Discipleship & Challenges in modern day discipleship

Introduction:
Disciple is an individual who follows his master very diligently, There is a difference between follower and disciple, Difference lies in the heart of the person, Follower is a person who follows his master footsteps, Disciple is a person who follows his master with a self denial and a heart to become more like his master, Discipleship is a process of becoming a disciple, It is a transforming process, a process which transforms your heart to be more like the heart of JESUS
Discipleship involves 2 significant steps
1) Being a disciple and 2) Making disciples

Being a Disciple: 
In Matthew 16:24 JESUS defines disciple as follows "who ever wants to be my disciple should deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me"
so from the above verse JESUS calls the one who denies himself, Carries his cross and follows him as a disciple,

a) Self denial:
Every man has a heart of his own, which governs his action, god who introspects our heart says in genesis 6:5 heart of the man is always inclined towards evil, This is the reason why you need to ignore your self heart and replace it with the heart of the god, Heart of JESUS himself.
Self denial is a transforming process where the way how your heart thinks, is replaced with how god's heart thinks. to get this transformation we need to understand how god thinks, who will teach us that except holy spirit, Holy spirit who dwells within us teaches us the ways of god and transforms our ways in line with gods heart, when we start obeying holy spirit we start ignoring our self, It happens naturally, Like how darkness dies when light is lit.
b) Carry the cross:
Holy spirit who dwells in us doesn't delete our character or our hearts, He transforms it, The heart which was used to lust, steal, lie, drink and kill is now altered to love, to have faith and to have hope, But if we deliberately doesn't obey holy spirit, we end up reversing our heart to become evil in fact more evil than before (refer: Mat 12:45),
From James 4:4 we understand, Friendship with world is enmity with god, doesn't that mean friendship with God is enmity with the world ?? Yes it is people will hate you for becoming a disciple of JESUS Christ. JESUS also says that in Mat 10:22 "And you will be hated by all on account of My name; but the one having endured to the end, he will be saved"  World will hate you and hurt you and make fun of you on account of his name this is the cross, when this cross is laden on you, you have to choose between obeying the holy spirit or disobeying him, Disobeying will reverse you heart to evil one, obeying will sustain the nature of your transformed heart, And every day you may be tempted and people will abuse you, will you still obey and carry the cross like how JESUS did despising the shame and looking forward for the Joy which was kept in front of him ?
c) Follow me:
Following his foot steps is the place, where you see the fruit of your transformed heart (Kingdom of heaven), Following him means following JESUS through the grave till the kingdom of heaven, JESUS came into the world and accomplished the task for which he was sent, God has a plan for you and me and his plan also has a purpose to be achieved, Purpose why JESUS came was not to heal the sick and raise the dead, He did that, but his purpose was to redeem all the sinners, he did that in the cross, he fulfilled his purpose, Likewise we have some purpose to accomplish, do we really know why on earth we were created and placed in this place, in this specific family and in this specific period of time, That is Gods plan to make us accomplish some purpose, If you haven't discovered or asked that purpose, we cant follow JESUS, if we cant accomplish that purpose, we can't reach heaven Mat 7:21 says that clearly, only who fulfills the will of my father, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So anyone who want to be a disciple should lose yourself and have a transformed heart by holy spirit and carry the cross of rejection and hurt by the world and achieve the purpose why god has placed you in this world, so that you can follow him into the kingdom of heaven where our JESUS is in the right hand of God (Romans 8:34)

Making a Disciple:
JESUS Christ came into this world, lived a sinless (not less sin but absolute no sin) life,  yet he was crucified in the cross, before crucification he was torn into pieces by whips, tortured with thorns in his head, abused in front of public who followed him for miracles, even though he was the son of god, He submitted to the will of god, and he carried that heavy cross till Calvary, where the nails were driven into his hands out of pain he couldn't even beat his legs, because even legs were nailed to the wood, he cant beat his back too, it was already broken to pieces by whips, he couldn't move his head which was crowned with thorns, how much pain was inflicted on him because of my sin and your sin, Wont we love back our savior who redeemed us, We will (Passion of Christ pictures it more vividly, it will bring only tears to eyes), we will love him absolutely, The one who redeemed us through the cross by shedding his blood says if you love me you will keep my commandment, (John 14:15), one of the prime commandment of JESUS was to make disciples (refer Mat 28:19-20),
If you ask how to make disciple ? remember how you became a disciple
Introduce holy spirit into people's life, holy spirit will then transform the evil hearts and you encourage them to carry the cross by having fellowship, and holy spirit will reveal his purpose and make him achieve it, By flesh it is not possible by spirit it is possible.

