A Daily Devotional with Pastor Doug Crouse March 28, 2018 The Duty of Discipleship Scripture Reading – Matthew 28:19 - 20 (NLT)“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

Do you remember the time when by the grace of God, Christ Jesus was revealed to your heart and you received His grace and were born again? For all of us who are truly in the church, we can. For myself it was 39 years ago when I eighteen years of age, and my life has never been the same since.

It was not long after that that although I was baptized as a baby, I responded to the command of Jesus to follow Him in the waters of believer’s baptism, and confessed my testimony to the saving grace of God.

However, today's text reminds us that being born-again, or even being baptized as a believer is far from, 'The Duty of Discipleship'. This duty is not a one time event that we can check off and say, yes - I did that 5, 10, 20, 50 or even 70 years ago.

You may correctly note that the word disciple looks a lot like our word discipline. And today's text reminds us that this journey of life in Christ Jesus is one of practicing the disciplines of grace: bible reading, prayer, church fellowship, service, and attentiveness to the commandments of God in obedience by the Person and power of the Holy Spirit.

As you and I give ourselves to this duty and discipline, it then becomes more and more of a delight. For Jesus Christ draws near to our hearts and lives, and we both experience and express His Spirit in our daily living and loving.

We can be assured of this fact. The more we fall in love with the One who loved us with His very life, the more we will look forward to seeing Him in eternity and hearing His voice commending our lives with the words, 'well done, my faithful one'. 

Prayer Father, I come to You again through Jesus who loved me so. Help me to show myself to be Your disciple in the way I choose to spend my life. Holy Spirit fill me and use me to the fullness of the purposes of God today I pray in Jesus name. 

Memory Verse:  Ephesians 2:4 – 5a NLT “But God is so rich in ______, and he _______ us so much that even though we were _____ because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.”