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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Disciples
For Life In September 1956, a couple months before my fifth birthday, I walked through the doors of Queen Victoria School, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada as a first-time student. It's the same school my father and two sons attended. In 1971 I graduated from high school. In 1975 I became a student at Elim Bible College, in Lima, New York. Five years earlier, in 1970, Jesus inspired me to be a serious student of the Bible, both living and sharing what I learn. That I have been doing ever since. The words
"student" and "disciple," although differing in
precise meaning, have their similarities.
That being said, if you are a Christian, you are to be a disciple
of Jesus, not just His student waiting to graduate.
You are a disciple for life.
It's now 2024 and I'm seventy two years old. I have spent fifty four years studying the Bible and conclude that learning what the Bible teaches, like learning anything, is a process that requires unlearning and rethinking many issues. We may be reluctant to admit it, but we are so entrenched in our surrounding culture, including religious culture, that their traditions have penetrated our thinking and lives more than we know. It's why the need to unlearn and rethink is so important.
At my age, I'm learning
more than ever. It would sure
be nice if I could revert back to being twenty two with my present
knowledge. I'd have an
additional fifty years to learn, live, and share what I learn, but of
course that's not possible. I
concede that I am running out of time to learn, but I'll keep plugging
away, despite my older-age reality making that progressively more
difficult. With all of our advanced
knowledge of ancient history, cultures, and languages that are now readily
available for us on our high-tech devices, we should be the most
Biblically literate Christians ever, but we aren't.
That's a sad commentary on twenty-first century Christianity.
I am not suggesting we
all should be seminary-style Bible teachers.
Ephesians 4:11 states that a teacher in the church is a specific
ministry calling designated for a specific few.
Nevertheless, we can learn from seminary teachers without attending
seminary. Their teaching is
easily found in their books and websites that we can access as we sip our
coffee on our sofas. That's
way less expensive than attending seminary, don't you think?
Further to the above, I
caution us being overly dogmatic concerning our doctrinal distinctives.
Dogmatism kills the communal nature of church.
Dogmatism also kills discipleship because it hinders us from
unlearning and rethinking that is part of being disciples for life.
Understanding that the
Word of God includes the words we read in the Bible, I close with Hebrews
4:12 which underscores the needed change in our lives that God's Word
provides us who
are disciples for life. Note
specifically that God does pass judgment on our thoughts, that which we
reason to be correct and accurate.
"For the word of
God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges
the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
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