Am I a disciple of Christ? A disciple is one who ‘follows’, ‘believes’, ‘supports, is a ‘student’ and is ‘devoted’. When I study the meaning of the word disciple I find the answer to my question gains some depth and weight. In reality being a disciple takes so much more than just saying, “Yes. I am a disciple of Christ.”

In Matthew 4 Jesus calls two brothers Peter, and Andrew, to be His disciples, “And He saith unto them, FOLLOW ME and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway (immediately, at once) left their nets and FOLLOWED HIM.” (Matt. 4:19-20)

Now the word ‘follow’ means to ‘track’, ‘monitor’, ‘shadow’ and to ‘keep your eye on’. The word is a verb which means that to ‘FOLLOW’ Christ, and learn to be a disciple, is a life that is active. Christ spent over three years training His disciples and it was three years of activity. Every day they would be actively learning, as ‘students’, how to become ‘fishers of men’. The lessons would be difficult, and challenging, and many times Christ would have to repeat the lesson. Some of us can identify with the original disciples because we are also slow learners.

A key to our discipleship is to remember that Christ said for us to ‘FOLLOW HIM’. Jesus didn’t tell Peter to follow John and later for Matthew to follow Mark. Each time the lesson Christ presented in discipleship the foundation was “FOLLOW ME”. The key lesson to learn in discipleship is who it is we are to ‘FOLLOW’! JESUS IS THE Master Teacher in Discipleship 101. It is Jesus that we are to be ‘tracking’, ‘monitoring’, ‘shadowing’ and ‘keeping our eyes on’!

“Jesus Use Me”

‘Just One’

I hope you had a great ‘Super’ Sunday! We have all been hyped about ‘Super’ Sunday for weeks. To ‘hype’ is to buildup, to excite, it also means ‘flimflam’ or ‘gobbledgook’ which means ‘nonsense’. I saw this week that over 7 billion dollars would be bet on the outcome of the football game. I was amazed that a thirty second commercial during the football game would cost 5.6 million dollars.  Let me share with you ‘Super’ Sunday! It started over two thousand years ago, on a Sunday morning, when One Man named Jesus walked out of the tomb in Jerusalem. The resurrection of Jesus sealed forever the defeat of the Devil and the penalty, and condemnation, of sin. To believers every Sunday is ‘Super’ Sunday!  This past ‘Super’ Sunday started for me in the foyer as a young lady approached me, with her parents, and said she wanted to talk to me about being saved. After presenting the plan of salvation this young lady and I knelt in my office, along with her parents, and she asked Jesus to save her! As we were huddled together, after her prayer, she looked at me, with a smile on her face, and told me, and her parents, that Jesus was in her heart. ‘Super’ Sunday!  Just a few moments later a young man, that I have known since  he was born, was standing at my office door in a nice suit with a big smile on his face. I called him by name and I asked how I could help him? He said, “Bro Ed, I want to tell you that I was saved this week at home .”  Sunday night, at the close of our worship service, I baptized three who had accepted Christ as their personal Savior!  With ‘NO HYPE’ it truly was ‘Super’ Sunday!

“SEE YOU SUNDAY” – BRO. ED

The month of January has truly been exciting for the ministry of Springhill Baptist Church! The Lord has added 13 to our membership and we have been informed of decisions made by members concerning their personal service to the Lord. It is thrilling to witness lives being yielded to Christ and to see how Christ will use ‘Just One’.

There was an occasion, during the personal ministry of Christ, when a great multitude

had assembled in advance of Jesus arrival. Jesus was moved with compassion as He looked upon such a great number, the number of men was 5,000, and Jesus would give Himself to the needs of this great number for hours.

The disciples came to Jesus and said that He needed to dismiss the crowd for it was time for the evening meal. Their advice to Him was to tell everyone to go into the cities, and villages, and buy themselves some food. Jesus asked His disciples, “Where can we buy some food to feed them?” Philip answered and said to Jesus, “If we had eight months of salary we couldn’t feed this multitude.”

A key to this lesson is found in John 6:6, “…Jesus knew what He would do.” We all need to be assured that Jesus is the answer to the circumstances we are dealing with even if it seems out of touch for us.

Andrew told Jesus that all he knew about was one young lad who had brought his own meal which was ‘five barely loaves and two SMALL fishes’. Jesus had the crowd to be seated and blessed the meal and then had the disciples to distribute the food among the multitude. When everyone had been filled the fragments that were left filled twelve baskets.

This was certainly a Jesus moment! I challenge all of us not to overlook the lad! This young lad was ‘JUST ONE’ in a multitude but he was willing to give Jesus what he had! Little is much when God is in it and each ‘ONE’ of us will be amazed how Jesus can use what we have if we will give it to Him!

“SEE YOU SUNDAY!”

Bro. Ed

Our theme for the year, ‘Jesus Use Me’, presents exciting possibilities for the ministry of Springhill Baptist Church! It captures, for each of use, the truth taught in the Bible over and over again that the Lord can do amazing things through ‘One’ surrendered life!

When we think of ‘One’ surrendered life we immediately think of Jesus Himself. No ‘One’ life has more of an impact on mankind than the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God incarnate and He came on an assignment and His goal was to ‘finish the work’ He had to do!

Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” What Jesus finished was our redemption, He paid sins debt in our behalf and shed His blood as our atonement for sin. Our faith in the accomplished work of Jesus Christ removes the penalty, and condemnation, of sin. We are so thrilled that the ‘One’ dying on  the cross could say, “It Is Finished”, paid in full.

In my heart I know that I owe Jesus a ‘BIG THANK YOU!’. Paul told the Corinthians in I Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

In the weeks to come I will endeavor to teach us all the potential of ‘One’ life when it is surrendered to the Lord!

SEE YOU SUNDAY!  – Bro. ED