You're Doing It Wrong

There is a well known book series, with a hit HBO series called Game of Thrones.  I can't say much about the show as I've never seen it.  But I have read the first book.  There is a scene in both where a young girl is given a sword by her half-brother.  He asks her if she knows how to use it.  She answers,

The pointy end goes into the other man.

So what does that have to do with M28 and discipleship?  Well, nothing.  But it has a lot to do with me and something God has recently been teaching me.  It'll make sense by the end.  I hope.

Do any of you ever have one of those days, or weeks, or lifetimes, where God just kind of smiles at you and says, "You're doing it wrong?"  Okay, a few of you.  Oh wait, is that everyone?  Wow, good to know I'm not alone in this.

Now I'm not saying this is an always, every time, kind of wrong.  There are times I know it's getting done right.  Those moments are usually when I'm stepping back and letting God do his thing.  I might be the messenger at times, but the message is still God's.

For the past year I've been trying to dive head first into this discipleship thing.  I've read half a dozen books.  Been at meetings, discussions, brainstorm sessions, you name it.  I get the concept.  But I couldn't find anyone to disciple.  So I read some more.

Cause if you aren't doing it...certainly you just need to have more knowledge on the topic.

In reading a new book I thought, maybe I just need a cause.  A place of people to dive into.  The example in the book was that the author and a friend went to India and worked with lepers.  They just dove in and God worked in them.  I thought, I can do that, right here.

Maybe not lepers, but surely there is a place that I can go.

And I found one, or rather one came to me.  It was living in a recovery house for drug addicts and alcoholics.  I just dove in.  I knew little to nothing about those life styles.  And it seemed like things went from rough to worse over the two months that I lived there with residents.  I even got a disciple before I moved into the house and he eventually moved in there.




Without going into a lot of details the house did not work out in the end.  My first thoughts were that I had failed.  The discipleship I had going failed.  I felt like a failure.  You see a trend here.  I was doing everything right.  At least according to the books and ideas.  Well, except maybe the Book.


Last week I had a few different conversations with some wise and encouraging people.  Good friends.  Good people.  Then I had the conversation I really needed with God.  That's when I heard him say, "You're doing it wrong."  He wasn't angry.  It's like a parent watching a kid trying to put a square block in a round hole.

When they are in third grade.

Now remember that bit with the sword?  This is kind of how my conversation with God went:

God - "Jesse, what are you doing?"
Jesse - (holding sword by the blade) "Um, sword fighting?"
God - "You're doing it wrong."
Jesse - (examining the mess he just made) "Oh." (slow realization sets in) The pointy end goes into the other guy."
God - "There you go champ."

There are a lot of great tools for doing discipleship.  But never forget that God is the source of all those things.  You see I was relying too much on the tool rather than the teacher.  I was too worried about making a difference instead of letting God work.  I realize now that the house wasn't a failure, I just may never see the results.

God can and will continue to work in those guys long after they forget about me.  Or maybe we will come back in contact at some point.  Who knows!  God is in control and we need to remember that in all our endeavors.  We are just supposed to go spread the seed.

The seed will grow when it lands in good soil.

grace, peace + hope

-Jesse

Flight 815 - The Good Soil

In preparing this post my mind jumped at the scripture reference of Luke 8:15 and the infamous flight number Oceanic 815 from Lost.  The passage in Luke is a description of the good soil.

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. 

Pretend with me that I know what I'm talking about.  I know there are many wiser men and women who have examined this passage in depth and know oh so much more about it than I do.  But surely a standard blue-collar bloke like myself should be able to pull something from it.  I mean, what's the point of having a Bible if God can't reveal things to us with out a degree in it?

Look at the four actions listed:  Hear.  Retain.  Persevere.  Produce.

Everyone is capable of doing those things.  Right?  I surely hope so.  Okay, so what does this have to do with Lost?  Well, in truth, not a whole lot.  I mean I could pull all sorts of comparisons to the people on the plane and what kind of soil they were and all that, and maybe one day I will...but not today.

