Back in the 11th grade I took a class called “History of the American West.” It was an amazing high school course with Mr. Beddeo, the teacher starting us off with the Vikings exploring parts of North America and then we kept moving west across the continent of North America. It has been 48 years since taking this class and I still have all the notes. Mr. Beddeo became a mentor to me and his class was wonderful. Partly because of him I became a closet historian. I was, in a way, his disciple of history.
We are the disciples of Jesus. What is it disciples do? We, as the disciples of Jesus are to learn, follow, teach and go forth to create more disciples. The preceding is a nice step by step method of what a disciple is and does. Jesus outlines this for us when He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…) (Matt. 28:19a [NKJV]). Before we “go” we need to learn what it is we are to teach. We need to study the Word of God so we can present ourselves “approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (II Tim. 2:15). The first part of being a disciple is to learn.
Disciples of Jesus must grow in the spiritual disciplines. Being a student is one of the more important disciplines for us to grow in. Let’s take a look at a way to grow in our learning as a disciple of Jesus. Start each day with putting God first. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matt. 6:33a). God should be first every day. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” (Matt. 6:9b). Even Jesus put God first in the Lord’s prayer. As part of our spiritual discipline, we should each have a daily morning “Put God first” routine.
Several years ago, my spiritual mentor suggested to me that one should read one chapter of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament each morning. This has become a big part of my daily “Put God first” routine. I have added reading the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17) to remind myself of how to behave. I then read and pray about the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-16 where Jesus puts God first and last, as God is our all in all. I end my morning routine with Matthew 22:37-40 where I am reminded to love God first and to love my neighbor too. I couple this with my prayer time each day. Time allotted for my morning routine of spiritual discipline is about one hour. Being a disciple of Jesus involves getting up early and seeking God first.
Being a disciple of Jesus is meant to be a time of action. We need to attend our morning briefing with God in our prayer and Bible study time. Being a disciple of Jesus is meant to be a full-time job. We do not stop our prayer and study after our morning routine. Lunch break at work, evenings after dinner and before we go to bed are great times to remember and reflect on God and learning to be like Him. As His disciple we must first learn His ways.
Mr. Beddeo inspired in me a love of history. As a part of his class, History of the American West, we were required to read four Louis Lamour western novels each semester. I now have a complete set of Louis Lamour novels about the west. In fact, I now have close to 1,500 books in my library. Mr. Beddeo was certainly an inspiring teacher.
Does Jesus inspire us so much that we are willing to learn His way of life and be his disciple? Next week we will discuss the second aspect of being a disciple, follow Jesus.
