A Light In the Dark Places
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a royal elf named Galadriel gives Frodo Baggins a splendid gift—light from the “beloved star” Earendil, captured within a small crystal that Frodo may use to light the way should he find himself in the dark. Without giving too much away, let’s just say Galadriel’s foresight turned out to be useful for a very sticky situation. The brilliance of the star of Earendil is fiction, but it gives us a glimpse of the true brilliance found in the Son of Man, the true radiance of the glory of Christ himself (Heb. 1:3). No light is purer for our path or brighter to our eyes than his unapproachable and marvelous light (1 Tim. 6:6; 1 Pet. 2:9).
This very light—stunningly—has been offered to us for our own journeys. “The true light . . . gives light to everyone” (John 1:9). But what is this light exactly? As David reflected on the gift of light for his Christian journey, he sings, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105, emphasis mine).
It is incongruous that many believers can rehearse those very words from David by memory and yet live as if such a gift is unnecessary. The light has lost its luster in our eyes. We start to complain when troubles come our way. We ask God to give us a sign for which way to turn, but we haven’t turned the lamp on. If his Word is our lamp and a light for the road, why do we always neglect to pack it for the trip?
We all know that obstacles on the path of life are inevitable realities. Perhaps you feel the weight of your own trials and troubles right now. You feel that all the lights have gone out. Where can you turn for guidance? Each of us needs God’s Word if we have any hope of walking the road without stumbling or getting off-course.
HIDDEN LIGHT
Scripture memorization, or the practice of hiding God’s Word in our hearts, is the premier way we are guided by the lamp and light. It is not simply God’s Word with us, but in us. To read God’s Word is good; to reflect on it is better; to pray it is better still. But to know and feel his Word is altogether best. When the Word takes root in our hearts and minds, the light becomes brighter along our paths and no darkness will be too great.
In his book Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, journalist Joshua Foer tells the story of his journey from covering the United States Memory Championship to him competing in—and winning—the event a year later. He trained his mind to suddenly be able to memorize the order of two shuffled decks of cards or recall hundreds of random faces paired with random names, all within a few short minutes.
But in a book full of insight on memorization, it is Foer’s off-hand remark about halfway through that struck me: “In a tight spot, where could one look for guidance about how to act, if not the depths of memory?”
Foer’s book was not meant to be an exercise in spiritual disciplines, but the implications for Scripture memorization are obvious. Just as we all memorize the layout of our bedrooms and bathrooms enough to be able to navigate them safely in the dark morning hours, so we have also been invited to know God’s Word in the midst of dark times. In our trials, it is not the visible light that counts so much as the “hidden light” within us. God’s Word helps us navigate life when the path ahead is dimly lit.
JUST DO IT
I know what you are thinking at this point. The idea of Scripture memorization sounds like a nice idea, but you already have written it off. You may see the value in all of these challenges to hide God’s Word in your heart, but still think it beyond your ability. You explain your own need for Bible memorization away, saying it is not in your spiritual gift mix.
But have you really tried it?
Most of us, sadly, have not. We assume Bible memorization requires an intellectual capacity beyond what God has given us. That would be awfully cruel of God, to command us in his Word to prioritize grasping his Word in our heart and not give us the tools we need to do so. I don’t believe this is the case. The level of access to tools that help us hide God’s Word in our heart is truly amazing; we simply have to want it enough. We just have to do it.
THE BENEFITS OF MEMORIZATION
If we will do the work of storing up God’s light, the benefits are manifold. There are three ways worth dwelling on that the brilliance of the Word of God hidden in the heart helps us in our trials, temptations, and troubles of life.
First, God’s Word stored in our hearts equips us in the fight against sin. There is no greater example of the benefits of memorization than the life of David. David, a man known for zig-zagging along the road of righteous living, was a master sinner (just like you and I). He was a master deceiver of his own heart. But in David’s best moments, the Spirit compelled and helped David store up God’s Word as he fought the sin in his life (Ps. 119:11). Temptation often demands a quick, reactionary decision from us. In these moments, will we live by the flesh or by the Spirit? Will we pursue wickedness or righteousness? As we become memorizers of Scripture, it becomes easier to hang in the tension of temptation, to feed the truths of Scripture to our mind and heart, and to help us make an informed, thought-out decision to flee temptation and pursue righteousness (2 Tim. 2:22).
Second, God’s Word stored in our hearts encourages us when prayers go unanswered. Don’t believe the charlatan preachers that tell you God will answer all of your prayers as you want him to. If you’ve lived long enough, you know that some prayers go unanswered, or you get the answer you did not expect. These are hard moments in the Christian life. But God’s Word being in our hearts readily brings to mind His promises to us, which are rich in every respect. Perhaps you are praying against a particular suffering in your life, and it does not seem to be going away. Bringing God’s promise to mind in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” may not bring immediate relief, but it does bring eternal comfort. Sometimes, in these dark places, we have to “preach the gospel to ourselves,” as Jerry Bridges often said.
Third, God’s Word stored in our hearts keeps families afloat. I have written about the benefits of memorizing catechisms and creeds in the home, which are certainly helpful. But this should never replace or supersede the memorization of Scripture. I believe that a family’s effort to memorize Scripture together is one of the simplest and most beautiful methods of family discipleship we can participate in. When a family walks through a difficult season together, how encouraging it would be for parents to remind their children of the verses they need to hear (or children remind their parents!) in those moments. A family that speaks God’s Word to one another continually is God’s vision for the home (Deut. 6:6-9).
Finally, God’s Word stored in our hearts brings vigor to our soul. On many occasions, the Psalms link the practice of Bible memorization with spiritual vitality (Ps. 1:2; 40:8; 119:16, 52, 129). We spend a lot of time as Christians talking about the pursuit of glorifying God in our lives, yet that doesn’t often materialize in our day-to-day activities. Making Scripture memorization a routine part of our Christian life can certainly change that. Hiding God’s Word in our heart will only deepen our affection for his Word and create a thirst in us to know him better, indeed, “equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).
May Scripture be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Northlake Church in Lago Vista, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently studying at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking a Master of Theological Studies degree. He is married to his wife, Hannah. You can follow Zach on Twitter @zachbarnhart or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.