I will say that many of them were capable of being good soil.  Having noble and good hearts, with the ability to hear, retain, persevere (which they surely did) and produce.  But I want this to be about you and me. The couple sitting across from me at Panera who prayed over their meal.  The lady across the restaurant who didn't.  Jesus' teachings were meant for the people around him.  Including us.  We might not have been there, but he is here with us now.


The soil is about us as much as it is not.  Jesus had already called the disciples.  If you're reading this chances are he's already called you.  If you're thinking about how to disciple others and spread the seed that is the word of God, You've already been the soil.  It's time to move on to being the farmer planting the seed.


Good soil will Hear.  If you are out there scattering seed the good soil will hear it.  And trust me, there is plenty of good soil out there.  I've read descriptions of this parable that the good soil is a 1/4 of the types of soil...but let's think about that for a moment.  What kind of farmer scatters seed across all his land knowing that only 25% will accept it?  No.  The path is a narrow, small portion of land.  The rocky ground is going to spots and here and there.  The weeds...well, hopefully the farmer has done a good job of weeding before planting.  But weeds are weeds and will creep in at places.  A majority of the land is then good soil.


The good soil will also Retain.  That means it will keep it.  It will hold the seed, the word, and let it grow.  The word of God will grow in them.  Not because of what we the farmer have done, but because it's the Word of God!


Persevere.  This is probably the most difficult of the four actions.  Other words like; endure, faith, hope, cling to, hold on, push through...you get the idea.  It makes me think of the verse in Ephesians that challenges us to put on the whole armor and after everything...to stand.  Persevere.


The last one is Produce.  Jesus talks several times about bearing fruit.  It's a common theme.  I mean he even curses a fig tree because it should have been producing fruit and it wasn't.  That's like a Christian who looks like a follower of Jesus but isn't really doing anything about it."

I've been that guy.  Would you admit to yourself that you have too? 

Okay now that we've admitted that...let's do something about it!  Jesus tells us that if we remain in him, the true vine, he will remain in us, the branches.  And what do branches produce?  Fruit.  In that fruit is seed.  So once we mature enough to produce fruit, fruit with seed, that fruit needs to grow and scatter the seed.  We move on and start over again.  And so do they.  It's a simple, difficult, beautiful process that Jesus hardwired into the very creation of the world.  Genesis 1:11 

"Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.

Find the good soil.  Scatter the Word.  And watch God work.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Counting Chickens...or Something

The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson once said,

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

 In Luke's account of Jesus' life we find the Parable of the Sower (8:1-15)  Take a few minutes and read it.  Go on, I'll wait for you.  Okay, done?  Good.  So what does Jesus tell the disciples the seed is?

That's right.

In case you didn't hear whoever just said it, the answer is: the word of God.

Does the word ever fail in this story?  No.  It does not.  The soil is what fails.  What is the soil?  Different types of people.  Some never believe because the word is taken from them.  Others don't allow the word to take root and fall away.  Still more are choked out by "life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature."  (I had a good bit to say on maturity a few weeks back.  Read at your own risk.)

The last type of people are those with "noble and good hearts, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."  That one sentence has so much information on it.

Look at the actions:  Hear.  Retain.  Persevere. Produce.  (This will be another post in itself!)

In this story I believe Jesus is telling us that as his disciples we are to scatter the word of God.  He was doing it then.  The disciples did it after he ascended.  Now we are doing it.  You and me.

Now, the farmer doesn't have anything to do with the harvest.  At least not specifically in this story.  Usually the workers are the ones who are mentioned as doing the harvesting.  The point is that once the seed is scattered, the farmer can't make the seed grow.  He can water it.  Protect it from animals and other dangers, but a farmer cannot make the seed open, take root, push through the soil and stretch out toward the heavens.  It is beyond his control.  You and I cannot make the word of God grow in someone else.

We don't need too.

The word is capable of doing that on it's own.  That's not to say toss a Bible at someone and say, "Hey, here's a Bible, go be a follower of Jesus."  The word will grow in the right soil.  We are to spread it around.  And here is the best thing about the word being the seed...it can never run out!  Yeah, you don't have to go order more.  The Bible is it.  Jesus' words are it.  The only way to fail is if we don't keep taking it in.  It's still there, but we might not know enough.  (So read more.  Study more.  Spend more time with God learning who he is, that he loves us.)

