Thoughts On Discipleship
I was over at Alan Knox’s blog, the Assembling of the Church, where he was commenting on a post by Geoff at “My Blog.” The meat of the article focused on a definition of “disciple” by Dallas Willard. In the article Willard said,
“We need to clear in our heads about what discipleship is. My definition: A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.”
When I first read this quote, I was incredibly excited. In a lot of ways I’ve come to revise my life around the pursuit of Jesus and the mission He has called us to. However, the longer I stewed on this thought, the more something didn’t sit right with me. And I think what didn’t sit right with me is the fact that there is some more “constant revision” that needs to happen in my life. Check out this quote I stole from Jesus about discipleship:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it,” (Mark 8:34-35).
So while I believe I am revising my life to follow Christ (and that is something seriously worth rejoicing in), I think there’s more to go. Laying down your life has serious implications that “revising your life” doesn’t always include in our typical Western mindset. But it’s something we must embrace, pursue, and in the pursuit continue to revise life so that it submits to Jesus. He is worthy of a body of people who are not just believers, but disciples.
So, are you a disciple? What does it look like to lose your life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel?
(Stay tuned Friday for an interesting thought that occurred during this post.)
Photo Credit: Sermon-On-The-Mount-Carl-Heinrich-Bloch-19th_C by ideacreamanuelaPp
Leaders For The Harvest
Tonight I was on the phone with one of my good friends from Kansas City that I haven’t had a chance to chat with in a while. I was describing some of the wins we are experiencing and some of the challenges that are occurring at the same time. After two or three minutes, my friend gently broke into the conversation and challenged me. “You know what you should be spending your time doing right now is developing leaders for your third and fourth house church right now, right?”
I was dumbfounded (for a couple of reasons). I was shocked by how quickly he saw straight into the heart of some of the problems I’ve been facing. But more than that, I was shocked at how obvious what he was saying was and how clearly I had missed that fact. It seems that in preparing a church for the harvest, I had totally neglected leadership development in our midst.
But the conversation gets right to the heart of a problem that I believe we face in the West. Our ability to reach further into the harvest depends significantly on our ability to raise up new, harvest-minded leaders in our midst. We think finding the harvest is our biggest issue. We often forget that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Join me today in praying that God would raise up workers for His harvest here and where you are.
Photo Credit: Bosworth Battlefield (2) by Jams_123
When You Just Don’t Understand (Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness, Day 27)
This blog was temporarily overtaken In September by my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge. This post is one of the final days I did not get to post until now. You can find out more by checking out the Introduction.
One of the joys of this journey is that I’m beginning to hear on a much clearer level than I have in a long time. This is great. The only problem is, what happens when you totally do not understand what you hear? What do you do with those things you don’t quite get?
Case in point: I woke up this morning with a very clear word on my heart. It was like God whispered it to me when I woke up. He said, “I’m giving to you the books of service.” What does that mean? I immediately began to recall the heavenly scrolls that God would give to his prophets. These weren’t for reading, the scrolls (or books) contained heavenly realities that were being imparted to the prophets (Ezekiel 3:1-3, Revelation 10:8-10). So, I guess I have a little bit of a grid for what God is talking about.
The other interesting thing is when I went to lunch today I was thinking about what I heard and was tempted to write it off as just something I dreamt. But as I was eating, I read some of Nudge by Leonard Sweet. I just “so happened” to be reading the the part of the book where Len focuses in on spiritual hearing being the main source where we become awake to what God is doing. To paraphrase what I read, everything begins with what you hear and whether you are willing to listen.
So while I feel like the Lord is confirming what I heard, it doesn’t answer any of my more specific questions. What is a book of service? And what should I do with it? What is it supposed to impart to me? And how do I respond to this? I’m asking Him these questions when I’m not listening. I’ll let you know when I get a response.
As you were listening, did you hear anything you didn’t understand? What did you do about it? Tell us in the comment section.
Join us on the “Thirty Days to Greater Fruitfulness” experiment. For all of September we spent 30 minutes in silent prayer listening to Jesus and then acting on what He asked us to do. Then we blogged about the changes that were occurring in our lives through the marriage of listening and obedience. It’s not too late. If you’re just checking out that experiment feel free to jump in. And if you want more information, you can check it out here.
Photo Credit: September WallPaper Calendar by DewDreams
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 