Following Jesus

What is a disciple? Dallas Willard provided one of the finest explanations I have ever seen: “A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.”

I recently received a letter from a young man asking advice about how best to follow Jesus in four key aspects of life. Here is my response.

Being a disciple of Christ, which should be our driving ambition, involves being, knowing and doing life like Jesus.

There are surprising things you may not know about Jesus. In our book, Jesus: A Theography, Leonard Sweet and I take 424 pages to show that both the Old and New Testaments tell the story of Jesus in great detail.

Following Christ doesn’t make our lives easier. Being a disciple makes our lives harder. Why? Because Jesus wants you and me to become stronger, and the only way to get stronger is to add more weight to your work.

“Every follower of Jesus is a masterpiece work of God with a general calling and a unique calling," says Todd Wilson. This week on our podcast, Todd explains how calling often becomes an idol for Christians and why churches need to move away from a "programmatic" growth strategy.

It costs something to follow Jesus.

Christians are not immune to the horrors, kids.