Learn to be a disciple of Jesus.
In the teaching of Jesus, being a Christian can we equate to entering into a period of apprenticeship where we learn to become His disciples. In other words, we are now entering the test period. The life we are living today can be said to be the period test. So how well we can do the test? When entering the exam, those who are in school or college usually focus their attention as if the exam period is the most important for them. And indeed it is a very important period and we must fight the best there. Do we realize that the whole time of our lives is a time of testing? God is studying our lives today to see if we are fit to enter into the kingdom of His heaven and He is assessing what kind of responsibilities He will give us in His kingdom later. This is another principle of Jesus' teaching that we must take note of and make a benchmark in building our way of thinking.
This part is indeed very revolutionary so it is very difficult for us to understand. How to think we have been patterned so that all our planning only to the grave. We make life planning that ends in the grave. For example, we may have made preparations about what things we will do in retirement later. We may plan to buy a house in town if we can afford it, even though the city life now feels very bad with so many criminals and drug trafficking. But do we have planning after death what will we do? If the way we think still stops in the grave alone, then we still have not learned to think as a disciple of Jesus.
For non-Christians, the grave is the end of everything, literally meaning after that there is nothing else. But for Christians, death is only a door to enter into eternity. A Christian lives his life not for this world, not for the present life, but for the life to come. Herein lies the role of faith. We can not deceive God. We may say have faith, but do we really have that faith visible from the way we think and live this life The true disciple of Jesus sees himself as a transiter. He is heading for something much bigger beyond the grave. Can we think like that? It is so difficult, is not that? That is why a disciple of Jesus diverts his property to the other side , that is to heaven. His whole life is deployed to eternity.
Do we believe that we have eternal life? If we say yes, then we should live this life as a person who is only concerned with eternity. Although many Christians claim to have eternal life, the life they live proves another belief. They live this life in the sense of losing everything if it is dead. If we have eternal life, surely we will make good preparation to get in there is not it?
Can we understand the present life as a test period, as a transit? The problem is that so many Christians do not understand it that way. For them, this present life is everything. When the loved one dies, their way of weeping shows how much they feel there is no use in life. For them, eternity is very vague, a term that can not even be translated into tangible phrases, much less to be lived. But our way of life will be changed if our minds are renewed. "Changed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). Thus, death would be something to look forward to. Instead of saying, "Well, I can bear it," we instead welcome death with joy. We will be able to understand what Paul is saying when he tells us, "So whichever I choose, I do not know" (Philippians 1:22). Usually we will say, "Want to choose which one? I choose this life now! Not a hard choice! Of course I want to live. I do not want to die. That is, it is good to follow God. There's plenty of time for that; time available throughout eternity to be with God. But I want to enjoy the present time." But Paul said, "No, if you ask me to choose, then I prefer to die." What kind of thinking is this?
You will not be able to understand Paul's mentality if you have not understood the teachings of Jesus. And His teaching is very clear. For a disciple of Christ, this present life is a test period. We live this life for eternity, and how our lives in eternity will depend on the way we live now.
How would you apply them in a practical sense? If you are a student, what would you do? If you apply this teaching, then when you are learning, you learn not based on what you want to do in the present life, but based on what you want to do in eternity. This means your field of learning is a tool for you to do something for eternal life, to produce many talents and mina for God. Everything is based on this purpose. Immutability is a goal that you pursue continuously, tirelessly, with the highest determination.
Have you learned to think as a disciple of Jesus? If so, then you will understand what it means when Paul says, "All I want is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and fellowship in His suffering" (Philippians 3:10). It is clear that Paul wanted to suffer with Christ. If you have not learned to think like this, you might say, "No. I have suffered enough. That is, last week I had a fever, and that's more than I can bear. Then you want to tell me to enter into fellowship in the sufferings of Christ? Are you crazy? Next week I have to face the test. What other misery do you want me to bear?" But Paul says, "I long to suffer with Him." Well, no one seems to understand this way of thinking. As a new Christian, I also had no idea what Paul meant. I read this verse over and over again but do not understand. Why would anyone long to share in the sufferings of Christ, "become like Him in His death," to die in the same way as Him? Paul says, "I want to die like Him." If not a fanatic, he must be a madman! Maybe he was too much of a fantasy.
You will not be able to understand this way of thinking before understanding that this is your only chance in life is to live for eternity, to keep the treasure in eternity. Here is your chance to suffer for Him. Now here is a chance for you to die for Him because after this you will never die again. For then you will go into eternity and never die again. If you go in there, there will be no more chance. Think about it. But that does not mean you should come to the executioner and say, "Kill me. I want to die for Christ." That's not what he meant. The point is that you have to overturn your way of thinking so that when you face the moments in which you have a chance to die for Christ or for the sake of a brother, you immediately take the opportunity because there may not be another chance.
Is your brother in need? Give him what he needs. Maybe you never had a chance to give again. Are your fellow believers hungry? Give him food. Maybe there's no other chance. Is he in prison? Please visit. There is no chance of that in eternity. Every difficulty and suffering is no longer a matter of struggle for you because your eyes are focused on eternity. I am sure that you will come there with ten, twenty or even a thousand talents for God. This will make your Christian life dynamic, is not it?
