The Demands Of Discipleship

The Book of Daniel is the place where prophecy and theology meet in a teenage boy named Daniel in captivity to a foreign king. Along with Daniel's friends, the reader comes face-to-face with the realities in his own life: -How a believer must live in times of apostasy; -How a believer may follow the Lord in the most secular of conditions; -How a follower of Christ can trust Christ even when it seems He is not in control; -How a disciple of Jesus can meet the demands of discipleship in the tough, hard places of life. In 'The Demands of Discipleship', Mike Milton leads the reader through a study of the book of Daniel as a divine guide to living for God in those times when it looks like God is nowhere to be found. Retaining the live feel of an actual worship service at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where these messages were first delivered, the reader can expect an appealing mixture of faithful Bible exposition, alert concern for the times in which we live, and heartfelt pastoral application to the lives of real people. Each chapter concludes with questions for devotional study or for small groups.

One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus.

The Book of Daniel is the place where prophecy and theology meet in a teenage boy named Daniel in captivity to a foreign king. Along with Daniel's friends, the reader comes face-to-face with the realities in his own life: -How a believer must live in times of apostasy; -How a believer may follow the Lord in the most secular of conditions; -How a follower of Christ can trust Christ even when it seems He is not in control; -How a disciple of Jesus can meet the demands of discipleship in the tough, hard places of life. In 'The Demands of Discipleship', Mike Milton leads the reader through a study of the book of Daniel as a divine guide to living for God in those times when it looks like God is nowhere to be found. Retaining the live feel of an actual worship service at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where these messages were first delivered, the reader can expect an appealing mixture of faithful Bible exposition, alert concern for the times in which we live, and heartfelt pastoral application to the lives of real people. Each chapter concludes with questions for devotional study or for small groups.

Perhaps Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s most radical book, this reading of the Sermon on the Mount has influenced many Christians throughout the world over the last 50 years.

Discipleship was one of the central themes of Jesus' teaching, yet it is not a major emphasis today for many churches. This short study guide explores the Bible's teaching on discipleship, and covers such topics as the need for discipleship, the demands of discipleship, and the enemy of discipleship. With discussion questions at the end of each chapter, groups will work through guided discussions together as they learn about the centrality of discipleship in the Christian life. A series of ten 6–7 week studies covering the nine distinctives of a healthy church as originally laid out in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. This series explores the biblical foundations of key aspects of the church, helping Christians to live out those realities as members of a local body. Conveniently packaged and accessibly written, the format of this series is guided, inductive discussion of Scripture passages and is ideal for use in Sunday school, church-wide studies, or small group contexts.

Many Christians and churches are rediscovering that God cares deeply about justice, but opinions abound as to what an approach to biblical justice might look like in contemporary society. What exactly does the Bible mean by justice, and what does it have to do with poverty, racism, and other issues in our world? More importantly, how do we become the kind of people who practice justice? Biblical scholar Michael Rhodes argues that the Bible offers a vision of justice-oriented discipleship that is critical for the formation of God's people. Grounded in biblical theology, virtue ethics, and his own experiences, he shows that justice is central to the Bible, central to Jesus, and central to authentic Christian discipleship. Justice stands at the heart of Scripture. Following Jesus demands that we become just disciples in an unjust world.

Discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus how to live his or her life as though Jesus were living it. The end result is that the disciple becomes the kind of person who naturally does what Jesus did. How the church understands salvation and the gospel is the key to recovering a biblical theology of discipleship. Our doctrines of grace and salvation, in some cases, actually prevent us from creating an expectation that we are to be disciples of Jesus. A person can profess to be a Christian and yet still live under the impression that they don’t need to actually follow Jesus. Being a follower is seen as an optional add-on, not a requirement. It is a choice, not a demand. Being a Christian today has no connection with the biblical idea that we are formed into the image of Christ. In this ground-breaking new book, pastor and author Bill Hull shows why our existing models of evangelism and discipleship fail to actually produce followers of Jesus. He looks at the importance of recovering a robust view of the gospel and taking seriously the connection between conversion—answering the call to follow Jesus—and discipleship—living like the one we claim to follow.

NEW FOREWORD BY ERIC METAXAS Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic book on living as a Christian. What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the government worker? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life." The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.