Tag Archive | good news

Were you discipled?

Oct2

fullsizeoutput_5087

 

Do you know what Jesus’s last words were to his disciples? 

 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  Matthew 28:18-20

     Christ ascended in 30 AD and by 49 AD the Good News had been preached to all the known world. Imagine that! It only took 19 years for the disciples to get the word out. How do you suppose they did that?

They followed Christ’s instructions to “Go and make disciples!”

    Sounds like an oversimplification doesn’t it. But guess what? It worked! Well, at least it did for the disciples! But it doesn’t seem to be working quite as efficiently in our modern world.

So what’s the problem?

     Let’s ask ourselves (those of us who are Christians) this question. After our decision to turn from our life without God in the center of it and turn instead to a life with God in the center, what happened next? Perhaps we started attending church regularly, joined a Sunday school class, maybe even participated in some bible studies. Next question:

Did these activities equip us to live life successfully?

        Or did we find ourselves taking detours? Did we soon lose our desire to read our Bibles? Did we find ourselves succumbing to temptations? And for those of us who stayed the course, how intense was our struggle to do so? Were there times in our lives when our doubts became almost overwhelming? And, more seriously, did we reach a point where we no longer felt guilty about not living for Christ?

        The Church today stresses evangelism (that’s going out and leading people to Christ). AND that’s a wonderful thing. But what about Jesus’s last words to make disciples? Ah! Herein lies the core of our problem, I think. If we evangelize but fail to make disciples, we’ve played right into Satan’s manipulative and deceptive hands. Let’s consider this final question:

Were we discipled?

     In all likelihood, we were not. (I know I wasn’t) and I’ve been a Christian for 62 years!!!!! So, this may surprise my readers, but starting just last week I began attending my first discipleship class. It’s a small class, only 3 of us. I’m learning that’s plenty. Classes of this nature need to be small. For as we get trained then we will go out and find 2 or 3 to disciple. Then those will go out and find 2 or 3 to disciple. You get the picture, I’m sure. It’s called exponential growth. I do believe that was the same successful strategy the disciples used. 

     More on discipleship next time…

 

 

 

Refusing Admittance!

Sep29

canstock6137839

     In observing the effect fiery dart thinking has on people, I am drawing some disturbing conclusions. I have listened and observed as people (whose lives exhibit some semblance of Christianity) describe a lifestyle that is in direct contradiction to the one given to us by God. They attend church ( perhaps not regularly) and know all the familiar Christian lingo. But they live as if there is no contradiction in their lifestyle.

How can this be?

     Could it be that they have lost their sensitivity to sin? They seemingly are not bothered with conviction about their lifestyle. Even though their lives are marked with pain and unfulfilled dreams, the realization that their disobedience could be the source of their disillusionment never kicks in.
     I know that when we are first convicted about sin in our lives, the temptation is to ignore it, deny it, or to begin justifying it. And though this is where the Enemy is most easily conquered, this is where for many Satan gains full entry.
“Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. . . .Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.” p. 46 FD (Thomas Kempis)
     This, I conclude, is how an individual can live contrary to God and in alliance with the world without apparent guilt! The fiery darts that justifies their sin, if not resisted, will eventually release so much poison into their thinking that they become blinded to God’s Truth. Therefore, they may be convinced they are something they are not! You know, right becomes wrong!

But there’s good news!

These poisonous thoughts (fiery darts) CAN BE conquered dear reader! Not overnight, but by attacking one thought at a time, as directed by the prayer and Bible study I refer to in Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice! It will take some longer than others depending on the amount of poison that has infected their thinking, but there is a future for them that is free of this bondage! It’s God’s plan:
“‘For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’” (NIV) Jeremiah 29:11