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Becoming a Disciple of Christ

"If we are serious about following Jesus, we must question all that we previously have been and accepted," Chauncey C. Riddle, "Becoming a Disciple," Ensign, Sept. '74.

The New Testament account of our Savior's mortal ministry contains the information that we need to learn to return to live with our Father in Heaven. One insight we can gain from studying the New Testament is what we can do to become a disciple of Christ.

A disciple of Christ is one who is learning to be like Christ - learning to think, to feel, and to act as he does. To be a true disciple, to fulfill that learning task, is the most important job we have here on Earth. That job is the total transformation of a man from their natural state to one who loves the Lord and serves with all of their heart, might, mind, and strength.

As part of his instruction to his disciples in Judea, the Savior took pains to explain his own ministry, a ministry that was the pattern for all of them and for us. One thing that our Heavenly Father required of our Savior was the suffering and sacrifice of the Atonement.

Turn to Matthew 16:21-29. Matt.16:21 "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Peter, not understanding that only in these difficult things could Jesus fulfill the will of the Father and make universal salvation possible, remonstrated:

Matt. 16:22 "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be [done] unto thee." The Savior then administered a severe rebuke to Peter:

Matt. 16:23 "But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Peter, one of the strongest disciples and staunch supporter of Christ, was named Satan and told he was offensive to Christ. Does not that give you pause?

There is symbolism for us in calling Peter "Satan." If Peter could be named "Satan," what is it that the Savior would name us? Until we savor or understand the things of God, we are found to be behind the adversary's programs. But when we learn the glorious truths of the gospel we can get behind Jesus Christ and his work and abandon Satan.

Reading further in Matthew we see Jesus recognizes that not only Peter, but all his disciples are troubled and perhaps a bit confused. JST, Matt. 16:25-29 "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. "And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments. "Break not my commandments for to save your lives; for whosoever will save his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come. "And whosoever will lose his life in this world, for my sake, shall find it in the world to come. "Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls..." If we take up our own cross we truly become disciples.

From Matthew we learn that discipleship begins with denial of all worldly things. Our lives are like uncultivated land. Before the word of the Lord can bear fruit in our lives, we must first clear the ground of all that grows wild or naturally. We must remove the rocks and boulders that will trip us. What grows naturally in our lives are the things of the world. As a person comes to spiritual self-consciousness, they will realize that their minds, desires, habits, manners, and politics have all been shaped by the people in this physical environment. What you may think to be yourselves now can be recognized as the trappings of the world upon your true self, a child of God. Your true self delights in being touched by the Holy Spirit with the witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the urgency of faith and repentance. You will find that to believe in Christ is one thing, but to deliver one's soul to Christ as a faithful, obedient servant is quite another. That delivery must begin by becoming as a little child.

To be born again as a little child is to question all that we have formerly been and accepted, and to see the world with different eyes, heart, and mind. As a little child, we walk through the forest with one hand in that of the Holy Spirit and the other in that of the living prophets of God.

The teachings of the prophets and the Holy Spirit, literally turn the old world some of us have known topsy-turvy. In that process we are thrilled to see things freshly, as they really are.

With their help the scriptures become pure. The interpretations and omissions of men regarding the word of God no longer cause us to stumble. We learn the joy of seeing the complete harmony between the teachings of the ancient prophets, the teachings of living prophets and the sweet whisperings of the Holy Spirit. To that harmony the promises of God and the necessities of true faith come alive to us, and with hope and faith we begin to become spiritually alive.

With the help of our new friends, the prophets and the Holy Spirit, we can see in our culture that which is truly virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy. These things we treasure and delight in. We are also now able to see what is petty, selfish, and evil in our culture. Carefully we dissociate ourselves from those things, grateful to see plainly that those things we once enjoyed were actually part of our misery.

Our new friends help us to review what we have learned about the ideas of men. We gladly respond when we see now that some men have taught truth, sometimes against great odds; but we now perceive the absurdity of some of the world's most cherished theories. As we see anew, the chains of darkness and the lies of Satan become plain to us, and we slip off those chains, thrilled with the freedom and mobility we now have.