Mad for Basketball, Foolish for Christ
March Madness is upon us. My husband spends hours teaching our boys the art of bracketology. My boys' work ethic displayed through perfecting their brackets is inspiring. Why can’t they apply this passion to their geometry homework? As a mother of four sons, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that any plans I had to engage in a non-basketball-related conversation have been rescheduled for April. During this time of year, my house is overrun with cheering, shouting, and surprises. Whoever decided to call the NCAA Tournament season March Madness rightly understood its effect on basketball fans.
With my free time this March, I’m wondering about madness as it relates to faith. Madness can be defined as, “extremely foolish behavior.” Usually, that’s not a good thing, but March turns that expectation on its head. (And sometimes that madness turns the bowl of Doritos on the floor after a buzzer-beater—but that’s another matter.)
We accept the cultural norm of going a little crazy over basketball, or any sport really, but forget to be enthusiastic about the kingdom of God. Imagine the kingdom-impact of millions of zealous people united in Christ to advance the gospel.
The end of March presents an opportunity for sports enthusiasts to go a little mad. Every day presents an opportunity for the church to be known for our madness for the Lord.
MISSIONS MADNESS
According to Joshua Project, of the almost 7.5 billion people in the world, only about ten percent claim to be evangelical Christians. Three billion live among unreached people groups. Ninety percent of the world is lost, and many of them live in countries hostile to the gospel. What does this mean for the church? It means we need more madness for evangelism.
We have been entrusted with the most significant mission of all time. We are commissioned to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). We are gospel-advancers; the gospel doesn’t advance when we retreat. We must go.
We must reject the assumption that someone else will go. Why not us? We need to embrace the unfamiliar for the sake of the gospel. We may need to abandon the comforts of our current zip code so others may know an eternal home in heaven.
We can’t be casual about advancing the gospel. We must passionately combat the darkness with the light. We must get a little crazy about evangelism.
DISCIPLE-MAKING MADNESS
Making disciples starts with making converts, but it doesn’t end there. It continues with the work of discipleship—teaching followers of Christ how to obey his Word (Matt. 28:20).
Particularly in America, we’ve bought into an individualistic theology. I stay out of your business and you stay out of mine. We have compartmentalized our faith to the point that it serves as mere window-dressing to our lives. However, obedience to God’s command to make disciples requires us to be fully invested in one another. We must come alongside each other, helping one another understand what it means to follow Christ.
We depend on one another to point out blind spots, to hold us accountable, to instruct us in the Word, to champion us in our pilgrimage. We must reject the temptation to isolate ourselves from the Christian community. We must seek out spiritual siblings to walk with, discipling one another as we go. We harm each other when we let sin go unchecked in our lives. As believers, we are our brother’s keeper.
Our younger siblings in the faith are counting on us to teach them how to be mad for Christ. In the same way a junior on the team can help a rookie get up to speed with how things work on and off the court, how we lead those younger in the faith than us matters. We need passionate teachers. We need to get a little crazy about discipleship.
WORSHIP MADNESS
We advance the gospel and make disciples because our God is worthy of the worship of the nations. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:6).
One of my favorite things about my local church is our celebration of the gospel through baptism. New believers share their story of deliverance from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). One of our elders immerses them in water. They rise from the water to thundering applause.
I'm not talking about a polite clap. We shout. We hoot and holler. We whistle. We cry. We celebrate the expansion of the kingdom of Christ and the destruction of our enemy. It gets a little crazy.
Scripture offers a great example of a man whose celebration of the Lord looked a little mad. As the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem, David “danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Sam. 6:14). When he was confronted by his wife about his embarrassing behavior, his response was, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this” (2 Sam. 6:21-22).
“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 145:3). Our God is awesome and worthy of praise. Let’s go a little crazy in our worship.
GOSPEL-CENTERED MADNESS
Imagine a world where every follower of Christ displayed signs of madness for our King. What if we, like Paul, could describe ourselves as, “fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Cor. 4:10)?
If you think a sixteen-seed beating a one-seed team is wild, imagine telling your friends and extended family that you’re moving to Bangladesh to plant a church.
Imagine a small group inviting local refugees into their weekly gatherings to help them transition into our culture and expose them to kingdom-culture. Imagine a people whose free time wasn’t spent on Netflix but in prayer.
Imagine teenagers more concerned with their friends knowing the Lord than knowing the latest app. Imagine college graduates taking their skills to the 10/40 window to live as missionaries. Imagine older saints who understood that retirement doesn’t apply to kingdom work.
Imagine local churches concerned with building God’s kingdom and not their own buildings. Imagine small groups that heard words of confession and petition instead of gossip.
Imagine families that invite new neighbors over to share more than just lasagna—to share the life-giving bread of the gospel. Imagine parents that train their children to be faithful witnesses, not just committed soccer players.
Imagine being the people who forego the feast of our day to fast for the nations to know the gospel.
ARE YOU MAD FOR THE LORD?
The world watches us get excited over many things—sports, politics, food, entertainment. How often do they see us get excited about the kingdom of God?
When was the last time you were foolish for Christ? How long has it been since you engaged in disciple-making? Let’s not fool ourselves. Disciples make disciples. God is glorified when we are foolish for his sake, not when we are just fools.
I’ll probably get caught up in the excitement of upsets and buzzer-beating three-pointers as my guys enjoy watching basketball over the next few days. But my prayer is that my life will display madness for the gospel, zeal for the church, and foolishness for the name of Christ.
Our zeal for the kingdom should be evident to all. We don’t need to hide our excitement; we need to embrace it, flaunt it. March proves we have a capacity for craziness. Let’s redirect that capacity and apply it to advancing the kingdom of God.
Christy Britton is a wife, homeschool mom of four biological sons, and soon-to-be mom of an adopted Ugandan daughter. She is an orphan advocate for 127 Worldwide. She and her husband are covenant members at Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, NC. She loves reading, discipleship, Cajun food, spending time in Africa, hospitality, and LSU football. She writes for several blogs, including her own, www.beneedywell.com.