Challenges in Modern day context
Mindset of the world
Today the world is running behind the self centric philosophy, be it yoga, books, motivational speeches all say one thing, the potential is trapped within you you have to unleash it, It says if you want to be healthy in mind stretch yourself in weird ways, If you want to be successful, be self confident, If you want to be successful in career, be self motivated, They all focuses only on the self,
next generation projects are focused on personal space, world is trying to create a image we can live without our creator we can live on our own self powered, that's a illusion,
In my life to get a job i tried so hard, i read all self help books, at one point i realized nothing is progressing, That's when i denied my self and completely submitted to his will, then miraculously, i got a job in my dream company. This mindset of self should be changed, only when people realize self help is illusion and self denial and perfect submission to god is the only working formula gods power will be revealed.

Internet and Personal devices
Internet was created as boon for people now it has over grown to become a curse, Internet is like a fire If properly used it will be a light if used improperly it can burn you down to ashes, I heard of families splitting because of internet games which involves money, Pornography, which is a cancer in everyone's spiritual life, Our hearts are by default evil, pornography can inspire your hearts to make it think more evil, homosexuals, sexual offense against women are all rooted from the corrupt heart, which is inspired by pornography
Personal devices are getting so personal and enchanting now, It even replaces the place of your dear ones, Personal devices keep us hooked into them, they keep us entertained always, they are the slow poisons, they eat away your time, you wont have time to notice it. In the parable of sower mentioned in Mat 13, JESUS says about birds which come and take away the seed, Now we have those birds, in our hands in the form of mobile in our bedroom through internet. Psalms 119 says i am keeping your word in my heart, so that i wont sin against you, These birds will take away the seed(word), they wont allow you to keep the words in your heart eventually, you will end up in having your evil heart.

For MNC folks

When i started working (My workplace explained below), I felt i lack lot of things from competency, Discipline, Communication etc etc .........
Whatever i felt lacking was provided by my God, my provider

1. Competency + Efficiency = Our adequacy comes from god ( 2 Corinth 3:5)
2. Discipline  = Lord disciplines the one he loves ( Heb 12 :5-11)
3. Attitude     = Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus ( Philip 2:5)
4. Team work = Threefold cord is not quickly broken ( Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12)                                                   Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. (Prov 27:17)                            be united in the same mind (1 Corinth 1:10)
5. Consistent performance    =  renew a right spirit within me [நிலைவரமான ஆவியை என் உள்ளத்திலே புதுப்பியும்] - ( Psalms 51:10) 
6. Communication skill - To answer before listening-- that is folly and shame ( Prov 18:13)
7. Will be added .........

The place where is work is very disciplined and very much process oriented, So even if the work is done what matters is the way it was done, Sticking to the system and process was very important, Everything was systematically approached and for every problem solution is arrived systematically. I am not trying to boast about my company, I know all MNC's are like that, be it Euro based, US based or Asia based,
MNC's operate at that level.
I am trying to give a small list of what company needs and what Jesus Says/Gives, Probably like a supplier consumer table


What i am trying to say is being a good christian will solve all the problems we face, we don't need special training or competency improvement class or soft skill class. Whatever we lack in will be provided by our provider, we just need to be faithful to him

An approach to spread about JESUS via droid - an effort by our blessed church family

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ariseglow.android

Maintainence for your brand new Heart

On one, Sunday service (14-Dec-14) I confessed to god about my sins and dirty thoughts, god gave me a new heart and Stable spirit as mentioned in Psalms 51.

Then holy spirit Taught me something important, by giving an analogy with the activity i have done; Very recently i have done a full fledged service for my motorcycle, Then i started maintaining and protecting my motorcycle by washing it frequently, Cleaning it with cloth and covering it with Motorcycle cover.

