A Disciple's Journal

BEING ONE

2009-07-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Collaboration
Jesus prayed for His disciples and “for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one” (John 17.20). Unity is a Christian message we hear preached primarily from within homogenous denominations and organizations—unite as Baptists, Catholics, Navigators, or nondenominationalists—and rarely from within about those outside our own “kind.” We Protestants have a difficult time accepting Catholic beliefs and they in turn can’t believe our peculiar sacramental omissions. Churches don’t understand the place of the parachurch while they may not appear to appreciate the mission of the local church. Your church is all right as long as you don’t infringe on my church’s rights.

How do we then unite when we are so different? Paul wrote, “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Rom 1.11,12). The “Coexist” or other such groups that seek to unite faiths under the banner of philanthropy have it right when they say we ought to find commonality in our religions and appreciation for the differences. As members of one body in Christ, we have differing gifts, services, and duties (1Cor 12.4) but only one goal, one mission to bind us all together. We may be firing different weapons but we all should have the same target.

“Collaboration” means more than working together. The root word is “labor,” meaning that all parties involved must be involved in the work, like two oxen yoked together, lest our collaboration be only a service by one for the benefit of another. We are united in Christ when we collaborate toward the goal using the gifts God has given us. But not everyone works…

Competition
When Paul visited Corinth, he had found that another laborer, Apollos, also had an impact on the Church’s growth. He wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow…. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor” (1Cor 3.7,8). He wrote this because the church in Corinth was divided by their allegiance to particular leaders—be it Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or even Jesus. Now how did a Church born just a couple decades after Jesus prayed for unity become so divided?

After Paul chastises the Corinthians for their division, he warns them, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds” (1Cor 3.10). You see Paul wrote that “it has always been [his] ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that [he] would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Rom 15.20). In every letter Paul writes to his friends, he warns them about wolves in sheep’s clothing and therefore made it his ambition to be the foundation builder and not the bricklayer. In his second letter he tells the Corinthians, “Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in another man’s territory (2Cor 10.15, 16). For Paul, ministry is like a race where every runner must compete as if he alone will win the prize.

Though there should “be no divisions among you… that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1Cor 1.10), there “have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval” (1Cor 11.18). If there is no difference between you and me then what is the point of there being you and me? Why not just be one person? If there’s no difference between your ministry or another, then why be separate? If there’s no difference between prosperity teachers like Joel Osteen, family focused ministers like James Dobson, evangelists like Billy Graham, inspired teachers like Howard Hendricks, or discipleship trainers like Walt Henrichsen, then how are we to grow as a body with many parts instead of a church with only one building? Whether we like it or not, all who labor in Christ are competing for the most precious commodity humans have to offer: time.

Contention
There are two words in the English language that appear similar and yet are quite distinct: contention and contentment. To have contentment is to be satisfied with one’s circumstances; however, to have contention is to be in contest or competition with one’s rivals. When it came to Apollos, Paul was content to lay the foundation while Apollos built up the Corinthians. But when it came to those who “masqueraded as servants of righteousness,” (2Cor 11.15) Paul was outright contentious. He even told his readers, “If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God” (1Cor 11.16). There is a time to be content with your place in the Body of Christ and a time to be contentious towards those who are damaging Christ’s Body. Knowing the difference is about as hard as telling wheat from a tare.

Paul had the audacity to write, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (1Th 1.4). How is it that Paul knew these Christians were real and not counterfeit? “You become imitators of us and of the Lord,” he wrote (1Th 1.6). Because they did as he did and he imitated Jesus. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote to them about their willingness to believe those who were contentious toward Paul’s teaching, “Don’t let anyone deceive you… hold to the teachings we passed on to you… keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us” (2Th 2.3, 15, 3.6). We ought to stray from those who lead us astray. But how do we recognize the difference between those we ought to emulate and those we ought to escape?

The reason Paul and the Thessalonians knew each other as a child would their mother or father was because he loved them so much that he shared “not only the gospel of God but [his own life] as well” (1Th 2.8). We must contend with those who under the guise of unity actually seek to divide. But we must also learn to be content with those united with us in the Body of Christ.

Contentment
I’ve only heard contentment taught in regards to money (likely because the word appears in context of financial needs) but I believe our contentment, like our treasures, extend far beyond our wallets. Paul goes so far as to tell us that contentment, like the kingdom of God itself, is a secret. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Phil 4.12, 13). If I can be content with a little money, then I will likely be faithful with it. And if I am faithful with little, then perhaps God wants to make me richer?

It is because I do not believe the God who says, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1Tim 6.9) is actually imploring us to become rich, that I think God is more concerned with our contentment about spiritual matters. Am I content with whom God made me to be? I often wish I was more handsome because we listen to beauty more than wisdom. I often ask God to make me more joyful because we’d rather be happy than convicted. I often pray for an angelic voice because any message presented with music is a more appealing than one that is not. But alas, as Paul said after telling his friends he was content with being the least of all apostles, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1Cor 15.10).

Today we ask Christians to be “well-rounded” and I wonder if that’s a good idea. After all, if I’m good at talking to non-Christians why do I need an evangelist as a friend? If I can heal the sick, perform miracles, talk in tongues, preach eloquently, sing in tune, interpret the Bible into foreign tongues, reach the Muslims with the Gospel, fly a plane, win the Superbowl, memorize 10,000 verses, write the next Mere Christianity, or send my friends worthwhile devotional emails, then what need have I for the Body of Christ? If I can do it all, then why do I need you all?

Compassion
You cannot learn compassion vicariously. It, like love, can only be learned through the practice of giving and not receiving. As many times as I have been rejected by those unwilling to “be one” with me I have also been received by those compassionate enough to call me friend and brother. I have learned the principles I have shared with you as I have been rejected and have applied them as questions to measure my compassion and find contentment.

1) Collaboration. Sometimes the people we want to befriend are not beneficial to our ministry (or vice versa). The man who once housed “Legion” asked to follow Jesus after He cast the demons into pigs and our Lord told him, “Go home to your family and tell them” (Mk 5.19). Though I don’t believe individual Christians should be “well-rounded,” ministries surely ought to be. An evangelist adds numbers to a pastoral ministry, while a pastor brings care to a training ministry (prophetic), and a prophet brings edification to any ministry. But sometimes we just don’t fit in, and that’s OK.
2) Competition. When the disciples argued over who was the greatest, Jesus didn’t rebuke their pride but encouraged their passion by basically telling them to out-serve one another (Mt 20.25-28). Sometimes we run faster when we compete with one another than when we run in formation. Paul’s ministry seemed to explode after he split from Barnabas, even though neither seemed contentious. Maybe they, like us, just needed the “competition.”
3) Contention. Jesus and Paul were often charged with blasphemy by those who rejected them. Paul charged those who rejected his message with the same sort of condemnation (Gal 1.8, 9). Because I do not have the benefit of being God in human flesh or a reformed Pharisee knocked from a horse by Jesus, I have to assume that I do not always teach perfect doctrine. When I am rejected I must ask, “Is it because I am wrong?” This is one reason why I send these emails—so my friends can tell me when my mouth (or fingers) speak (or write) before my soul prays or mind thinks.

Being compassionate is like looking in the mirror before I tell someone they’re fat. When we reject others, let’s do it for the right reasons. When we are rejected, let’s not look for the reason but rather consider our response. God commands us, “As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom 12.18), and so I’ve come to learn these principles to help me obey. What do you think?

JESUS’ OPERATIONS ORDER

2009-04-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Situation Report
Every good commander of troops presents those he leads with an operations order to ensure they know their mission and how to accomplish it. But before the mission is given the troops need to know what they are up against; so he begins by providing the situation, primarily focusing on intelligence concerning the enemy’s tactics in the commander’s area of operation. Jesus presented His disciples such an operations order in Matthew 10 a year before they set out on their mission to make disciples of all nations. He tells them, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves…. Brother will betray brother to death …. All men will hate you because of me” (Mt 10.16-22). Not only is our enemy hunting us, these wolves we encounter dress themselves like sheep and call themselves our brothers.

Paul warned the Ephesians of this exact situation, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20.29). The enemy isn’t only indiscernible from the friendlies, he also looks just like the soldiers fighting him. Though we are sent out like sheep among wolves, we are not sheep sent to be slaughtered. But we will be if we don’t know our enemy’s modus operandi.

The enemy is after those who are “just escaping from those who live in error” as well as those who already have “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior” (2Pt 2.18-20). Their tactics are threefold:
1) To keep us ignorant of truth (Eph 4.14).
2) To keep us happy with what our ears want to hear (2Tim 4.3).
3) To keep us hopeful with empty promises (2Pt 2.1-20).
And if none of those tactics work, they got one left that will send chills down a disciple’s spine: persecution. The situation makes the mission evermore imperative.

The Mission Statement
A soldier without a mission is like a weapon without its ammunition—empty. Therefore, it is the duty of the commander to ensure his followers are always perpetually engaged in the unit’s mission no matter the situation at hand. A disciple’s mission is to “make disciples,” but a year before this command is commissioned, the disciples were trained to engage a specific target. “Jesus sent [them] out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel’” (Mt 10.5, 6).

Because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who could just as easily be lost sheep as wolves in wool, our Lord issues us a command that must be obeyed lest we make disciples of wooly wolves rather than wayward sheep. His mission has become our mission (Mt 15.24) for He made disciples of those who claimed to know God, but were ignorant of His ways. Their mission was His mission because His commission would become theirs.

