Opus 2011-374, Discernment Watch: Is Discipling Biblical?

One of the great memes of the church for a time was the idea of discipling.  By some strange coincidence it came shortly after the culture was getting into small groups, sensitivity sessions, faith walks and all of that psychological paraphernalia. 

The idea was that we all need to be discipled.  We need to go through a period where we are trained one-on-one by someone more mature that we are.  It is not a bad concept.  It can work.  The problem is when we place too much emphasis on it or make it a litmus test.  One of the examples that is constantly referred to is Jesus and the Twelve.  Take this paragraph from a book of the era,

    “Christ Himself has set the pattern.  He spent most of His time with twelve - with eternal results.  He called the twelve that He might be with them.  He worked with them, trained them, and loved them, and He let them train each other.  There was a cross-current of the work of God’s Spirit as these disciples were together.

    “Discipling is as critical a need as there is among believers today.  Every Christian needs some older Christian he’s learning from, and some younger Christian he’s teaching.  It’s the function of the whole body to do this.”  p. 65

The issue is not “is this a good thing?”  The issue is the position that it is a requirement.

Think about it.  The disciples were personally trained by Jesus and it was the apostle Paul, who never physically met Jesus who became the great evangelist.  He learned how to be effective by studying the word, the work of the holy Spirit and a personal encounter with the living Christ.  This works against all out theories of discipling.

In fact the men who spent so much time with Jesus were pretty useless until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and got them moving.

What we as believers need is not more training, more books, more classes.  What we need is more power and more obedience.  We already know more than we are doing.  Our hearts and minds are reasonably full but our lives are not reflecting the contents.

Let’s get salty.  Let’s stand up and be counted.  Let’s speak up for truth in public meetings and private conversations.  Let’s seek our own personal Pentecosts to begin the revival that our world needs. 

Salt is used in grains, not blocks.

Ortlund, Raymond C.  Lord, Make My Life a Miracle.  Glendale:  Regal Books, 1974.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-373, New Years Thanksgiving

My wife left this morning for therapy.  She has knee replacements in her future and pain in her present.  I took one of our cars and left it with out mechanic.  He has a hard time working because of joint pain.  If he could afford it, he might be having knees replaced.  Everywhere I go I see people in electric wheel-chairs, many of which probably need them through no fault of their own.  I went to dinner with a couple.  The wife had to stop half way through dinner to check her blood and give herself a shot.  I have a brother who died of a rare blood cancer.

These observations put the complaints I might have about life in a different context.  I have problems, yes.  Some are even real.  In the midst of that I am aware of how many blessings I have.  I am reminded today as I walked back from the mechanics shop, from one who aches to one in pain, that I was still moving freely.  I am grateful and took the opportunity to lift those up in prayer along with a lady who has an infant niece having brain surgery, a fellow blogger who has a wife going through brain surgery, and....  You get the idea.

Thanksgiving is not a day in November.  Thanksgiving is a daily awareness of the blessings that God touches us with.  It is also an opportunity to remember others who might need a special touch of grace.

Happy New Year’s Thanksgiving

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-372, Spiritual Gifts: Hospitality

(1 Peter 4:9 KJV)  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

I believe that hospitality (5382) is a spiritual gift.  It is not on all lists, but I think it is part of the building up of the body of Christ.  One reason I can see this as a gift is because of the verse that follows this one,

(1 Peter 4:10 KJV)  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Hospitality is an interesting word.  It is a compound word in the Greek made up of two words you would be familiar with.  The first is philios, or brotherly love.  We see it in words like filial and names like Philadelphia.  The second part is xenos which means stranger.  We use the word in xenophobia and such.

I think this word would be the direct opposite of xenophobia which is directly out of the Greek.  Xenophobia means “fear of strangers.”  philoxenos means “love of stranger.”  One is the standard of the world; the other, the church.  They are only a few letters apart.

There is a bit of confusion on this gift.  Once when teaching on spiritual gifts I had the class take a survey on spiritual gifts.  A large number of them came up with the gift of hospitality yet one of the big weaknesses of that church was that they did not reach out to new people.  Something did not add up.  Much of the incongruity came from understanding the meaning of the gift.  Hospitality is not knowing how to set a table and which fork to use.  It is more an attitude toward reaching out and caring about others.

A good example would be Mary and Martha.  The gift of hospitality is not the person who knows how to use the good china and who knows how to put a meal on time.  That was Martha.  She was concerned with the production.  Hospitality is in the hearts of people who make others comfortable in their home.  That was more Mary. 

