Engaging Scripture

Was Jesus cold to his family?

Do you have a warm, loving family? Or would you say yours is cold? More likely it is a mixed bag with varying levels of relationship from person to person in the family. Maybe there is a family member or two that you have a close relationship with, and perhaps there are one or two that are not so close. I suspect most families are like that.

Jesus’ family was like that too. Imagine with me for a moment what it must have been like to be in his family. For years family life is normal. Jesus is the older brother, working with his dad, Joseph, learning how to be a carpenter. As the years go by other brothers and sisters are born and grow up. At some point, Joseph passes away, we think, as there is no mention of him during Jesus’ adult years. Jesus, as eldest, could have taken on some authority, some responsibility for the family. Maybe a few of his younger siblings look up to him, and as with other families, maybe some didn’t. There was likely sibling rivalry just like my family and yours.

But somewhere in Jesus’ 30th year, news of a prophet reaches Nazareth, and in a few months everyone is talking about him. This prophetic guy, John the Baptizer, is acting and speaking a lot like the famous prophet of old, Elijah. What’s more, they’ve figured out through the family grapevine that John is their cousin. And so Jesus, the oldest brother of Mary’s clan, goes to check him out.

That’s when it all starts. Word gets back to Nazareth that not only does John baptize Jesus, like he does the hundreds of other people in the crowd, but John also says some crazy stuff about Jesus. That Jesus is the one John has been waiting for, that the whole nation has been waiting for. As if John’s ministry was always somehow focused on finding the One, and Jesus is the One. Imagine how Mary and the rest of her kids felt hearing that.

Old memories that Mary has stored deep in her heart start to surface. Memories of angels and shepherds and a miraculous pregnancy and birth and a manger in Bethlehem. Memories of ancient Simeon and Anna at the temple in Jerusalem. All proclaiming big news over this baby. Wealthy visitors from the east bearing gifts, saying they have followed a star guiding them to meet the new baby king. And then the fearful, hurried move to Egypt because a crazy adult king named Herod heard about this amazing news too, of the birth of a possible contender to the throne, and his way of dealing with it was to kill all the babies in the surrounding area. So Joseph and Mary grabbed Jesus and rushed to Egypt till they got the all clear that Herod was dead and gone. Those were heady, wild days. Days filled with emotion and drama and miracles.

Within a few years, the family moves back to their home in Nazareth. Life went back to normal, except for that one time when he was 12 and they lost him on the trip to Jerusalem. But that was almost 20 years before. So much time, so much normal time had gone by. Lots of regular life. All those wild events have faded into the distant background of normalcy.

Now this John has been baptizing, and a change comes over Jesus. He leaves, gets baptized. And then Jesus disappears for 40 days. Gone. No letters home, no word of his whereabouts. Imagine what is going through Mary’s heart and mind. The questions, the emotions, the stories from Bethlehem come flooding back.

A shift is happening.

Finally they hear that Jesus is alive and well. Imagine the huge relief within Mary as she hears this. Sadly news also tells of John thrown in prison. If you’re Mary that gets you teary as you remember your beloved cousin Elizabeth. If she were still alive, you think how she would feel, how scared. That Herod who put John in prison is just like his earlier relative from 30 years earlier, crazy, and more than willing to do shameful things. You think you should visit John.

But you are torn. John is in prison, which is sad, but news about your son is so heartening! And a bit startling. They say Jesus has started preaching and teaching which is strange enough, but he is also…get this…doing miracles. Miracles? Yes! Healing people of sickness and deformity. What? Yes, and more than that, he is reportedly casting out demons!

Imagine being Mary hearing this. Imagine the emotions.

Now imagine being the brothers and sisters. Where Mary’s eyes are wide and her heart is big, it would be very easy for the siblings to have eyes that are questioning, hearts doubting. Did they suspect anything like this? Were any of his behaviors, his tendencies, his habits at home in Nazareth pointing to this? Did they have any inkling? Or were they doubting? Their brother? A big name preacher?

As if in answer to the questions, the stream of news does not stop. In fact, it is sounding like Jesus has made his way back north, and is coming home to Nazareth. He does just that, but the homecoming is testy to say the least. Things are fine at their family home; maybe he even does a little carpentry, maybe helps the younger siblings learn some woodworking so they can take over. He’ll be gone for a while and someone needs to keep the business going. But when they go to the synagogue for worship on Sabbath, all hell breaks loose. It starts off well enough as Jesus, former woodworker, now traveling preaching, is asked to read to the scroll. It’s the Isaiah scroll, a passage describing the Messiah, the chosen one, the One God promised he would send to deliver the nation…and Jesus says this is fulfilled now. People start looking at each other. Eyebrows raised. Jesus? The carpenter? It sounds great. They all wanted the Messiah to come, but Jesus? Is he for real? Is the boy who grew up down the road saying he is the Messiah?

