Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

The Disciple

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“The disciple is that one who has been taught or trained by the Master, who has come with his ignorance, superstition, and sin, to find learning, truth, and forgiveness from the Saviour. Without disciplines we are not disciples, even though we profess His name and pass for a follower of the lowly Nazarene.” (Edman, V. Raymond. “The Disciplines of Life.” Scripture Press Foundation, 1948)

Edman gives us much to contemplate in this simple definition of discipleship. He suggests that the disciple “has been taught.” The disciple has learned truth and found forgiveness from the Savior. There is no good intention to follow, to pass off as a follower. The disciple came with ignorance and has learned. The disciple came with unjustified beliefs and presuppositions and has not only been corrected but trained to live in truth. The disciple came with sin and has been cleansed not by his own doing or merit but by his Master, the Saviour. The disciple correctly represents His Master to the world in both word and work.

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