Paul’s mission was clear because his readers’ situation was perilous: “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away… to a different gospel… [for] there are some who… want to change the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1.6-8). This other gospel tells us studying God’s word is optional, praise to God is our expression of love, or that following Jesus means nothing more than calling yourself by His name. These are those lost sheep that the preachers of this other gospel want to keep ignorant. These sheep are those who follow a gospel that itches their ears. These sheep are those who believe in empty promises. These sheep are the mission of those called to make disciples.

Executing His Orders
Execution orders provide the plan through which the mission is accomplished. In Jesus’ Operation Order the mission is to find the lost sheep of Israel, but who are they are and what do you do with them once they are found? Jesus tells His disciples, “When you enter a town… find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave…. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave” (Mt 10.11-15). The worthy are those who welcome you in like a person greeting a friend, but the unworthy are those who “love father or mother… or son or daughter more than [Jesus].” Jesus continues, “And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10.37-38). The unworthy are those unwilling to sacrifice what they love in order to love Jesus. The unworthy are plentiful; the worthy require finding.

Once Paul found worthy people who were willing to listen to him, he told them, “Walk worthy of God, [who we] constantly thank… because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers. For you brothers became imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus” (1Thes 2.11-14). They were worthy because they received God’s word taught by men as a message—a mission—from God and imitated those who did likewise. How do you know they are worthy? Well, they do as you do.

The apostle John believed so boldly in Jesus’ message, “Whoever listens to you listens to Me” (Luke 10.16), that he told those who imitated him, “Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us” (1John 4.6). You find the worthy by staying with those who will listen. You train the worthy by getting them to follow Jesus as you do.

Our Service, His Support
This paragraph of the Army operation’s order provides the Soldier the means with which he can accomplish his mission. A commander wants his followers to know who’s got their flanks covered and who’s supporting their fight. Jesus first told His disciples whom they should not depend upon: “For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother… and a man’s enemy will be the members of his household” (Mt 10.35). Too often Christians depend upon their families to support their mission of making disciples not realizing that such dependence could be detrimental to their fight.

If I decided not to accomplish Jesus’ mission, my family would not disown me; they would love me as their flesh and blood anyway. If I turned from Jesus my corporeal friends and colleagues would not question my faithlessness; they would like me as a friend and colleague anyway. If our spiritual accountability derives from those whose spiritual growth does not depend upon our friendship, then our accountability will be forever bound to the temporal rather than the eternal. This is why Jesus tells us to use our worldly wealth to make eternal friends (Luke 16.9) and why our title of “friend” ought only to be bestowed upon those who obey His commands (John 15.13, 14).

Our support for our discipleship ministry should come from fellow disciples who are our collaborative partners. Jesus says, “The one who welcomes you welcomes me…. Anyone who welcomes a [disciple] because he is a [disciple] will receive a disciple’s reward” (Mt 10.40-41). Those who support our mission to seek the lost sheep of Israel will receive the same reward as those who reach these lost sheep, because without them, we could not accomplish our mission. God has given us people to serve and people to serve us; so don’t hinder their service lest your efforts only result in self-hindrance.

Chain of Command
The Army operations order ends with a reminder to the troops of who is in charge and how they are to be contacted. In the military, we learn the science of leadership through the practice of obeying orders given to us from those who serve in positions above our “pay grade.” We learn the art of leadership by giving such orders to those who serve “under us.” But we only learn the value and the true meaning of leadership when we serve those who are over us or under us despite the orders which are given us. Jesus says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Mt 20.26), because it is only through service to your neighbor that you truly learn to fear your God.

Personally, I do not believe in altruism. Looking into the darkest recesses of my soul, reading the words of the worst of all sinners (Paul), and listening to the excuses of every Christian I’ve ever met, I cannot fathom a world in need of a savior where but one true altruistic person exists. Therefore, when it comes to doing what is right and true, there is no one person you ought to call your “leader,” because every one of them will fail. Jesus told His disciples, “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10.28).

We may become involved in the mission of seeking the lost sheep because someone told us we should. But if we continue to obey because of man instead of God, we may escape the judgment of man, but we will still face the judgment of God. We obey people because they can reward us. We obey God because it is our duty and we are but unworthy servants who expect nothing but the phrase, “Well done,” in return (Luke 10.17).

ELEMENTARY THINGS

2009-03-26T06:44:00.001-07:00

Go on to maturity
Some of the most common questions asked about being a Christian are akin to Hebrews list of foundational teachings: “repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instructions about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment” (Heb 6.1-2). I had often wondered why these were so elementary since they seemed like important decisions that Christians must make in their walk with Christ. Do I believe in Jesus? How do I repent of sins I can’t avoid? How, when, and why should I be baptized? What happens when we die? Then it came to me: these are elementary because they are first steps and not the staircases themselves.

We usually envision these elementary practices as “acts” and not “works.” That is, they occur once and are complete (products), unlike works which are ongoing “processes.” When we think of repentance, we see ourselves committing a sin, asking forgiveness, and then pledging not to do it again (an act) rather than the gradual changing of our mind that comes from continual repetition of the process. Faith is a confession of belief and not a faithful commitment. Baptism is a ritual washing and not an immersion into a new being. And death is the end of life and not merely a part of life’s process.

Looking at three of these things—baptism, repentance, and judgment—as “works” (or processes) rather than “acts” (or products) might help us understand what it means to go on to the meat of maturity, leaving behind the milk that is the “elementary truths of God’s word.” I hope you will forgive my rudimentary look at what we so often immaturely take for granted.

Baptizing in His Name
“Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28.19). Baptizo means “immersion” which when taken literally causes divisions in our Church—“You can’t be sprinkled!” “You’ve got to be fully immersed when you are of full age!” But what if it wasn’t the act of water dunking but rather immersion of a different sort to which Jesus was referring? John “the Baptist” even said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me… will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3.11). Like faith, baptism is more than an act—it’s a work that must last a lifetime.

Peter writes that “baptism, which… now saves you [is] (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (1Pet 3.21). Just as there is a faith that professes Jesus is Lord and one which endures the test of trials, so is there the baptism by water that Jesus underwent in order to “fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3.15) and the baptism that comes by an everlasting fire. The act of water immersion is a sign that the Spirit’s work is ongoing but it is not a substitute for it. That is, we shouldn’t think water baptism will save us without a faith through the Spirit that endures the trials of life. So how do we “go therefore and… baptize?”

Though Jesus was baptized by water and commanded His disciples to baptize others, we must realize that His words always meant more than what was actually said. Though some believed that Jesus “was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John,” the fact was that “it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples” (John 4.2). Since Jesus did not baptize others by water and yet commanded that His disciples be baptized, He must have meant something far more permanent than a dip in the Jordan River. Paul writes that he was “thankful that [he] did not baptize any” except two and told the Corinthians “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel” (1Cor 1.14-17). Either both Jesus and Paul did not practice what they preached or baptism means more than we usually preach. Perhaps a look at repentance will immerse us more fully into understanding.

Baptism of Repentance
“For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, become companions with the Holy Spirit, tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away” (Heb 6.6). If repentance is a singular act such as is stated here: “Biblical repentance, in relation to salvation, is changing your mind from rejection of Christ, to faith in Christ,” then those who fall away can never repent again (that is accept Jesus after they’ve rejected Him). If repentance is merely turning from a path of sin to our one way—Jesus—then wouldn’t that one act of receiving Him as Lord through faith coupled with a dip in holy water be enough to ensure I’ll never face the impossibility of being renewed to repentance if I fall away?

The word “repent” means to change your mind. Preachers like to add that “in the Bible, repentance results in a change in behavior,” meaning that a change of mind is not enough for salvation. We must also change the way we live. But they are quick to remind us that “repentance is not a work we do to earn salvation,” for it is God who grants us repentance (2Tim 2.25). For the average Christian sitting in a pew or reading an online devotional, repentance is a work given to them by God that allows them to change the way they live. These are likely the same Christians who believe that a clothed bath accompanied by Scripture reading can save them.

How does God change our mind? “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us…. we have the mind of Christ” (1Cor 2.11-16). God doesn’t just “change our mind,” He gives us His! Repentance is the process whereby my mind becomes transformed by His as I discern His will by training my senses to distinguish right from wrong (Rom 12.2; Heb 5.14).

Judgment of God
What could be better than salvation? After discussing these elementary things, the writer of Hebrews adds, “We are confident of the better things connected with salvation” (Heb 6.9). If we have faith in order to be saved, are baptized to openly acknowledge our commitment, and repent by changing our mind about what is right and wrong, then what could be better than that? Most of us believe that judgment ends the day we receive Jesus Christ. God only sends those who reject Jesus to Hell, after all, right?

I’ve been explaining that baptism is a process: we immerse ourselves into His Spirit by being transformed into His way of thinking. Repentance is the process whereby this baptism occurs. But judgment isn’t a process; it’s the final act of God for all the cumulative processes that make up our lives. As Christians, we do not escape judgment. As a matter of fact, we will be judged for those “better things” that accompany our salvation. Thus Hebrews admonishes us not to “become lazy, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance” (Heb 6.12). Peter, one of those we ought to imitate, tells us, “For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God” (1Pet 4.17).

Paul tells us that the reason he fears God is “the judgment seat of Christ, [where] each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad” (2Cor 5.10). Most of us think that at judgment God will simply pull out a checklist and ask: “Did you say the prayer? Were you immersed in water? Are you a church member?” In reality, those who go to Hell are those who “don’t know God and… don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2Thes 1.8). It’s unacceptable today to not believe that my eternal life is dependent upon singular acts done for salvation, but it’s an elementary thing to figure out the truth. The mature know they will be held accountable and live each day with this knowledge motivating their obedience.

