We are rejoicing over the recent visit of Ravi Zacharias to the U.S. Naval Academy.  Attendance was strong at each event and we knows lives were touched, even significantly altered by his visit with us.

There are a full slate of events are on the calendar below. Please check this for events that you may be interested in.  You will also be receiving invitations to events that are open to you.

I want to offer you something special over the next eight weeks in this newsletter.  Some time back, at the urging of some friends, I put together a paper on "The 8 Traits of a Disciple of Jesus."  I use these traits to disciple someone who wants to know and follow Jesus better.  Each of the next eight newsletters will cover one of these traits.  The first and last of the eight newsletters contain the introduction and conclusion respectively along with the 1st and 8th trait.  If you find this useful, you are welcome to have the paper in its entirety.

To Proud to be Discipled?

How would you respond if you had been a Bible teacher for 30 years, a follower of Jesus for over 40 years, a lay leader in the church,  and after meeting a man for only ten minutes, he says to you: "would you let me disciple you?"

When this happened, I was sitting in my house in historic Annapolis, Maryland; one block from the U.S. Naval Academy (of which I was a graduate), one block from the Maryland State Capital building, and one block from the Annapolis City Dock. I was a successful businessman, a former Marine Corps Harrier pilot, and was  living with my wife of 32 years.  Honestly, my first thought was "do you know who I am?"  

Now this man was senior to me, and well respected.  Before I could say what I was thinking, I realized I had a problem.  Who was I that I could not learn from another how to be a better follower of Jesus?  The man who offered to disciple me was Jim Hiskey, co-founder of the C.S. Lewis Institute.  He began our discipleship series with a simple question: "Would you take an assignment from me?"  He took me through a discipleship series that represented a lifetime of learning about following the teachings of Jesus.

At first, memorizing scripture, and answering questions about familiar passages was dull and uninteresting to me.  But then something happened.  The love this man had for Jesus, the desire not just to know Jesus, but to follow Him in every way, broke through and began to show me where I needed to be more obedient in my walk with Jesus.

After Jim took me through "The Eight Traits of a Disciple", I came to know Jesus as more than Savior and Lord, He became my Teacher and I became His student, His disciple.  After this time with Jim, God gave me responsibility for the C.S. Lewis Institute Annapolis.  My wife named our house "The Aslan House", and a journey began with Jesus that has eclipsed all my expectations.

What about you?  Are you a follower of Jesus?  Are you His disciple...one who learns from Him and puts it into practice?

As we study the gospels and the teachings of Jesus, I've come to believe there are eight traits of Jesus that stand out for His followers to emulate.  I want to offer these traits to you for two purposes:  One, for self examination; and two, for use in discipling another to encourage them to become more like Jesus.

Trait 1. A follower of Jesus actually follows Jesus.  That is, they consider themselves "on assignment from Jesus".   In John 20:21 Jesus said:  "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you!" What do you think this means?  How was Jesus sent by His Father, How did he follow His Father's instructions?  How do we follow Jesus' instructions?  Are we as devoted to Jesus and His teachings as He was to His Father's?

Our life is not our own, we have a Commander in Chief, Who has made us for a purpose and wants our allegiance to His orders.  The end result of Jesus' teaching is to be like Him (Luke 6:40) and be sent as He was sent (John 20:21):   

*As He served. I am to serve (Mark 10:45);

*As He sought the lost, I am to seek the lost (Luke 19:10);

*As He made disciples, I am to make disciples (Matthew 28:19);

*As He loved others, I am to love others (John 13:34, 35);

*As He was humble and gentle, I am to be humble and gentle (Matthew 11:29);

*As a little child trusts his parents with humble, total dependency, I am, likewise, to trust Jesus (Matthew 18:1-4). 

Frank Laubach was one of the great Christ followers of the twentieth century. He taught for a number of years in a seminary in the Philippines. He said this:

Next month: Trait 2

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