possibility, but for God all things are possible. — Rodney Combs

Pain is holy ground in a person's life. — Jason Gray

Charity fits the economy of scarcity, because it supports the blasphemous myth that the rich are rich because they deserve to be, and their riches are theirs to deal with as they please. With such charity, we are not worthy to tell the story of manna in the wilderness, to pretend to eat together at the Lord's Supper, or claim the Year of Jubilee as our own. — Michael Rhodes

I thought parenting was going to reveal my strengths, never realizing that God had ordained it to reveal my weaknesses. — Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Your current situation and workplace are your personal mission field. Why? Because you can reach people a church can't. You're on the front lines! — Jarrid Wilson

You know after any truly initiating experience that you are part of a much bigger whole. Life is not about you henceforward, but you are about life. — Richard Rohr

Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God in His sovereign goodness often uses the painful and at times debilitating injury of a spear thrower to make us readier for His service ... One thing you discover about spear throwers is that though it's not necessary for them to be good, it's essential for them to appear good. — Erwin W. Lutzer

It takes a while for revelry to turn to reverence, and much repetition of truth to eventual turn young zeal into habitual channels for good. — Elisabeth Elliot

He's not a safe safe or a tame God, securely lodged behind the bars of a distant Heaven; He has the most annoying manner of showing up when we least want Him; of confronting us in the strangest ways. — Thomas Merton

(William) Deresiewicz offers a vision of what it takes to move from adolescence to adulthood. Everyone is born with a mind, he writes, but it is only through introspection, observation, connecting the head and the heart, making meaning of experience and finding an organizing purpose that you build a unique individual self. — David Brooks

One Cardinal entered his cathedral for the first time at his funeral. — Barbara W. Tuchman

He wasn't an especially charismatic or commanding individual, but what he lacked in personality he emphatically made up for in diligence. — Dan Jones