Discipleship: Are We Still With Him?
I was born and raised in São Paulo Brazil, where I grew up as a member of the church. I served a mission in the Northeast of Brazil, the same region where my parents live now.
I met my husband Taylor in 2012 when he was serving in my ward back in Brazil. He was a missionary and I had a boyfriend so I never thought I would marry him someday. Around five years later after I served my mission, we reconnected and I found out he liked me so I decided to give him a chance. After some planning, I came to the US in 2016 for the first time, so we could make sure our relationship would work out and it did! The following year we got married.
Taylor was a great support for me while I was learning English and away from my family. We learned a lot about love and patience during these almost six years we’ve been together.
What’s a disciple?
“A disciple has been shown to be someone who follows the teachings, life, and aim of another until the person becomes like the master. Discipleship in the Christian sense is the process of making someone become like Christ. The disciple of Christ is to become like Christ in everything.”
Jesus Christ had disciples even before he was born, but we usually think on those who walked with Him in the New Testament. He called twelve apostles that are also called His disciples, and they had an important role in the kingdom of God here in the Earth. Not all of us are or will be apostles, but most of us are like the other disciples, the ones that heard Jesus Christ preach, saw Him making miracles and felt His presence. Most of us were taught by our parents how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and some of us heard His teachings and felt in our heart the truth of it. Either way, discipleship is not an easy path, and it wasn’t easy for those disciples in the New Testament either.
The disciples shared the good news:
They felt their heart burning as He spoke… they knew He was the son of God and His words were true. They knew He was the real salvation.
Because the teaching of the Master brought them so much joy, they wanted to share it with their family and friends. That’s how the followers of Jesus Christ were always growing in numbers: they simply invited others to listen to Him.
We no longer have Jesus Christ walking in the streets and teaching His gospel, but we have His representatives, the missionaries. If the gospel brings us joy, why not share the news with others we know?
Many people are waiting to be healed and to find peace that only can be found in the son of God.
The true disciples of Jesus Christ had a different light:
Many of those who followed Jesus had a past, a life full of sins and darkness.
When they found the Christ, and accepted His gospel they were a new creature: old things were passed away; behold, all things became new.
Not only was their countenance light, they lived a holy life, they were trying to be like their Savior and Master Jesus Christ.
How can we be true disciples?
Elder L Tom Perry said:
“In my family’s pioneer history there are many accounts of noble souls who demonstrated the traits of true discipleship. My children’s great-grandfather was a valiant disciple of Jesus Christ. His family were wealthy landowners in Denmark. As the favored son, he was to inherit the land of his father. He fell in love with a beautiful young woman who was not of the same social standing as his family. He was encouraged not to pursue the relationship. He was not inclined to follow his family’s counsel, and on one of his visits to see her he discovered that all of her family had joined the Church. He refused to listen to the doctrine her family had embraced and forcefully told her that she had to choose between him and the Church. She boldly declared that she would not give up her religion.
With that forceful pronouncement, he decided he should listen to the teachings that were so important to her. Soon after, he was touched by the Spirit and he, too, became converted to the gospel. But when he informed his parents of his decision to join the Church and marry this young woman, they were angry with him and forced him to decide between his family and their wealth and the Church. He walked away from the comforts he had known all of his life, joined the Church, and married her.
Immediately, they started to prepare to leave Denmark and journey to Zion. Now without the support of his family, he had to work hard at any employment he could find to save for the journey to the new land. After a year of hard labor, he had saved enough for their passage. As soon as they were prepared to leave, their branch president came to them and said there was a family with greater need than he and his wife. He was asked to give up what he had saved so the needy family could go to Zion.
Discipleship requires sacrifice. They gave up their savings to the needy family, and then they began another year of hard labor to save to finance their journey. Eventually they arrived in Zion, but not before they had made many more sacrifices, showing true discipleship.
A rich young man was given the harshest test of discipleship when he was told, “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, … come, follow me”.
For many of us, an equally challenging test is to shed our bad habits and worldly thoughts so that we are unconflicted and uncompromised in our devotion to the Lord’s service.
As true disciples of Christ, may our lives reflect His example. May we take upon ourselves His name and stand as witnesses of Him at all times and in all places (see Mosiah 18:9).
Moreover, may God bless us that we will earnestly desire to do our spiritual housecleaning, getting into all the corners, cleaning out all those things that would deminish us as a disciple of the Lord so that we can move forward in our service to Him who is our King and Savior(…).”
Are We Still With Him?
The disciples faced opposition:
They loved the Lord, and following His steps would come with a cost, the opposition. The early disciples were mocked, put in prisons, falsely accused and even killed. We may not be put in prisons or be killed for following the Christ, but certainly we are spiritually and emotionally persecuted.
I lost count of how many times in the past few months I saw the media falsely accusing or mocking the church. The opposition is real.
Are we still with Him?
Many who faithfully followed the Savior, abandoned the discipleship as things got harder. Even His apostles betrayed him and denied Him when the pressures of the outside world got strong.
I love Lehi’s dream of the Tree of life in the Book of Mormon. Nephi 8: 19-28 says:
“And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world.
“And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which I stood. And it came to pass that they did come forth, and commence in the path which led to the tree.
“And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost.
“And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
“And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed. And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth. And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.”
As time goes by, and with so many changes in our society, being members of the church and following the prophets proved to be a great challenge. We face opposition even between us. Satan’s favorite game is to play that he doesn’t exist. He does that so he can plant His philosophies mixed with truth in the human mind. He spreads that wrong is right and right is wrong. He teaches that God is not a God of justice. He also teaches:
“(…) nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 28).
Satan is the that old serpent, called the Devil(…) he certainly know how to work with the human mind and how to deceive the disciples of Jesus Christ. We can overcome the devil:
Although many abandoned Christ, there were those faithful men and women that stood beside him until the last hour, even those who carried His body and believed against all the odds that He would rise again.
Many of us know someone who left the discipleship, even though they never stopped loving the Christ but things got harder, and the worldly pressures were too much to continue. Maybe even some of us are going through the spiritual battle right now, where being a true disciple of the Master is getting too hard.
For those who left the path, is never late to come unto Him, and for those who are struggling to continue in the discipleship remember these words:
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9).
Even though the world seems to have a loud voice, compared with the meek and humble voice of the Holy Ghost this voice will be silenced when the death comes, and at the end, when a strong testimony is shared and, finally when the Savior of the world appears in the heavens with all his glory and power.
Brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid of defending our beliefs. Let’s not forget who we serve, who we follow. Don’t be afraid of the loud voice of this world, because worldly things have an end but heavenly things are eternal.
I know God loves all of his children, and He is always there for us. I know the discipleship is worth it, and eternal blessings are still to come.
I pray that we continue with Him, even when things get hard.
I leave these words, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.