So as we continue to let the word grow in us, we are to spread it about to others.  There are so many ways to do this.  If you attend a "church" regularly, check into their resources on how to do this.  Or talk with a leader or pastor.  There are many websites that you can go to also.  (M28 is one such example...and I had to plug it!)

Maybe it's meeting with a small group.  Maybe it's bringing someone with you to a service or gathering.  It could be anything.  The world, and closer still, your neighborhood is full of people who are the right kind of soil.  They are searching, hurting, desperate, and hungry for God.  They are out there.

So let us get out there and plant the seed.  Let God worry about what is harvested and how much.  The harvest won't happen with out the planting.  We can't plant the word if we don't go out to the field.  A farmer has a house he comes into for rest and food, but he works in the field.

If you're not catching my metaphor, as a follower of Jesus we probably have a "church home" to come to for rest and food, but we can't plant seeds inside the house full of other followers.  We have to step out of the house and walk to the field and start working.

Get off your duff.  Put on your muck boots.  Walk outside into the world.  Start planting the seed of the word in the soil of people around you.  It's something we all need to do.  Like Mr. Stevenson's quote says,

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Or maybe the old saying, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch," is more to your liking...and now the title makes sense.

Until Next Time...

grace, peace + hope

-Jesse

Breaking the Habit

So, you're addicted to going to church too?

Let me tell you, there is hope, and you are not alone.

God gets angry with empty ritual and meaningless tradition.  Read Isaiah.  Read the stories of Jesus confronting the Pharisees.  They had replaced their faith in God with regulations.  The Ten Commandments were never about keeping the "rules"...they were about putting God first!  That is the first commandment!

"You shall have no other gods before me."

(PS - I'm not advocating not following the 10 Commandments...just change the perspective of why we follow them.)

It is so easy to replace knowing God with knowing about God.  And that is a danger of just "going to church." A person can go to church their whole life and never know God.  They can know plenty about him.  They could even quote scripture like nobody's business.  The Pharisees were pretty good at that stuff too.  Then you get someone like the centurion with the sick servant.  This guy is a Roman soldier.  But he sees and recognizes the authority in Jesus.  Did Jesus turn him away because he was not a devout follower of the law?  No.  Look at what Jesus said, (it is really mind blowing if you think about it.)

I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.

You know the craziest part about this?  The guy didn't even come himself.  He sent people to Jesus.  And when Jesus was coming to heal the guys sick servant...more friends come and tell Jesus that the centurion didn't feel worthy enough to have Jesus come under his roof.

Man that is hitting home to me right now.  Really hard.

How often have I walked into "church" thinking I belong.  That this was my place.  That is the attitude of an addict.  I have the right to be here.  Who are you to tell me different?

Church is not a place to go.  It is people to be with.  It is the body, the whole body, of Jesus.

The body won't grow if it sits around.  Well, it might get fat, but it won't grow.  It won't become healthy and strong.  The Church isn't supposed to be sedentary.  Jesus told his disciples to, "Go."  But they didn't.  Not at first.  Then difficulty struck, and they scattered...and so did the Word.

My friends, it is high time we get out of our pews, couches, folding chairs, or whatever you sit on in your regular gatherings.  A farmer can't harvest a crop if he just sits in his barn and doesn't plant the seeds.  Neither can we prepare the harvest for Jesus if we just sit in our storehouses. 

Break the habit.  Church is good.  Christ is better.  Show Jesus to the world around you.  Don't hide your love for him behind the stained glass windows of a church or the fish bumper sticker on your car.  Let's stop just going to church and let us be the Church.

See you out there.

grace, peace + hope

-Jesse

Addicted

Addiction is a tyrannical master.  If addiction is a thousand page book, I've read the dust jacket, and maybe opened the cover.  I'm not an expert.  But I can tell you that addictive behaviour is destructive behaviour.