A new perspective - that of eternity - is learned as we practice being disciples. We now glimpse why it is that family relationships are paramount, why no other success can compensate for failure in our homes. We see why force and compulsion can never be the means of establishing a great and good society. We see that not just seeking knowledge, but doing good for others is the important thing in life. We see that the point of repentance is learning to live righteously, so that we can be trusted with the powers of gods. We no longer worry about just being forgiven; we strive to overcome the world. Perhaps the greatest thing we learn from living prophets and from the Holy Spirit is the importance of doing the best we know at all times. They show us that what we will really be sorry for later is not having done what we plainly know we should have done.

With thankful heart the disciple of Christ thus learns the ways and ideas of the gospel, to be taught anew in all things by God. But even in this, our preparation is not complete; we must next cleanse ourselves of worldly lust. To eliminate the influence of the world is a difficult thing. But to gain mastery over our own desires is another, even more difficult task. It is like hauling off all the rocks and thoroughly tilling the soil once the forest of our mind has been cleared of false ideas.

What are the rocks of lust in our lives? One is the desire to eat too much, to eat the wrong things, and to eat when we should not. Another is the inability to get to bed on time, to get up on time, or to be where we are supposed to be on time. Rocks of lust are the habits of being absorbed in television, playing video games or surfing the internet when we should be working with our family or doing our home teaching. They are hunger for a new car when the old one would serve as well or better; the desire to have it known to everyone when we have done some good deed; the need to retaliate when someone has hurt us. They are speaking half-truths to deceive ourselves and others. They are anger, selfishness, loud laughter, and self-indulgence. They are the powers of Satan exercised on us through our own flesh. We can be rid of these things only by yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. Then our spirit conquers our own flesh and the flesh becomes a servant instead of the master of our lives.

Having cleared our lives of worldliness and having tilled the soil of our souls to a state of ready obedience to the Lord, we are then able to receive the word of God as the pure seed; we are ready to keep the Lord's commandments.

Turn to Mark 12:30. The first commandment is to love the Lord: Mark 12:30 "... thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength..." In nothing can one show the love for God more surely than in making and keeping the baptismal covenant, the covenant we renewed today by partaking of the sacrament. Therein we promise that we will take Jesus Christ's name upon us, that we will always remember him and that we will keep the commandments he has given us.

John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The crowning act of repentance is to make the covenant of baptism. As Christ laid down his life for us, so we voluntarily put to death our old worldly, lustful self and bury it in the waters of baptism. As the Savior rose from the dead, so we rise up out of the water as little children of our new Father and Savior, to a beginning of eternal life. Without this death; burial, and newness, we cannot fully show that we love him.

In baptism we gain the privilege of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Only as we live under the influence of that gift can any mortal person love the Lord with all his heart, might, mind, and strength. Only as we continue under the influence of that gift can one keep every commandment.

Above all the other commandments we might receive as we strive to keep the first and great commandment is the second - the admonition to love one another. Go to John 13:34-35. The world, not understanding the things of God, fancies that the second commandment can be kept when one has not honored the first commandment. But those who understand remember the Savior saying: John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

To love as Christ loves is to have charity, the pure love of Christ. Pure love is a gift of the Holy Spirit reserved for those who love the Lord enough to covenant with him in baptism.

Are we the disciples of Jesus Christ? Are we learning of his ways, of his discipline? Are we doing as he commanded? Do we know we have to overcome the world? No man is saved in ignorance of that knowledge. To gauge our progress we might ask ourselves three questions: Have I denied myself all ungodliness? Have I denied myself every worldly lust? Do I keep every commandment the Savior gives me?

The future of a person who can give an honest affirmative answer to each of these questions, is not in doubt. The rest of us should remember that the Lord is mighty to save. Though we cannot overcome the world on our own merits, his are quite sufficient. If we are learning, then we are disciples. May we learn well and be disciples indeed.