Say No to Yourself So You Can Say Yes to Jesus
Everyone you know—including your Christian friends—has been seduced by the siren song: “Be true to yourself.” David Kinnaman has said that seventy-six percent of practicing Christians in the U.S. now think the best version of themselves can be found by looking inside.
Studies show that each generation in America is more anxious and depressed than the last. Suicide rates are skyrocketing even though we have more doctors and treatments available than ever. We’re looking inside for meaning, but finding emptiness instead.
As believers, time spent searching our hearts for truth and meaning numbs us to what it means to live like Jesus, who says we can’t follow him unless we deny ourselves.
But what does that mean?
WHAT “DENY YOURSELF” MEANS
The concept of denying yourself comes directly from Jesus, most notably in his call to discipleship in Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
If you’re like me, that statement leaves you with lots of questions, like, “What should I be denying myself?” or, “Am I denying myself enough?”
Darrell Johnson, a professor of pastoral theology, explains:
“To deny yourself means to deny your self-lordship. It means saying no to the god who is me, to reject the demands of the god who is me, to refuse to obey the claims of the god who is me. [It means we say] a decisive no—‘I do not know the lord Me—I do not bow down to him anymore.’ ”
Understood this way, it’s not hard to see how important self-denial is in following Christ. In fact, self-denial is the essence of discipleship to Jesus. It’s crucial if we’re going to follow the Master who came to lay his life down for others.
Denying self is essential because it allows us to conquer our own will in favor of the Father’s. “[Jesus] wants to lead and he asks me to follow,” Bill Hull writes. “That drives a stake through the heart of my will, my ego, and my desire to control.”
What are we to deny ourselves of that is so painstaking?
WHAT WE ARE TO DENY
“When we follow Jesus, we deny ourselves the right to justice in human relationships. We deny ourselves the right to a good reputation and immediate vindication,” Hull writes in The Complete Book of Discipleship.
After all, that’s what Jesus did. Though he was God in the flesh, he emptied himself of his rights as God (see Phil. 2:1-11) and gave himself over to the judgment and opinions of others without guarding his reputation.
The heart of self-denial is giving up your need to control every thought or opinion others have of you. Which means you have to die to your metrics of success, along with the world’s—and, yes, even the church’s. You must not allow success to be defined by anything other than obedience to Christ’s commands.
Self-denial is about more than giving up control of your idea of success. Ultimately, it involves giving up control of your future. This is where most start to chafe under the yoke of Christ, like Hull, who says, “My natural bent is to follow my vision, my dreams, my heart—and then periodically check behind me to make sure Jesus is blessing what I’ve chosen.”
Often, we say we’re following Jesus, but what we really want is Jesus following us. If we are to follow Jesus, we must deny—say no to—ourselves. That has always been difficult, but the realities of the modern world make it as complicated as ever.
SELF-DENIAL IN AN AGE OF SELF-FULFILLMENT
Christians in America and other Western countries live in the tension between pursuing a life of self-fulfillment or self-denial. I sense this tension daily. I know Jesus calls me to deny myself, take up my cross and follow him. But sometimes, deep down, I don’t believe he would really ask me to do that.
This is one of the main problems with self-fulfillment. It seeks the happiness of the self over and above all other facets of life so that I can’t imagine someone asking me to do anything contrary to that path.
I think: If realizing my true self in my heart is the path to happiness, then surely Jesus wouldn’t ask me to do something that goes against my heart, right? But Jesus says anyone who wants to follow him must deny himself. . . .
But just when I get close to the truth, the world lures me away. I think about reading the Bible, but I want to keep scrolling and swiping on my iPhone. I think about serving the poor, but it’s much easier to text a donation. I wonder who I should share the gospel with, but I’m more comfortable watching Netflix.
I hope your life is different, but odds are you’re a lot like me. That’s because we’re programmed to seek fulfillment inside ourselves. Thankfully, we can be reprogrammed.
WHAT SELF-DENIAL LOOKS LIKE
Instead of hoping in our plans and pressing on to achieve our goals, followers of Christ are to put God first. We are to give up our right, our need, to be the ones setting the agenda, and pass that mantle to Christ instead.
Practically, this means we are to pray first and act later. Instead of asking the Father to bless what we've chosen, we are to seek his wisdom and will before strategizing. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps. 127:1). Most of us plan first, pray later. Self-denial reverses the order.
Once we have the order correct, we can think about why we are to deny ourselves. Here we come to Christ’s example once more. When pressed by two of his disciples who wanted seats of honor in his kingdom, Jesus replied, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
In this incredible statement, we see that the purpose of denying ourselves is for the good of others. Jesus was going to lay down his life for the salvation of others, and he calls his followers to do the same. In his short book Discipling, Mark Dever writes:
“Being a disciple of Jesus means orienting our lives toward others, just as Jesus did. It means laboring for the sake of others. … We set our sights on serving others for Christ’s sake, just as Christ came into the world not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”
DIE TO YOURSELF SO YOU CAN LIVE IN CHRIST
Dying to yourself effectively means saying no to your dreams, desires, and ambitions. That sounds depressing, doesn’t it? Only if you don’t consider how saying no to yourself allows you to say yes to Christ.
As you die to yourself, you make more and more room for Jesus to take up residence in your heart and mind. You remove your selfish ways and replace them with his selfless ones. That’s a difficult, sometimes painful, process. But unless you die, Jesus won’t live in you.
Jesus promises to give his followers abundant and eternal life (see John 10:10), but he makes it clear that following him is costly and difficult.
That’s not the narrative many of us are telling ourselves, though. As Hull writes, “We all admire self-denial in others, but we seem to detest it in ourselves.”
We want the abundance Jesus offers without accepting the cost and making the sacrifices. We want godliness without having to work for it. We want fulfillment without learning to find it in Christ.
We want the resurrection without the crucifixion.
But that’s not how it works.
NO RESURRECTION WITHOUT THE CRUCIFIXION
Darrell Johnson writes that there can be no resurrection without the crucifixion—for Jesus or his disciples. He goes on to say:
“Jesus calls his followers to think of ourselves as already dead, to bury our earthly hopes and dreams, to bury the plans and agendas we made for ourselves. He will either resurrect our dreams or replace them with dreams and plans of his own. … This is a hard but liberating saying. … Freedom comes when we lay down the ill-gotten false crown, when we say no, when we live as though the gods who are us have already died.”