Let me tell you nothing good comes from any form of addiction.  Whether it is eating, sex, drugs, drinking, gambling, cutting, hoarding, American Idol...addiction is bad.  The verse below is not specifically about addiction, but many of the actions listed can be addictive.  (1 Peter 4)

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

So these are things to be avoided.  A few words later Peter writes, "be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray."  Clear mind and self-controlled.  Not addicted.

Okay so we have established that addiction is bad.  (You know I was kidding about American Idol right?)  Well, sort of.  But there is an addiction that most Christians have.  I know I have struggled with this particular addiction for a few years now.

Going to church.

Yeah.  I said it.  Going to "church" can be an addiction.  And I'm not splitting hairs on what type of institution.  The denomination, size of congregation, size of building-facility or home, what you wear, what the leaders wear...none of that matters.  The addiction lies in you and me.  We get comfortable.  It's nice to come to a place, "where everybody knows your name..."

Come on, you can admit it.  I know it's true for me.  If I was to be 100% honest I could not say that every time I've gone to church was because I wanted to worship God.  Sometimes it was an obligation.  Sometimes it was a source of pride.  Sometimes I just wanted to see friends.  Sometimes it was the only thing to do.

Then there were the days I went because I needed to feel that spiritual high.  I didn't really want the Spirit to convict me, but I wanted to get on the worship roller coaster and feel like I had been moved.  Those days I really focused on the music, the way it made me feel, how well the worship team sang.  Could it transport me out of the mundane.  I was there for selfish reasons.  It wasn't every time I went, but it was frequent.

I was addicted to going to church.

And there can be many reasons for it.  For me it was the spiritual high and needing to keep busy.  For others it could be guilt.  Or pride.  The sense of belonging.  There are as many reasons as there are church goers.

But going to "church," be it in a huge facility or a grass hut is only a fraction of what we should be doing as disciples of Jesus.  Going to church is not a bad thing.  Being addicted to it is.
 

Tomorrow:  Breaking the Habit

grace, peace + hope-Jesse

United We Are Christ

Many parts.  One body.

Jesus is the vine.  We are the branches.

If we remain, better yet, abide in Christ we are united.  We are joined in him.  It is because of him that we even exist as Christians.  Heck, it's because of him we exist at all!  A branch separated from the vine withers, dies, and blows away in the wind.  A finger not connected to a hand is useless.

A believer not connected to Jesus is as useless.

The nourishment and life a grapevine needs starts in the roots.  Through the roots up through the vine.  Only then does it go out to the branches.  The nourishment and life a follower of Jesus needs starts Word.  Through the Word through the Vine and into the branches.  Jesus is both the Word and the Vine.  He is what brings life internally, and holds us together.

The disciple John says this,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Plants also need light.  At least most of them do.  A process called photosynthesis where the plant transforms light into life.  Jesus is also the Light.  He brings life from outside of ourselves.  That blows my mind when I think about that.

Jesus is what makes us exist.  He is also what nourishes us from the inside.  He also brings life from the outside.

How incredibly, uncannily, awesome is that!?

Creator.  Nourishment.  Sustenance.

He created us.  Humans beings.  You.  Me.  But he doesn't stop there.  He didn't set the machine in motion and walk away.  He also brings us life internally.  Through his spirit.  This is the comforter he was telling the disciples about before they headed for Gethsemane.  So where is his outside sustenance found?

In other believers.

We build each other up.  We encourage one another.  We bring correction when needed.  We challenge and push when lethargy and complacency draw close.  We teach, preach, prophesy.  I know I've said this again and again, but they aren't my words.  Matthew 25:35-36 records Jesus' own words,

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

  He also tells the disciples that people will know they are his followers by their love.  Our love.  How we treat one another, and those around us.  Jesus isn't calling us to love an ideal.  He's not asking us to embrace dogma or a facility or a paradigm.  He is telling us to love each other.  Regardless of what we wear Sunday morning.  Or if we gather Monday nights instead.

As Christians, and I completely include myself in this criticism, we often replace the teachings of Jesus for traditions or programs.  We think that if we just do these few things consistently, in the right manner, we'll have a better chance of staying pure or faithful.  Maybe there is some truth to that.  But it becomes deceptively easy to replace the love for Jesus with the dedication to a ritual.

