Lena's Discipleship Journalin' for Today w/ Acts 17

Reading God’s word, or even listening to it, is just not enough for a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word of God must be understood, so one may apply it to their lives. Remember Jesus spoke in parables so that the ones who were not truly interested in understanding would not get it at all, but those who wanted to know more would do what it took to dig deeper and get to know Him, in a personal way.
Paul went into the synagogue 3 Sabbaths in a row to interpret the scriptures to the people. That is what ministers of the gospel do. They help the people to understand and to apply God’s word to their own lives.
Being a disciple means living a new lifestyle. The things we spent our time on before should no longer be as important to us as learning God’s word, to have understanding and apply it, for we are no longer citizen’s and students of the world system, who makes it a point to teach us without even our approval. The world makes everything amazingly simple to get, that one doesn’t even have to try. To get understanding of the most important treasure in all eternity, we have to diligently do something! We have to ask, seek, knock, open doors, stay in a place of pirsued unity with God’s spirit and keep on keeping on, guarding the greatest treasure of all time.
We must have God’s word daily. It is our spiritual food.
If you were hunting for a very special treasure, and the first time you did not find it, you’d keep searching till you found it, if you really, truly wanted it. Then if you found out there was another clue about getting more, you’d go on and search again.
Daily, is the action to take for seeking God and His word. Having someone explain it daily to you, will also get you to a place in God where you can hear for yourself. Your spiritual senses will be exercised to discern more and more!
Some who listened were persuaded. Some, not all. I wonder how many really listened towards treasure hunting?
It’s like getting this in your e-mail box each day. You can take it or leave it, read it or delete it. It’s up to you. We are all free to do what we want to with our time, our search for God and Truth, how we spend our lives is all up to us, we are freewill beings!
It is what we hear, have explained to us for greater understanding and what we do that is what will cause us to grow up in Him. What we don’t make time for won’t. We just need to realize later on when we feel to ask questions of the Lord, like, “Why is such and so happening to me, why am I so malnourished, and feel so weak”, then; “ Why do I flip flop and go up and down in this?” Here is the answer: Your measure of desire and diligence place you where you need to go! We live what we truly believe, now.
It is actually harder to preach good news to one who is closed minded, and has decided for himself already, than it is to preach good news to someone who is off a bit, but open to new ideas. It’s easier to offer truth to those who are at least seeking something or someone, than it is to be the person who has it all” already and does not “need” new truths. This is a sad thing because it is saying, if we are religious, we are harder to be made disciples of than if we are heathen.