Looking inside ourselves will never satisfy our consuming desire for fulfillment that can only be found in Christ. We must repent of our quest for self-fulfillment and press on to win the prize that can only be won through self-denial.
We can follow our hearts or we can follow Jesus, but we can’t do both.
Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three, as well the Managing Web Editor at GCD. He serves as a writer and editor with Prison Fellowship and has earned a MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. For more of his writing check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.
Trade Your Cinderblock for The Rock of Ages
“And by your grace, I will live for you.” I remember praying these words—but not meaning them. At the age of nineteen, my then-girlfriend led me to Christ and I renounced the atheism of my earlier years. Those words—“And by your grace, I will live for you”—were the conclusion to the “sinner’s prayer” that marked my conversion. Every sentence leading up to that one I said with gusto. But this sentence was choked out, forced.
Like so many “professions of faith,” I was parroting lines given to me by my evangelist. So after saying, “Amen,” I followed up with her: “I’m not sure I’m up for the ‘living for Jesus’ part.”
DIME-STORE DISCIPLESHIP
She replied: “It doesn’t mean you have to give up everything you love; you’ll just want to do them for God and not for yourself.” I shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.” But deep down, I was unconvinced. I played in a punk band and I was not willing to give that up, even though I knew our gimmick was at odds with the Christian life (our album title, “Menace to Sobriety,” was an appropriate summary of our message).
For the next three years, I tried a dime-store imitation of discipleship—Jesus as Savior, myself as lord. I wanted to make a deal: Jesus, you die for me, but I refuse to live for you. I didn’t give Jesus my life, just my afterlife. I wanted an afterlife free from suffering, but a life with all the pleasures sin could provide. The only problem with this bargain is that grace so cheap (to borrow a term from Bonhoeffer) is really no grace at all.
We cannot “baptize” our existing sinful desires by blessing them in the name of God. The drunkard who converts to Christianity and returns to his booze with gratitude, thanking God for this “gift,” is no convert at all. We need our distorted desires to be expunged by a more captivating desire for Christ. We need to understand both our sin and his love in order to become true followers of Christ.
THE RAT RACE OF IDOLATRY
Jesus used a striking illustration for the seriousness of causing others to sin. He said it’s actually better to have a millstone tied around your neck and go for a “swim” in the Mediterranean Sea (Mark 9:42)! He then gives us several other extreme examples about keeping ourselves from the things that keep us from God (Mark 9:43-50).
How seriously do you take your sin? Your sin—and make no mistake, any false god (idol) we serve is sin—is bound to drown you. Holding onto your sin is like trying to tread water while holding a cinderblock in your hands.
For the next three years, I tried to be the lord of my life while claiming to be a Christian, and the futility of idolatry became more and more clear to me. When we serve idols we become their slaves (John 8:34). I’d be happy, I told myself, if I could just play CBGBs. When that goal was realized, it never fulfilled, so I’d create a new one.
Entrusting myself to the idols I served—this is the rat race of idolatry. We exchange the true God for a lie and worship creation instead (Rom. 1:24) of Creator. This never leaves us satisfied (Jer. 2:13), not in the long run, yet we return to our overlords once again, expecting a different result. The cycle repeats ad infinitum. If it sounds like insanity, that’s because it is.
DISTORTED TASTES
The alcoholic knows his drink of choice is drowning him; he simply can’t slake the desires of his tongue with anything other than booze. The tongue wants what the tongue wants. We can’t simply starve our desires and expect to be satisfied.
To tire of our taste for sin, we need to acquire a taste for something new (Ps. 34:8). We need new tastes entirely, like the thirsty woman of Samaria who found Jesus so utterly satisfying to her palate that she dropped her water jug at the well (John 4:28). Our desire for lesser gods can only be overcome when a desire for the true God (Ps. 27:4) eclipses them.
We need something from outside to break that cycle if we’re ever going to be set free from slavery (John 8:32). Praise God that he has sent us the remedy to this terminal disease (Is. 53:5)! Jesus came to shake us out of the drunken, circular stupor of idolatry. He calls us to exchange the backbreaking burdens of our sinful idolatry for his life-giving, light yoke of discipleship (Matt. 11:30). He invites us to trade our taste for sin that never satisfies for his living water that never stops satisfying.
The functional saviors we cling to for life are, in actuality, no saviors at all. While they promise us deliverance, behind the veneer of power and pleasure, lies only death (Rom. 3:23). Like drowning men clutching cinderblocks, we hold on to our idols as they drag us to the bottom of the sea (Jonah 2:5).
Jesus stands there—a lifesaver!—but in order to grab onto him, we must let go of the cinderblocks. Otherwise, we perish.
A CINDERBLOCK-TAKING SAVIOR
The decision to follow Christ is costly and hard (Matt. 7:14), and should not be made lightly (Luke 14:28). We must be willing to exchange our ugly sin for the beauty of our Savior (Luke 14:33).
The good news is this: Jesus, while never yielding to the temptation to worship these false saviors, suffered the full brunt of the consequences for doing so. Though he never sinned (Heb. 4:15), he suffered on the cross for all of my sin (2 Cor. 5:21).
If the consequence for clinging to a cinderblock in the ocean is to drown, Jesus grabbed the cinderblock and held on until he breathed his last (Mark 15:37) so that we could breathe in the living God (John 20:22). The cross he bore, he bore for me.
Jesus is a patient, long-suffering, determined searcher of the lost sheep for which he came to die. The grace he offers is not cheap because it cost him his very life. Every drop of his precious, unblemished blood was required to make payment for sin.
My thirst for punk rock fame could only be put to death by understanding the depth of his love for me. He was thirsty (John 19:28) so that I never have to be (John 7:38). I don’t have to keep returning to a broken cistern; he is enough for me (Jer. 2:13).
THE BARGAIN OF GRACE
Once we begin to come to grips with how costly it was for Jesus to acquire us (Phil. 2:8), we gain a new perspective on how little we are actually giving up in return. When he calls us to pick up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23), it is a call to death. But in putting ourselves to death, we are promised new life (Rom. 6:4)!
