Jun
20
Be an Active Learner
Filed Under Devotional
While waiting in my senior pastor’s office for a meeting, I did what everyone does, if they’re honest. I began to snoop around his library. I found a book by Christopher Adsit entitled, “Personal Disciplemaking”. As I flipped through the pages, I came upon a portion that was highlighted by a previous reader. It spoke about the word “disciple”. It comes from the Greek word “mathetes” which means learner or pupil. Now, on the surface this definition doesn’t seem to be too surprising except that Greek, and for that matter Aramaic and Hebrew, tends to have very finely tuned words and this particular learner or pupil does not practice the kind of head knowledge that can be regurgitated at will for a test, but he is one who learns by use and practice.
Now, that struck a chord with me as that is exactly how I learn best. Give me a drawing and a written explanation and I can mull over it for quite a spell. But show me the thing and demonstrate the function or show me the problem and point out my resources and I’m your guy. Too many times in my life I’ve had engineers talk to me about this or that and then they show me the thing and I say, “Oh, I get it. Why didn’t you just say that’s what it did?”
“Although He was a Son, he learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Hebrews 5:8
“Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.” Titus 3:14
When we attempt to be disciples, we are really creating a circle of learners and this circle should be a relationship factory. This factory should always be in production growing deeper in relationship with Jesus Christ and each other. The end product of this factory is love of your neighbor.