Chris and Summer

Greetings from Logandale! We are keeping busy with T Ball, yard work and everything else. With all the rain we have had we now have fields of weeds. Leslie loves to pick them for me. She calls them beautiful flowers, she can't understand why we don't want them in the house. The weather has turned hot. Yesterday we took lunch to the park and it was nice in the shade, but the kids only lasted about five minutes in the sun. The news said it was 99.9 so I think the cool weather is gone. Leslie has been practicing for May Day. She is so excited to show us the parachute dance. She is also on her way with reading. She can read most of The Cat in the Hat, and other small books. We are so proud of her. She is playing T Ball and we are coaching her team. We are the Tigers, what fun! There are ten five and six-year-olds on our team. None of them can hit, catch or throw, but we have a good time. On our first game we even got Grandma Whitney to coach first base. Chris is worried that I am going to have my baby on the field. I told him to relax that I still have four weeks, he was not convinced. Madyson is just getting cuter by the minute. She gives hugs and if you're lucky she will give you a kiss. Chris bought a four-wheeler a while back and it is Madison's favorite thing to do. The minute Chris gets home she meets him at the door saying (ride, ride) she doesn't stop until he takes her. Some how I don't think he minds. She is growing like a weed and so is her vocabulary. She was saying thank you all the time I was so proud. So as a good mother I thought I would introduce, your welcome. Well now if I say, "Say, thank you," she says, "Your welcome." O well, we still think she is cute. We have had a busy month. The first weekend of April was the start of spring break so we took the kids to California to the Wild Animal Park. It was a lot of fun and exercise. We got home just in time for the fair, and you know we couldn't miss the fair. I was glad when school started again, I needed a rest. The following weekend my mom and my two sister in-laws came down from Denver to give me a baby shower. It was fun and it was so nice to have Keresa and mom come. We got all kinds of cute little boy outfits. I sure hope it is a boy! Speaking of Boy's we have decided on a name. If it is a BOY we will call him Bronson Christopher Whitney. What do you think? We will let you know when he arrives. Maybe he will come early? I think that is wishful thinking. We hope everyone is doing great. See you all in July???? Love, The Chris Clan

Jeremy and Martha

Hi to everyone and hope everyone is well. We are moving to a house in two days. For the past 2 weeks we've been fixing up a row home and we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Things are getting pretty exciting for us. I wake up in the morning and feel like how I use to feel when we'd go to Disneyland. It's exciting. Nothing is too fancy or extra special about the house, it's just extra fun to see what work we've done in it.

Lyle turned one last week. For his birthday we stayed at the apartment all day and gave him our undivided attention. Since we've been at the house he's been ignored a lot. So the birthday day was fun until I let him help me make the frosting for his cake and he fell off the chair and got a fat, bloody lip. I know I was not thinking, I guess one year olds aren't big enough to help Mom run the mixer just yet! Anyway the poor tyke was so distraught he cried and wouldn't let me put him down. Then he fell asleep. Well Jeremy and I were so disappointed he didn't get to eat his cake we woke him up and tried to make him enjoy himself and eat the cake. That lasted for about two minutes. We gave up and put him back to bed. He woke up the next morning a much happier baby. Oh well, he's one year old now.

Take care and have a good May. We're hoping to have a new nephew by the end of the month. Any news on names yet???

Here is our new home info: 264 Hampden Road, Upper Darby, PA, 19082. Phone number: 484 - 461 - 8212

Nick and Becca

Just for the record, everyone who wrote this month turned their articles in on time! It is just me who posted them late! Hopefully we'll have a house to show for it in about 45 days. The closing date has just been set (maybe an hour ago) for June 22. After hearing about other family members home-buying experiences I'm skeptical to believe the closing date will really happen. But I sure hope it does because I'm already getting excited and am planning a packing strategy. Nick told me that I'm not aloud to pack today, and that I have to put my feet up and relax.

Nick is in the middle of final week now. So he keeps busy between studying and working and worrying about the house. I try to keep the trailer spic and span and ready to show while getting mortgage paperwork straight. Jonathan is still growing and smiling and cracking jokes. His new favorite word is marker. I don't know how he chooses them but it is obvious when he does. He walks around the house saying, "mocka, mocka, mocka." And occasionally points to a marker while he's saying it.

We'll be in touch!