Like that my heart is serviced now (Purified by the Blood of Jesus) , Its is good, Now i should start maintaining my heart by washing it with his blood frequently and covering it with his words (Bible verses), It made sense.

Even before i asked, God gave me bible verses also immediately,  Romans 6 : Dead to sin, Alive in Christ. Confess it sin can't overcome you because you are already dead.

My Monologue - Am i already into the trap of false prophets ????

I am scared to my limits, when i started hearing about false prophets and Open satanists. They were common they lived among us, they were everywhere and they influenced everything.

From Things we see, Things we hear, Things we smell, Everywhere they were there mostly Hidden,
It was very very very tiresome to identify them.


Matthew 24:24 made me think a lot on things that i did till today.
Am i already into the trap ?????

Whom shall i seek for spiritual guidance, Shall i run to my bible ?
I am seeing newer versions of bible coming every now and then, Why there are new version, why there are changes ? Are false prophets already into churches ? are they changing the bible verses to release new versions ??

What is the solution ??? Holy Spirit ??

Yes, For all my problems and questions the only universal answer is Holy spirit. He is the only one who knows who i am more than i do, What i need, What i should do, When i Should do, Etc... He is my Personal teacher,

When i realized it i felt , Yesssssssssssssssss I have hope, I got it, Now i have a way out of this tricky evil hidden world.

That Fort of hope shattered when i came to know about Evil spirits which also teaches and guides.
OMG, Now what ?

Can i run to some great man of god ?

But, I have heard disturbing news about great men of god, I have seen every gods men were accused of being a false prophet is it true ?? How i will know it ??

Hmmmmmm, I have read about the Gift of Distinguishing the Spirits in 1 Corinthians 12:10,  That could help me in Identifying which spirit is Moving around.

Yeah that's right, But to get that gift, what am i going to do?

 I prefer sticking to my old Tamil bible( K.J.V ) and Taking my prayers with the faith that they are reaching JESUS Christ

Any reason why old tamil bible ?

Yes, My earlier spiritual enlightenment was through my Tamil Bible.

Okay, That sounds Good, What about Fellowship ?

How you would know about your Fellow christian  ?

Matthew 7:16, By spiritual fruits .

Urgent news - This Article was by our sister in Christ Paula garretttoledo

Urgent news - This Article was by our sister in Christ Paula garretttoledo

Paula GarrettToledo Biblical Prophecy Examiner

April 19, 2013

In the end times, the Bible tells us there will be signs in the heavens. In the sun the moon and the stars. But the moons in particular seem to tell a story all on their own. And repeated blood red moons over Israel have been present during times that Biblical prophecy has unfolded in the past, and the events happened at the same time these moons were seen. So could a triad of blood red moons over Israel in 2014-2015 be fore tellers of Biblical prophecy about to unfold? Is there a bad moon rising that will usher in the tribulation and the wrath of God that is to come upon the entire world?
Whenever an event is about to happen that has to do with the moon, it's best to take a closer look, as unusual moon events are signs that Biblical prophecy is about to take place. One such event is upon is. On April 25th, 2013, there will be a lunar eclipse. Some people believe that when a lunar eclipse happens there will be political unrest and war that will follow shortly after, somewhere in the world. The belief is that the tension will escalate in areas that are on the verge of war, due to the lunar eclipse.
Three blood red moon eclipse will happen at the end of 2014, going into 2015. And these eclipses are scheduled to happen on God's Holy feast days. Blood red moon eclipses are rare in themselves, and the fact that they will appear on God's Holy feast days is unprecedented. The last time blood red moons appeared over Israel is when Israel became a nation and when Israel took Jerusalem in the 6 day war. So what will these blood red moons coming up bring to the world in the years ahead? Will they signify the start of the tribulation period and the war to end all wars as mentioned in the book of Revelation? Let's see what the Bible has to say about this.
Joel 2:31, The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
There are many verses in the Bible that show the moon as being one of the signs of impending disaster that will shortly come upon mankind. Or as we have seen from events of the past, the moon also foretells of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. So what will the lunar eclipse of April 24, 2013 bring? Or the three blood red moons in 2014-2015? Keep your eyes on the skies as the Bible tells us. The signs are all there and it is up to us to watch and be ready for whatever happens. Jesus tells us that after these signs, events will take place that are so terrifying that men's hearts will fail them for fear of the things that are happening upon the earth.
Ask Jesus into your heart today, ask him to forgive you of your sins, profess that he is your Lord and savior and that he died on the cross to save you from your sins. Let him protect you from the things that are about to come upon the earth. May God's love and peace be with you in these last days. Amen!