WORSHIP LIKE A DOG

2009-03-19T13:34:00.002-07:00

Even the dogs eat crumbs
My dog, Spencer, is a mean-looking Boxer with the temperament of a hound dog. When I plop on the couch after a long day of critiquing grammatical miscues, he nuzzles his nose onto my lap and slaps my leg with his paw. I scratch his ears, and he inches more of himself onto my lap. With each pet, this seventy pound dog turns into a Chihuahua that thinks my lap is the best place for a nap. Then the thunder cracks and the lightning strikes as my wife’s voice bellows across the room like the voice of God, “Spencer, get to your home!” My dog splits. You see, to my dog I am an object of love and mercy while my wife is the epitome of fear and respect.

The English word “worship” has its roots in the Greek word proskuneo which derides from the words pros or “bow” and kuon from which we get canine or “dog.” That means to worship is a lot like a dog licking its master’s hand. No wonder the Lord marveled at the faith of the Canaanite woman who recognized the true meaning of worship as she “came… and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me.” Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” Her answer ought to humble us: “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” (Mt 15.25-27).

Dogs respond to their masters based upon the manner in which the commands are communicated to them. Sometimes they tremble in fear scurrying to do their master’s bidding, while other times they come running with tails wagging out of love for the hand that feeds them. The same command spoken with different inflections can have alternately stirring responses. How we worship like a dog will be the object of this week’s study.

The love of Christ compels you
“Spencer,” I yell, “get back here!” The Boxer saunters further down the street, slow like a dance, his head turned around with his eyes staring over his body. He inches forward as I reach for the fallen leash. “Get over here!” He sprints ahead as I lunge and miss the leash. He turns around and barks melodiously like a singer playing a love song. I swear he’s laughing at me. My dog loves me and proves it by sitting at my feet like Mary listening to Jesus, but I’ll be doggone if he calls me “Lord” but won’t do what I say.

Christians readily know what it means to be loved by Jesus and to love Him in return. God demonstrated this love through Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins despite our propensity to continue in sin (Rom 5.8). He loves us so much that He gave His Son so that we might live: yet not just live, but to live “for the One who died for them and was raised.” “For Christ’s love compels us, since… One died for all” (2Cor 5.15, 14). We live because He loves us, but we continue to live in order to love Him. Our goal in life should not be to be loved but to live a life of love by following the example of the One who gave His life that we might live. We must live as He lived by laying down our lives for Him as He laid down His life for us.

But most of us won’t offer that sacrifice. Jesus died for me so that I can live for me! I will worship Him through praise and offerings. I will worship Him through tear-filled prayers of thankfulness. I will worship Him for what He’s done for me. But when He says, “Get over here!” I’ll just pretend like I didn’t hear. Surely my loving God will never hold me accountable for that which I am unwilling to hear.

The fear of God propels you
If “worship” truly means that we come to God like a dog licking his master’s hand, then perhaps we need to ask why dogs obey their masters. When Caesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, was asked “What is the most common mistake people make with dogs?” He answered, “They don’t establish a leadership role. Almost all dog problems come from two things: lack of exercise and lack of leadership. Additionally, especially in America, owners tend to give affection, affection, and more affection, when what the dog really needs is exercise, discipline… and then affection.” Can we say the same is true of what people expect from God—affection and more affection and never exercise and discipline?

When Jesus was challenged to worship Satan, He answered, “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’” (Mt 4.10). If we read Jesus’ memory verse, we find that in Aramaic it actually says: “Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only” (Deut 6.13). To worship God is to fear God. I know we like to think that our love for Jesus ought to drive out our fear of God. After all, we should obey Him because we love Him, not because we fear Him, right? I would argue that our fear of God is the catalyst for our love to God. His love for us compels us to become like Him, but it doesn’t enforce us to obey Him. Our love for Him shown through our fear of His judgments ensures we obey His commands.

This connection between our fear of God and our obedience to Him is seen most clearly in the wise man’s conclusion of the matter found in Ecclesiastes 12.13: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment.” His love points us in the right direction but our fear of God’s judgment propels us in that direction.

Doesn’t “fear God” merely mean that we respect Him? Isn’t being afraid of God an Old Testament commandment and not a New Testament privilege?

Our loving Jesus tells us, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him” (Luke 12.5). Though I suspect we show signs of respect to those we fear, we don’t necessarily respect those we fear nor do we fear those we respect. Jesus’ use of the word seems to be more indicative of “fear” than it does “respect.” As a matter of fact, the Greek word phobeo is only translated as “respect” a few times. Should we respect God? Sure, but that’s no substitute for fearing Him.

Paul writes: “As you have always obeyed… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purposes” (Phil 2.12,13). If God is working in us, then why should we fear Him? The writer of Hebrews tells us that children obey because they fear punishment (Heb 12), but John tells us that Jesus obeyed because He loved us for He had no fear of punishment. My children’s love for me must be coupled with their fear of my punishment, but my love for them has no fear because they cannot punish me. I love them no matter if they reject me, insult me, hate me, or desert me. They will always be my girls and I have no fear of that ever changing. But my love for everyone else doesn’t come with that guarantee.

If I do not fear God, then I do not love God. God has no fear of me and therefore His love for me is without blemish (1John 4). I cannot say the same of my love for Him. But that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of God. Moses told the Israelites as they trembled before the flaming mountain: “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (Ex 20.20). We should not fear fear itself but rather He to whom we must give account of our lives.

WHILE IT IS TODAY

2009-03-19T13:34:00.001-07:00

Remember the day

Fellowshipping with my comrades-in-discipleship this past President’s day weekend provided an important lesson to me. It was to remember the day. I remember the day I walked arm-in-arm with the likes of Joseph Ebuen, Nate Bowers, Rabi Singh, Jamie Fisher, Wally Wallenfelz, Andrew Stroud and others whose faces have aged far less than mine. I remember the day I peeked over at their studies and wondered if my answers were as enlightened. Or the days I shook the hands of the guys they discipled wondering if my friends had the same potential. I remember the day I said, “Goodbye,” and went my separate way knowing always there’d be the day we’d reunite and the same questions would be asked.

“Watch out brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (Hebrews 3.12-14). That day I met my friends again was the day I was encouraged to NOT depart from our living God. It’s easy to think you are alone in a world out to “get you,” and to think that quitting is far easier than living. But knowing that I would see my old friends again and that I would give them an account of what I’ve studied and of those I’ve helped kept me going until the day I saw them peek at my study and shake my new friends’ hands.

Today is the day you prepare for tomorrow; yesterday is just history.

Hardened by Sin’s Deception
“Watch out brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (Hebrews 3.12-14). Notice that we do not become hardened by sin itself, but rather by the deception it brings along with it. We are prideful creatures who will often think that our way is better than theirs or that their way is better than mine. The sin is not in the thought, but in the hardening that accompanies such thoughts. Thinking that those who don’t follow Jesus my way are sinners is as deceiving as believing that everyone who names Christ as Lord is His disciple. How do we abstain from such hardening?

At one point in Jesus’ ministry, He tells His disciples, “Whoever is not against you is for you,” but later says, “Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 9.50, 11.23). We must be careful not to let sin deceive us by ensuring that we are companions of the Messiah as we hold firmly to the end the reality we had at the beginning. You see, Jesus says that if they aren’t against Mike Warren, then they are for Mike Warren. However, if they are against Jesus because they do not gather to His Name but rather their own, then they are against Jesus. How are we to know if those who are for us are also for Jesus or that those who are against us aren’t doing so because we aren’t for our Lord?

“God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden” (Rom 9.18). If I am among those on whom God shows mercy, then following Jesus His way will be my way. If I am among the hardened, then my way will always lead back to me.

The Reality
“Watch out brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (Hebrews 3.12-14). How do you hold on to “reality?” Hupostasis (reality) is often translated as assurance, confidence, or nature and is used two other times in Hebrews. The first is to prove that Jesus is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature,” while the second provides the definition of faith in Jesus: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 1.3; 11.1). We hold firmly to hupostasis through the assurance that comes from a life companioned with our Messiah’s.

The “reality” is that my brother or sister represents Jesus Himself. As I love him or her so I love God, our Jesus (1John 4.20.21). But the sinner’s nature living in us all reminds me that our fellowship is flawed by a shared desire to be better than each other. Reality says to compare my Bible studies to my friends’, my friends to theirs, their flaws to mine, me to them. Surely, they are not following Jesus if their reality does not match my own. The reality is that my relationship with my brothers correlates to my relationship with God.

More than likely most of us came to know Jesus because someone made Him real to us. We knew Him because they knew Him. And they knew Jesus better as they made Him known to us.
We are companions in Christ when we hold to the reality we grasped since the beginning: we cannot follow God alone but God alone must be followed.

SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY

2009-02-19T07:32:00.001-08:00

Last week my boss, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, sat in and took notes during one of my literature classes. I carefully considered every word before it exited my mouth, hoped that my cadets would do the same, and agonized over how best to maximize every second of the fifty-five minutes I had to teach my students the ins and outs of Thoreau’s Walden. Fortunately, I had prepared beforehand with more notes than were necessary, enough slides to answer unsolicited questions, and with plenty or prayer to carry me through the flames of a leader’s caring critiques. But you see that day I was prepared, though that was not always the case. So I thought, “What would my teaching be like if I prepared everyday as if I had to speak with my authorities looking over my shoulder?”

Jesus told His disciples, “Either make a tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit…. I tell you that on the Day of Judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12.33-37). Every word we utter is under the watchful eye of He to whom we will give account. What if I lived every day carefully considering the words that exit my mouth and taught those who listen to me to do the same? What if I agonized over how best to spend every minute of my life under the caring gaze of a judging God? What if I prepared myself to speak with authority as if my every word depended upon it?

