SCRIPTURE:
"They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples." (Mark 9:30-31a, NIV)

Observation:
I asked myself what cause and effect relationship do I see here?
Because He [Jesus] was teaching his disciples, Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were.

Interpretations:
I asked myself the significance of Jesus' actions?
Jesus wanted to make sure that his disciples had enough time alone with Him so they could learn all that He wanted to teach them. In essence, Jesus decided to have a core team discipleship meeting with 12 of them. Jesus was all about discipleship when it came to His disciples because He wanted to train them and equip them to do His work. In reality, Jesus wanted to produce an exponential effect in the lives of His disciples so that they could do the same. For that to happen, Jesus had to spend time with them. This time was spent with the disciples no matter how many times they lacked faith, how many times they doubted, and how many times they just made it difficult for Jesus. Yet, Jesus did not abandon them but continued to disciple them as His disciples.

Implications:
I saw important implications for my own life. I need to be taught and led by Jesus, being His disciple, so that He can teach me and lead me, guiding me by His power so that I can replicate that in the lives of others as I invest my time to disciple those the Lord Jesus puts in my path. It begins with Jesus through His Word! For whatever Jesus taught His disciples, we have it in His Word to us. I need to use the Word to disciple others as I am discipled by Jesus as the Lord uses others to disciple me. It is in discipleship that our lives are powerfully impacted especially when that discipleship is done in a loving way instead of a judgmental way.

HOW GOSPEL GIVES ME TESTIMONY REGARDING DISCIPLESHIP:
I praise the Lord Jesus for Kevin Leibach, a former staff volunteer with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, whom the Lord Jesus placed in my path. At the time, Kevin lived about an hour away from the University of Pittsburgh but faithfully he would come every Monday to pray with me and study the Gospel of Mark with me verse by verse to build me up in my faith and also tackle the issues I was facing using the power of God's Word and prayer. As I was ministered to by Kevin, I was so blessed and wanted to do the same for other students whom the Lord Jesus placed in my path.  So, I gave up law school to go into ministry. I decided to serve as a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for 7 years doing what Kevin and his wife Elizabeth Leibach, a former staff worker with IVCF did for me.

It is such a blessing to grow in the Lord and to be able to have an exponentiation effect in the lives of other students. Because of how Jesus had used Kevin and Elizabeth Leibach in my life, I dedicated my life to student ministry and decided to spend time with certain students to pray with them, study God's Word with them, and just experience their life with them through their joys and triumphs.

It is because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I even had that opportunity because of how the Gospel made an impact in my own life through the years. I am still not where I need to be and will never be in this life time for it is a growing experience but I have been blessed to help others grow as Jesus sanctifies me daily by His grace so that I can be all that He wants me to be. Praise the Lord!

"Being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will finish it to completion!" (Philippians 1:6, NIV)

If Jesus had not spent time with His disciples to disciple them and then by His grace save me through the years, I would not have become a Christian. It is the disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit who impacted lives that became an exponential effect to reach this generation too. When sharing the Gospel at Pentecost, they shared about how Jesus Christ came to die for their sins and came back to life to save them. They then emphasized that all that would come to Him by calling on His Name would be saved. They reminded everyone there is no other Name in Heaven whereby we must be saved except the Name of Jesus for Salvation of our souls.

This message spread through the generations and my mom became a Christian by watching multiple Billy Graham Crusades. After my mom was ministered through the years, my mommy let all of us know about Jesus and we eventually came to know Jesus as our Lord and Personal Savior because our mom discipled us through God's Word and would make prayer a priority even to this day. My beloved dad who is now with the Lord became a Christian too as my mom spent time with Him reading the New Testament completely almost everyday and reading through the Psalms.

Going back to discipleship, it was wonderful to see some of the students who I spent time with becoming leaders in their churches, leaders in their schools, leaders in ministry, etc. It makes me teary to think that the Lord would use a wretched sinner like me in all my weaknesses to impact other people's lives with the Gospel that they could live it out. Thank you Jesus for using me. It happened with Mark, Jonathan, Clint, David, Joshi, Manoj, etc.

Then sadly when I left the ministry for years, the time I spent to disciple students stopped too. I regret that very much. Instead, I turned to sending devotionals through email and now through http://www.pittsburghstandard.com. It is not the same though compared to meeting one-one with people, praying for them, and studying God's Word with them to see their lives change around by the power of the Gospel.

When you invest your time in people's lives they will remember you forever in what you have done for them and how you have impacted their lives with the love of Jesus. More than that, they want others to experience the love of Christ.

Because of what Kevin did for me, I never left student ministry even to this day even though it is done in a different capacity now through different means. When Jesus discipled His disciples, they eventually would become world missionaries impacting the lives of millions who in turn would impact others, etc.

