Discipleship

We had our monthly meeting on November 12 with our previously agreed upon topic of "discipleship".  Before the meeting I had typed something up to ask a few questions to some Christian brothers that I work with to get a "feel" for what some others thought about this particular topic.  I'll begin with the questions I asked them and brought these same questions to the study group to look for similarities and/or differences in our responses.

1. How would you describe a disciple and discipleship?

2. What are the misconceptions about discipleship?

3. Do you feel that the church is being the disciples that the Great Commandment, spoken by our Lord Jesus, tells us to be? If not, where do we fall short?

Using these to "spark" our meeting I was quite interested with the outside answers as well as the answers/thoughts we had within our group.  The overriding consensus of the definition of a disciple was a follower, learner, student, etc.  That brought up much more questions in the way of a "true" disciple and what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  A very good reference was made by Eric in regards to the biblical references to a follower that follows so close as to get the dirt off of the shoes of the "teacher" all over himself.  Of course, that leads to the thought of how close you are following as a disciple and the dedication to "become covered" in the dirt of the one that you are following.

We all spoke freely that to be a true disciple of Christ is to be "all in" and following Him by His example and His Word.  I am of the opinion, and think Scripture supports, that if a person is a true follower of Christ (Christian) than they also will be a disciple.  There are many that will be "professing" Christians, but only in word and not deed, that will never be a true disciple because they 

are not a true believer.  Disciples are to be growing in knowledge and being conformed (sanctification) and that should be outwardly evident, although some will be faster than others in this growth.

As far as the responsibility of a believer in discipling other it comes down to a couple of things.  First of all one must be willing to disciple another.  That is not to make someone else be more like us but to help them in the growth of their own walk with Jesus.  We all agree that the Church and us as individuals within the church fail at that more times than we succeed.  In order to be truly discipling others it involves some personal interaction and "getting dirty" with them.  Helping others, especially those new to the faith, in discernment and a growing active knowledge of the revealed Lord and the instructions he has given us.  With that being said, discipleship is not a "works" to gain favor and/or to gain some sort of "super-Christian" mindset.  That is a common misconception in regards to the amount of discipleship one individual may or may not be active in.

To be discipling others the best example we have of that is our Lord Himself.  He gave us the blueprint for helping others to grow in Him.  Once again, we can gain a false sense of our own stature in this if we remove the object of who the Great Disciple is and try to replace Him with ourselves.  I personally believe this to be one of the issues with discipleship today.  A program bent on discipleship can be fine, if the focus is on helping the one being discipled to learn more about Him and not on completing a program or doing some monotonous task.

Discipleship is personal, it is time consuming, and it is hard.  That being said, it is sorely missing in today's churches.  We are very easy to tell someone once they make a profession of faith that "things won't be easier, they'll be tougher for you" and thank we have done our jobs discipling.  We have done a great disservice to a new brother/sister in Christ if we stop there.  Individual commitment is needed and that begins with our individual commitment to be disciples ourselves and study the Word of our Lord.

We concluded our meeting by setting a task before ourselves to think of what "we" can do better to help resolve this problem in our own lives and church instead of pointing the fingers outwards.

The topic for next month's meeting will be "Evil".

Meeting to be held at Billy's house in December along with completion of homework assignment given to each of us.

Recent Revival Services: Jonah, The Good Samaritan, Moses, & Abram

These are the notes that I took from the 4 revival services we had on the evenings of October 27-30. They are not meant to be perfect study tools. Rather, these are like outlines along with my own comments and as much as I could include from what was spoken. Please read through the verses as you read through what I have written here.

Speaker Greg Locke
Thoughts on the Jonah lesson:
Jonah 1:1-15
Psalm 85:6
Nineveh - capital of Assyria - very large - commerce center - gospel ignorant
He ran from God.
In the boat he was the only one with the truth, but he wasn't praying. He should have been preaching, praying, and prophesying.
It was determined that Jonah was the culprit.
If we stay in rebellion long enough, it begins to stop bothering us. (he was asleep)
Does the thing that used to turn my stomach now pitter patter my heart?
We can always find someone who will make us feel better in our rebellion.
God will show you He cannot be thwarted.
Revival will not come (might even drown and take others with you) unless you throw Jonah out of the boat (our own Jonah out of our life).
Do we come to church full of the world and ask God to fill us?