Jesus, sensing their doubt, lays into them a bit talking about God and his heart for the whole world and referring to some stories from the OT which proved his point. Those hometown people who were iffy, doubting, wondering how the local carpenter can all of a sudden become a preacher, are now angry at his insinuation of their disbelief. They, like pretty much all Jews, thought they were God’s chosen people, and the rest of world are pagans. For this supposed disrespect, Jesus’ neighbors get hot fast, and they round up a posse with aims to throw him off a cliff.

Imagine Mary now. Imagine the siblings. How did they feel now? In their family this would have been deeply topsy-turvey stuff. Stomach-churning. Do they fight against their own townspeople to defend their son/brother? They might agree with the townspeople. It sure seemed like he was being disrespectful to God’s chosen people. This is really odd behavior from Jesus. If someone else’s kid was doing what Jesus did, Mary and her other kids would probably agree with what the rest of the town was doing. But this was her son, their brother. What should they do?

Strangely, in the middle of the posse, on the edge of the cliff, Jesus walks away. The rowdy Nazarites calm down. No one was really sure why or how. He just walked away. Did he say goodbye to Mary? Give her a kiss? Hug his siblings?

Once again, he is gone. In the coming weeks and months, word continues to come back to Nazareth, to Mary, to his siblings, that he is doing miracles. The size of the crowds following him are growing. They’re saying they’ve never heard a teacher like him. The authority. The creativity. The parables. It is a message of grace and hope. His style, his message is not at all like they are used to hearing from the religious leaders, and from the Pharisees. And speaking of the Pharisees, the establishment guys from Jerusalem have taken notice. People tell Mary that the Pharisees are on to Jesus, following him everywhere, questioning him, confronting him. This is amazing and somewhat foreboding. Does Mary try to tell the rest of the siblings about the birth stories, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men? Would they even believe her?

Then to top it all off, they hear that Jesus rose a person from the dead! That is too much. Who could believe that?

How would you feel if you were Mary, if you were his brother or sister? Probably how anyone would feel. They would want to go see this with their very own eyes. They won’t believe it till they see it.

You need to go see him. You can’t just stay at home, hearing these stories constantly. Not with the way things were left last time you saw him. You have to go to him.

And so you go. It’s not a long trip. Just a neighboring town, accessible in a day’s walk. You pack for the day, get everyone set, and off you go across the dusty roads of Galilee.

As you arrive in the town, the place is simply buzzing. You’re amazed. Though you’ve heard the stories of the crowds, you were not prepared for this. The crowd is massive. This many people have come to hear your son? You have a mixture of pride and excitement and doubt and anticipation. The only time you’ve seen a crowd like this is for a festival in Jerusalem. More than the crowd, you can’t wait to see him, your son.

The whisper down the lane from the front is that he is in a house, telling stories. Something about a farmer throwing seeds. And people are a bit confused about why that is so important. You think about the farm near your house in Nazareth that Jesus did some carpentry work for.

You move forward, but you start to get frustrated because as you and your kids are worming your way through the crowd, slowly to the front, the bodies get tighter. People are less willing to let you through.

You just want to see him, hear him, give him a hug. But the crowd is totally jammed up now. There is no more moving forward. The people in front of you are starting to get upset that you’re trying to get closer. You’re not too far outside the house now, so that if the tall people in the crowd in front of you move just right you can catch a glimpse of him, and you can hear his voice. You catch a few words, and he is talking about lighting a lamp. And you think about the lamps you would light in your home.

You’re so excited that you tap on the shoulder of the person in front you. At first they say, “Knock if off lady” but you say “I am his mother, and these are his siblings.” A light comes over the man’s face, and he says to the person in front of him “his mother and brothers are here…” and now the whisper down the lane goes the other direction. Word quickly reaches him.

Silence. He stops talking.

He looks toward the door, the windows.

What he says next is shocking. You’re hoping for “Well, let them in!”

Or “What? Where are they? Let me through! I want to see them!”

Or “My mom’s here!”

But no. None of that. Instead he turns to the crowd and says words that pierce your heart: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s Word and put it into practice.”

The pain feels icy cold.

He just turned you into a teaching moment.

