Eilidh's Journey with Jesus

June 16, 2025

Eilidh was raised in a non-religious home in Scotland. In her teens, she had rejected Christianity because she didn’t think it was compatible with science and she decided she was an atheist. Then covid hit. Stuck in the lockdown, she was asking good questions like, “Who is Jesus? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life?”

God met her in her questions, through a church radio show that she never would have listened to, except for the covid lockdown. The minister’s sermon focused on the simplicity of the gospel, quoting Jesus’ words from the cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30). She shared, “I realized Jesus had done it all. He didn’t need me to be perfect, just to trust Him.”

After weeks of reflection, Eilidh surrendered her life to Christ, accepting Him as her Lord and Savior. She believed in the cross, Jesus’ sacrifice for her sins and the resurrection, which promised new life. “I felt peace and joy I’d never known,” she wrote. Her conversion wasn’t just a moment, but a starting point. By 2021, Eilidh was growing as a disciple, learning to live out her faith in daily life (Eilidh�s conversion story adapted from ‘My Conversion Story: From Atheist to Christian During the Pandemic,’ Patheos, March 2021 @ www.patheos.com).

For a lot of people, like Eilidh, the journey to becoming a Christian is an intellectual journey. There are also many great stories where the person describes being lost, and then found. However, once one finds faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior, like Eilidh found, conversion is only the beginning. Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) to teach people not to stop at the point of conversion. If they do, their faith will be snatched from them by the cares of the world. Eilidh wanted to become a disciple. Are you becoming a disciple in your faith journey?

If you study the gospels carefully, you can make a list of the things that Jesus taught His disciples in order to make them disciples. Two character traits Jesus focused on were unconditional love and humility. There were others, but these were central to being a good disciple. Then, there were seven spiritual disciplines that marked the disciple. Worship was always at the top of Jesus’ list. He went to synagogue, in whatever town He was in, every Sabbath, and it seems clear He expected the disciples to do the same.

Jesus basically had what we call the Old Testament, so He taught them the Law and the Prophets. Today, we have both Testaments, and too many Christians are biblically illiterate. Start today studying the Bible, and over the years you will grow in Biblical understanding far beyond what you ever thought possible. You just have to start sometime, and today is the perfect day.

Prayer will be on everyone’s short-list of the disciplines of the disciple. There are lots of books about how to pray and the internet is full of great guidance. But, there is one key ingredient to learning to pray, and that is TO PRAY.

Learning how to share your faith with others, so that others can come to know Jesus, is something Jesus taught his disciples to do all the time. This is called evangelism. Being used by God to help people find faith in Jesus is one of the most rewarding experiences in the faith journey.

Serving others was central to the way Jesus lived and taught his disciples. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) is a powerful lesson on how our eternal judgment is affected by our willingness to serve those in need.

Jesus called His disciples to care for one another, which today we call Fellowship. This is more than just conversations about your favorite basketball team, but a willingness to support, pray for, cry with, and strengthen one another in the faith journey. It is in fellowship with other Christians that God often trains us to be more loving, forgiving and humble.

Tithing is an important spiritual discipline in the Bible. It means giving ten percent of your income back to God. It is correct, Jesus didn’t teach tithing, but He taught a lot about sacrificial giving. This could mean giving away everything to be free from the idolatry of money and better serve and worship the Lord. Most Christian disciples are more comfortable with tithing over sacrificial giving. Jesus would probably teach that tithing was the smallest amount a disciple should ever consider giving back to God.

Look through these disciplines of a disciple again: worship, Bible study, prayer, evangelism, service, fellowship and tithing. How can you grow in each of these? If you did, how would your life better glorify Jesus Christ, who gave His life for you? (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).