When you are greeted by someone with the gift of hospitality, you come, you sit and you feel like you belong, not like you are an imposition.  If someone has the gift of hospitality the people eating with you don’t worry about the right fork or the quality of the food, but enjoy the fellowship that has been established along with the food.  Tuna casserole is enough when the gift of hospitality is present.  Of course the person with the gift would be sensitive to the fact that you hate tuna casserole and would not serve it, but that is another story. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-371, On the Street: Hypocrisy on Wheels

I few days ago I was following a pickup with a decal on the window.  At a stop sign I was able to get close enough to read it.  It said, “Gas Sucks, Ride a Bike.”  Okay, I get the message.  What I did not understand was why this decal was on a 4 wheel drive, raised frame, gas sucker. 

A bit of cognitive dissonance here?

It reminds me of one of my favorite lines, I think it is from The Princess Bride, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-370, Links: A Thought on Tithing

I was reading on the blog “Cross Eyed” and came across a link to another article on tithing.  The entire article was good but the author included a thought that had never occurred to me before.  I include the paragraph that struck me along with a link to “Money Matters: How Much Do I Give?” 

“So what do we do with the tithe? Does God tell us today that we need to continue giving 10%? Well, that isn’t ever expressed clearly in the New Testament. The tithe is never reaffirmed and it is never canceled. But what is clear is that all of the New Testament laws were not lowered but heightened after Christ. The Old Testament warned against adultery; Jesus warned against a lustful glance. The Old Testament warned against murder; Jesus warned against even a hate-filled thought. Those Old Testament laws were a starting point to a much greater kind of obedience. Out of obedience to Christ and because of what Christ has done, the stakes have all been raised.”

This presents a Biblical approach to an old question.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-369, Euphoric Epiphany

Christmas is a day.  Advent was a season leading up to Christmas.  Epiphany is still coming so the season is not over.  Our Orthodox brethren celebrate the birth of Jesus on January 6 which is Epiphany in the West, the coming of the Wise men.

Why is this important?  It means that you can still celebrate.  Most important, you can still play your Christmas music without being a heretic.  Actually I like to hear “Joy to the World” in June.

Remember that the first line is “Joy to the world, the Lord is come...”  It does not say “has come” or “did come.”  It is in the present tense.  In Greek we would have a way of saying it that makes it clear that it is an ongoing action.

So keep on celebrating until Lent. 

Emmanuel.  God is with us.

Euphoric Epiphany and Happy New Year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-368, The Nature of a Child

If you have ever worked with children, you know some of the questions they can ask.  “Did the baby Jesus dirty his diapers?”  “Did the baby Jesus know He was God?”  Of course some of us still wonder about those things as we get older.

One of the mysteries I expect to research in the University of the New Jerusalem has to do with Jesus childhood.  On one side we have the indication that Jesus grew up as a normal child.  He lived in submission to His parents.  He was trained by Joseph to be a carpenter.  He had brothers who tried to control His behavior.

At the same time He was Almighty God.  This is what the incarnation is all about. 

(John 1:14 KJV)  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So I wonder what Jesus was like as a child.

I know what other children are like.  I have experienced it.  I was a child.  I have dealt with it as a parent, teacher, uncle and member of society.  And I have read what the Bible has to say about children.  Like so many other great truths a child has different sides.  My first born was hideous.  He was covered with blood and a white chalky substance.  Underneath he was blue.  His face looked like a clay model that had run into a wall.  At the same time he was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen:  He was my firstborn.

So on one side we have Jesus and children. 

(Matthew 19:14 KJV)  But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus got along well with children.  They enjoyed being with Him.  He looked at the positive qualities of childhood and told us to grow up and become like children.

(Luke 18:17 KJV)  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

So we see that there is a side of childhood that is good.

We get a different picture if we read other places.

(Proverbs 22:15 KJV)  Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Maybe part of the difference was that Solomon had children and Jesus didn’t.  Or it could be that both are true. 

We are touching on the Biblical teaching about Original Sin or Depravity.  As beautiful and wonderful as children are there is still a foundation of self-centeredness and rebellion that marks them as needing a savior.  This is one of the differences between the Biblical nature of humanity and the secular view. 

This is a vital difference.  The church is letting it go and we are paying the price.  Schools assume that children are not the problem, society is the problem.  Thus the vast majority of teachers think that all education needs is more money and slicker programs.  All we need to do is train teachers with better methods and children will turn into enlightened and benevolent adults.  Teachers are told to use methods such as cooperative learning and collaboration in order to let the wisdom of the child come out.  Much classroom time is wasted on such nonsense.

The Bible teaches that the child is a sinner.  He was born that way and remains that way until the grace of God is applied.

(Psalms 51:5 KJV)  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

You probably don’t like the idea.  The secular view is much more appealing.  Next time you are inclined to accept it, ask yourself what kind of inner goodness is being exhibited on the news when they talk about these mobs of young people running amok in malls and creating mayhem.  They have been told again and again that they are good and that society is wrong.

The message of Christmas is that man needs a savior.  The message of Christmas is that the Savior was born.  The message of Christmas is that He brings hope.

Pray that the message will break through.

May this year be the “fullness of time” in your life and the lives of those you love.

homo unius libri