“Be conscientious about yourself and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1Tim 4.16). Are you listening to what you are saying? Our God is…

BIG “C” CHURCH

2009-02-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

The Covenant
On President’s Day weekend (13-16 February) West Point will be hosting the “All Army Navigator’s Conference” near Albany, New York. At this conference I will have the privilege of presenting a short workshop on “Understanding the New Covenant or Making Disciples the New Covenant Way.” My hope is to help the participants study what God’s word has to say about this often overlooked “regulation” regarding our discipleship ministry. You see, “He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life” (2Cor 3.6). A covenant (diatheke) is a pact or agreement between individuals regarding the disposition of one’s livelihood. Therefore, we are ministers of a new pact, an agreement that specifies how we are to live our lives. The question is: are we living by this new covenant or do we still practice the old, dead life of the letter?

The Church
The first time this word appears in Scripture is in Matthew 16.18, “And I tell you that you are Peter (rock), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church.” A defining cross-reference is Eph 2. 19-22, “You are… fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” It doesn’t take an English instructor to recognize the connection between God’s use of the word “church” and our definition of it as building. But it is ironic to this English instructor that we still can’t build a connection between the New Covenant, discipleship, and “church.”

You see Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church, the standard by which all members must be measured. To become “a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit” we must obey His commands just as He obeyed His Father’s commands (John 15.9). He says, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love Him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14.23). We become His home, His church, His dwelling, because we obey His commands. And what does our Lord Jesus command of us? “Therefore, go and make disciples…”

The Command
Jesus presents but one new command to His New Covenant Church, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13.34). How do we love His body as Jesus loved His disciples? We must build them into God’s temple. The Greek word for “build” or edify as found in Ephesians 4.16, “From Him the whole body… promotes growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part,” is oikodome. This word is also found in Ephesians 2.21, “The whole building (oikodome) is being fitted together in Him and is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.” The command to love is the command to build God’s Church.

Peter emphasizes this concept in his epistle to those “set apart by the Spirit for obedience” (1Pt 1.2) when he wrote, “You yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Pt 2.4). Not only are we commanded to build the church of God, we are also called to be His priests so that we might sacrifice that which is acceptable to God. The new Church begins with a covenant, is founded on one-on-one discipleship, and is commanded to build the walls of its edifice out of disciples of Jesus Christ. But God needs “priests” to labor in his fields.

The Clergy
“What are you, some kind of minister?” I often get asked this when I attempt to share my faith with others (though not here at West Point) because the assumption is that only those who get paid to talk about Jesus will (or perhaps, should) talk about our Lord. But if the new covenant is true, that is Christians are not only the temple of God but also the priests serving in it, then maybe my answer to that question should be “yes,” rather than the “No, man, I’m just a Christian” I usually provide as a retort.

In 2Corinthians 3.6, “He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life,” the word “minister” is the Greek diakonos from which we get the English word “deacon.” It’s more consistently translated as “servant,” meaning that just as Jesus came not to be served but to “serve” (Mark 10.45) so also are we called to be ministers and not ministered to. And yet why do we set apart a select group of the religiously educated to be our “ministers” rather than accept the fact that we are all called to do what we pay them to?

“I have been called to pastor this church,” is a phrase I’ve come to respect because I understand the difference between the old and new covenant. In the new covenant, this would be like one dude saying to another, “Friend, I’ve been called to minister to you.” But we don’t minister like that today, do we? The word poimen is translated only once as “pastor” and 17 other times as shepherd (i.e. one who tends sheep) and yet it is the title we deem most appropriate for those who have taken on the priestly duty of administering our faith. Perhaps it is because we are truly all like sheep who’d rather follow in herds than lead by example.

The Commission
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” applies only to those called to minister to the Church. If you are not called to be a minister of the new covenant, then you are free to attend religious services, sing spiritual songs, and tithe your excess to those willing to make disciples for you. It’s rather telling to note that Jesus did not give this commission until after the disciples received the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem and “traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them” (Mt 28.16). The Holy Spirit is, after all, the key to understanding the new covenant Big “C” church.

Jesus told the Pharisees that “no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins…. And no one, after drinking the old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5.37-39). The same is true of the covenants for the writer of Hebrews says, “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear” (Hebrews 8.13). We see signs of this every year as “home groups” replace Sunday school classes and “lay leaders” replace the archaic “deacon” or as “pastors” become “teaching elders” or “churches” become “sanctuaries.” But until the new covenant becomes our wineskin for discipleship, the old wine of Sunday preaching, service through the tithe, and love by song will inevitable taste better than the new wine of one-on-one discipleship, training disciples to teach obedience, and sacrificing our lifestyles rather than our pocket books.

The Holy Spirit teaches us everything Jesus has commanded Him. If we have Him, then He is indubitably teaching us about discipleship. How you involve yourself in the disciple-making process will reveal which wine you find most tasteful.

VERSE FOR THE YEAR

2009-01-06T07:39:00.001-08:00

Happy 2009. I say that without the exclamation as the New Year does not feel as happy as it once did. You see the Bible tells us that “the length of our days is seventy years” or 80 if we’re strong. That means I’m on the downhill slide now and therefore instead of counting down to the joyous New Year, I’m counting down to the day I have to leave West Point, my daughters leave home, I leave the Army, and finally I take my leave of this earth. But that just means I need a change in perception, a new look on a new year, and a verse to remember throughout this year of our Lord, 2009.

Every year I select one verse as my “theme” for the following year to remind myself to stay focused on what the Lord has taught me the previous year. This year the verse is 2Corinthians 3.6, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The New Covenant has been a revelation to me these past few years but 2008 was the year I started competently putting it into action in my own life. 2009 will be the year I remember what He has made me as I try to make disciples of our Lord and Savior.

“Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.” ~Bill Vaughn

PAPERCLIPS

2008-10-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

On my desk sits a bucket of 500 (minus a dozen or so) multi-colored paperclips that constantly remind me of my spiritual mission here at West Point: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Paperclips are quite possibly the best tool in a disciple-makers handbag because they are malleable, marketable, and manageable. You can twist them in and out of shape and use them for marking a place in a Bible, attaching two pages of your study together or for poking yourself in the chin if you fall asleep during a quiet time. They are easy to find, easy to distribute, and easy to lose, if you don’t remind yourself to use them.

Paul wrote, “Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us” (Phil 3.17). The paperclips in my Bible are from the same bucket of clips that I share with those cadets interested in reading God’s word just like me. I tell them that we are running a race at a different pace than those around us and in order to ensure that we do not fall out, we need to hold each other accountable by finding commonalities to bind us together, like two pages paperclipped one to the other. And so I show them my sword, give them three clips to sheathe their spots, and ask them to follow a pattern—one that will inevitably become their own.

It is my mission to part with all 500 paperclips in order to unite myself together with those willing to bind themselves to Christ. But I can’t do it alone. I need to find Christians willing to paperclip themselves to others by joining us on this run. Will you “join in imitating me” by passing on paperclips, teaching others to know Jesus through His Word?

TITHES

2008-08-06T18:52:00.001-07:00

(Deuteronomy 14.22-29)
A friend and I talked about tithing the other night. Not so much the legitimacy of it, nor the value, but the actual practice. I’d like to share with you (and him) some of my findings. “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.” Traditionally, this would be enough information for a homily about the religious duty of parishioners to support their spiritual authorities. What is often left unsaid, however, is what follows. “Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God… so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.” Notice the implied “you” in the command “eat.” The Lord continues, “But if that place [the temple] is too distant… then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink [beer], or anything you wish.” What should you do with your tithe then? Give it to the priests? No! “Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord.” You eat it with the priests and you use the tithe to feed the “the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.” And yet this isn’t preached today though it comes from the same Law used to promote the tithing practice. Why is that?
(Malachi 3.6-10)
If you search the web concerning the tithe, you will invariably encounter those who support it and those who oppose it with all of the passages I’m sharing with you now, to include the infamous Malachi curse and blessing: “‘Will a man rob God…? ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. ‘Bring the whole tithe…. Test me in this… and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing.” But what is often left concealed is the fact that God was speaking to the priests, not directly to the parishioners. “And now this admonition is for you, O priests…. I will curse your blessings” (2.1-2). If you read the whole of Malachi’s prophecy, you will see that God basically fired the priests and gave one final sign, “I am going to send you Elijah the prophet” (4.5). As the instructional passage in Deuteronomy 14.22-29 teaches, the tithe was shared by the giver and the priests, but it was the priest’s responsibility to ensure its holiness. In Malachi, we find that the priests were offering defective animals and providing wayward instructions to those who sought their guidance. The tithe wasn’t working because the people and the priests corrupted it. It was time for a change to the old covenant—the sacrifice, the tithe, the priesthood, and the duty of those who called themselves God’s children.

