Discipleship

It All Starts with Prayer

September 1, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

When you examine the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, you find a very important principle. Before He set out to preach, He went off by Himself and prayed (Mark 1:35). It all starts with prayer. Whatever it is you desire to do, don’t do it unless you have first spent time on your knees with your Creator. If it was necessary for Jesus, how much more necessary is it for us?

Woman in bed praying as she knows it all starts with prayer and by God's love,mercy, and grace she can rightly set her priorities for the day as she practices discipleship.

Jesus, being God Himself, knew He needed to spend time with the Father before embarking on His mission. Do you think you are better equipped to deal with what is before you than the Son of God was? Our feet should not hit the floor, a word should not leave our lips, and our hands should find nothing to do until we have first bathed our souls in prayer.

Stand for Truth

August 18, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

As followers of Jesus, we must always stand for truth. We must embrace it, defend it, and campaign for it. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). As imitators of Christ, we must exemplify Him as far as we are able in our humanness (Ephesians 5:1–2). One of the simplest ways we can do that is to stand for truth no matter what it costs us.

A man holds firmly to his Bible as he determines to stand for truth,displpaying commitment and discipline in his pursuit of discipleship.

We must never stand by and let a lie be told as truth. This is difficult in our culture today. As sin continues to grow ever more acceptable in society, we have no choice but to stand in opposition to the lies. Truth is no longer popular, but it has never been more necessary.

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Busy, Distracted, and Noisy

August 14, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

Our lives are busy, distracted, and noisy. As long as this is the case, we will never experience what God intends for our lives to be. We will never experience what it is to be close to Him. To come to the full knowledge of God, our lives must revolve around nothing other than Him (Matthew 6:33). It is no small blessing that nothing on earth compares to the glory and majesty of Jesus because that means we can set our affections on the One more valuable and magnificent than any other (Colossians 3:1–2)!

Man drinking coffee, signing papers, and talking on the phone all at the same time because his life is busy, distracted, and noisy

If only we lived as if we believed this were true. Instead, we fill our minds with indecency, our ears with heresy, and our lives with irrelevancy (Philippians 4:8; 2 Timothy 4:3–4). We can not conceive of how much better our lives would be if we eschewed the fallen things of this world and lived lives devoted to the Savior of our souls.

Redeemed from Sin

August 7, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

There is nothing in this world we need or should even desire that has any connection with sin. Sin is a great offense to God, and if we love Him, we will do nothing against Him on purpose. Why would we, being redeemed from sin, desire to continue to dabble in it (Romans 6:1-2)? In his first epistle, John remarks that if we love God, we will not indulge in habitual sin (1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:18).

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When God transforms your heart, you no longer desire your old life (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are a new creation with new dreams and desires. Those dreams and desires will align with the will of our King and Savior (Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:13). True repentance leads to real transformation, and real transformation cannot result in a heart that continues to burn for sin.

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God’s Call to Holiness

July 24, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

God’s call to holiness is not optional for any believer. Holiness is the standard God set for us in the beginning and continues to expect from us (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15–16). When we love the Father, we will desire to do what pleases Him because we all want to be counted like Paul when we die (2 Timothy 4:7).

commitment,discipleship,discipline,focus,holiness,lordship,sanctification,surrender,holy

We all want to run the race well and hear Jesus speak the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into my rest” (Matthew 25:21). We dare not approach Heaven with stained garments uncleansed by the sacrificial blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:10). Sanctification always follows true repentance, so if we aren’t concerned with holiness, it is hard to conceive of our repentance as genuine.