If you’re Mary, did your heart just drop to your feet?

If you were his brothers and sisters, did you just get angry?

What would you feel? Join us tomorrow at Faith Church to hear more!

The Four Soils – An Evaluation Tool for Disciples of Jesus – Luke 8:1-15

Was Jesus trying to confuse his audience? Possibly, but I suspect he really wanted them to avidly seek the meaning of his Gardening 101 parable. Maybe some did. Luke tells us that the disciples asked him what it meant, and he told them. What we hear is a powerful evaluation tool that all Christians should apply to their lives. Want to know if you are living how Jesus wants his to disciples to be living? Even if the analysis is not what we want to hear, we would do well to submit ourselves to the evaluation.

Basically Jesus says that people who hear his word (the seed in the parable) are like four different kinds of soils. Read the description and evaluate yourselves:

Soil #1 – The Hard Path – The seed is never planted, never takes root. This kind of person does not believe in Jesus. More and more people in our nation are in this category. Statisticians call them the NONES. Not NUNS, but NONES, people who claim to have no religion. Recent polls are showing that 20% of Americans are in the None category. They just don’t care about religion, church, Jesus. They might be atheist. In America, this kind of person most likely has very comfortable life, filled with the many entertainment and enjoyments that America has to offer. Church? Jesus? They say, “Not for me.”

Soil #2 – Rocky – In this soil, the seed is planted, but it takes no root, as the soil is shallow. This kind of person believes, Jesus says, but in the time of testing they fall away. This person seems to be a believer, but there is not enough depth in their relationship with the Lord to survive hard times. Think about what it takes for faith to grow so strong that it can survive challenges like losing a job, losing a loved one?

Soil #3 – Thorny Weeds – Once again, the seed is planted, but the weeds choke it out. This kind of person believes, but they are distracted by life’s worries, riches and pleasures. Further, Jesus tells, and this is key, they do not mature. Some have said that this is the bane of American Christianity, and the same would be likely in any wealthy culture.

Soil #4 – Fertile – Here the seed is planted, matures, and produces a crop. This kind of person is described five ways:

Those with a noble and good heart.
Hear the word
Retain it
Persevere
Produce a crop

I see this in action in my backyard garden right now with our cherry tomato plants. We did not plant any tomatoes this year. We did not need to. They grew up all by themselves. Last year we planted a couple of them, and they produced a massive harvest. I couldn’t keep up with the harvest. But even with picking those tomatoes and giving them away and eating a lot myself, there were some that I missed. They fell to the ground and eventually their seeds survived the winter and this spring they started growing a new tomato plant! In fact so many plants came up this year that I had to thin them out. I didn’t want 20 cherry tomato plants, especially not ones that were growing right on top of each other!

Fertile ground produces a crop that produces a crop that produces a crop. In the Kingdom of God, this means that people who are good soil hear God’s word and do what it says. They produce a crop of more disciples. When Jesus was with the fisherman, he used a story that would speak to them. He said “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Those goal of following Jesus, in other words, was for those fisherman to become the kind of people who would help more people to follow Jesus.

Now he is speaking to gardeners and farmers. He says “be fertile soil that produces a crop”. Become the kind of people who help more people to follow Jesus.

The word we use for this is disciple-making. We are disciples of Jesus, we follow him, learning from him how to live, and much of that is personal, related to us. For example, we should be filled with the fruit of the Spirit. We should be living what he called the abundant life, which was actually his life, the way he lived. Filled with crazy amounts of joy and love and kindness even in the midst of difficulty. But as we are learning from him how to live, we do what he did. He was the ultimate fertile ground, producing an amazing crop. One of the most important patterns of life that Jesus practiced himself and that he wants us to practice in our lives is to be disciple-makers. Fishers of men. Fertile ground that produces a crop.

Simply put, we invest in the lives of people who are not followers of Jesus, loving them, praying for them, leading them to become followers of Jesus.

As we look at the various gifts of the Spirit, there is no disciple-making gift. When Jesus said to his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations” he was saying that this is the task for every single one of his followers. There is no other way to look at Jesus’ concept of fertile ground. Fertile ground produces a crop.

So there you have four soils. Which soil are you? Did you identify with any of those soils?

If you had to rank which one you most identify with, what would it be?

Maybe it would be more accurate to put percentages to them.

It seems to me most likely that we have a mixture of these soils simultaneously in our lives. You might say, “I think I’m 75% fertile soil, but I know I’m struggling with some weeds in my life.”

