BILL’S BLOG ENTRY #39

From “Discipleship and Discipline” by William H. Hicks, copyright March, 2005

“The same process is used in the discipling transaction, described in the succeeding verses (Deuteronomy 6: 4 – 7), providing certain and comprehensive guidance to the disciple: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One (just as is the fruit of the Spirit)! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (tie a string around your finger!) and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Thus, it is essential to our lives, it is the proof of our vitality, that we show forth the fruit of the Spirit as evidence that the Christ (“in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”) dwells in us. Without Him, we cannot be disciples or make others into disciples. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.””

About THE DISCIPLE

William H. “Bill” Hicks is a graduate of Wesleyan University, BA, Religion, 1971 who also holds a Masters in Public Health Degree (MPH) from the University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health (1973). Bill also has studied at the Dallas Theological Seminary. He grew up in Harlem, New York City, USA during the 1950s and 1960s, graduating from high school before attending Mount Hermon Preparatory School and undergraduate school in Connecticut. He has spent most of his professional life in the public health arena, while being constantly in ministry. He received his license to preach the Gospel at Oklahoma City, OK in 1971. He has written extensively on Christian topics. He enjoys life in Chattanooga, TN with former District Public Defender Ardena Garth Hicks, his wife of 30 years. They have two daughters, Rachel (BA, University of Memphis magna cum laude, 2014) and Sarah (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Global Scholar, University of Tulsa, 2017).

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