Speaker Greg Locke
Thoughts on the Good Samaritan lesson:
Luke 10:25-
He was the magnetic Messiah drawing crowds.
The lawyer was argumentative - paid to argue.
What must I do? This was his question, but the meeting is orchestrated by the Lord.
Go to the Bible for the answer - Deuteronomy 27.
He looked ridiculous and so he tried to justify himself.
In the parable...
He fell into the situation and was wounded & stripped.
The story is about our spiritual condition & calamity.
How do we respond to someone in this condition?
1) religion - won't stop, but will leave you dead in a ditch
2) Christian - has the truth, but to inconvenienced to share it
3) the loving one - saw with his heart; compassionate
To reach people no one is reaching, we will have to do things no one is doing.
Message trumps methodology.
Separation from the world is not the same as isolation. Go where the people are.
How did he show compassion?
Wounds are messy - don't marginalize people.
He made a financial investment in someone he had never met.
He gave him the front seat. He had to scoop him up. He took him to a place where he could get medicinal rehabilitation.
If we are pregnant with truth, we should give birth to obedience.
He stayed all night with him.
Does the church errantly operate only on business hours?
He pays for it all.
Who is the real neighbor? - the merciful and loving one
Do thou likewise.

Speaker Greg Locke
Thoughts on the Moses lesson:
Acts 7:20-
It refers to a time in which generational bondage was in place.
Forced abortion was in place because of Pharaoh's fear.
Moses' mother raised him in Pharaoh's house on Pharaoh's bill.
God is sovereign. Moses is an image of Jesus being a deliverer.
Moses was educated by the best, well-nourished, and good looking. He was the Prince of Egypt.
He would never have been happy again without visiting his people after God put it in his heart.
What God puts in your heart may not be seen by others.
God works on everyone's hearts at different times, in different ways, and in different measures.
God providentially allowed someone (of 3,000,000 people) to see him twice in two days.
Moses fled based on the man's words.
He became a shepherd.
God did not need his greatness. He beat Egypt out of him for 40 years.
Why did God do this? Psalm 78:22
All He wants is a broken, willing vessel.
He approaches the bush and God spoke...reminding him who his people are.
The ground is a holy ground - ground of holiness - place of consecration & commitment - feet/shoes are related to authority - giving away shoes meant agreeing to fulfill your end of the bargain. The only thin He wanted was his surrender.
God sends him (not when he had everything) when He has everything.
He always reminded the people about the coming Prophet.
40yrs (gained status) + 40yrs (lost status) + 40yrs (servant)
Sometimes the one who brings you to where you are is not who will take you where you are going.
The Lord buried him.
He wants my "shoes."

Speaker Jon Leighton
Thoughts on the Abram lesson:
Genesis 11:27-13:15
A man has unpacked who should be living out of his luggage.
The Lord has already promised him he would be blessed.
God spoke to him in Ur and told him to go to Canaan (from country and kindred), but he stopped 700 miles short in Haran.
3 options were exercised:
1) Abram delays his obedience. - brings disaster (Terah died there away from his country.)
A place of delay is a place of temptation.
The longer we stay the easier it is to stay longer.
1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 6:17; 1 John 2:15
It becomes a place of conviction.
God speaks 78 words to him in 12:1-3.
James 1:17
It is more about who you are than what you do.
It becomes a place of affliction; it affected those around him. Terah was buried in a pagan land
lust yields sin which yields death
The longer you stay the more likely you will die there.
Robert Robinson account related to "Come Thou Fount"
2) Abram partially obeys.
8 word reminder from God
God has plans for us at all stages of life.
Do I have a Lot that I don't leave behind?
Partial obedience brings tension.
God is not speaking because we have not done what He said to do - we are still in disobedience.
Don't go to where He was, but instead to where He is.
Abram & Lot - financial struggles
Partial obedience brings tension into his finances, family, and focus.
We should not let the world decide.
Abram was supposed to go to Canaan.
3) Full obedience brings communication.
God speaks again after Lot had separated.
God speaks 93 words - more than He had spoken before.
God blesses Him with wealth, but, even better, with communication.
To get the blessing of the new (newer, nicer, better, more valuable, longer lasting) we have to be willing to give God the old.
To obey or not to obey.

October Gathering: Tithing

Is tithing expected or encouraged? And what does it mean to tithe? Is the New Testament church required to give 10% on a monthly basis to a local church?

