“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (KJV Ps. 139:23-24). In this verse, David asks God to help him search his heart so that he can be closer to God. Without God, the process of self-evaluation is impossible as David states in his psalm. What makes David such a good source for advice? In the Bible, David is known as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). If David recognized the importance of self-evaluation, then every Christian should continually evaluate themselves according to God’s principles in the Bible. In this paper, I will be examining my spiritual and discipleship condition in relation to myself, God, and others.
In relation to myself, my biggest weakness would be my fear and anxiety. My biggest fear is change. In the past, I have had many bad experiences with change. For example, the most traumatic change in my life was the move from England to South Korea. The leaving behind of friends, culture, and comfort caused great distress. Another challenge and change was moving from South Korea to America when my mother became very sick. This change had a very big impact on anxiety as the fear of losing my mother changed me emotionally. During sixth grade, I went to the middle school and was bullied. This experience motivated me to become homeschooled. The most recent big change that I experienced was going to college. Because of my past traumatizing change,
I found that my top five weaknesses are as follows: 1. Money management, 2. Understanding technology, 3. Energy level, 4. Seeking support from others and 5. Ability to focus on one thing at a time (Bethel University, 2014).
Some weaknesses that I put down are that I don't fully enunciate my words, I don't move around a lot, and I talk a little faster than I should. I would have to say these weakness are still true. Although I have gotten a lot better at trying
My biggest strength is my adaptability. I always try to have an open mind when I meet others who have different views than me. I see the option for learning in my failures, and always keep in mind my end goal when things don’t always go as planned. My biggest weakness is that I always like to be in control. I like to have a plan, and stick to it. I will overcome this weakness by trusting others to take lead, and stop worrying about things I have no control over.
I have a few weaknesses when it comes to school. One of my weaknesses is nervousness. I tend to get nervous when it’s time to take a test. Another weakness is thinking I will not succeed. I am always afraid that I will fail, and not move forward. I seem to always second guess myself when it comes to writing a paper or speaking in front a room full of people. I am working on each of my weaknesses.
Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim
The principles of discipleship can be found throughout the Bible. One of the ultimate goals of discipleship is to become more Christ like which makes Jesus's life and grace an excellent basis for discipleship. Jesus invested in twelve men, the first Disciples, and entrusted them to continue the process. Peter, James, and John were a part of Christ's inner circle and he fostered and encouraged an exalted spiritual life and growth in these three. Paul was a Pharisee who was murdering Christians and then his life was transformed and he became an apostle. He gave his life over to God's purpose not only in a broad perspective, bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles, but also personal. Timothy was a disciple of Paul; Paul was personally involved in Timothy's life. The Great Commission commands the Disciples, in Matthew 28:19, to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". The Disciples followed the Great Commission and Christianity spread. Believers are meant to follow the
This five-step process begins by creating a definition for what it is we are addressing as disciples. It’s important to ask the question “what is…” because it helps us distinguish from other topics that are closely related. For example, if we are talking about what discipline is, we would want to distinguish if we are speaking about the punishment of a child, the act of training in a habitual manner, or a branch of knowledge. Our world is a very complicated, intricate, and interwoven place. Though people often want things to be straightforward, they’re not always that simple. It’s important to define exactly what we’re talking about in order to understand the topic as clearly as possible.
was owed a great sum of money by one of his servants. The king let the
My strengths are my self-confidence, determination, organization, and ability to prioritize. Balancing an overloaded school schedule, upwards of 24 credits in a semester, maintaining excellent grades, raising a toddler, and volunteering are demonstrative of my greater fortes. In terms of weaknesses, public speaking has always been difficult for me, as well as networking. I have branched outside of my comfort zone, engaged in volunteer opportunities, student organizations, and clubs as an effort to improve upon this.
My weak area was the self-regulation portion; most of my responses to how often I handled each situation were “usually.” I need to improve on controlling my feelings in certain situations, trying to be more aware of tasks and their proposed deadlines, managing my time wisely, and executing new ideas that I myself have formulated. Other weaknesses were found in most of the areas where my strengths were. Most of them involved taking risks, which my personality often deters me from engaging in.
Jesus then goes from speaking to His disciples specifically, to calling out to the whole crowd, in which He goes from speaking plainly to once again speaking in metaphors and riddles. Within this passage Mark uses the words of Jesus to reveal the true cost of discipleship. He tells the crowd that if anyone chooses to come after Him then the condition of that decision is that they must take up their cross and follow Him. So one must ask: What does it mean to deny yourself? What does it mean to take up your cross? And when you follow Him where are you going? So then one must put this into context by looking at what has not yet happened in Mark. When Jesus denies Himself, He is essentially denying the human instinct to self preserve through a fight or flight response. When Jesus picked up His cross, He was deciding to be rejected, tortured, mocked and falsely accused on His way to Calvary where He died for the sins of all. Therefore, if you want to go after Jesus, you must be willing to commit to sharing the gospel with others at all costs, you must be willing to tortured, mocked, and falsely accused and you must also be willing to die, not necessarily for anything that you have done, but so that others can reach salvation. Historically, during this time period, the cross was a well known style of execution in Rome, and so although one reading this might see this as simply a metaphor, it is actually a foreshadowing of reality, which can be seen in the fact that all the
Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to
"I have chosen you to be with me," he told them. "I will also send you
As we look at how we approach discipleship, it is imperative that we look at the role of both imagination and narrative metaphors. Hopefully we can assume that the Bible is the major governing force for believers in Christ, then narrative metaphors for discipleship should be those of which the foundations are rooted in Scripture and the story of God’s people. Certain metaphors, specifically narrative metaphors, may speak especially strongly to the way that we imagine our roles as disciples and the Kingdom that we orient ourselves toward. Some of these metaphors include exile, pilgrim, messenger, harvester, ambassador, slave, soldier, and builder. While discipleship is very important to how we view ourselves as Christians, considering what
Time Management - I find myself to be a poor time keeper, and my general awareness of time could be better.