On Sunday, at Oakland International Fellowship, Olivia shared with the congregation on how Mickey and Elise discipled her and what a blessing it has been. Now she gets to disciple Veronica and Allison. True discipleship done in the right way will bring an exponentiation effect. Because Jesus took me as His own using my mommy to help me come to know about Jesus more and more and used Kevin and Elizabeth to disciple me, I in turn discipled Jonathan. Jonathan in turn invested his life in the lives of other students and doing conflict resolution to help others. Recently, both Jonathan and Mark emailed me remembering me and all I did for them. I was so blessed.

Olivia is able to disciple others because she was discipled before and experienced its powerful effect when done in the love of Christ. Kevin never judged me but always showed the love of Christ to me even in my utter weaknesses and sins. I could sense the love of Christ flowing through Kevin. After that, I did ministry with students for 7 years with InterVarsity.

I have not had that type of discipleship until years later again. This time it was Pastor Hugo Cheng of Pittsburgh Chinese Church-Oakland who would keep in touch with me even when I was not involved in church to pray with me and disciple me through God's Word and counsel. To this day, Pastor Hugo still meets with me to encourage me and build me up. Except this time, I am involved in the church that He pastors. My highlight of the summer was doing Vacation Bible School with Pastor Hugo and currently right now being a game leader for kids with his wife Heather. I also had some wonderful days serving as cell group leader of Living Acts.

As I reflected on today's devotional just as I reflected on prayer, last week, it is so cool that this lesson reminds me of the sermon given at church this past Sunday by Pastor Hugo Cheng. He gave a sermon on investing in the lives of others through discipleship to help others grow in Christ so they can do the same for others who in turn would replicate that. A discipleship relationship never stops. After Elise got done with discipling Olivia, she now disciples one of our small group members Vicki.

Listening to Pastor Hugo's sermon made me realize even though I post devotionals frequently on facebook.com and http://www.pittsburghstandard.com, I have not really taken the time to invest my life in at least one person right now directly. Remembering what happened to me in the past while Pastor Hugo and Olivia spoke ignited that excitement in me again to do discipleship with others that the Lord Jesus places in my path. Please pray for me that I would know who to invest my time with especially undergraduate students where my heart is.

I thank Jesus so much for Pastor Hugo's influence in my life and the countless hours he has invested in my life and continues to invest without being judgmental in my weaknesses and yet being firm about weaknesses in my life that he sees. Instead of making me feel condemned, he always has a way of making me feel convicted to change my ways. But that conviction is the conviction brought by the Lord's love and grace to bring transformation change in my life as Pastor Hugo is used as a vessel. The Lord does the changing using broken vessels for His glory for we all are broken but saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would not mind meeting with Pastor Hugo everyday but he is the pastor of the whole congregation and not just one of my pastors. So, what's amazing is that weekly I have been mentored and discipled by Edwin Chan whose remarks, counsel, and statements remind me so much of Pastor Hugo spending time with me. Then I come to find out that Pastor Hugo invested a lot of time in Edwin's life before Edwin started to disciple me right now. I get excited every Thursday to meet Edwin for discipleship.

I believe even if Calvin or Pastor Bucknell discipled me and mentored me, I would be so blessed because of the times I have spent with them and always, always, always been encouraged.

I don't want to just be a recipient of being discipled faithfully by Edwin each week and by Pastor Hugo bi-monthly but want to disciple others the Lord Jesus wants me to. Unless you know these people or come to our church, they will just be names to you but what is more important is people behind the names and how the Lord has used them and continues to us them.

When I meet with Pastor Hugo and Edwin, I feel like the woman caught in adultery after Jesus addressed here: "Has no one condemned you, neither do I. Go and sin no more"

True discipleship in my life prompted changes in so many areas of my life because it was based on Christ's agape love revealed through different servants of His instead of condemnation.

Pastor Hugo shared how much in the Book of Acts, Barnabas impacted Mark's life who wrote the Gospel of Mark even though the apostle Paul did not want to have anything to do with Mark and condemned Mark putting a rift in their relationship. Eventually, they would make up after probably months of a broken relationship.

At the time, Paul condemned Mark for the things he did but Barnabas took him in to encourage him. If the Lord Jesus did not use Barnabas in Mark's life, probably we would not have had the Gospel of Mark and I would not be going through the Gospel of Mark verse by verse nor would Kevin been able to spend hours with me each Monday in the Gospel of Mark. Thank you Jesus. Jesus used Barnabas to reach Mark in his weaknesses even though the apostle Paul did not want to have anything to do with Mark.