(Matthew 23.23-24)
If you asked, “Where is ‘tithing’ in the Gospels found,” you’d likely discover this one passage in Matthew which mentions it as one of the less “important” or “weighty” matters of the law that ought not to be neglected, but neither should it become “heavy loads that are hard to carry” and that “they [the Pharisees] themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move” (Mt 23.4,5). However, though it is apparent that no one “tithed” to Jesus, there is still an example that should be noticed: “These women were helping to support them [Jesus and His disciples] out of their own means” (Luke 8.3). When Jesus encountered the rich young ruler, He did not ask him to support His ministry but instead challenged him to give it all “to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Luk 18.24-30). After this, Peter said to Jesus that he had given up everything to follow Him. Our Lord promised that he would receive much more “in the age to come.”
Jesus didn’t talk about tithing because it was an old covenant practice which encouraged the “laity,” or the spiritually lax, to pay the “clergy,” or spiritually commissioned, to have a relationship with God for the benefit of the entire congregation. But what He did talk about was giving…
(Hebrews 10.8-10)
Jesus warns us that we cannot serve both God and money, for where we place our treasure, be that upon temporal sustenance or heavenly reward, is where our heart will lead us (Mat 6.19-24). Therefore, Jesus provides a “way out” so that we can stand up under the temptation of temporal treasure hunting. “He [Jesus] said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You [God] did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’ (although the law required them to be made). Then He said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first [covenant] to establish the second [covenant].” Jesus is not only the sacrifice for our sins, but He is also the Priest for whom those tithes and offerings were meant to sustain.
The problem isn’t that people tithe or give to the clergy, but that they believe their tithe or offering fulfills their ministerial obligation. “I give money to the pastor so that he can make disciples of me and my fellow congregation.” Some Christians are convinced that God is pleased with their tenth when Jesus makes it obvious that He demands far more (Luke 9.23). So what should “tithing” look like in the new covenant?
(1Corinthians 9.9-15)
“Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way [as this old covenant practice], the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.” As long as a ministry follows the old covenant wineskin of segregated clergy and laity or holy edifications and “unholy” homes, then the old “wine” offering is not only necessary, but required. If someone provides you eternal sustenance, should you not willingly offer to meet their temporal needs? Too many Christians today offer attendance as their “tithe” to God. Too many others offer their “tithe” rather than their life to God. How many are willing to follow Paul’s example?
Paul continues, “But I have not used any of these rights…. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast…. That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge…. I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” He told the Ephesians, “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions” (Acts 20.33-35) and the Thessalonians: “You ought to follow our example…. We worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow” (2Thes 3.7-9).
For more on tithing, check out these websites: http://www.bibleinsight.com/tithing.html; http://www.tithing.org/; http://www.nomoretithing.org/; http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2007/004/7.14.html (Lifechurch.tv); http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/01/sunday/main3896728.shtml; http://www.navpress.com/EPubs/DisplayArticle/1/1.88.8.html.

WE'RE WORTH IT

2008-03-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

It's unfathomable how many people struggle with their own self-worth. They wonder if they are of any value to God or man; feeling like a weed, unneeded and bothersome. How could they ever obey the commands of God if they are not worth the effort of His love? Before I began following Christ, I feared rejection and therefore made few, short-term friendships. Today I face rejection on a daily basis for the Gospel of Christ, and though I often feel discarded and hated, I don't quit. You know why? God has made a promise to me and you: "Since you are precious and honored in my sight and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and people in exchange for your life" (Isa 43:4). What must I do to become precious and honored to God? What must I do for Him to love me? We'd be a fool to answer with anything else but “nothing.” We do not deserve to be loved, but we are. When we learn to see ourselves as God sees us, we discover that the impossible becomes achievable: Sauls become Pauls, Simons become Peters, the barren become fertile, and sinners become saints.
However, His valuation of us comes at a price: our obedience. “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10). Our most valuable possessions are worthy because of their use to us. We aren’t worthy of God’s love, but we can be worthy of His praise.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. Flannery O'Connor

PRICKLY ROSES

2008-03-04T10:47:00.001-08:00

"Rebuke a wise man and he will love you." My mentor, Cecil Bean, once told me that the only way to distinguish between mockers and wise men was to rebuke them. If they hated you for your critique then they prove themselves fools, but if they respond with humility and teachability, they prove themselves your friends. Many relationships begin with this sort of exchange. One person initiates a conversation; a meeting is established, and a likeness discovered. But then the test: someone attempts to cross a barrier that was once "none of his business." How the other responds will measure the lifetime of the friendship. A guy once told me that he wanted to be my friend rather than a disciple. I told him that I was looking to make friends out of disciples and not the contrary.
If we want to make friends from disciples rather than attempt to disciple our friends, then we must learn to present prickly roses. Solomon tells us, "In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery." We like flowery praise but if there is no prick of the conscience, then it will wither and die. Hebrews reminds us to “spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” You cannot spur a friend in love if you don’t also offer a stinging kick to his rear end.

“Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.” Flannery O'Connor

NARROW IS THE WAY (Matthew 7:13-27)

2008-02-11T08:26:00.001-08:00

The Wide and Broad
“For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.” I’ve often wondered if the broad road sign reads, “Heaven” or “Hell?” If it says, “Hell,” then what would be the point in Jesus’ mentioning of it? Putting a warning on a road marked “Hell” would be like printing a Surgeon General’s label on a keg of gun powder: “Caution, may blow your mind.” Since Jesus follows up this statement with an admonition; “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolfs,” the assumption is that the travelers believe they’re treading down a highway to “Heaven.”
We know that Hell’s caretaker isn’t an ugly lizard of a being with fangs, a forked tongue, and the owner of red suit, but is rather, as Paul states, “…disguised as an angel of light” (2Cor 10:11). Therefore, his servants, these same false prophets from Jesus’ warning, “also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” and preach to us that this wide and broad road their congregation is travelling upon is indeed the one true way to Heaven. Ah, but we are reminded that many religions preach that their paths also lead to heavenly dwellings. Touché, but Jesus isn’t talking about them, is He? For these travelers are those who “[say] to [Him], ‘Lord, Lord!’ [and yet] will [not] enter the kingdom of heaven.” If the path named “Christian” is wide and easy, you might reconsider your destination.

NARROW IS THE WAY (Matthew 7:13-27)
The Narrow and Difficult
“‘Lord… are there few being saved?’ He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able” (Luk 13:23,24). If “many” take the road marked “Heaven,” then the conclusion is that only the “few” will “make every effort to confirm [their] calling and election” (2Pt 1:10). If we asked a Christian today, “Are few saved?” what would be his/her response? What would be yours? That all a person needs to do is believe and they shall be saved? Jesus’ response wasn’t quite so inviting.
“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock.” When Jesus heard these words Himself, He built His house (we call it the Church) upon His rock—a disciple of His named, “Peter” (Mt 16:18). This disciple heard God’s word, “Go and make disciples,” and himself went and “remind[ed others] about these things, even though [they] know them and are established in the truth [they] have” (2Pt 1:12). The way marked “Disciple” is hard. You see, it entails building our foundation in Christ upon His Word every day through study, meditation, and application. The narrow road means we call “friend” those whom Jesus has called His own (John 15:13,14) and that we are willing to hate those we love the most in order to follow God who most loves us (Luke 9:23-27). To follow Jesus means we must make disciples adamant about their obedience to His commission. Few dare tread this path because an easier way is set for them that requires little more than faith, attendance, and a willingness to sing. “So you’ll recognize them by their fruit,” says our Lord. What fruit are you bearing for this Christ you call “Lord, Lord?”

UNSCHOOLED

2008-02-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

Part One
I have a confession to make. Some times I feel proud that I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s Degree and am about to do so again with a Master’s. I think to myself, “At least I’ve made the effort to better myself so that I don’t have to labor with my hands like the uneducated.” I imagine this is what the Pharisees thought of Jesus’ misfits; “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). I don’t think the apostles were ashamed, however, for the same was said of their Lord. “The Jews were amazed and asked, ‘How did this man get such learning without having studied?’” (John 7:15).
You know how school works, right? “For the lips of priests ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction” (Mal 2:7). One person preserves knowledge by dispensing to those who reap from what the scholar has sown. The teacher studies what others have studied from still further others, and then shares his lessons with his students expecting that they might learn from him as he did from his teachers and they from still others. The learned spend time studying books written about Jesus by authors who had studied other books written about Jesus, and then passing it on to us as we learn from their knowledge of our Lord. However, this wasn’t the way our Jesus schooled His men.

Part Two
As some of you know, I’ll be teaching cadets at the United States Military Academy hows to writes gooder come August of this year. Considering what I’ve learned from the University thus far, I’m nervous thinking that it will be my job to educate the future leaders of America in the art and science of communication. What if I don’t know my stuff? What if I teach the way less excellently?
What if the person who preaches to us about Christ isn’t really as in tuned to Jesus as they think? Jesus found common men considered “unschooled” by their religious leaders and trained them to become like the Eternal King of Heaven and Earth. His training plan did not follow the accepted format of educational experts back then or now. Today, we teach about Jesus from a lectern called “pulpit” to a classroom called “congregation” and expect that those who hear truth will inevitably reciprocate its practice. Jesus’ training was hands-on, like the unschooled laborers of today who teach their skill not from the pages of a book but by the sweat of their brow and dirt-caked hands. Jesus trained His disciples to make disciples by teaching them Person to person, not pulpit to pew. You see, if you follow Jesus’ lesson plan then you will never worry if you know your stuff or if you’ll lead others astray. Jesus’ disciple-making methods are not about telling others what you know but rather introducing them to Him who you know.

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1Cor 2:4,5).

OUT OF CONTEXT

2008-02-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Friendship Verse
I once read this verse on a Christian “friendship” card; “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight” (Gen 31:49). It sounds really nice with the implication that God will keep on eye on my friend for me and on me for him when we are away from one another, but if you consider the context of the passage it’s like using the command, “Love your enemies” on a Get-Well card. Laban, Jacob’s uncle, had just been swindled out of his speckled goats and was now on the warpath to retrieve his daughters and twelve grandchildren. Only God warned the brother of Rebekah not to harm the chosen one of the Lord. Laban and Jacob made a treaty at Galeed that neither would pass the mound in order to harm the other. In essence, they were saying, “Goodbye, enemy of mine.” Not really a “friendship” verse at all, is it?
It’s not the first verse to be taken out of context, of course. There are many others to include Luke 6:38 concerning money, Ephesians 4:15 concerning the pastoral position, and John 3:16 concerning salvation. But we don’t have time for those today. Instead, consider what verse should be written on that Halmark Christian friendship card. “You are my friends if you do what I command you… I have called you friends because… I chose [and] appointed you that you should go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:14-16).