Correct me if I'm wrong, seriously, but I'm pretty sure God got fed up with his children when they were offering meaningless sacrifices and holding pointless celebrations.  Check out Isaiah for starters. 

"The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord.

That is Isaiah 1:11.  Seriously, keep reading that book.  There is some powerful stuff there.  The rituals and traditions are not what nourish and sustain us.  That can only be found in Christ alone.  In him we live, and move and have our being!  (Acts 17:28)

Yes, there are divisions in the Church.  That in itself does not mean the Church is divided.  I know it just seems like wordplay, but it's the truth.  God is not divided, yet he is three in one.  Why would his body be any different?  He created us in his image after all.  A branch is part of the vine, not another branch.  If we abide, remain, belong to, rooted in, Jesus...well we are part of the vine.

Separate but united.

Divided we stand...but United we are Christ!

grace, peace + hope

-Bear

Divided We Stand?

It's late in the evening.  You're belly is full from the meal you have just eaten, but your mind is troubled.  You and a group of friends are walking through a vineyard.  The air is warm and you would normally have enjoyed such a night.  As you walk along you hear his voice.  He gestures to some of the vines and says,

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me..."

Those are the words of Jesus, taken from John's account; chapter 15:1-6.  The image is what I see in my mind as the disciples follow him from the upper room to Gethsemane.  Judas has just left in an odd turn that Jesus described as betrayal.  Peter has just said something in his usual knee-jerk reaction sort of way to which Jesus said Peter would deny him.  Three times!  Jesus is talking about leaving, and a comforter to come.  That the disciples would face trials and persecution.  Heavy stuff.

Now he is talking about vines and branches.  And how Jesus is the vine, and they are the branches.  They of course also being, us.

You and me.

You're a branch.  I'm a branch.  That guy on the soap box, he's a branch.  The shy one in the corner, she's a branch.  The guy with the tattoos all over, yeah, he's a branch too.  So is the guy in the suit, the lady in the uniform, the kid on the skateboard...

Get the picture?

We are all different.  Each branch is separate from each other.  My branch isn't connected to your branch.  Not by ourselves anyway.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Paul later uses the description of a body.  One body many parts.  He's talking more about spiritual gifts there, but the idea is similar.

Difference doesn't mean disunion.  Look at the people Jesus drew to himself.  Fishermen, tax collectors, activists, men, women, children.  Vastly different.  One thing in common.  They all needed to be forgiven of sins.

Just like me.  Just like you.

But in the common ground they had Jesus.

So while there are many "denominations" within the Church, and many differences within the denominations, Jesus is the branch.  We may differ on somethings, or out right disagree, and I'm here to tell you that is okay.

Again, many years later, Paul is arrested for spreading the good news of Jesus.  He writes a letter to the part of the church in Philippi.  (See, the church is all of us together, not just a building.)  Here he mentions something these folk seemed to know something about.  In verses 15-18 of chapter 1;

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

Christ is preached.  That is awfully magnanimous of Paul.  He doesn't care that others are preaching for reasons other than good will.  Christ is preached.  He's in jail.  But Christ is preached.  Now if that isn't a division, I don't know what is.  But the underlying fact remains, Jesus is The Vine.

Please do not misunderstand.  There is a difference between disagreement and difference and malicious division.  That type of division would be against Jesus.  Jesus cannot be divided.  Therefore the Church cannot be divided.  If we all individually remain in him, he will remain in us.  If we come together, remaining in him, with others who remain in him, we are the Church.

And it does not matter where or how you meet!  Huge campus, country church, Gothic Cathedral, or grocery store parking lot.  The types songs that are sung, do not matter.  Remember, hymns were "modern" at some point.  Jesus taught from inside the temple, to synagogues to hillsides and homes.

We are all different.  Individually, and in the places we gather to worship and fellowship.  And that is okay!  Some vines are longer than others.  Some have more leaves or fruit.  Some are new, some are very old.  But one thing keeps them all connected.

Jesus is the vine.

Tomorrow:  United We Are Christ

grace, peace + hope

-Bear