Thinking like that will strengthen you to overcome difficulties with the help of Jesus. Paul says, "I can bear all things in him who strengthen me" (Philippians 4:13). You can also do it if you have this kind of thinking. Death is no longer the thing you fear; suffering also will not scare you. Because you know that life is a test period. And you will show God how much you love Him because He has already loved you first. And you will also be eager to prove to God your love for the brothers of faith. So at the time of reckoning, God will say to you, "Very good, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful to small things. Now I will entrust great things to you. I will give you confidence in all that belongs to Me."
Is not Christian life interesting? It will be interesting if you have understood this. You will be able to face death and suffering with a smile. Everything will be seen as an opportunity to do for God and His people because eternity is the center of your attention. And all this will be your advantage in eternity. Of course you do not want to sin, because sin will damage your account there. Will make your report cards red. Because you live for eternity, you will not enjoy sin even if the temptation will come forth in your direction for the rest of your life. Satan will of course make sure the temptations will continue to come to you.
There are so many examples in the New Testament about people who are eager to serve, work and do something for God, because they live for eternity. It is difficult to understand why so many Christians today waste their time. Some of them have wasted so much time. I would very much like to warn them, "So much of your best time you've thrown away. Those moments will never come back. Make the time well spent! "I really do not understand. They do not seem to realize that they are not doing anything that is beneficial to Jesus.
As you read the New Testament, and especially Paul's letters, you will be confronted with a myriad of words such as: working, struggling, trying. We can see that Paul's words consistently contain driving motors that will be hard to understand if we do not have a way of thinking like him. Paul says, "I work harder than them. True, they had become apostles before me. But that is not how. I work harder than them. They do work hard, but I work harder" (see 1 Corinthians 5:10). Speaking of Christianity as an arena of races, Paul seems unwilling to be preceded by others. In a race, there is only one winner, and Paul intends to be that person. That is spiritual ambition. Maybe he thought, "You run fast, but I will run faster again. I'll go ahead of you." That's why he said, "Run around in terms of doing good. (Outdo one another in good works)" There is a kind of competition in "holiness and love"- rather difficult to find the right term - where if others have tried hard, then you will fight harder, and as you struggle, I will fight harder. And as a result, we will all move forward rapidly.
The element of prompting in Paul's words is in many of the letters he has written. I will show some of them to you. For example, in 1 Corinthians 4:12 he says, "We do heavy handwork." Inside 2 Thessalonians 3: 8, he says, "We labored and labored day and night." In Galatians 4:11, he speaks of "my labor for you," which labored in preaching the gospel and teaching, building up the church in Galatia faith. In Colossians 1:29, he also speaks of "effort and struggle" and then in 1 Timothy 4:10 he says, "That is why we labor and strive, for we have our hope in the living God." Work hard and fight - that's the language of Paul.
But nowadays we are stuffed with all kinds of doctrines in the church about not working hard, not trying, not working hard for God. What about the church? By teaching us to be easy and not struggling, there is a danger that we will become a group of people with lazy spirituality. No wonder because Satan has infiltrated very far into the church. The Devil's work becomes very easy because of the widespread of this teaching. Every church should be the place where the fighting spirit and hard work born out of sight which is far ahead is very prominent.If there is no foresight, if there is no vision, then there will be no fighting spirit and spiritual movement. What I maskudkan is not just doing this and that or organizing this activity and that in the church. mean far beyond all that. The hard and the struggle is for piety, spirituality, spiritual excellence, and in channeling God's love. It is a struggle deep within, not just doing this and that activity. All that is good, but it is not the struggle as the Bible intended. In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 is mentioned about the effort of love: if any love, there must be effort and a willingness to serve and act.
The choice of words used by Paul is based on Jesus' own teaching. He speaks of Christians as an army that endures suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, and the Christian life is like a farmer who sows and reaps for the Lord (1 Corinthians 3:9 ). He also uses a picture of the builder in 1 Corinthians 3:12. The portrayal of soldiers, peasants and masons is all drawn from the teachings of Jesus. Nothing new in Paul's teachings. For example, Jesus speaks of the disciples as troops in Luke 14:31-32 and 22:35-36. He speaks of Christians as peasants in the parable of the seed-sowing and the workers in the vineyard. He speaks of disciples as builders in Matthew 7:24-27. So Jesus has used all the phrases which Paul later borrowed when describing things. The description of the sportsman is the only phrase that was never used by Jesus. This is because athletics is a sport of the Greeks. By imagining these activities, sowing and building, that goes on and on, the Christian life is seen by Paul as something very dynamic in the pursuit of the goal lying ahead.
What does your Christian life look like? Do you have a spiritual goal? Is there a vision that burns your spirits? If not, then you still do not understand the teachings given by Jesus. Because that's what He wants from every Christian. There are three important principles that must be remembered in living the Christian life, and between each other are related.First , there is danger of being dumped out for those who are lazy, reckless and have no goals about his future. Secondly, we see that the true disciple of Jesus lives by focusing his attention on eternity. The present life is temporary, everything that happens in life is new has meaning when it is associated with eternity. And thirdly, we see that because of that vision, Jesus teaches us to struggle and seize all opportunities to do things that please Him so that we can be guaranteed a place in the kingdom of His heaven. what we sow, that is what we will reap.
