“Jesus is ready, willing, and able to disciple you himself.”

In Discipled by Jesus; Your Ongoing Invitation to Follow Christ, Robert Gelinas instructs, teaches—disciples—us to see Jesus as our true, living teacher. Using history, teachings of Jesus Himself, other Biblical words of wisdom, as well as writings of other teachers of faith, he walks us through the importance of understanding that we not only need to focus on what we learn about Jesus—but we must include what we continually learn from Him. To be discipled isn’t just what we are taught by others; to be discipled is to learn from the Living Christ how to walk out our faith “to do the good works that He prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

When I was in college and a new Christian, it wasn’t uncommon for me to start my day by asking the Lord to tell me where He wanted me to go or what He wanted me to do that day—or to walk around campus asking Him to guide my next steps…literally! My young faith trusted Him and knew He was alive in my heart. But not long afterward, the local church I joined offered a discipleship program, and I started busying myself with various good activities that I thought defined me as a good disciple. Although the work I was doing was good and helpful, it wasn’t discipleship; it was more “pre-discipleship.” I lost the understanding of what it means to truly walk with Jesus.

In Discipled By Jesus, Robert reminds us that there isn’t a specific formula for us to follow that makes us His disciples or activities that make Him real. Jesus is alive to disciple us Himself, and as we seek Him and get to know Him, He prepares and sends us to disciple others to be discipled by Him. He wants us to go into the world—which may be far away or next door. “Living sent changes the way we see our circumstances…the Father sent the Son; the Son sends His disciples.”