Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus by
Bill Clem
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
The book starts out telling us about God’s story. We are not on this earth to do our own story. We are part of God’s story. We are image-bearers and our purpose is to image God to others. After the overview of God’s story, identity is explored as well as the distortions that we as humans give to identity. Discipleship is done in community, not alone. We are here to image God together not by ourselves.
Overall, a good read and a fresh look at discipleship and what it means to image God. Being part of His story, not our own, helps our perspective during the ups and downs of life. Knowing that ultimately God’s story is being played out, we can trust Him to fulfill His purposes because it is His story. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for those seeking to grow in their relationship with God and desiring to learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
*I received this ebook free from the publisher (through Netgalley) in exchange for my review.
“[An idol] is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
“It is our relationships that truly bear the image of God.”
“…if someone is oriented toward imaging God, then the disciple-making process will be more transformational than an informational set of verses and lessons.”
“…just as we saw Jesus being spoken to as being loved before he had performed a miracle or uttered a parable, so you, too, are loved apart from what you do.”
“If our identity is so fragile as to depend upon the approval of others, then we will live lives of insecurity, anger, and serial failures.”
“…still seeking to control the course of his own life. He takes God’s Word and will under advisement, but ultimately his decisions are based on what he wants to do.”
“When we live in fear of loss and are compelled to hoard blessings, we reveal our too small view of God.”
“When we consider how sin still lingers on the earth and in our lives, we realize what a miracle it is that God is seen at all in the lives and community of his people.”
“Jesus is not saying that our acts of mercy are what saves us, but he is saying that if we do not image him, we have little cause to believe we are saved.”
“To accept Jesus does not call one to live as a disciple; it merely calls one to make a decision. Following calls for a series of decisions being made by the minute, keeping Jesus the focal point, refusing to look to the right or the left, increasing in likeness to his character and in closeness to his person. To go into the world and call others to make decisions is to take on the challenge of selling a product called ‘Christianity.’ To go into the world and make disciples is to take on the challenge of partnering with God as agents of grace, introducing people to a life-long journey of following the life, truth, and way to reconciliation with God.”
“Being a disciple is all about you and Jesus.”
The Story of Christianity: Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation by Justo L. Gonzalez