Study the Bible to show yourself approved; don’t just do Bible study to approve of yourself.

IN THE BEGINNING

2008-01-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

Separate Not Equal
“God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness… [Then] God made two great lights—the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night” (Gen 1:4,16). This New Year begins for me with a new trek through the Word of our God using the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Though I’ve read Genesis over a dozen times before, only now did I notice what’s always been plain before my eyes. God begins with separation—the heavens from the earth, light from darkness, earth from sky and land from water. And that separation does not create equality.

“But you ask: ‘How have you loved us?’ ‘Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?... Even so, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau” (Mal 1:2,3). Love is separate and not equal. That is, if my love for my wife is equal to my love for others, then it is not love. If my love for a stranger’s child is the same as my love for my own, then it is not love. If my love for God is the same as my love for my family or my friends, then it is not love (Luk 14:26). “In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:4,5) means that before God separated anything in this earth, He first set apart those who would be His. In love, He separated His children from His creation in order to do good works which He prepared in advance for them to do.

The First Command
“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). God created us in His image so that we might reproduce His image on this earth. The problem with Adam was that he “listened to [his] wife’s voice and ate from the tree” (Gen 3:17) and therefore every person born of Adam’s fleshly loins is “fathered in his [Adam’s] likeness, according to his image” (Gen 5:3). Because “every scheme his mind thought was nothing but evil all the time” (Gen 6:5), God separated those who followed Him from those who did not by either taking them away from the world (Enoch) or taking the world away from them (Noah). When Noah left the salvation of the Ark, the same command was given that righteous drunkard, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 9:1). Sinners beget sinners and bred them to sin until…

“The first Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45). Jesus, this last Adam, “By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the firstfruits of His creatures” (Jas 1:3). This command, “Be fruitful and multiply according to your kind,” has always been obeyed with or apart from our conscious concession. The sons of Adam will multiply sinners to subdue this world. The sons of God, however, will make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything the second Adam has commanded us. We are the firstfruits of God’s creation. Are we being fruitful by reproducing disciples of the second Adam?

The First Sin
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). The best lies wear the same clothes as truth. In fact, Adam and Eve were already created in God’s image and possessed the ability to discern good from evil. God said, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:16,17). Good = free to eat. Bad = not this one. The serpent pointed his tail at the tree in the middle of the garden and caused the couple to believe they could choose to outsmart God.

“God, who saved us and called us… not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” (2Tim 1:9,10). Before the beginning, God saved us by His grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which would come thousands of years later on Calvary. The sin wasn’t that they ate the fruit but rather that they listened to deception and thought that they could choose to be like God of their own free will. God said to do it His way and they asked to do it according to theirs. God created us to be like Him. Sin is when we try to make Him like us.

A RESOLUTE ATTITUDE

2008-01-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008, my friends and family. Prayerful proclamations of bountiful blessings will be offered in your honor this coming year as I hope the same may be reciprocated on my behalf. Many of us looking to the new year offer up resolutions aimed at bettering ourselves or achieving a goal chosen to correct habitual fallacies from years past. We resolve to be more spiritual; read our Bible, go to a church regularly, pray continually, and maybe, make disciples. We resolve to be more fit; lose a pound a week, exercise constantly, and eat less like an American. We resolve to be more wise; better grades, studious devotion to books, less television and (God forbid) video games. We resolve to be rich; save more than we spend, spend less than we want, and want only what we need. But our resolves will dissolve the way of fads, diets, and yesterday’s technologies because in this life we are sinners, born and bred.

This year, I resolve to be resolute—characterized by determination and purposefulness. I spent 2007 wishing it was more like 2006 and giving up on the things I ought to do only because I didn’t want to believe others cared. Nobody reads these thoughts, so why write them? No one shows up when you recruit, so why speak to strangers? No one cares about your devotionals so why teach? No one wants one-on-one discipleship so why not do as the “Christians” do and call congregating “church?” A favorite hymn of mine includes this verse, “Though none go with me, still I will follow… no turning back, no turning back.”

I resolve to be resolute whether others want to be or not. I will follow Jesus this year. How about you?

Sharing the Wheel

2007-12-05T06:41:00.001-08:00

Illustration 1—The Wheel
Jesus, the Center
What is the purpose for the wheel illustration? This ideology will drive your teaching and application of the principles found therein. Do you believe the wheel teaches what Christians should do? Does it exemplify the basics of Christian living? Or does it merely illustrate what everyone ought already to know? For me, the Wheel is the foundation upon which one-on-one discipleship is built. If my goal in sharing it is not to engage the hearer in a life-long cooperative relationship whereby we make Christ the center of our lives, then there is no point to it beyond education.
John writes, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands… This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did” (1Jhn2:3-6). If you want to follow Jesus, then the first step is to fall in step with His walk. In basic training one of the first tasks taught to a soldier is marching in formation to a cadence that establishes a unified pace. We conform to the will of our leader by marching in step with our comrades in formation. Paul writes, “Join with others in following my example... and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you” (Phil 3:17). Remember that a disciple is someone training to become like his Teacher (Luk 6:40). If you want to make disciples, you must be willing to set the example, sing out His cadence, and asks others to, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Remember that the Wheel is the catalyst from which all other illustrations are birthed, so though you may feel like expounding upon Jesus as Savior and Lord, resist knowing that you have the weeks ahead to invest in this person’s life. For now, the goal is to convince them to carry their cross and follow you as you follow Him.

Jesus, the Word
If discipleship is about training, then investing in the Word ought to be our first lesson. But what if they don’t believe this Bible is God’s word? “You must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2Pt 1:20, 21). We know the Bible is God’s word because the Spirit who wrote it through people lives also in the people to whom it is written (1Cor 2:11-14). Typically, the people we find interested in Bible study do not, however, struggle with believing Scripture is God’s word. Instead, they don’t live as though their belief is true.
“The Word was God… the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (Jhn 1:1,14). If the Bible truly is God’s word and if the Word is Jesus, then how can we say we know Jesus if we do not know His word? Using Luke 6:40, ask, “Who are you a disciple of?” If we must be trained to become like Jesus and if the Word is useful for training then what are you doing that would be considered training in His word? This sets us up for plenty of follow-on illustrations to be shared in the weeks to come including the Training Plan, the Cornerstone Reading Plan, and the Parable of the Sower, but for now, our goal is to get them involved in our ministry. If you are not already actively involved in an inductive Bible study that seeks to train disciples to become explicators of Scripture rather than interpreters of it, then stop here. The rest won’t do you much good.

Jesus, the Word two
Hebrews 5:11-14 tells us that teachers eat solid food, Scripture studied first-hand, but the immature drink milk, “you need someone else to teach you.” Discipleship is about training others to obey everything He has commanded us by ingesting His word for ourselves. It’s at this point that I remind the Christian that he or she has a choice; you can participate in a “Bible Study” where studying the Bible is optional or you can study His word and teach us what you’ve learned. Because of this, I lose far more than I keep.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Navigators’ Design For Discipleship series of Bible studies, let me tell you why I use them for this training process. The first six books are a deductive study with a gradually increasing difficulty level in subject and time consumption. The last book is an inductive verse by verse study of 1Thessalonians. I tell them that the goal is to work from answering man-made questions to asking God questions! Once they complete book seven, there’s no need for Bible study books any more. They are trained to study the word of God.
But they have the choice: either attend a “Bible study” where one person has actually studied the word, you listen to what they say, and then you and your fellow hearers provide 5 minutes of feedback and 30 minutes of hanging out or you can study the Bible and teach us what the Lord has taught you. If you want to train them to know God’s word then you got to train them to study God’s word and not man’s word about God’s word.

Talk to Jesus
God tells us that there are only two commands a person must obey in order to fulfill the requirements of Scripture; love God and love people (Mt 22:37-40). The vertical spokes train us to love God while the horizontal are about loving people. Prayer is the top vertical spoke pointing upwards to God because it is our primary means of communicating with God. Prayer can be silent or audible; done while walking, sitting, kneeling, cooking, driving, eating, sleeping (?), with others or alone. Because of its ethereal nature, prayer is difficult to order into a training plan. Therefore, our primary concern here is not how they pray or even when they pray but rather, what God wants from their prayers.
“If you remain in me and my word remains in you, ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7). There are conditions to prayer, the first of which concerns God’s desire for me to know His heart just as prayer is our way of sharing our hearts. A person who studies a book to learn life’s lessons will not be thought crazy, but a person who talks heavenward to a Being they believe exists despite the objections of others, is either loony or certain their voice will be heard. But just as surely as we want God to hear us, He wants us to hear Him.
“When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen” (Zech 7:13, 14).

Sharing Jesus (with the Lost)
This spoke is also known as “Witnessing” or “Evangelism” and presents the second great command, “Love your neighbor,” as it refers to those outside the family of God. Jesus told His disciples, “Follow Me… and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). This simple command is quite convicting when shared as a challenge: If I follow Jesus then I will…? (fish for people) And if I do not fish for people then am I a follower of Jesus?
Though there are varying methods for evangelism ranging from confrontational to service to invitational, the one which is most like Jesus’ methodology is the simple offer from a disciple to a lost soul, “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1Cor 11:1). If your ministry is already about personal discipleship, then the person you are sharing the Wheel with was likely invited personally, one-on-one, by either you or someone else in your group. They followed that person to this fellowship gathering and are now one step closer to becoming disciples themselves. All they need is someone to show them the way more excellently. Witnessing is about fishing for lost souls, and there are plenty of follow-on illustrations for this (I’ll share a couple), but once you catch them they aren’t fish anymore. Instead, our goal is to train them to become what we are; fishers of men (and women).