That new life is on the other side of the cross. If we want to follow him into glory, it means following him through pain and suffering. The way to Christ is the way of the cross. When I wanted to broker a deal with Jesus in which I gave him my afterlife but not my life, I wanted the ends without the means.[1] If we want to be glorified with Christ in the new heavens and earth, we must cling to him in the present. He promises us trials (John 16:33), but he promises to be with us (Matt. 28:20). He promises us persecution now (John 15:20) but paradise later (Rev. 2:7); The cross now (Luke 9:23) but crowns later (James 1:12).
Jesus is better; he is worth laying down our own sinful desires. The bargain Jesus offers us is better than the dime-store bargain of the devil. Satan tempts us, saying, “deny your maker and I will make you like him and give you this world” (Luke 4:5-7). Don’t trust the master liar (John 8:44); this deal is a sham.
TRADE YOUR CINDERBLOCK FOR THE ROCK OF AGES
Renounce your idols and all their cheap promises. Instead, follow Christ, who promises we will one day rule with him as his coheirs after we suffer with him (Rom. 8:17). Lay down your life, lest it slip through your fingers. Renounce everything you have, everything you worship that is not Christ, because he is better!
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)
Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the life-sucking cinderblocks; they’re all we’ve ever known, so we keep clinging to them even as we plunge toward the depths. But Christ is strong enough to lift these burdens off our back and give us his burden, instead.
His burden is the cross. The cross is death. But to die is gain because Christ is everything (Phil. 1:21).
Jesus, take these idols that drown us. Give us yourself, Jesus. You’re everything. We lay these cinderblocks down so we can be raised with the Rock of Ages.
[1]Note the emphasis on “knew you” in Matthew 7:23.
Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Clarks Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Forest Hill, Maryland. Prior to that, he served at a church plant in Troy, New York for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is raising an army of toddlers. He blogs at Family Life Pastor. You can read all of Sean’s articles here.
‘Spiritual Poverty’ is a Prerequisite to Discipleship
Our call to discipleship is founded in the Great Commission given to us by Jesus before he ascended in glory: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:16-20). The ongoing work of discipleship is to teach and demonstrate obedience to the commandments of Jesus, and the most concentrated collection of commandments we've received from him can be found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—the Sermon on the Mount.
THE BEATITUDES AS INVITATION
The sermon begins with a collection of statements known as the Beatitudes, each beginning with the phrase, "Blessed are they . . ." Most Christians are so familiar with the Beatitudes that we forget how profoundly counterintuitive they are. Each assertion calls into question basic assumptions we hold about happiness, society, and even common sense.
It is helpful to look at the Beatitudes not as isolated statements, but as a progression of thought. It’s as if Jesus is giving us a whirlwind tour, a sneak preview, of the Kingdom of Heaven. Each beatitude represents a landmark, a step deeper into the Kingdom. We can see this because each beatitude begins with the phrase, "Blessed are they," except the final one, which starts this way: "Blessed are you." Jesus suddenly turns his eyes toward us and asks, "Are you in?"
The beatitudes are an invitation, a demonstration of what God's kingdom looks like on earth so we can decide in advance whether we are willing to accept the practical instructions—that is, commandments—given in the sermon that follows.
Take, for example, the first beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). We may not know what "poor in spirit" means, exactly, but nobody looks at the word "poor" and sees something positive. Poverty is always regarded as negative, and reasonably so.
WHAT, EXACTLY, DOES ‘POOR IN SPIRIT’ MEAN?
As the first beatitude, we can understand spiritual poverty as being the key that opens the gate to the kingdom of heaven, which is what Jesus says. Whatever spiritual poverty is, the observation of it is the first step to being a disciple and to making disciples. And if we are to teach others to observe spiritual poverty, we must understand and demonstrate it ourselves.
Fortunately, the lesson is not as cryptic as it might seem. In my experience, we tend to look at the word "poor" and say something like, "Well, I know being poor is bad, so when Jesus uses that word, he must mean something different than actually being poor." Misguided as that is, if we say that Jesus is not merely talking about physical poverty, we can at least pat ourselves on the back for being half-right.
Something that is spiritual can be understood as being, for lack of a better word, deeper than something that is physical. For example, I can force myself to show physical kindness toward someone without actually feeling kind toward him or her in my heart. But I can't feel kindness toward someone and then treat him or her with outward, physical contempt. The spiritual attitude is deeper than the physical expression.
So when we talk about spiritual poverty, we are talking about a form of poverty that is deeper than physical poverty. What, then, is poverty?
Poverty is characterized by obvious signs: hunger, exposure, uncertainty, vulnerability. The basic defining factor of poverty is lack of choice. For example, if I have $50 in my pocket, my options for lunch are far less limited than they would be if I had $1. Or, if I wanted to travel from New York to San Francisco, a $1,000 budget would afford me far more options than a $100 budget. The defining attribute of wealth is the freedom to choose. Interestingly, this is also the fundamental privilege on which our society is based. "So," Jesus seems to say, "let's tackle that first."
Imagine a malnourished child in a third-world country, holding his hands out to passing tourists. Why does he spend his time this way? Because he has no choice. Hunger and deprivation are his hell on earth, and each pastel shirt that passes is, in that moment, his possible savior.
Imagine a single mother who works three jobs. Why does she do this? Because the deprivation of her children is her personal hell, and a little bit of overtime pay is the only salvation she can see.
WHAT SPIRITUAL POVERTY MEANS FOR FOLLOWING JESUS
In the same way that those who experience physical poverty desperately seek after physical salvation, those who experience spiritual poverty are desperate for spiritual salvation. And when we recognize the source of that salvation, we are totally committed to obtaining it. What else can we do? How else should we spend our time?
In his gospel, the apostle John recounts the story of another sermon Jesus gave; a sermon so difficult in nature that the large crowd that had been following him scattered, discouraged, to their homes. When Jesus turned to ask his apostles whether they intended to leave as well, Peter replied, "Lord, to whom else shall we go?" (John 6:68).
