Discipleship

Who is Jesus to You?

September 12, 2016 by Tim Sherfy

Do you consider Christ a project to be promoted, a cause to be served, or a Lord to be obeyed? In our world today, it seems many have become confused about their relationship with Christ. I see preachers on TV proclaiming Jesus in a way that makes it sound like the latest product pitch from Madison Avenue.

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At times, we can also get caught up doing things for Him in an effort to prove our loyalty. But at the end of the day, all Jesus asks and requires is our whole-hearted obedience to His words. He simply asks us to follow and obey.

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Love God and Serve People

September 8, 2016 by Tim Sherfy

Everything I write, and all I aspire to be can be summed up by the phrase “Love God and serve people”. It is the essence of discipleship because it is the quintessence of how Jesus lived His life. If we would only do these two things, everything else would take care of itself. If we focus on loving God and serving people, we will never be selfish, greedy, prideful, lustful, covetous, or evil.

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It is the elixir for all our struggles. Jesus asks very little of us, only that we love God and serve people. We overcomplicate things when we pile on additional rules, regulations, do’s, and don’ts. Living the life Christ created you to live is as simple as loving God and serving people.

Wrong Perspective

September 5, 2016 by Tim Sherfy

It’s so easy to spend our lives living from the wrong perspective. We make grand plans, spend our time earning a living, and serving God along the way. It sounds noble enough, but in truth we are living life backwards. We are looking through the lens of self-first instead of focusing our attention foremost on God.

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We should spend our days serving Jesus, and earn a living or pursuing our dreams along the way. Jesus will not take a backseat to anything or anyone. He is totally focused on helping you live your life in a way which glorifies the Father. This can only be accomplished in our lives by adopting a Jesus-first perspective.

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What Do You Deserve?

August 22, 2016 by Tim Sherfy

One of the reasons I believe we don’t take the call of Christ more seriously in our lives is because we don’t see our sin the way God does. We don’t tend to see ourselves as deserving of hell if not for the blood of Jesus. We might say we deserve hell, but do we honestly believe it? As A.W. Tozer wrote, “from the way we love, praise, and pamper ourselves it is plain enough that we do not consider ourselves worthy of damnation!”

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There’s a disconnect between what we say we believe and how we live. Instead of living as if we were humbly and eternally grateful for the salvation of Christ, we instead live as if there’s always something more we “deserve”.

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The Purpose of Church

August 18, 2016 by Tim Sherfy

In “Counter Culture”, David Platt writes, “When we observe our churches today, do they look like groups of people who gather with one another as they give their lives to spreading the gospel among unreached people, impoverished communities, abandoned orphans, lonely widows, dying babies, sex slaves, and suffering brothers and sisters around the world?” His conclusion is the same as my own: we do not.

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His question comes straight from the Bible (Matthew 25:31-41; James 1:27; Isaiah 58:6), and reflects God’s will for each of our lives. It’s sad enough most of us are not dedicating our own lives to this, but absolutely tragic we as a body of believers are not marshalling our forces to combat these evils in the world.