If you’ve been reading the blog for any length of time, you know that I am a huge fan of simple, multiplying discipleship and church planting.  The problem is so few people have seen examples of disciple and church multiplication that I find it helpful to provide examples when I find them. This most recent example came from a new Facebook Friend, Lee Wood:

Duckling Discipleship-

I trained Edward Kisembo and his 6 key leaders two months ago in Uganda. He Edward has launched 20 groups and last week they lead 103 people to Christ and launched many more groups in homes. Jude is a key leader who started one group of believers who he trained to all start groups. Those 5 groups have lead 12 people to faith and launched two new groups. Multiplying spiritual families (groups) is training every disciple to hear/accept, obey and spread all Jesus’ commandments. They trained this entire group of people to do the same thing in Rwanda the last two days.

All Disciples Are Involved

“The main purpose of life is to glorify the Lord. We can do this best when we know Him most intimately and serve Him most fervently. It is God’s intention is for every disciple to be engaged in ministry. Those who are gifted with the five leadership gifts in Ephesians 4:11-12 are to equip those with other gifts to do the work of the ministry, which results in the building up of the Body of Christ. Though each believer has a different gifting and a unique calling, everyone is to be engaged in living out the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40) and carrying out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18- 20).

If we are living out the Great Commandment then we will be making reproducing disciples because part of the disciple-making process is “teaching them to obey everything I [Christ] have commanded” and the Commission itself is one of those commands. Hence, every believer should by definition be involved in making reproducing disciples. It is a short step from this toward starting reproducing spiritual communities (churches) because several of the other commands demand a spiritual community to carry out. Reproducing disciples will result in reproducing churches as a matter of obedience.” -Curtis Sergeant

Photo Credit: 125/365 Dolls in the Rain by Joe Lodge

Today is Easter, the day all over the world Christians of all stripes and varieties celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. What I love about this holiday is that it, more than any other holiday that Christians celebrate, is one that pushes Christians to actually reflect on the most crucial elements of our faith.

One of the truths I’ve been mulling over the last few weeks has been the reality of the Father’s role in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For most of us, we’ve come to believe the lie that the Father is some sort of disapproving, hard to appease deity that spent this period of time waiting for Jesus to die, waiting to be appeased with humanity by the death of His Son*. The picture is more of an evil, distant Father than we care to admit. We believe because of a mixture of influences: Some good theology, some bad experiences with father figures, and a little bit of biblical ignorance. Lately I’ve been seeing the Father’s role in a completely different light.

At the moment Jesus died, Matthew records a unique detail:

At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Matthew 27:51

This tearing of the veil wasn’t just a result of a terrible earthquake or the result of  stress on the Temple. This tearing of the veil was symbolic. The veil itself represented the idea that God and man were to be forever separate because man had sinned. To look at God in our sin would kill us. The veil in the Temple protected us from staring straight at God and dying, but it also separated us from God. It meant we had limited access to God. When Jesus breathed His last, the veil was torn to symbolize that the separation between God and man had ended.

But who tore the veil?

I can’t point you to a verse that conclusively says who tore the veil, but here’s what I believe: the Father Himself tore the veil. I believe that from Eternity He sat waiting to restore communion with mankind. He had longed to fellowship with man just like He had in the garden. So the very moment that Jesus breathed His final breath, the very moment the price was paid to cleanse us from our sin, that very moment, God the Father Himself tore down the veil that seperated us from Himself.

It was almost as if the Father was saying, “FINALLY!”

God had been wanting a relationship with His family this whole time. He wasn’t the neglectful Father turning His back on His Son. He along with Jesus had hatched a plan from the foundation of the world to draw us back into fellowship with Himself. The cross was the culmination of their planning and at the very first opportunity, the Father ripped down everything that separated us from Himself.

Today is Easter and the resurrection of Jesus is real and an enormously big deal. But I want to ask you a question: Is God your Father who wants a relationship with you so much that He tears down everything that separates us from Him or is He someone else to you? The answer may just shock you, but if we can believe rightly that the Father is seeking to tear down everything that separates us from Him, then we begin to see Him as He really is.

And then we are changed.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:16-17

Photo Credit: Tomb of Jesus by Dainis Matisons

*Note I do believe that Jesus’ death satisfied the wrath of God against sin.