Greetings to you. May the peace of God hunt you down and encapture you.

Finally I am able to write to you after an absence of a fortnight. Whilst all the time my desires are for a simpler way of life and to be more prayerful, busyness refuses to go away. So I apologise that I did not write last weekend and my prayer is that these thoughts will more than be a blessing to your heart and walk with God.

A particular issue has been on my heart this last few weeks and it has to do with the state of our hearts before God. It would seem to me that there are many who follow Christ but not many who are disciples. When Jesus was on earth He initially became well known and many thousands of people followed Him around. Later however when it came to the crunch and Jesus died and rose again, all that was left was a mere 120 disciples. What happened to all those thousands that were there before?

I believe that there are many christians who would claim to be disciples, but there is not a firm committment in their hearts. Many people attend church or claim christianity because of the benefits (me included) but a disciple goes beyond this, a disciple has a commitment that remains even when the good times have long finished. But, when the good times were finished and Jesus was being troubled, the many thousands were gone. They were only interested in seeing some healings, or getting a free feed. But his 12 disciples were with Him to learn, to grow and to be taught. They would remain to learn to minister.

It is my firm belief that we must go beyond the point of just being followers and must come to a place where we determine to be disciples. We must devote ourselves to the teachings of Jesus. These teachings are found in Matthew 5,6 and 7. These chapters are the "Sermon on the Mount", and this is a summary of the kind of teachings Jesus always brought wherever He went. To be a disciple is to be a student of the ways Jesus would have us live. Within this sermon Jesus said to "love our enemies" and other similar things.

A few weeks ago we watched a movie on the life of Jesus in our church service. At one point of the story Mary Magdalene comes up to Jesus with tears in her eyes and says "If I was a man I would be your most loyal disciple." Jesus replies "He who does my will is my disciple." Whilst this scene is not actually in the bible it is still the kind of thing that Jesus would have said and I believe each of us must learn the ways of Jesus.

Also, in the same way that the 12 disciples submitted themselves to Jesus to receive His rebuke and correction (which actually is His love) we must find someone (our pastor or other godly person) to whom we can submit our lives. This is true discipleship because when we can be honest about ourselves to another and work through issues we become more like Christ. I write all of this today because it is my sincere belief that if you would do as I have recommended, then your journey of faith will never end and you will grow mightily.

Sadly, too many live as Christ did only for an hour on a Sunday, BUT, I am very confident that within you are better things and that you will continue as you have, to grow in the ways of Jesus.

May great blessings come on you and that eyes of your understanding be enriched. Peace be on your heart and may nothing be of concern to you as the Lord handles all of your problems

I keep you in my prayers daily
Cheers in Christ
David