I have recently had my nose in a great book by John Mark Comer called “Practicing the Way” where he references a study done by the Barna group in 2023. The finding caused me great concern and reflection. The study, called the American Worldview Inventory, showed that 63% of Americans identify as Christians, but only 4% were willing to identify themselves as “following Jesus.” How sad that so many are perhaps treating the grace of God through salvation as a fire insurance policy rather than offering their lives as a living sacrifice of surrender and practicing the way of Jesus – the way of Love, Sacrifice, and Self Denial.
Romans 8:29 states that the destiny for all believers is to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. We are to be Christlike, which means we are apprentices of the Master seeking to
- Be with Jesus.
- Become like him.
- Do as he did.
You see, salvation is more of a starting place than a finish line. Once justified, we seek to be more like Jesus until we’re glorified at death or His coming. I’m seeking to become clay in the potter’s hands – allowing Him to mold me while I submit and surrender like pliable clay, lest He break me down and begin again.
“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (Jeremiah 18:3–4, NIV).
Apprentice or Follower may be the best one-word definitions of what it means to be a disciple, a word used well over 200 times in the New Testament.
As we commit to walking as Jesus did (1 John 2:6), we must build a trellis of habits that support the flow of life from the vine to the branches – thus producing the best fruit of Love, Joy, Gentleness, Kindness… and, all of the of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
He is the Vine, I am the Branch. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”(John 15:5, NIV).
What are the habits that would form a sort of trellis that supports the effectiveness of the branches receiving nutrition from the vine in the production of good fruit?
Jesus invites us to embrace these habits as a way of resisting conformity to the world in exchange for being transformed by the renewing of our minds in Romans 12:1-2: Prayer, Worship, Service, Solitude, Bible Study, Fellowship, Generosity, Meditation, and Simplicity. As those who identify as followers of Jesus, let’s commit to being apprentices of Jesus, practicing His way by being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing as Jesus did.
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