Jesus demonstrates right away with his first beatitude that following him won't be easy or glamorous. Like a beggar desperate for food, each of us must come to Jesus with a spirit of poverty, knowing that salvation is what we need and that Jesus is the only one who offers it. If we could somehow fabricate salvation ourselves or obtain it through our own efforts, we wouldn't need Jesus—we could make our own rules, choose our own way. But sleepless nights and hours spent under the operating scalpel of Scripture have taught us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one finds salvation except through him.
3 WAYS SPIRITUAL POVERTY INFORMS DISCIPLESHIP
This sense of personal spiritual poverty offers us three crucial insights for discipleship. First, it makes us sensitive to God's mercy. Unless God first extended his hand to us through his blessed Son, we would be lost to our Creator with no hope of reconciliation (Rom. 5:8). This keeps us humble and thankful, able to recognize God's continual grace in the midst of our circumstances.
Second, spiritual poverty leads us to keep our eyes open for those who are also desperate for salvation. We know what it's like to be spiritually destitute, and our hearts break for those who, in all the complexities of life, are experiencing a similar crisis (Matt. 11:28-30).
Finally, our poverty of spirit reminds us to have compassion for the lost rather than contempt. "There but for the grace of God go I." We all are found by God in the same condition, hopelessly wallowing in sin and helpless to save ourselves (see Ezekiel 16:1-8). We are keenly aware of how empty handed we were—we are—when coming to Jesus. What, indeed, did I have to offer him? My fear? My pride? My brokenness? I came to him with hands full of bloody rags, as do we all.
ARE YOU READY TO ADMIT YOUR POVERTY?
Spiritual poverty reminds us that the deep bonds of sin and darkness that hold the world captive are one arrogant thought away from claiming us as well. Without Jesus, there is simply no telling where my self-will, insecurity, and perversion might have taken me, and might still take me if God's mercies weren't new every morning. How, then, can we show contempt for anyone lost in sin?
With each beatitude, Jesus reveals more of the Kingdom of Heaven—that very present reality in which God's kingdom comes as His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Spiritual poverty is the key that opens the gate to that kingdom, placed in our empty and trembling hands by a Savior who wants us not only to enter, but to share the key with others as well.
Are you in?
Elliot Toman lives with his wife and four children in Kingston, New York, where he is an aspiring church planter. He spends his spare time studying the Bible, publishing comics and occasionally writing about the church and Christian life.
Your Tongue Needs Open Heart Surgery
Where I live people are pretty familiar with wildfires. This summer, multiple factors, such as high temperatures and minimal precipitation, created perfect conditions for dozens of fires to rage not only in Oregon, but throughout the Pacific Northwest. However familiar we are with wildfire, it’s fairly rare for most residents to actually see a wildfire. This summer, we became very familiar with the effects of these fires, as smoke and ash obscured our skies and choked our lungs for weeks on end. This year, one single lightning strike in Southern Oregon smoldered as a relatively small wildfire for a full month before quickly swelling into a massive conflagration that torched over 190,000 acres, forced thousands to evacuate, burnt several homes, and cost over $61 million to fight. All from one single spark. And this paled in comparison to the loss of property and life caused by the recent fires in Northern California.
So when we read of “how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” and, “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (Jas. 3:5b-6a), the words not only hit home, but cause me to step back, look at the destructive and noxious capacity of these fires, and say, “My words can be like that?!”
As physically devastating as a fire might be, our words carry even more destructive capacity. Unlike wildfires, words have an inherent moral element: a capacity for right or wrong in their form, content, and effect. Our words have eternal significance because they influence, shape, and impact, not just mere mortals, they affect those who are made in God’s image.
Like fire, the effects of our words aren’t just direct and immediate, but long-term and wide-ranging. Hurtful words may smolder for days, weeks, even years—affecting a root of bitterness that slowly grows into hatred, branches into aggression, blooms into rage, and eventually bears the toxic fruit of relational destruction. Like smoke that chokes and blinds, the effects of our words can be far-reaching and noxious.
TONGUES OF FIRE
The tongue is a “world of unrighteousness.” Not a thimble-full or an ant-farm, but a world—literally, a “cosmos” of unrighteousness. There is a cosmic abundance of sin, iniquity, and unrighteousness that awaits entrance into the world through the gate of the human tongue, which taps into this wicked cosmos like an electrical cord into an outlet, allowing vileness and iniquity to flow through us and into the world.
The tongue, then, is a kind of gate; a gate through which the fires of hell itself make their way into our world. And we are the gatekeepers.
Also inherent in the phrase “world of unrighteousness,” is the inordinate capacity of the tongue in proportion to its relatively tiny size. As John Calvin wrote: “A slender portion of flesh contains in it the whole world of iniquity.” What other part of the body has this kind of influence and wide-ranging effect: “staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell” (Jas. 3:6)?
We not only unleash hell into the world through our tongues, we also unwittingly place ourselves in the path of the flames. In the end, each of us will, as Jesus said, “give account for every careless word [we] speak, for by [our] words [we] will be justified, and by [our] words [we] will be condemned” (Matt. 13:36b-37).
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue” (Jas. 3:7-8). The Message translation puts it like this: “This is scary. You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done.”
The picture is getting more and more desolate and hopeless. How will we ever be able to live a counter-cultural life of love and obedience to Christ if we can’t even get our mouths under control? It seems impossible.
HEART SURGERY IS THE CURE FOR A HELLISH TONGUE
The best move might just be for all of us to go ahead and cut our tongues out. Which reminds me of one of Jesus’ starker and oft-ignored commands. And, I would add, one of the places where he talks about hell, as well:
"And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” (Matt. 18:8-9)
Replace “hand,” “foot,” or “eye” with “tongue,” and you get the point.
Curiously, I have yet to meet a believer who is missing a hand because they are prone to violence, or who is missing a foot or an eye because they can’t seem to keep themselves out of adult bookstores. But I don’t think this is a sign of disobedience as much as a sign of Jesus’ true intentions in these verses. The point here isn’t that we should be hacking off body parts in order to be saved from hell. Jesus is using hyperbole—a form of exaggeration—to make the point that it isn’t these body parts that make us sin. Rather, it is our sinful hearts, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 13:34b).