The parable could be a great evaluation tool. How much are you like the soil of the hardened path, where you are simply not allowing God’s Word in your life?

How much are you like the rocky soil where you have allowed the trials and tragedies of life to steal your faith, hinder your growth?

How much are you like the weedy/thorny soil where you have become distracted by things of this world like work, hobbies, TV shows, food, the comforts of our wealthy culture?

How much are you like the fertile soil, hearing God’s word, letting it take root, growing mature in Christ and producing a crop?

Followers of Jesus hear his word, grow mature, and produce a crop. There is no other option. He doesn’t have a plan B. The first three soils are not what he wants us to be. He only wants us to be fertile soil.

That time Jesus purposefully wanted to confuse the audience

My family and I started gardening a couple years ago. When we lived in a city rowhome we filled a couple 5-gallon buckets with dirt, planted some tomatoes and peppers and stuck them on our second floor outdoor balcony. Our backyard butted up against a neighboring house that blocked out the sun, so the buckets were a first feeble attempt…and failure. When we moved to our current home with a backyard and garden, we were excited to give it a new try. We’ve made lots of mistakes like when we picked our pumpkins in August because we had planted too early. Each year we learn a bit more, like the need to plant our baby tomatoes far enough away from one another that they don’t become a tangled mess.

We have family and friends that have been very helpful in coaching us about gardening. They have been a great help, and our garden is all the better for it.

This week our study in Luke gets into gardening. In Luke 8:1-15, Jesus tells a parable from the world of agriculture, which was a huge part of his society.

I wonder how people in the crowd felt that day. They came to hear a powerful orator, and what he gave them amounts to Gardening 101. Check it out for yourself:

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

You pretty much get that lesson in preschool when you plant a seed in a Dixie cup and bring it home to grow on the kitchen windowsill.

Why would Jesus waste his time, and the crowd’s time, and all that ink and paper in those bajillion Bibles over the centuries on a lesson in basic farming?

Plant in good soil, get rid of rocks and weeds, and you’ll have a good shot at a harvest. Is that all he said?

Nope, Luke tells us that after Jesus told the parable to the crowd, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” That clarify it for you? Some of you might have heard this parable before, but imagine being there in the crowd hearing it for the first time. How would you have felt? Would you be frustrated that all you got was basic gardening principles? Would you be seeking for deeper meaning? Would you assume that this famous, powerful spiritual teacher must have meant something more? Would it help when he says “whoever has ears to hear, let them hear?”

It seems at least Jesus disciples were questioning like that, because they ask him what the parable meant. Think he tells them?

He responds to them with this “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand’.”

Doesn’t it sound like he is basically saying “I don’t want the crowds to know what this parable means”? How many speakers get up to speak, give a cryptic speech that no one understands, and feel like that was mission accomplished? How many speakers desire to confuse their audiences? Sure seems like that’s what Jesus was doing, doesn’t it?

Or was he?

If you’re not already part of a worship gathering, or you’re just curious to hear the rest of the story, please feel free to come to Faith Church on Sunday.

An Awkward Bible Story – Luke 7:36-50

There are some really awkward stories in the Bible. This past Sunday in our series teaching through Luke we came to one those stories. Take a look:

When you read the story, if you’re like me you’ve heard it many times, and you have been accustomed to it, so you’ve already classified it in your mind as “that time Jesus was anointed by a sinful woman” and you go on. No big deal.

No big deal? How did you feel watching that video? Awkward?

This story makes me feel like I want to turn my eyes away. It’s weird! Is it okay to say that about a Bible story? Yes, it is. Because this story is genuinely, truly weird. But maybe we find it weird from our cultural vantage point? Maybe it wasn’t weird in Jesus’ culture?

What is so striking is that Jesus doesn’t seemed phased by the awkwardness. As we see time and time again in Jesus’ lifestyle, his way, he defies convention and teaches us just by example. What can we learn from Jesus in his interaction with this sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50?

First, It is okay to interact with sinners, especially when they are repentant. We can be very repulsed by sinners. If there ever was a situation to be repulsed about, this is one. A sinful woman comes to a single man who is a religious leader, and she starts doing very intimate things to him in presence of another high-powered, but legalistic, religious leader? You and I would probably be quick to get the heck out of there. If we let her continue for even a few seconds, people could start talking, and we could lose our ministry.

