“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.”    C.S. Lewis

“Discipleship matters. It matters because Jesus
modeled it and commanded it.”

George Barna, Growing True Disciples.

“I urge you to ponder your own standing with Jesus Christ. Have you made him your Lord and Savior? If not, do not let this matter rest until you have. Are you one of his disciples? If so, dedicate yourself more firmly than ever to love and serve him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I make these pleas for at least three reasons. First, for a number of reasons, including historical evidence, I believe there are more than adequate grounds to believe that Jesus Christ was and is the incarnate, risen Son of God. As our Creator God, he has the right to be Lord of our lives. Second, Jesus Christ is simply incomparable. The uniqueness of his claims, the depth and power of his teachings, the miraculous nature of his life and resurrection, the beauty of his character, the unique grace and forgiveness his death provides, and the profundity of his impact on world history unite to justify the claims that no one else comes close to offering what he does to those who submit to him. Finally, my own life and the lives of countless others have been immeasurably benefited by devotion to Jesus. True, there are ways in which it is difficult to be his follower. But it is also true that it is more difficult to live without being his follower, as those of us who know him can attest.

By J.P. Moreland, Why I am A Christian, 2006, “Why I Have Made Jesus Christ Lord of My Life,” pg 301