I have seen myself as Mark in different areas of my life and Pastor Hugo and Edwin as Barnabas. If you know my character and know me long enough, you will come to know that in some areas I am very incorrigible but it did not stop Pastor Hugo and Edwin to continue to invest their time in my life. Even when I resigned from being a cell group leader months ago, they did not abandon meeting with me. If anything, they wanted to disciple me more and reach me more with the love of Christ. It is mainly because of both of them and their families that I remained at the church that I am in through God's grace of course and how Potter's Clay when it existed impacted my life.

As Pastor Hugo mentioned to me that it is all God's grace that what happened to me in the past did not completely repeat itself again because of the people Jesus placed in my life right now through the community of Potter's Clay, Living Acts, etc.

I cannot forget the amount of time that Marie Chan has also invested in my life especially in the time of my life when I was really down. Edwin & Marie Chan  and Pastor Hugo have time after time held me accountable regarding how my long distance  relationship with Chandra is going too.

I would not be writing 'How Gospel Gives Me Testimony....." part if it were not for Pastor Ed's meetings with me earlier last year for months to emphasize the Gospel 's impact that should influence every aspect of our lives. That's why whatever testimony I share, I share it in light of the Gospel. Of course, I still am not where I need to be when it comes to the Gospel and Pastor Ed does a much superb job in relating aspects of our lives to the Gospel.

What it encouraged me to do is, in the area I am studying to ask myself  how does the Gospel influence that area. In this case, how does the Gospel influence discipleship.

I ask you now dear friend,  how does the Gospel influence discipleship in your life?
Dear friend, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that made an impact in the lives of the disciples who were directly impacted by the teachings of Jesus and His Spirit empowering their lives, equipping their lives, and enabling their lives during Pentecost to preach the Gospel that we have in God's Word because of the investment Jesus made through discipleship in their lives. Now this same Gospel has power to change lives here and now.

When we think about the Gospel, it is easy to think that the Gospel is just we are sinners separated from God because of our sins and then Jesus came into this world and died for our sins, shedding His precious cleansing blood to give us new life when we turn to Him for the Salvation of our souls all by His grace alone. Yes, the Gospel in a nutshell is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life". But, if you and I just believe that for the hereafter life, we are missing so much more.

The Gospel in its entirety permeates through all aspects of our lives because it is the Good News of Jesus who wants to impact all components of us: Our heart, body, mind, soul, and strength.

But that can only be done when we look at our lives in light of what the Good News of God tells us. Jesus did not come just to give us abundant life when we die but to give abundant life here and now too.

Jesus said, "The thief (Satan) comes to steal, kill, and destroy but my purpose is to give life in all its fullness." (John 10)

Jesus came to give us abundant life here and now. One of the ways, we can experience that abundant life is through discipleship. It is in discipleship, we are helped to grow stronger in Christ through the study of His Word and prayer that is used as a gauge to help us grow in Christ and in maturity.

Discipleship that does not result in maturity or exponentiation is not true discipleship because discipleship done God's way in the lives of others will reproduce its effect.  It is all done by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for apart from His grace, we will all be nothing.

For no good can come from evil. If no one is good and not one, then we cannot do good unless it is the work of the Holy Spirit impacting our lives. I praise the Lord for His work in people's lives who in turn impact others. I thank the Lord for His work in my own life through His personal discipleship of my life and using His vessels to disciple me.

It is also amazing how much Pastor Paul Bucknell has ministered to me and helped me in different areas of my life at church. I am so blessed to have so many capable people who in turn teach others depending on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I would also like to share that to grow in Christ, discipleship is only a supplement to our own time with the Lord. I have never found any student, etc who just meets with another person to be mentored or discipled but ignores his own personal relationship with the Lord through prayer and study of God's Word growing strong in their faith. It does not happen. Even as you let the Gospel influence your discipleship and those you disciple when the Lord places them in your life, never forget the Gospel's impact in your own personal life as you obey the command of the Lord to 'study and meditate on God's Word for all Scripture is divinely inspired of God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, and correcting that the man of God would be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (Joshua 1:8, and 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Friend, the good work is the work of God in discipleship or any area. You have the opportunity to influence people's lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and show them how relevant the Gospel is to their lives.

Even discipleship has its roots in the Gospel or Good News which is the Good News of Jesus Christ and all He did for us and will continue to do for us. By His Spirit, He will work in our lives to impact lives. The important thing to remember is not forsaking prayer, time with God alone in His Word, and the community of believers knowing our God is Mighty to Save and change lives.

May you experience discipleship in your own lives and if you want me to spend time with you individually to pray with you, study God's Word with you, and share our lives building each other in the Lord's love, please email me at reddy4HisGlory@yahoo.com or call me at 412-641-9426. I make myself available to you all as I depend on the Lord for the times :)

May you experience the love of Christ through discipleship knowing "Discipleship Is Savior's Care, Invaluably Providing Loving Emancipation, Saving Humans In Peril!"

