Believer, Disciple or Apostle

[Tom]

Sometimes when I am in Sabbath School and discipleship is the topic, I
become saddened. I hear the teacher discuss all these traits of a
disciple and I start screaming inside. But it is so difficult to
express myself at that time because of my emotions. We never discuss
the difference between a believer, disciple or an apostle. So when
the subject of discipleship is discussed and everyone has the same
little book in their laps, how can I say, "But that is wrong! What we
have just discussed for the last 25 minutes is the most basic form of
a 'Believer.'"? So everyone happily departs thinking that they are a
Disciple of Christ because the bar in my church has been set too
low.

Disciples do something; while Believers can just sit and watch. Do
not be confused, tithing and being on a church committee in my book
does not justify the title of "Disciple." Being a Disciple should be
described as a junior Apostle. Action is required. The Bible even
lets us know that we can be "Priests" if we choose to. So serving God
is not like coming and sitting in my corporate waiting-room and
thinking you are part of the company. To be part of the company you
need to be doing something that significantly affects the customer.
Or said in a different way, we can not all be internal operations or
corporate overhead. Most of us need to be touching the customer in
someway and all the time.

Waiting to die, so I can go to heaven is not my definition of a
Disciple. We have a purpose for being here which goes beyond me, the
individual. I think the God wants us to invite a lot of friends and
strangers to his place. He is depending on us to write the
invitations and then call the people to encourage them to come. And I
think God is not very interested in hearing me say I did not do a very
good job at that, especially since I have already sent in my RSVP
response.

I think inviting children is part of that process. Jesus loves
children. So what ever the boss likes, I should like too, especially
if I want to keep the boss happy.

a brother in Christ,
Tom Krazan
Central California
tomk...@gmail.com