Discipleship: basic principals.

How does one begin with something so important and so vital to our journey towards "the city not made with human hands." Not an easy question to answer. But, having given, the question, prayerful and biblically carefull consideration, let me begin with some personal testimony. From the fall of 1990 to the fall of 1995, my family and I were blessed to serve the brethren in Milwaukee and parts of southeastern Wisconsin. We were sent to a man whose grandfather was a slave. He was also considered un-educated and un-trained. His institutional education ended in the fifth grade. His biblical training location and prayer "room" was a cleared space in a corn field in Mississippi. By the time that the Lord our God brought me to him, he was a bishop in the church and highly regarded as a teacher and preacher in the black Churches of Milwaukee and beyond. He was not a perfect man (and that is true of all of us). He clearly loved God and His Son Jesus Christ. He was blessed by God with great wisdom. One of the things that I remember him saying, time and time again (and this brings us to our first basic principal), is this: "Now you don't have to believe it, just because I've told it to you. Now you can believe it, because you can see it in your own bibles!" This truth is Godly wisdom that has served me well through the years. For the purposes of this forum, this means that if you cannot line up what is written here with what is written in your bible, then do not, under any circumstances, believe it. We cannot and should not incorporate anything into our faith life that cannot be affirmed by the written and inspired and holy word of God as contained in the Scriptures: the Bible. Can we all say Amen? Until our next posting, my beloved brethren, I continue to be:

Your servant and fellow pilgrim,
Elder Theophilus