Friday, November 6
Read Ellen G. White, “The Test of Discipleship,” pp. 57-65, in Steps to Christ.
Ellen White tells us (among other things) that when we truly respond to the Master Teacher, “we long to bear His image, breathe His spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things” (Steps to Christ, p. 58). In the company of Jesus Christ, duty, she says, “becomes a delight” (Steps to Christ, p. 59). Now, from the Bible, consult Matthew 5-7. Here is the Sermon on the Mount, one of the great summaries of what the Master Teacher wanted His students to know, and the keynote of the kingdom He came to establish.
Discussion Questions:
1. As God addressed Adam and Eve, and also Jacob, so Jesus addresses us. He connects with our deep longings, and He startles us (as He did Bartimaeus) into reconsidering who we are and where we are going. In this light, think about how we teach the Bible to our children and to one another. What is the difference between mediocre Bible teaching and the compelling kind that really makes a difference in people’s lives?
2. Is the question of where you are on life’s journey purely personal, or might it be helpful to discuss this with people you trust? How does the idea of the church as the “body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27) suggest that conversation with others can be one way of getting in touch with what Christ wants you to know?
3. We learned on Thursday that as soon as Bartimaeus could see – as soon as he was rescued from his physical (and spiritual) blindness – he followed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. On this road he heard, every day, the Master Teacher’s wisdom. Now, we may assume, he wanted to bear Jesus’ image, breathe His spirit, do His will. Why would someone take “delight,” as Steps to Christ puts it, in following a standard as high as the one Jesus upheld in the Sermon on the Mount?
4. Dwell more on the question at the end of Thursday’s study. How do we learn to discern between good and evil? How do we define what is good and what is evil? And why is what we do with that knowledge perhaps even more important than having that knowledge itself?