Keresa and I are finally settled into our house and everything from the wedding and moving is pretty much completed. Now there is all the fun stuff to do like fix the sprinklers, put on all the insulation in our little shed, etc. We got the Augustus Society Scholarship and had a fun time at their dinner. The guy gave a cool speech about learning is important. Not just education, but to always enjoy learning more. We have set a time when we will go on a honeymoon. We are going during that holiday in the end of May. I like Becca's theory: "Isn't it so much better being married than being single?" Yes, it is. I felt so frustrated sometimes because in telling anyone at UNLV about our wedding, I received only, "Oh you are so young, are you sure?" or "I wish I wouldn't have gotten married until after my degree." Or all kinds of stuff. Those dang people. I have come to the conclusion that wealth will not bring happiness to those who are seeking happiness through wealth, and no hardship can take joy from those who find joy in spite of their hardships. Not like we are in any hardship or anything. We understand how blessed we are to both have income, access to education, good running cars, and a nice place to live. I am excited for anyone who is passing through LV to come see our house and have dinner with us. Thanks again from both of us, for all of your sacrifices in helping make our wedding such a great occasion. Love- MK and KW

April has been indeed an exciting and busy time for me. I've had all kinds of fun activities to do, lotsa schoolwork and tests, exams to prepare for, and mission papers to deal with. Even though I've been pretty busy with school and all, I've had some great music experiences this month. The Institute Chorale, of which I'm apart, performed our final fireside a few Sundays ago. Our topic of song was The Restoration. It was a great show and I'm glad I took on the commitment. The missionaries for the student wards here said they taught three first discussions immediately following our closing night. Besides the chorale, I've also joined up in a barbershop quartet! We've been singing about an hour everyday since the last week in February. A week or two ago, we went to a competition in Phoenix put on by The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement for Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA for short). And even as soon as we signed up for the competition, the local Tucson chapter contacted us immediately. They sent three coaches to come and work with us and teach us the elements of the Barber Shop community. It was great fun. Schoolwork has been never ending. It gets to the point where I don't think, "Do I have homework and in which class?" Now my thoughts are more along the lines of, "Of all my homework, which of the absolutely essential items do I have time to complete before I collapse?" But everything still seems to get done. Well, by everything, I mean sufficient amounts. And by sufficient, I mean I may very well keep that nice looking 4.0 after my exams. There are only two exams I need to really work for... Next Wednesday (May 5th) is my last day of class and my exams go from May 7th (Friday) to May 14th (Friday). I very well may be back in Nevada as soon as the 17th!! I'm already getting excited. Not too long ago, I was considering some summer courses here in Tucson and then just coming home right before my mission, but Dad had a very good point when I called him to talk about it: "Well you know, your Mom and I haven't seen you for a while and we" (at this point he was quick to correct himself) "I mean I could handle it, but your mom would like to see you for a while before you leave for two years." Then he added another persuading point, "Something else you need to consider, is right now, I'm having a big bowl of ice cream with some homemade Hot Fudge Sauce beside some fresh Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies your mom cooked up this afternoon and a particularly sweet Cinnamon Role; Mom cooked up two pans of them yesterday." Now this immediately had two effects on me: 1) I was a bit concerned about Dad's diet, 2) I really just want to finish up here with full steam and flying colors and come home. Now the latest with the mish. For a long time I was in-between the bishop's interview and the stake president's interview. I'd met with my bishop here in AZ and he said he had passed on my papers to the stake offices and they would be calling me. But they weren't calling me. So I began leaving messages on the Stake Clerk's answering machine until I had an appointment with President Hancock (about thirty years ago formerly known as Elder Hancock of the Peru mission who had a companion named Elder Whitney). That interview was last Sunday. So I met with the President and the interview was great. But towards the end of the interview, he asked me "So, has your bishop given you papers to fill out yet? How far have you gotten on those?" I told him that my papers had been finished for some time and I had given them to the bishop. Bishop hadn't even passed them on yet! So I went home and gave him a call and he said he'd take care of it post haste. We'll see. I'll let you know if I survive my exams. I'll also let you know if I ever get called on a mission. The earliest I could know (assuming the bishop promptly gave the papers to the stake president who promptly mailed them to Salt Lake (most probably neither of which happened promptly)) would be the week of May 17th. Keep your fingers crossed! Love, Matthias

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