Sharing Jesus (with Christians)
“Fellowship” is a generic term that has been universally applied to varying “Christian” activities ranging from Bible study to basket weaving to television watching to praying. When Christians gather, we call it “fellowship,” religifying it into something “holy” and therefore fulfilling His command to love one another. Ask your listener if fellowship is about what you do or who you are? If two atheists study the Bible, is that fellowship? If two Christians talk about science, is that fellowship?
If fellowship is about who you are rather than what you do, then who are we (or better said, who are we becoming like)? As disciples our goal is to become like Jesus and Jesus’ only new command given to His eleven disciples was to “love one another… as I have loved you” (1John 13:34). In what way did Jesus love His disciples that differed from how He loved everyone else? He discipled them! This just happens to coincide with His great commission, “Go and make disciples… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19). What did He command them to do? Discipleship is not only our ministry, it’s His command.
From this spoke comes not only other supportive illustrations to include One-on-one and the Temple, but also the practicality of our ministry. That is, you will be demonstrating personal, one-on-one discipleship as you teach him or her about it. But first, they must be convinced to obey.

Loving Jesus
Can you earn God’s love? Christians who first hear you share this illustration will inevitably tell you “No, God loves everyone no matter what.” Non-Christians might tell you that if the Christian God was real, then He would have no need of our love. Our job is to explain the complexity of truth.
“If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love” (John 15:10). Our Father loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins. Praise God, but listen to the rest of the Gospel story, “And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again” (2Cor 5:15). If we claim to live in Jesus then we ought to walk like He did and He tells us that obedience was required in order to remain in God’s love. I love my three girls regardless of their shenanigans, and when they disobey me, my love for them does not alter, but people’s perception of my fathering ability will. Not only outsiders, but even my own children will think they can live without my rules and yet remain within my loving grace. When we disobey God, we shame His name before others, but when we obey Him, we show Him our love. Ask your hearer; do you love God? Then prove it by obeying His command to make disciples.

The completion of the Wheel ought to end with the preceding challenge and the ever important promise to follow up. “Thank you for your time, and if you want to learn more, then I’d love to sit down and share with you another discipleship illustration.”

Humble Thyself...

2007-12-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

HUMBLE THYSELF IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD
Whether He Saves…
“And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace”* has been shared as the Gospel message for years before the “God loves you so accept Him” version appeared. The Bible tells us, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:10,11). We Christians know that those who do not confess our God now will one day depart to a place where teeth are gnashed with much weeping, but does our knowledge ignite unbelievers’ fearful trepidations? If they are anything like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it won’t. Their reply to such a challenge was this; “We have no need to answer you… our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand*.” But their faithfulness to their God did not depend only upon salvation, “But if not, be it known to you… that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image*.”

I have great respect for those willing to believe their “god” will rescue them from the fiery furnace we Christians call “Hell,” but I wonder if their faith will stand even when their gods (or lack thereof) do not save. Can they say, “We will not serve your God or worship Him?” According to His word, they will worship whether He saves them or not. Is my faith in God strong enough that I can say the same? “Lord I will serve you whether you save me from my troubles or not. I will serve you whether the flames singe my flesh or not.”

“When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned… for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa 43:3).

* Dan 3:6, 16-18

I am Nothing…
Can you believe that these words, “How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom” (Dan 4:3) were spoken by the king of Babylon? Nebuchadnezzar looked at all he had accomplished and said, “I.” This was the same for Job who boasted that if he had an audience with God he would, “give an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach Him” (Job 31:37). Nebby was dispatched from the world of men until his nails were like bird’s claws and he ate grass like it was a salad bar. Then when his reason returned he praised God in the heavens and said, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing… for all His works are right and His ways just; and those who walk in pride He is able to humble” (Dan 4:35, 37). Job’s answer to God was far more self-reflexive, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5,6).

I told my friend the other day that to trust in God, you must lose your trust in man. Because I know that I often fail myself, I also realize that everyone else in this world will fail me as well. No one cares for me as much as I do for myself, apart from One who was willing to sacrifice all for my pitiful soul. Those who truly came face to face with God, experiencing His power personally and not merely hearing about Him second-hand, inevitably look at themselves and think, “I am nothing, but my God is everything.” Our Jesus walked through the fires of Hell whether we wanted saving or not in order to free our souls from torment. Like Nebby and Job, I look at that kind of love and despise myself, knowing that God alone loves me enough to go through Hell to save me.

Found Wanting…
Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, witnessed the writing on the wall as he drank from the Lord’s sacred vessels, and “his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together” (Dan 5:6). Calling Daniel in for an interpretation, he received an accepted rebuke, “But when his [Nebby’s] heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne… And you his son… have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this” (Dan 5:20,22). Part of the writing read, “You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.” Belshazzar was murdered that very night knowing his life was found wanting in the sight of God.

“But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isa 66:2). We all know that humility is the one attitude adjustment God demands more than any other. That’s why God sent His son, not merely as a sacrifice for our sins, but as an example of humility. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who being in very nature God… made Himself nothing… humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:5-8). No matter what you or I do, we will be found wanting, we will be singed by the fire, and we will be nothing compared to God. We have only one option; humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. We do this by obedience, by trusting God rather than man, and by walking just as He walked.

What is Discipleship

2007-10-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?
It is Training in Righteousness
What is a disciple? “A mathetes (disciple, student, pupil) is not above his teacher but everyone who is fully trained will become like his teacher” (Lk 6:40). Simply put, a disciple is someone being trained to become like someone else; someone like Jesus. Paul writes in 1Cor 9:24-27, “Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… Therefore I do not run… aimlessly… No I beat my body and make it my slave.” If discipleship training were anything like physical training, then our traditional efforts to become like Christ would be like defining walks to the bathroom as training for a marathon. “It’s still exercise,” I might say, though you’d likely retort, “Yeah, but you’ll never finish the race with that sort of training.” When someone says, “I’m training for [fill in the blank],” they typically mean that they have rearranged their lives, made some sacrifices, and committed themselves to a program designed to help them attain their goal. A marathon runner will inevitably run because he wants to win the race. A disciple of Christ will inevitably do what Jesus did because he wants to win a crown. Many today train by osmosis by gaggling around the buffest guy or fittest gal they can find and hoping that the healthy person’s strenuous flexing will lead to their physical growth. “I’m training to be a disciple of Jesus by listening to [insert favorite speaker] preach God’s word.” If we’d scoff at the notion of qualifying our workout through another’s physical training, then isn’t it obvious that something more than listening from the pews is required for those training to become like Christ?

It is Training by His Word
Jesus’ first criterion for His disciples is; “If you hold [Greek meno-to remain or abide] to my teaching you are really my disciples” (John 8:31). To abide in His teaching means that the presence of His word must be a consistent influence in my life just as hunger for food daily drives me to eat. “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12). Do I study the word to the detriment of my belly or do I ignore the word in favor of my fleshly hungers? “Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Tim 3:16,17). Are you a disciple? Then the plan is to be taught God’s word. To be rebuked by God’s word. To be corrected by God’s word. To be trained by God’s word so that you might do God’s work. “By this time you ought to be teachers… who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:12-14). Are you a disciple? Then you will teach His word to know it. You will obey it by allowing its principles to find fruition in your life. You will be known by your adherence to His word. Are you studying it for yourself? “He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (John 8:47).

It is Training with His People
Jesus’ second criterion is His only new command, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34, 35). He explains this more explicitly later in the evening, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:13,14). What does He command? “Love each other as I have loved you” (15:12). We are His friends if we obey His command to love His people by “teaching them to obey everything [He] has commanded [us]” (Mt 28:19,20). We fulfill the second criterion by helping our brothers achieve the first criterion, “abide by His teaching.” Yet some will say, “My Christian friends do help me grow in Christlikeness.” If you want to train for a marathon and your friends are consistently volunteering their assistance through frequent pizza parties, late nights playing Halo 3, and encouragement to run on your own as they lounge on the couch, then will you ever achieve your goal of finishing the race, let alone running in such a way as to win the prize? Are you a disciple of Jesus? Then who is your friend training you to obey His commands? To whom are you that kind of friend? If you’ve ever lifted weights, then you know the power of your friend’s mighty finger as he guides that shaking bar from your chest to its final resting place. Who is pushing you when your flesh says “Quit?”

We will all imitate someone. We will either become a pew warmer watching others flex their spiritual muscles or we’ll take the things we have heard in the presence of many witnesses and entrust them to reliable men also qualified to train others (1Cor 4:16,17; 2Tim 2:2). Are you a disciple? Who is your Paul and who is your Timothy?

Its Training Will Yield Fruit
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples” (John 15:8). If the first two criterions represent our discipleship, then fruit bearing is inevitable. If we do not live by His word nor love our brothers by helping them to live by His word, then we might be “like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (15:6). Yet someone will say, “I am not called to this ministry.” “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation… All this is from God, who… gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2Cor 5:17,18). If you are “in Christ,” then the lack of calling is no excuse for disobedience. Yet someone will complain, “My schedule will not allow it! Perhaps next semester or when I graduate.” “Listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow’… why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow… Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (Jas 4:13-17). Will you be any less busy tomorrow than you are today? If you know what needs to be done today and do not do it, God calls that “Sin.” My lack of time will not excuse my disobedience. Lastly, “God loves me, so why should I?” Oh, foolish question! What motivated Paul to achieve the criterion of a disciple of Christ? “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him… Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men” (2Cor 5:10,11).