And this really is the issue: the “cosmos of unrighteousness” which the tongue taps into is the cosmos of the human heart. The tongue, as Jesus makes clear, doesn’t control itself. Rather, the tongue is controlled by the heart, the moral seat of our desires, will, and emotions.
So, left to ourselves, it seems we are out of luck. Left to ourselves, we will destroy one another with our tongues, and eventually destroy ourselves. Left to ourselves, we will light the world on fire and die in our self-made inferno.
But let’s remember one important gospel truth: We are not left to ourselves.
Yes, we are rotten to the core. Yes, our tongues are often out of control. And, yes, when our tongues are out of control, we can bet that underneath it all our hearts are out of control. The Scriptures are clear that none of our hearts are right, so the answer isn't that we need to have our tongues cut out. The answer isn’t even that we need to work really hard at controlling our tongues.
The answer is that we need someone to cut the sin out of our hearts. We need a heart surgeon.
A SKILLED AND FAITHFUL SURGEON
Thankfully, there is a surgeon who can and does specialize in transforming dead, sin-drenched, hateful, slanderous, deceitful hearts into hearts that can submit to God and overflow with love. So verse 8 of James chapter 3—“no human being can tame the tongue”—is not a sad descent into a pessimistic fatalism, but an invitation to confess our dependence and need. A way out is implied, and it’s a path requiring God-driven, Spirit-empowered heart change. As God promised:
“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezek. 36:26-27)
When my dad had open heart surgery several years ago, the procedure didn’t affect the way that he spoke or chose to use words. It didn’t affect the clarity of his speech or clean up his language. In modern medicine, brain surgery is much more likely to have these kinds of effects on speech. What his surgery did do for him was to give him a new perspective on his own mortality, which has had effects on different areas of his life, including his relationships.
The heart surgery God desires to perform on each of us will be no less painful or invasive than a surgeon cracking open a chest and rearranging arteries. But the effects of this kind of Spirit-led, transformative surgery will bear fruit in deeper and more eternal ways—including a tamed tongue that spends less time sparking wildfires, and more time being a balm for burnt souls.
Mike Phay serve as Lead Pastor at FBC Prineville (Oregon) and as an Affiliate Professor at Kilns College in Bend, OR. He has been married to Keri for 20 years and they have five amazing kids (Emma, Caleb, Halle, Maggie, and Daisy). He loves books and coffee, preferably at the same time.
When the Words of My Mouth are Pleasing Mostly to Me
I've always been a fast thinker, deducing concepts, abstracts, illustrations, and material quickly—on almost everything except math. Sadly, that quick thinking gave me a smart mouth, and I don't mean a studied, intelligent, and wise mouth. I mean the kind that got slapped, taped shut, and soap stuffed in it regularly when I was younger. I could not bridle my tongue. I was a melancholy girl, prone to long spouts of reading and ruminating, and saving up zingers to drop at the moment of maximum potential. One of my parents' favorite disciplines was to make me write the book of James by hand in a series of black and white composition books. I wish I'd saved them.
To this day I both shudder and cling to the book of James because it holds so much gold for a wily, unbridled tongue like mine.
KNOWING ENOUGH ABOUT GOD TO SHUDDER
Beginning in my late teens and into my twenties, I began to realize the way to gain friends and influence people was not to speak words of death to or about them. I have always been interested in outcomes and results, especially when they seem to benefit me. I learned to unbridle my tongue with good ideas, principles, formulas, and carnal wisdom.
If there was a question, I wanted to have the answer. If there was a weakness, I wanted to be the healer. If there was a puzzle, I wanted to figure it out. I wanted to be the go-to girl—if you need wisdom, gentleness, friendship, pity, a listening ear? Go to Lore.
I didn't realize how pervasively this pride had grown in my life and heart, though, filling all my joints and marrow with the belief that I had enough of the answers or the right amount of gentleness or the perfect principles for someone's problems. I was okay if people saw me as the solution, even as I pointed to Christ as the ultimate solution. I was the conduit, but he was the water. Surely folks could see that?
The problem is, folks don't see that, not unless you hit them over the head with it, and I wasn't about to do that and lose their respect. I wanted to tickle their ears, not box them.
WISDOM COMES FROM THE WORD
One of the things that drew me to my husband Nate, before I even met him, was his Bible. I walked past him often enough in our coffee shop, he always sat there with his open Bible counseling men. His Bible was so underlined and scribbled in I thought, "Well, here's a guy who loves the Word." One of our first conversations was about a heated and polarizing issue, and he sat across from me with his Bible gently responding to all of my questions and points with Scripture.
He just never wandered far from what the Word said about anything.
As I began to know him and move toward marriage with him, I saw this come out in the way he led our relationship, the ways he interacted with others, the ways he spoke and didn't speak, the ways he shared his sin and the brokenness of his former marriage, the ways he ministered to men, the ways he walked in discipline situations, the ways he submitted to our pastors and elders, and so much more.
He was a man who for many years simply read the Word or about the Word, but in the past few years he had become a man who was empowered with, immersed in, captured by, and full of the Word of God.
None of this changed in our marriage. In fact, I've seen even more up close and personal how he doesn't offer counsel, wisdom, good ideas about anything unless they're drenched in the Word of God. He has learned the way to truly bridle his tongue is to put on the reins and bit of the Word—to let the words of God direct, lead, and guide him in the direction he goes.
I am so challenged by this. I want to be more like this. I know at the end of every day when he asks me about my day, the folks I saw, the people I prayed with, the counsel I gave, the counsel I received, we're going to have a conversation about whether and how Scripture influenced the words spoken.
I have spent decades trying to figure out how to bridle my tongue, going from one extreme to the other, from utter silence to rampant zingers. This discipline of letting the Word of God be my bit and reins for a bridled tongue is the only thing that's changing me, really, from the inside out.
HOW TO LET THE WORD BECOME YOUR BIT
Read the Proverbs. I've been sitting in the book of Proverbs for weeks now, originally because I'd encouraged a friend to get in it, but now because I'm just so convicted about my tongue in my own life. You can't read five verses without stumbling across one dealing with the mouth, wisdom, the tongue, speaking, or being foolish. I've been getting wrecked in my own heart about my tongue and the pride in me.