First, allow me to share several quotes that I found to be particularly thought provoking.

1) The purpose of tithing is to secure not the tithe but the tither, not the gift but the giver, not the possession but the possessor, not your money but you for God. Anonymous
2) What makes the Dead Sea dead? It is all the time receiving and never giving out. Anonymous
3) Givers can be divided into three types: the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. Some givers are like a piece of flint - to get anything out of it you must hammer it, and even then you only get chips and sparks. Other are like a sponge - to get anything out of a sponge you must squeeze it and squeeze it hard, because the more you squeeze a sponge, the more you get. But others are like a honeycomb - which just overflows with its own sweetness. That is how God gives to us, and it is how we should give in turn. Anonymous
4) Grace binds you with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver, and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like, Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give. Eli E. Stanley Jones
 
Tithing is expected AND encouraged. We are emissaries and emulators of a God who gave His own Son. He is the creator of all. It all belongs to Him. Therefore, we should also be givers. Not only should we be givers, but we should give freely, sacrificially, and with purpose. While giving initially had percentages attached to it, we are to give as we purpose in our heart. God doesn't need our money. He doesn't want us to give begrudgingly. He wants us to give cheerfully. The reason God loves a cheerful giver is because He knows He has the heart of that giver. As far as how we divvy up our giving, and this is only my opinion, it seems that our giving should probably loosely follow the manner in which God blesses us. If God is blessing us through a local church, radio broadcasts, or other Christian organizations, then it seems reasonable for us to give to all of them. However, the majority of our giving will probably be to the local church to provide for the many ministries that are in motion and also for the pastor and his family.

September Gathering: Guilt

When we spend time at our jobs trying to provide for our family, we have less time to spend with our family. How do we address the guilty feelings we have over missed time with them?
When we spend time with our family, we have less time to spend with God. How do we address the guilty feelings we have over missed time with God during extremely busy times of our life?
Our consensus was that God is a forgiving God. He knows about all of our pressures and responsibilities. He understands the expectation to provide for our family and to spend time with our family. Even though we may not always have the time we wish we had for reading the Word, we can still conduct our life as an act of worship. We can worship through our life while we work in a way that honors Him. We can worship through our life while we give love to our family and provide leadership to its members. While this doesn't excuse us from trying to make time in our schedule to read the Word, pray, minister, etc., we should remember that God does not deal in guilt. Guilt is a negative emotion that does not bring about right actions spawned from right motives. And regardless of what we have or haven't done in the past, we can only change what we do next. We should be good stewards of our time, but more than anything we should do our best to honor God in all that we do.

Topic initiated by Brian

August Gathering: Do our prayers "influence" God?

1 John 5:14,15 "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we asked of Him."
Can we influence a sovereign, all-knowing God that created us and the world around us? Can we change a God that set this world in order and controls the end as well as the days between? If we are able to influence God, why would we? I trust that he knows and acts in the best interest of His people more than I would. Yet, we are still directed in God's word to pray. He tells us in Mark 1 to pray with confidence that what we ask for we will receive. So we serve a sovereign God who directs us to pray and tells us to expect what we pray for to occur. The link between our "influence" and a sovereign God is we must ask in His will. Thankfully we cannot change God's character with our prayers. We cannot change the fact that God is loving and just. If we cannot change God, what change do we bring about with our prayers? We change us. The more we are in prayer, the closer we draw to him and our wants change into what God wants for us. God will not give us anything outside of His will, so we must move closer to His will with our prayers. He tells us in Isaiah 65:24 that He already knows before we call on Him. Throughout the Bible God is desiring a closer relationship with His people. That is what prayer does, brings us closer to Him.

As Written By Claude

July Gathering: Accountability

The Christian life is not one to be lived alone. We are not on an island. We live amidst a sea of lost souls with a few rescue boats of believers. With all the work around us and the effort it takes to overcome the waves, we can weary and lose sight of our purpose and motivation. We need others to come alongside and give us encouragement. We need others to come behind us and give us a push. We need others to go in front and help us to get our bearings again.

Christian Leadership

We met on May 14, 2013 with the pre-set expectation that we were to talk about Christian leadership in general but specifically leadership within the church.