The Annals of Mike or How I Came to Know Jesus

2007-10-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Chapter One- The Annals of Mike

“Yeah, but Masterchief is much cooler,” Barny’s eyes bulged like his brain was trying to make a point.
“Still, Tom Clancy’s stuff is more realistic,” I said with my finger on the Bible.
“Realistic!” Barny said, “Mexico attacks America, a group of rough and tough elite soldiers calling themselves, “Rainbows,” and some sixty year old elder with a deep voice busts up hundreds without breaking a hip? Yeah, that’s realistic.”
“O.K.,” I touch his shoulder and check his heart rate as the nurses look into the room, “You’re right, Halo is a much better game than Clancy’s. Wish you could play.”
“Me too.”
“Well,” I opened my Bible to Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” It was the word “future” that made me cry.

Barny isn’t a real person any more than that farmer in Jesus’ parable who tosses seeds on the path, on the rocks, and in the weeds is, but like the soils, he is the embodiment of all who have ever heard or shared God’s message with this sinful man. Throughout the course of this book, I would like to tell you our story and allow you to witness what this verse means to me, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our lives as well” (1Thes 2:8).

I met “Barney” when I first entered military service in the Fall of 1992 and found myself shanghaied by the government to the faraway land of Fort Benning, Georgia. He was my bunkmate, which meant he slept on the bed above me while I lounged underneath his shadow in more ways than one. You see, I had first heard about Christ only a few weeks before while sitting in the home of Pastor Raz, a supplanted Puerto Rican who still considered Spanish his primary language. Together, we listened to Hurricane Andrew tear through downtown Homestead, Florida in the safety of his living room with his wife and three children and my mother and sister keeping us company.
“Miguel,” he shook me from my sleep the morning after Andrew finished his business, “You come with me?”
“Yeah,” I listened to the silence for the first time I could remember. No television, no birds, no people, only the whispering sobs of those so happy to be alive they only now realized what they lost.
As we navigated past the fallen trees, torn up street signs, and gawking citizens down Interstate 95 from Miami to Homestead, what once was a twenty minute trek now took over two hours. Several places were impassable while several others were impossible to ignore. We witnessed flipped semis, cars resting in living rooms, pieces of trailer homes miles away from the park, and faces so stunned they had nothing to say. That is, everyone except the members of Pastor Raz’s church.
“Hola, Pastor,” she said with a hug. “You want something to drink?”
We looked into her house from the driveway and saw the refrigerator sitting next to the bathtub.
“No,” Raz said, “We don’t want to put you out.”
“How is your family?” She asked us both.
“We were fine, fine, but how about you?”
He spent several hours travelling from member to member, picking up broken pictures of loved ones long past, shouting hallelujahs when they found bibles, crying when their lives were all they could salvage. I watched with an ever-increasing knot in my belly knowing that home wasn’t going to be the same any more.
The roof of our house was torn from the sides, my car wedged tightly against the wall, our tree holding my hammock miraculously intact, but our stuff, what took a lifetime to collect, was soaking wet and broken into memories. I remember his words when he touched my shivering shoulder, “God has a plan in everything.”
That night, the hammock was my bed as I gazed up at the shining heavens listening to the nothingness of the last remaining quiet evening and thought to myself, “Why? You took away my father through divorce. My home through this hurricane. And my pride through poverty. I have nothing but these clothes. I am nothing but what I lack.”
As my head turned away from the heavens, I saw my mother through the broken window of our living room, kneeling down with my sister offering a prayer through a tearful smile. My eyes drew upwards and I asked, “Can I have what you’ve given them?”
I told Raz what I prayed about the night before and he took me by the shoulder, Bible in hand, and told me what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

ACTS OF RANDOM KINDNESS (A.R.K.)

2007-10-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

In the Evan Almighty movie, this was what “God” meant by “Build me an A.R.K.” In reality, it is a self-proclaimed “nonreligious” foundation (www.actsofkindness.org) that promotes kindness within our nation and acts as a delegate to the World Kindness Movement, an organization whose goal is to increase the world’s capacity of kindness and compassion. They also give away free puppies, hugs, smiles, and a pocket full of rainbows. Though the humanistic endeavor to be kinder to your fellow man is honorable and even commanded by God, “Be kind and compassionate to one another” (Eph 4:32), as an end, that is be kind in order to encourage compassion, is just not good enough for Christians. For Christians to consider acts of random kindness equivalent to “Therefore, be imitators of God” (Eph 5:1—the verse that follows 4:32), is akin to believing the placement of a dollar in the offering plate is the same as making disciples of all nations.

“But, Mike, surely this isn’t a problem in Christianity.” Check out this website, http://www.arkalmighty.com, and you see that many Christians believe that “selfless, unexpected acts of kindness… [will] help others understand God’s gift of love and grace to all people.” I read a bulletin this past week advertising a mission trip to Central America in which the ministry will consist of random acts of kindness. But why would it be a problem for Christians to promote kindness?

“For God so loved the world,” means that God loves all people, right? What if God fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed strangers into His home, clothed the naked, and visited the sick and imprisoned and yet still sent them to eternal torment, would we call that, “love?” Matthew 25:35-40 is used often to support community outreach with the reminder, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” But are random acts of kindness what God sent Jesus to accomplish?

“Be imitators of God,” Ephesians 5:1 commands us, “…And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.” When did Jesus feed the hungry? Did not the five thousand return only to hear these words, “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27). When did He provide drink for the thirsty? Instead He says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever” (John 4:13,14). When Jesus welcomed strangers it was with this commission, “Follow Me,” unless they were sick, then He healed them and told them, “Go home to your family.” When did He clothe the naked or visit the imprisoned? Yet, Jesus commanded His disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). If Jesus example of love did not consist of these humanitarian services, then what did He do for His disciples?

“Go and make disciples of all nations,” must mean more to us than go and be kind. If the purpose of our kindness is to demonstrate God’s love, then we have truly missed the mark by defining God’s love as relief from temporal inadequacies. When you serve, do you share the Gospel of “believe and be saved,” or the Gospel of “Take up your cross and follow Him?” Do you tell them to read the Bible as you pass them a cup of cold water or do you train them to study God’s word as you pass onto them the commission of God. Do you build them houses or do you build them into the temple of God? Friends, it is a great accomplishment for a sinner to turn his kindness into reproductive compassion. But we saints are not commissioned to be kind. We are called to make disciples. And that’s not a random act.

“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off” (Rom 11:22).

A Candle Funny

2007-10-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Donovan was walking down O'Connell Street in Dublin when she met Father Flaherty.

The priest said, "Top o' the mornin' to ye! Aren't ye Mrs. Donvan and didn't I marry ye and yer hoosband 2 years ago?"

She replied, "Aye, that ye did, Fadder."

The Father asked, "And be there any wee little ones yet?"

She replied, "No, not yet, Fadder."

Father Flaherty said, "Well, now, I'm goin' to Rome next week and I'll light a candle for ye and yer hoosband."

She replied, "Oh, thank ye, Fadder." They then parted ways.

Some years later they met again and Father Flaherty asked, "Well now, Mrs. Donovan, how are ye these days?"

She replied, "Oh, very well, Fadder!"

The priest then asked, "And tell me, have ye any been blessed with any wee ones yet?"

She replied, "Oh yes, Fadder! T'ree sets o'twins and 4 singles, 10 in all."

He then responded, "That's wonderful! How is yer loving hoosband?"

She replied, "E's gone to Rome to blow out yer candle."

[forwarded by Marty Walker]

today'sTHOT============================

The worst thing about censorship is ****** ** ********!

=======================================

PASS IT ON!
Yeah, you can send this Funny to anybody you want. And, if you're REAL nice, you'll tell them where you got it! www.mikeysFunnies.com

WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM EVAN ALMIGHTY

2007-10-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Have you seen Steve Carrell’s movie yet? As a movie, it’s clichéd, feel-good, slightly humorous, and one our family could watch together with only one instance of “hope they didn’t hear that.” But as a depiction of “God,” the viewer has to be weary of a few things if they think Morgan Freeman represents the God of the Bible. Not to say that Christianity was what the producers had in mind, but rather, because I’ve heard of several churches using the movie to promote “mainstream” Christianity. For instance, there were advertisements for churches to buy bulk seating while it was in the theatres and the first preview presented was from the new VeggieTale movie, of which I’m extremely excited. If you saw it, can you point to some things that though acceptable to spiritualist should not be acceptable to Christianity?

Here’s the first. In the movie, a book entitled Ark Building for Dummies, provides a narrative for the author, God, who has over six billion children. It is a common belief today, even within Christian circles, that everyone is a child of God. Is this what you believe? “No one born of god makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God… whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1John 3:9,10). The Holy Spirit is like an adoption agency that unites us with our Father (Rom 8:14-17) and we all know that nonchristians do not have the Spirit and therefore, are not children of God.

The second misconception about God is based upon the first. Evan asks God, “You wouldn’t drown everyone , would you?” We remember from the first movie, Bruce Almighty, that “God” can’t force anyone to love him though he loves everyone equally. After all, if everyone is God’s child then what Father would ever send His child to eternal torment? An atheist came to our study last night and I used this analogy to explain the Biblical view of God’s dealings with His creation: if a child comes to my house and is not adopted by me and is unwilling to live by my rules, then I cannot discipline him as I would my own (Heb 12:5) but must instead escort him out of my home (as God did to Adam and Eve). If we are God’s children, we live by His rules, not ours. If we are not, then we live by our rules and not His.

You can learn a lot from movies, but be careful what you hear. You just might be held accountable to it.