BIBLE

For most people, the Bible is not the first resource we turn to when facing issues or challenges in our lives. Lots of people view it as an ancient book documenting the history of a religious people thousands of years ago. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that the Bible is much more than a history book; it's the story of God's relationship with all humankind.

As we seek to grow in faith, share Christ, and serve others, reading the Bible is invaluable. The Bible is a guidebook for navigating our lives as well. We desire to put God first in our lives, find our place in God's story, and claim the truth about who we are as God's people.

The birth of Christ is the hinge of history, a turning point so profound that our sense of time is divided between before and after his birth. The coming of Christ into our lives is the turning point between a life based on self-centered needs and a life based on love and joy. In his famous book A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, who through his visions of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, is able to see clearly the difference Christ makes and is given the chance to choose Christ before it is too late. By joining Scrooge in remembering God’s work in our world and in our lives, and the ways we have turned toward and away from God in the past, we prepare ourselves to receive Christ as He comes to us today.

Peter stands as a powerful example of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Described as underestimated, dedicated, imperfect, inadequate, optimistic, flawed, and faithful, Peter was part of Jesus’ inner circle and a leader in the early church, present at pivotal moments of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. His story reveals key characteristics of discipleship – reluctantly willing, courageously scared, surprisingly insightful, unrealistically confident, gratefully remorseful, and passionately faithful. In Peter, we not only see the New Testament’s portrait of a disciple but a reflection of ourselves, reminding us that being a disciple is lived out through both weakness and faith.

We have likely heard the term “disciple”. Maybe we can even identify some of Jesus’ disciples as noted in scripture. Yet, do we truly consider ourselves disciples of Jesus? If so, what are the characteristics of a disciple, and what does being a disciple look like in 2025, some 2000 years after Jesus lived, walked, taught, and healed?

Being a disciple is more than being a member of a church; it is a way of being by following Jesus 365 days a year, 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day. That seems daunting, as if perfection is required. Actually, what we find is being a disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower of Jesus Christ, is that there is freedom and hope in following Jesus Christ.