Apprenticeship - Discipleship?

Apprenticeship

 According to Wikipedia, apprenticeship is learning through work that leads to a credential that is recognized by a relevant authority and is deliberately structured and supported to provide a progression of learning experiences, training potential new practitioners of a trade or profession on-the-job training and accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulated occupation. Most of their training is done while working for an experienced employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession.

Discipleship is more focused - being a disciple, a follower, or a student of some philosophy, especially a follower of Christ. The Bible uses the word "disciple" often, and if you do a search in the King James Version, you'll find either disciple, disciples in 255 verses, all in the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ just means you are His follower, and there's a title:

And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.  (Acts 11:26c)

Jesus did not call His followers Christians. We are told to whom He came:

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)

Last Sunday I covered how we know we are lost and the Roman Road that outlines the salvation process in "Everyone Gets the Same Question." When our answer is "Yes, I want to follow what Jesus taught and I believe He is God," we still have a lot to learn. If we are around people who do not see Jesus that same way, they will ask questions that new Christians may find difficult. Some of us older ones are faced with the same situation!

When we've been Christians for a while, we learn how to answer such questions by turning to the Bible. There are so many times the answer becomes obvious with prayerful reading, and our experience in question answering grows. I've thought about one - the fourth chapter of 1 Timothy - that is good for a young Christian. Timothy's mother and grandmother taught him Hebrew scriptures, the Tanakh, and Paul wrote him personally.

In that fourth chapter, Paul wrote:

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. (1 Timothy 4:12-16)

Some people become Christians late in life. No  one sees them as "youth," but they are young in belief. Following Paul's advice to Timothy really is good for us at any age, and at any stage of our Christian life simply because there is too much to learn. So many verses are applicable in a variety of situations in today's society even though today's inventions and applications seem to outdate the Bible. They don't.

The Bible is as applicable today as it was when Moses moved the Israelites out of Egypt. Whether you think of it as apprenticesip or discipleship, use the Bible as life's book of instructions, and see how long practicing Christians use it. Learn from them, then share. Remember that last line in verse 16 - consider who will be saved.