[Frank] Lubauch states that he started [his] minute-to-minute practicing of God's presence by "trying to line up my actions with the will of God about every fifteen minutes or every half hour." Most of us would fall far short of doing so once a week. We excuse ourselves by stating we are too busy with our everyday priorities to move toward a more God-centered life. We feel this minute-by-minute approach is a discipline for full-time religious professionals in our midst, but not for us.
—Jim Smoke in Whatever Happened to Ordinary Christians? Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 9.Elesha Hodge, comp., Today's Best Illustrations – Volumes 1-4, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "DILIGENCE".
Luke 14:26 (TEV) "Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well."
John 8:31 (NIV) To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples."
John 15:8 (HCSB) "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples."