But Jesus knows her repentant heart. He sees that this is not a sneaky, wily woman. Just think about it. Why else would she be so bold, walking right into a house of a Pharisee like that? Because she has bad intentions and is desperately hopeful that this will start a romantic relationship with Jesus? I mean he is the most eligible bachelor in the land, if you think about it, but no way would her method work. She is walking into the morality police’s dining room! If anything, this is a risky stupid move that had all the makings of getting her stoned. But Jesus knew her heart and he intervened before anything damaging could happen. He shows us that we can and should interact with even repulsive people who are repentant and want to change.

Second, sins can be forgiven, even awful sins. Like I said earlier, we don’t know the extent of this woman’s sins. And though the anointing is really bizarre in our modern eyes, what is striking is the lengths she goes to express sorry and repentance for her sins.

When is the last time you wept because off your sins? She is broken because of her sins. She could be stoned. But she is willing to lay it all out there. The sinful woman has an understanding of the depth of her sin. As the woman is cleaning Jesus’ feet, Jesus told a parable to the Pharisee whose name was Simon. To summarize the parable talked about two men who had loans forgiving, one ten times more than the other. Jesus asked Simon who would love more, and Simon correctly answered that is was the one who was forgiven the larger loan. When we have been forgiven much, we see our sin more clearly and love much. Jesus is saying, like the woman anointing him, how important it is that we have an understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

We have all had sin forgiven. And this lady reminds us that we should take drastic action to make things right!

I’ll never forget a scene at one EC National Conference from a couple years ago. During a time of singing songs of worship, which we always do at the beginning of each session, one of our pastors walked forward to the front of the gathering and got down on his knees and prayed…in plain view of the whole National conference. It was intense. He was taking drastic action. I don’t what was going on in his life, but it was a powerful display of seeking the Lord.

Do you need to take drastic action to deal with your sin?

Finally, what is also so amazing about this story is the love and forgiveness of Jesus. He was and is a friend of sinners. He is so filled with love, entering into the awkwardness this woman has brought to him, forgiving of her sin.

And he has entered into our awkwardness. His forgiveness is available for us. He loves us. The final few lines of the story are amazing:

Sins forgiven
Jesus forgives
Your faith has saved you, go in peace.

What is the sin in your life? Though sin grieves the Lord, do you know that he loves you, that he died and rose again for you, so that your sins are forgiven? There is hope!

Questioning Jesus – Luke 7:18-35

In our study of Luke’s Gospel, our next story reintroduces us to a guy who was feeling confused about who Jesus is. He is doubting Jesus. Jesus used to be very real to him. But now it seems that Jesus has gone away.

That doubting guy? You’ve met him before. Maybe you know him quite well. Maybe Jesus seems to have gone away from you too. In the story from Luke 7, the doubter is John the Baptist. He was Jesus’ relative, and he was the guy who ushered Jesus into the ministry. He had a reputation for being bold, but John has changed. Maybe a year has gone by, John has been in prison probably for months, and his doubts about Jesus start growing. John still has a couple disciples caring for his needs in prison, and he sends them to Jesus to ask if Jesus is really the One.

Questioning Jesus. Have you ever done that?

In response to John’s question, Jesus doesn’t say a word. Instead he does what the One was supposed to do: miracles upon miracles. Only after that Jesus tells John’s disciples, “What do you see with your own eyes? Just tell John what you see.” What did they see? They saw the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit working powerfully through Jesus to perform the miraculous deeds which would confirm that he was who he said he was. The Messiah. The Savior. The promised One. He was who months ago John said he was, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World.

John might be languishing in prison, and that would be terribly difficult, but Jesus’ miracles are a response to John to not give up. Jesus was doing what the Messiah was supposed to do. And as difficult as it would be to have to hear about that from a prison cell, John could still rejoice that the long awaited Messiah actually had come.

Is it possible that for those of us who don’t see God, don’t feel God, and feel distant from God, we need to see Jesus differently?

Jesus was right there. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Perhaps prison had affected John’s viewpoint. He couldn’t see Jesus anymore. He felt very distant.

What about you? Don’t see Jesus? Feel distant from him? Be assured that Jesus is right there. He is doing everything that he is supposed to be doing! It is no different in our day. He is alive and well.

But perhaps our expectations are wrong!

So often in my own life I want Jesus to answer my prayer a very specific way. And when he doesn’t, I can get upset. I can think he betrayed me, that he didn’t show up when I wanted him, when I felt I needed him.

But he was there. He was doing what he was supposed to do. It was I who needed to see him differently.