Do you really love god ? (self analysis)

Greetings to members in Christ's family,

One fine day, i was speaking to a non-christian friend, we were speaking about verses mixed up in rock genre songs, When i told him about songs with evil verses coming in the name of Christian Rock Music, he got shocked and he felt little bit scared, i can feel his fear for hell. He should have prayed to god in his heart, suddenly one thing stroke my mind.
when i was a teen, i first heard an audio from internet, named well to hell, in which it was told that the tormented screams of the damned was heard. I didn't know whether it was real or fake(even now). But, I was scared very much, i prayed and confessed after hearing it, because, the fear of hell drove me to seek Jesus Christ. so if we see now, the motive of seeking god for a christian who worships real god and a non-christian who worships idol were same, does it mean our god is equal to that idol. definitely, not there is only one god, he is omnipresent, all powerful, trinity god, our Jesus Christ.
ok, here comes my theory.
let me put it in an order my question is,
will the fear of death or hell, brings love towards Jesus Christ ?
should we serve our lord with the fear, because, he has authority to put us into hell ?
if you answer for the above question as yes, then answer the one below, 
if fear was the driving force for our love towards god, can you love him whole heartedly as god commanded?
think......................................
We all know God loved us, he gave his only son (read john 3:16) its a amazing love, we want to love our god in the same way.
so, what was the driving force for god to love us?
don't think,let me say you.
he loved us, because, we all were his children by faith,
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus".-Galatians 3:26
we need to love god in such a great way, the way our god loved us,
why he loved me? because i am his son;
why i should love him? because he is my father;
yes, you should love him, not, because he has authority to put you in hell, but, he is your loving father.
(Let us consider, a boy loving his father fearing that if he don't love his father, his father will punish him. In this scenario, do you think, the boy's love is real and true love)
if, we love our father fearing hell, then our love is also a fake one not real.
so, love your father our trinity god with your whole heart thinking him as your father who shed his blood to save you from evil dark world which you deserved by doing sin.
love you god not because of fear, but with real love.

in Holy Bible, we also have a verse saying, we must serve the lord with fear,
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling-psalms 2:11
so, here it says serve with fear.
does it confuse you, why fear?
before explaining it, let me say you about, one of the important characteristics of our god,
Our god, who is a loving god, is also the god of Justice.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he-Deuteronomy 32:4
let us consider, a kid, who loves his father truly, that loving father, who also loves his son truly, is also strict in his character, when this kid does a mistake, he punishes him for the benefit of the kid, so, kid will have a fear stuck in his heart, when committing a mistake,so next time when situation tempt that kid to make that mistake he will think of his father and immediately he will get the fear for his father against the sin, same goes for us. God taught us, how to walk in good ways, But sometime we commit sin when tempted.so, when we commit a sin, we will fear, for our father, because he is strict and righteous, and also the christian life modeled and successfully lived by Jesus Christ, is a very narrow path in this world of sin, so when we walk in a narrow bridge, even though the bridge is strong at it's base, we will have the fear of falling down, due to loss of balance, that is falling in sin, in our context, if we sin, our god, who is the god of justice, punishes us. so, while walking(serving), in the narrow path of christian life, towards our god of justice, we shall walk(serve), with the fear. because, if we slip, and fall into sin, we will pay, for our sin, remember, we worship, the god of justice.


we all were sinners, we are not perfect. Our father, who is the god of justice, is also the god of mercy, if we confess he readily forgives our mistake, but, the consequence of the sin, will be there and you have to pay for it, if you haven't know this till now, confess to god, he will forgive you, and live a sinless life for god with god.

NOTE: dear ones in the family of Christ, who read this,
 if you feel what i wrote was not the way it is or if you have different thought or opinion please don't hesitate to comment or mail me in ashfeb14@gmail.com your comment and mails can build me in Christ