Initial question to start the evening was around "what are the leadership qualities you think most important?"  We all agreed that the first thing was whether that person, serving in the Church, was a Christian or not.  We aren't talking about simply a professing Christian, but a true follower of Jesus.  We can't always know if a person is a true follower 100% but their fruits will bear witness and we must watch for these things.  A person that claims to be a Christian but acts otherwise and is in a leadership position in the church must not be tolerated and church discipline should be administered. 

The discussion focused on the ethical and moral aspects of that person, ie. character.  This was discussed in depth but we didn't probe any deeply hidden truths here, just open dialogue about the topic.

The most interesting twist, in my opinion, came when we started discussing the issue of how many men of the church have willingly relinquished the calling to be the leaders in the church.  Now, many reasons around this were discussed, such as the feminist movement of the 60's and 70's which changed this country dramatically, in the secular business world as well as in the church.  We are thankful for the women that have stepped up when they felt a gap and that they absolutely needed to, while simultaneously condemning the men that allowed this to happen by complacency, laziness and lack of following God's Word and clear direction. 

The politically correct environment, not to mention the post-modern culture we now find ourselves in seems to further neutralize the effect of true leadership by men as defined in Scripture.  You can see this in business meetings at the church as well as the committees in our churchs.  What I mean by that is this, business meetings should be a readout of what is going on, what has happened lately and discussion about any concerns.  In recent times these meetings often turn into everyone wanting their own way, complaining about how something is done and not relying on the leadership of those who have made the tough decisions.  This also coincides with anyone that is appointed to a committee or staff to make decisions and has accepted that mantle of leadership should be granted the ability to make those decisions without putting their decision up to a vote to approve of something they have already spent countless hours research and developing.  These people were put into position to be leaders......let them lead.

Being a leader boils down to a handful of things that are all interconnected for the Christian leader.  First of all is to truly be a Christian.  If that is true of a leader the rest of these should fall into place.
Be of the highest integrity and honest, mistakes will be made but how those are handled show the true character of a leader.
Understanding that a leader is to be a servant FIRST. 
Lead others in a way that make them want to follow you and fall under your leadership for guidance and direction, trusting your judgement for the greater good.
Per Claude---men want to follow other men.  That being said a tough guy that is cold and insensitive is not what is needed (or implied by Claude).  But a man that understands what he is to do, per God's standards, handles his family and their affairs correctly.  Is respected in the community and can handle criticism.  These are the characteristics of a Godly man.

The world's view of a man is to feminize him, humiliate him and ridicule him for trying to be someone that holds people accountable and responsible for their actions, that would be politically incorrect and judgemental by most secular standards.

Accountability and responsibility are critical elements of a leader in any walk of live, religious belief system, or military institution. 
A ship without a rudder goes in circles and so will anything else without the proper leadership and guidance.

Also a point of emphasis was the way that the church is acting (or not) as a leader in the community today.  If we call anything a sin, publicly, we are called intolerant, arrogant, judgemental and a score of other names.  So, a lot of congregations and professing Christians are going the opposite direction and actually acting like the world to try to encourage non-church goers to come to their church.  In essence turning it into a country club or "Six Flags Over Jesus" approach to "get them in no matter what" and then hoping they will accept Jesus once they see how cool we are or how we aren't much different than them.

Jesus NEVER told us to do this! He said that we are in this world but not of this world.  That we are to be separate to the world but reaching out to them in love.  A true leader realizes this and any church in the world with His name attached to it should understand that what lost people need is a Shepherd, someone to lead them out of the wickedness of this world.  You do not reach lost people with the true Gospel by allowing them to do the same things in the church that they do outside of the church. 

This is where TRUE leadership comes into play inside of the church.

Introduction to Iron Sharpeners

This will be the first post in the blog for a men's group that has been meeting for approximately a year.  Our goal is to discuss current issues within the church, the history of the church, seeking out and digging deep into the rich theological issues and doctrines of His church.  Over the course of the last year, meeting once a month, we have discussed in detail what a Christian man should look like, act like and how he should conduct himself.  We have also discussed a couple of the key doctrines of Scripture.  Defining those as the ones that we can disagree on and still worship together but more importantly those that we might disagree on and do not feel as if we can worship or call each others brothers in Christ.  We spent 4 months discussing the doctrine of election.

Going forward, and in the initial concept, these meetings aren't so much a Bible study as they are a study of ourselves, our God and Savior, and what we can do to make an impact for our families and for Him.