I have heard this many times over the years when a loved one has passed away. We don’t want that person to be gone. We miss them. The passing is hard. In many cases we have prayed that God would heal them and prolong their lives. But our loved one dies, and we are left wondering why God didn’t answer our prayer the way we want. In those moments our faith in God can be rocked.

But know that Jesus is there. He never left. Most likely we need to change our perspective of who he is, what he does, and how he should act. Like my one seminary professor Ken Miller says “we try to fit Jesus in our back pocket, as if we own him, as if he could fit there.” We shouldn’t even try.

You might not be in prison for months like John, but there are plenty of other situations that have you feeling imprisoned, trapped, hopeless, and you wonder why Jesus isn’t rescuing you like you want him too. The longing and the waiting can be tiring and many times we can get to a point where we want to give up on Jesus. But he is there. He just might fit in our pocket.

You might not be able to see his work in your life. You might have such a specific idea of what you want him to do, to be, to look like, how you want him to answer your prayer, get you out of a difficult situation, make life easy, peaceful, and because he isn’t doing what you want, you feel like giving up.

But he is there. Right in front of you. Doing what a Messiah is supposed to do. He hasn’t left.

You just might need new eyes, a new heart, a new mind to see him.

So hang in there. Stay strong. Pursue him. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to him, to see things the way he does. He is the miracle working God. He brings new life. He wants to transform our hearts.

Jesus’ very difficult question – Luke 6:46-49

We so often call ourselves Christians. We look at that as our core identity. We see it as what we truly believe, and we bank on those beliefs as what will get us to heaven when we die. But are we doing what Jesus said we should do?

I am asking the question because Jesus asked the question. I am not the judge and jury. I cannot see into the depths of your heart. But because Jesus asked this question, we should ask the question as well, particularly asking the question to ourselves. And we should embrace the kind of evaluation that the question leads to. We should desire to have people in our lives ask this question of us.

So often we call ourselves Christians, but we do not do what he said. A Christian should have strong evidence in their lives of looking like Christ. That’s what a Christian is. A person who is a follower of Christ. Jesus is telling us that his followers, people who call him Lord, are his disciples who hear what he wants us to do and then does it.

The moral of Jesus’ parable about the two builders is that the person who hears Jesus’ words and obeys them has the kind of life that is honorable to him. So if we are to not only hear his words, but we are to actually do them, what did he say we should do? Here are a couple examples from a few of his most important teachings.

Greatest Commands. Jesus said “Love God, Love Others.” Deny yourself and put others first. This is the essence of love. He said “take up your cross and follow me.” He said “love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
Great Commission. Be Disciples who Make Disciples. Most Christians know they should be disciples, but my observation is that most of us do not do what Jesus said when he told us to make more disciples.

So how do we apply this teaching on a regular basis? How do we become people who regularly hear the voice of the Lord and do what he says?

We need accountability. We need people in our lives that we can be totally honest with, and that they can be honest with us. Through the experiences of the last 15 years of my life, this is one of the most important concepts I have seen. It is precisely what Jesus is doing in this passage. He is honestly, bluntly confronting the disciples with the truth about their lives. He is holding them accountable. We should be people, as painful as it is to hear the truth about our lives, who seek the truth about ourselves. We should be people who invite honest, accountable feedback. And not just once, but over and over.

This is why the small group concept is something that is so powerful. Get together with a small group of people on a regular basis for discipleship accountability. And every time you get together with that small group you are asking the question Jesus asked: “You call him ‘Lord’, are you doing what he says?”

Read Scripture on a regular basis with a prayerful heart that says “Lord, I want to hear you today and I want to obey.” When you read the word, is there anything that emerges that God is saying “obey”?

As parents we know that children aren’t often thrilled when we say “obey because I said obey!” Is Jesus saying that? No. He is saying if we call him Lord, we’ve put him in the position of leading us. He’s concerned that we’re saying he is Lord, but not living like it.

One of our past seminary presidents, Dennis Hollinger’s books is called Head, Heart, Hands. It is the idea that the knowledge we get into our heads should transform our hearts so that we do something with our hands.

If we believe Jesus’ way is the best way, then then we eagerly desire to know his way, to learn about it, read about it, see it in action, so that it gets inside us, transforms us, changes us so that his way, his Kingdom life is what comes out of us.

We not only know what he wants us to do, then, we have been transformed so that we can do it! And we will find the amazing joy that his way is the best way.

