Elisabeth Elliot: We're likely to make all sorts of mistakes in Christian discipleship, but we have a very loving, patient, Heavenly Father. He asks us daily, "Do you want to be My disciple?"

Lisa Barry: Aren't you glad that lots of people make mistakes just like you? I am. Because if there's one thing that Satan likes to do, it's to make people feel like they're the only ones goofing up. Not only that, he'll make you feel like your mistakes are much worse than anyone else's. Today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot helps us turn the sail, so to speak, in order that we might become prepared to live the life of discipline that God desires. It doesn't matter if you've been a Christian for 50 years or 50 days. Everyone will find strength for the soul from today's program. Then I'll be back in a few minutes to tell you how to keep things rolling. And now, here's Elisabeth Elliot to get us started.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you today about discipleship. I asked the question yesterday, "Do you want to be a disciple?"

It's fairly easy for earnest Christians to say, "Yes. That's what I want. I want to be a disciple." But when push comes to shove and we discover that it's not all sweetness and light, and not by any means always easy, we may have some doubts as to whether or not we really do want to be a disciple.

A disciple is a learner, somebody who really wants to learn something. I remember learning to ride a bicycle. That was such a thrill to me. My father helped me. He held onto the back of the bicycle to keep it from going over. I learned. I can remember teaching my daughter to ride a bicycle. She smashed straight into a telephone pole.

We're likely to make all sorts of mistakes in Christian discipleship, but we have a very loving, patient, Heavenly Father. If I'm speaking to someone today who feels as though "God must be fed up with me, because I just can't cut it; I know that I can't possibly live up to even my expectation, let alone God's," we have a merciful, loving, kind, patient Heavenly Father. He asks us daily, "Do you want to be My disciple?"

Now of course it requires discipline of the mind, of the body, of the emotions. I think particularly the question of our emotions as women is an important one. It's so easy for us to be driven by our emotions when the truth is that God wants us to will to do His will.

There are two faculties with which each one of us is endowed when we're born. We have emotions and we have will. We can choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We can will to do His will. Jesus said he that "willeth to do His will shall know of the doctrine."

I told you yesterday about a very delightful Sunday dinner that we had with a well-organized home. Lovely children, well-dressed, very polite, very charming children, and a father and mother who obviously had worked very hard in establishing a truly Christian home and beginning the teaching of discipleship in their children.

I'm sure that I'm speaking to a number of home schoolers, and you are doing the same thing-teaching your children godliness and discipleship. The very first condition of that discipleship is the hardest thing of all. Jesus said, "If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself and take up the cross and follow Me." Those are the three conditions-give up your right to yourself, take up the cross and follow.

What does it mean to give up your right to yourself? You give yourself wholeheartedly, fully into surrender to Jesus Christ. In other words, what you are declaring before God and the angels is "I am no longer my own. I belong to You, Lord Jesus, and I give You all the rights." It is an act of total surrender to Jesus Christ.

And it's a great load off our minds, once we have made up our minds that "I do not belong to myself; I belong to Jesus Christ." And in a family, there are many opportunities every day for children and parents to give up their right to themselves. I am not my own; I am bought with a price. The Apostle Paul said, "You are not your own. You are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body."

Let me read to you from 1 Peter 1:13: "Prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"

"Be holy, because I am holy." That's a tough assignment, isn't it? What does it mean to be holy? Well, it means quite literally, to begin with, to be set apart for God. The vessels in the tabernacle in the Old Testament were made of bronze or gold, and the bronze or the gold were not in themselves intrinsically holy. But it was the consecration of those vessels that made them holy. They were set apart for the use of God Himself in the tabernacle, so that is what it means to be holy, to be set apart for Christ.

Those of you who have been baptized or have had confirmation, this is a symbol-a symbolic ritual-of setting apart a human being for God's use. Do you want to be a disciple? Then you must give up your right to yourself.

Think of all the ways in a family that a child has to give up his right to himself. Each child in a family generally has a few toys which he considers his own. If he comes into the room and finds out that his other brother or sister is playing with his toys, he may be very upset about it. He says, "Those aren't yours! Those are mine!"

I remember a little neighbor boy named Dickey Mensinger when we lived in Germantown, a part of Philadelphia. He used to always say, "Dey ah mine! Dey ah mine!" Meaning, "This is mine!" Then on summer evenings, he would be given a popsicle.

Well, we grew up during the Great Depression. There were very, very few popsicles or treats of any kind. I can remember my father maybe once in a blue moon buying a Milky Way and cutting it with his little pocket penknife into very neat, small pieces. I never heard of anybody eating a whole Milky Way.

Well, on those summer evenings, Dickey would be given an orange popsicle. He would come over and sit on our porch steps and eat that popsicle in front of us. Then he would say when he finished, "I got a popsicle. You didn't!"

Give up your right to yourself and take up the cross and follow. It means to accept the authority of Jesus Christ. A child has got to learn that if he is going to live happily in a family, he has to give up his right to himself.

His right to be late for breakfast, for example. He really doesn't have that right, does he? If the parents say that the child is supposed to be at breakfast at 7:00, then he must give up his own plans and purposes and do what is required according to the rules of that house.

Do you accept the authority of Jesus Christ in your life? Are you telling Him what you need or are you letting Him tell you? I would suggest that if you want to be a disciple, that you begin by putting yourself at the disposal of Jesus Christ. He is a God of love, and He is calling you and me to sacrifice.

Sacrifice means the giving up of your right to yourself, offering something very precious, something that you would wish perhaps to hang onto, and yet we must sacrifice. Every father and mother recognized the necessity for sacrifice, if not before, surely by the first child's birth. Then everything changes. You sacrifice your body, your life, your sleep at night, things that you would like to do that you can no longer do, places you would like to go, money you would like to spend. It's sacrifice. Sacrifice comes from love. Love always means sacrifice.

How do we know that? Well, we know it from the example of Jesus Christ. He gave up His right to Himself. He took up the cross, and He followed His Heavenly Father's leading. Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea. Day by day, His sweet voice soundeth, saying, "Christian, follow Me."

We need not be afraid. In this same chapter of 1 Peter, he says, "Through faith, we are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." Shielded by God's power. "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."

God knows all about your trials and your griefs, and He rejoices when you commit yourself totally to Him, because that is an act of perfect trust and self-abandonment. May God enable us to be true, faithful, unselfish disciples.

Lisa Barry: How wonderful it would be if those words were apt descriptions of each of us. But if we make that a personal goal, what are the chances of being successful? How much of today's program do you think you'll remember a week from now? We think we'll hold onto every good idea we've heard, but quickly find out that what inspires us can also escape us if we don't do something to solidify it. That's why I always recommend getting a copy of our weekly series. Unlike a book that you have to sit down and attend to, a tape needs only to be plugged in and you can do other things. Let this series challenge you for years to come. Best of all, you'll remember what you hear.

The cost is $5. To order that, you can send that amount to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. If you're on the Internet, be sure and check out our Web site. You'll find our online product catalog, weekly program topics, transcripts and more. That address again is gatewaytojoy.org. Today's program has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about what taking up the cross might mean for you. It's all coming up next time on Gateway To Joy.