If you want resources on discipleship, they can be accessed at the Oakland International Fellowship online library catalog at http://www.pittsburghstandard.com/OCT2009/ENTERTAINMENT/OIFLibrary.htm so you can borrow it when you come to the church.

"Discipleship Is Savior's Care, Invaluably Providing Loving Emancipation, Saving Humans In Peril!" (D.I.S.C.I.P.L.E.S.H.I.P)/"How does the Gospel influence D.I.S.C.I.P.L.E.S.H.I.P in your life?"

Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching me from your Word regarding discipleship. You took the disciples away from the crowds so you could be alone with them and teach them. Thanks so much Jesus. Thank you also for the people you have placed in our lives to disciple us and mentor us. Thank you for using us in other people's lives for your honor and glory. Oh Lord, help us please to make time for others to disciple them but only after we ourselves have that time with you each day for apart from you we can do nothing. We need your Word to sustain us and build us up. Thanks so much for the power of Your Word and it's impact in our lives as we pray Your Word. We love you Jesus and need you in our lives. Please reign in our lives Oh Lord and help us to live for you and serve you. Thanks so much Jesus. Thank you for hearing us and answering us. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!

Lord Jesus, You are my all in all. You are my Prince of Peace, Rock, Savior, and Friend. You are my Holy Father guiding me through to live a life of righteousness, holy righteousness. Oh God, I need you more than ever. I need to feel your hands around me holding me tight. I need your love to surround me so that you can glow in my life. Help me please Jesus. I desire in your presence. Thank you for guiding me to live a life of righteousness. Oh God you love me more than ever. You hear my voice when I cry out to you. When I seek your face, you fill me up. You are my all in all. Thank you Jesus so much for your help no matter what I face, your grace is available and you take my case. Thank you for hearing us and answering us. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! AMEN! (Most of the prayer is from a vineyard song called “All in All”)

You don't have to be locked away anymore for Christ is here to free you and give you peace to LIVE out your actions.

How do you look at GODISNOWHERE?

One of my pastors, Pastor Hugo SHARED this example one Sunday at the RESURRECTION DAY SERVICE in the combined worship service of Pittsburgh Chinese Church-Oakland & Oakland International Fellowship:

If you look at it as GOD IS NO WHERE, you will still be lost in your sin and be in bondage locked away in your sins and problems finding no peace.

But  as my pastor spoke to the congregation and spoke to me, I am here to tell you that GOD IS NOW HERE.

Yes, friend God is aLIVE and wants to bring a transformation in your life through the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ for He paid the penalty on the cross to rescue you and me and came back to life to save us and LIVE with us.

Yes, friend that is exciting to know that we can experience HIS SAVING GRACE & LIVING GRACE.

When we mess up, we can go to Jesus with our shortcomings and He will forgive us and RESTORE us to Him and we will find peace in Him.

^"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, NIV)

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:7-9, NIV)

Friend, we need Jesus because we have been separated from God due to our sin. Because of our sin, Jesus had to pay the price to become our bridge so we can reach God now not of our own good works but because of the finished work of Christ, the Lord on the cross.

"For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)

Come to Jesus as you are and pray this prayer to accept Jesus as your Lord and Personal Savior. He will transform your life around! Praise the Lord! You don't have to have all the answers! You can come as you are!

If you want to be a soldier in the Lord's army, you can become it right now. Now is the time of Salvation! You do not have to wait but can pray this prayer and give your life to Christ to serve Him daily! There is no draft but coming to Christ is voluntary. He loves you so much and wants you to come to Him! He will take care of you, guiding you and leading you!

PRAYER:
Dear Jesus, I love you. Thank you for loving me so much and thank you for choosing the cross to die for me. You became the Son of Man and lived here on earth. Then you humbled yourself and became obedient to death-even death on the cross. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin. You died on the cross so that I can be covered in your blood and cleansed by your blood as I acknowledge that I need you and cannot enter Heaven without you being my pathway. So, Jesus I confess all my sins to you and all the ways I have tried to get into Heaven when you already provided the means and the Way. Thank you for all that you have done for me. "The cross is the place, a wonderful place where accused and condemned find mercy and grace. Thank you Jesus, it is at the cross where the wrongs we have done and the wrongs done to us were nailed at the cross. Thank you Jesus, at the cross you died for our sins and at the cross you gave your life for us." I thank you for that and thank you for coming back to life to save us. Thank you Jesus for being there for me! Thank you for loving me. I love you Jesus! Please take me as I am and make my life into something that you will be proud of. I surrender my life to you and need your help to live for you. I am forever grateful for what you have done for me and I can never repay you. I want to live for you and need your help. Help me Jesus please. I thank you Jesus for saving me! Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering me. Whatever your will give me the willingness and strength to bear it. Thank you Jesus! I acknowledge you as my Lord and Personal Savior! In Your Name I Pray precious Jesus! Amen!