How to be wise or foolish

You remember that children’s song “the wise man built his house upon on the rock”? It is a classic that small children learn in Sunday School, but when you think about it, it’s kinda scary actually. Especially when you think about some of the major tragedies in the last decade or so. The song talks about two builders. One smart, the other not so smart. The smart one builds his house on a strong foundation of solid rock. The not-so-smart one builds his house on a bad foundation. A storm surge comes along and which one survives? Obviously the one built on the rock. We have seen this principle at work in real-life buildings in the tsunamis in Southeast Asia, Japan, and the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. One element that elevated the death toll in those tragedies was poor construction.

Today Jesus finishes the long teaching section of Luke chapter six by using this illustration. If you want to get ready for Sunday check out Luke 6:46-49.

Jesus starts off with a provocative question in Verse 46: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” He is talking to his disciples and to the crowd that day. I wonder how much he directed this to the disciples. I wonder what would cause him to say this. What had he told them to do that they weren’t doing? Clearly they were pretty good about calling him “Lord”. But he tells them they weren’t so good at doing what he said. Or maybe he was mostly speaking to the crowd. He had a growing reputation as a rabbi, a teacher, and so the common appellation they would give him would be “Lord.” But maybe Jesus had noticed that people in the crowds liked his miracles, liked his teaching, but didn’t actually do what he said.

Does this relate to us? What if we call him “Lord” but don’t do what he says? So what? None of us does everything he says perfectly, right?

Join us on Sunday at Faith Church as we’ll talk about this further!

Church Has Left The Building recap

On Sunday May 17, Faith Church left it’s building! It was an incredible morning. My group (below) went to Conestoga Valley Christian Community Services, the local social services organization started by area churches to provide free food and clothing to residents in need. It is an awesome place sharing love in the name of Jesus. We cleaned floors, bathrooms, shelves, clothing racks, sorted celery and potatoes, and had a blast throwing packs of paper products around!

Other groups were cleaning up the principal’s serenity garden at Smoketown Elementary School, mulching at East Lampeter Community Park…

…washing East Lampeter Township Police vehicles at Highland Car Wash, taking a mini-worship service to one of our home-bound members, providing childcare at the church building, and finally we had a group doing food prep for our celebration lunch afterward. It was a great day of worshiping by serving!

It is so fascinating how we tend to compartmentalize worship as something that happens in the sanctuary (room) of our church building. Usually it includes singing songs, preaching, giving and prayer. But this past Sunday we truly worshiped by serving the community. That’s a reminder that God wants to transform us into people who have hearts of worship 24-7.

How to change a foul mouth to a good one – Luke 6:43-45

Do you have a foul mouth?

Has it ever gotten you into trouble?

Have you wished you could change?

In our ongoing study of Luke, this past Sunday we looked at Luke 6:43-45 where Jesus mentions “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks”.

All of us have times when we have allowed a lot of junk to come out of our mouths. We need to ask forgiveness for that. We also need to forgive ourselves. God has forgiven us. We need to move on. Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut believing we’ll never change. Or “that’s just the way I am”. Jesus, however, says that if we put the good things of God in our lives something amazing can happen.

It is possible to change! In Jesus’ teaching he says that we can transform from being bad trees with bad fruit to becoming good trees that bear good fruit. In other words, we can change those dirty mouths into good ones. To do that we need store good things in our lives, in our hearts.

If what we store in the heart is what comes out, then it is vital for us to be people who get God’s good things in our hearts! Two questions arise: What are God’s good things? And how do we get them in our hearts?

First, what are the good things? The Spirit of God and the word of God are the best good things, and as we talk about the next question, I think you’ll see why they are good things.

The next question is how do we get them in there? There are many ways. Here are just a few:

1. It starts with deciding to follow Jesus. When we decide to become Jesus’ disciples, that begins a relationship with him. It is a relationship that is based on seeing his ways as the best possible way to live. Thus we actively seek to make his ways our ways. He also promises to give us his Spirit to live with us. Becoming a follower of Jesus, then, radically opens the possibility for our inner life to be transformed! And when our inner lives change, the change in our outer life will follow.

2. Next practice humility and teachability to recognize the Climate and Culture we live in. We’re like fish in water. Fish are not aware of the water because it constantly surrounds them. Like the air we breathe, most of our life we have little idea about how our culture is affecting us. We are accustomed to it. But we need to be people who can accurately point out how, when, where and why our culture might be like that weed killer I talked about last week. Can you accurately evaluate culture? Are you able to watch a TV commercial or listen to a song (even if it has awesome music) and figure out if it is influencing you? Are you able to watch a TV show, read a book, or a video online and honestly say “yeah, that’s weed killer”? If you’re pouring weed killer into your life, stop! Stop pouring the bad things into your life. I get that this is hard because it is such a huge part of our culture to consume all kinds of media. I personally struggle with where to draw the line as far as what is good for me and what is bad for me. I would encourage you to use a resource like CPYU’s 3-D Guide to help you learn to make these kinds of decisions.

3. In addition to removing the negative influences in our lives, we need to get the good things into our lives. I encourage you to start with prayer. Maybe start your day with prayer. Or join us on Wednesdays at 7pm at Faith Church for prayer meeting. Another great idea is to practice the presence of God!

4. Add Meditation on Scripture. You might hear that word “meditation” and think of yoga or Buddhism, but there is a big difference between eastern meditation and biblical meditation. In eastern meditation, you are emptying your mind. In biblical meditation you fill your mind with God’s word. You read it, you think about it deeply. You pray about it, you ask God to help you to understand it and apply it to your life. In your personal bible study, I urge you to go beyond the Daily Bread and start to meditate on Scripture. If you aren’t sure how to do that, let me know, and I’d be glad to help you learn. Maybe add Scripture memory. See Psalm 119:9-11 for how powerful scripture memory is. Get involved in study groups. At Faith Church we have Care Groups and Sunday classes we’d love to invite you to!

5. A another way to get God’s good things into your life is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever heard the phrase “Your body is the temple, and God’s Spirit lives in you”? In Ephesians 5:17-21, Paul says we can be filled with the Spirit. Hearing that you might question if I already said that when we become followers of Christ that God’s Spirit already lives in us? Yes, but there is a difference between having the Spirit in your life and being filled with the Spirit.

Let me explain this way. In Acts 4:23-31 the disciples prayed for the filling of the Spirit. The Spirit had already come to them in Acts 2:1-4. But they wanted more of the Spirit. We can be a follower of Jesus and have the Spirit in our lives, but that doesn’t mean we are completely filled with the Spirit. We can be blocking off parts of our lives, not allowing the Spirit to have access to those parts of our lives. You can be rejoicing in the Spirit on Sunday morning, but soaking up pornography Sunday night.

This is why Paul says in Galatians 5:16-25 that we should seek to walk in step with the Spirit (obey!) and his fruit will come out of your life. If you’re filled with the Spirit, his fruit will come out of your life. So perhaps you need to be filled with the Spirit. Would you start by asking him to fill you? Then follow through by obeying his wishes for your life.

6. Finally, allow God’s good things to enter your life in Worship. I’m specifically thinking about musical worship. Is there a kind of music that you find helps you worship the Lord? Would you consider playing that music more often? I have found that when I’m driving or washing the dishes that worship music really encourages me. A few years when training for a half-marathon, I had to do a ten-mile run. The skies were looking gloomy, so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. Ten miles is a long time to be on a treadmill, so I listened to my Pandora worship station via my smartphone. At one point a powerful song came on and I had a worship moment I’ll never forget…right there in the gym, pounding it out on the treadmill!

What will you start doing to deposit God’s good things into your life? Take in his good things in and watch him transform your life!

How to kill a tree

Have you ever cut down a tree or bush, but it kept growing back shoots? My father-in-law is a wood-cutting master, and he and a friend helped us cut down a tree a couple years ago at my house, and we left a stump about two feet high. That thing grows little bush-like branches all through the growing season and I have to trim it regularly.

I was talking with our church secretary, Jim, recently about yard work. He mentioned that his family had been doing some removal of bushes along their shed. He hooked up his truck and pulled some out rather easily. But there was one kind of bush that was very difficult to uproot. Even the truck and chain wasn’t working.

So they looked it up online, and found that those bushes have an extensive root system making them very tough to pull out. The recommendation was to cut them off at the ground.

Jim didn’t want his bushes to grow back though. If you just cut them off at the ground, they’re almost certain to keep growing shoots and you’ll be right back where you started in a couple years. How do you completely kill a bush if you can’t pull it out roots and all? Is there a way to do this without having to go to the expense of a stump grinder? They followed more online instructions which said to drill holes in the stump, and pour weed killer into the hole. This video explains it. Be sure to watch the follow-up video of two years later.

The bushes never grew back.

So there’s your lawn and garden tip for the day! Cut off a bush at the ground, drill holes in the stump and pour in weed killer. But this story is also related to the next teaching that Jesus gives us in his Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6. In this story, though, you are the tree! If you want to see what Jesus had to say, check out Luke 6:43-45, and you are most welcome to be our guest at Faith Church this coming Sunday.