Read the book of James. Write the book of James. Get the book of James inside you. Eat the book of James.
Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you. Ask him to convict you immediately when your words are coarse, unkind, gossipy, idle, unforgiving, or rooted in pride. And then, this is important, repent for your actions in the moment. This is really hard for me. I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit seventy times a day and can't even count on one finger how many times that actually drives me to repent in the moment.
Trust the Holy Spirit to do the work, not you. It's not your job to share the tidbit you think will make all the difference, especially if your desire is simply to be heard. Zack Eswine said, "It's not our job to finish what Jesus has left unfinished," in regard to our desire to sweep up, clean up, or tie up loose ends. Leave room for the Holy Spirit.
Before giving counsel, ask lots of questions. Ask what in Scripture is comforting, convicting, teaching, leading, guiding the person with whom you're speaking. Ask how the Holy Spirit is comforting them. Often times your questions will lead them to remember the power of Scripture and the ministry of the Holy Spirit—the sources to which and whom they can always go.
If you're someone who is quiet, maybe you need to speak up. If you're someone who's quiet and only thinks the zingers, find Scripture that's life-giving and speak it in the situation. Sometimes opening your mouth is the way your tongue is bridled. Ask the Lord to increase your empathy and love for people, to help you be patient, even in your listening. Sometimes your courage to speak Scripture in a situation will be the thing that changes you and the person with whom you're speaking.
If you're someone who is not quiet, maybe you need to remain quiet. If you're someone who's quiet and says the zingers, maybe a fast from speaking is in order. A time of intentionally crafted silence, full of reading the Word, studying the Word, repentance, asking the Holy Spirit to convict you, change you, and help you to see your words are not the answer to everything.
Friends, I'm convicted as I write this even more. I want the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart to be pleasing to God. I want to see my words and heart meditations as they are, being heard by the God of the universe, the Father who loves me, the Son who died for me, and the Spirit who is saying things too deep for words on my behalf.
My zingers and smart-mouth and good ideas are like filthy rags to this God.
I want to please my Father, and the best way to do that is to fill my mouth with the words he's given me in his Word.
Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, and learner. She blogs at sayable.net, and you can follow her on Twitter or on Instagram. She has a husband named Nathan and lives in Flower Mound, Texas.
Gospel-Centered or Pharisaical? Five Evaluation Questions
Last year, my family and I enjoyed some vacation time at the beach. After finding a place to put our towels, my oldest son and I jumped into the ocean to go body surfing. Fifteen minutes later, I looked up to find my wife—but nothing on the beach looked familiar. I thought I was still directly in front of her but, without realizing it, I had drifted a few hundred yards. The gradual pull of the ocean can be so subtle that it's hard to notice you're drifting further away.
Likewise, for the believer who desires to be gospel-centered, the drift toward becoming more Pharisaical is also so subtle we might not even notice it.
THE PHARISAICAL PULL
Nobody wants to be a Pharisee, yet our flesh seems naturally bent in that direction. The good news of the gospel seems too easy for our works-based, achievement-driven hearts. We know Christ achieved it all, but we still want to contribute. Even while we proclaim the gospel of grace, we fight the intense pull toward self-righteousness.
Jesus was explicit in his rebukes against the Pharisee. He welcomed the repentant sinner with grace and mercy, but offered sharp critiques to those who had supposedly achieved righteousness. Even as I read the "woes" to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, I find myself thanking God I'm not like them . . . thus revealing I'm closer than I think.
My father-in-law, a former surfer, informed me that when playing in the ocean it's important to find a "point of reference"—a large, stationary object on the beach, like a lifeguard stand, unique landscape, etc. As you are enjoying the waves, you must continually look back to your point of reference and re-adjust yourself. Constant checks and re-adjustments keep you from drifting too far without realizing it.
For believers, the gospel is our point of reference. We continue to behold the beauty of the gospel and live under its truths. As we seek to live this kind of gospel-centered life, we must be aware of the drift towards a Pharisaical mindset and be ready to evaluate our hearts.
Here are five evaluation questions to ask ourselves to point us back to the gospel and keep us from drifting.
WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS?
In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a story to those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous." Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee who thanked God that he wasn't like the sinners, and then he went on to point out all the good he had done. The other man was a tax collector who wouldn't even look up to heaven, but simply prayed "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
Only one of those men went home justified before the Lord. The Pharisee was looking at his own good works to establish his righteousness and standing before God. Truly understanding our sinfulness and God's holiness is incompatible with this type of self-righteousness. The tax collector recognized his sin and pleaded for mercy.
We also see that self-righteousness leads to treating others with contempt, judging others, and considering yourself better than others because you think you have accomplished something they haven't. In the Pharisee's mind, he's been good enough. Why can't other people get their act together?
Gospel reminder: The gospel teaches that believers are righteous, but it is an alien righteousness. We've been made new by a righteousness outside of ourselves, the very righteousness of Christ. Therefore, a true believer has no reason to boast except in Christ and him crucified. Any goodness we see in our life is the result of a changed heart and indwelling Holy Spirit, to which all glory belongs to God.
WHY DO YOU DO GOOD WORKS?
The Pharisees did good works, but only to be seen by men. In Matthew 23, Jesus says:
"For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others."
In Matthew 6:1 we are warned: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Jesus goes on to teach that our praying, fasting, and any good deed should be done without advertising it. We must be careful that we don't "sound the trumpet" when we do good works, making sure that everyone sees us.
Gospel reminder: Our acceptance is based on the works of Christ, so we don't need to try and win favor with God and man. We can rest in the gospel, which continues to bear fruit and good works (Colossians 1:6). As we serve the Lord, our motive should be to glorify God and not ourselves. "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
IS YOUR “RELIGION” MERELY EXTERNAL?
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Luke 16:15: “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." In Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus tells the Pharisees they are whitewashed tombs who focus on the outside but neglect the inside. A whitewashed tomb looks nice on the outside, but inside it’s full of death and decay.
We can go to church, volunteer, give money to the poor, and other good, external works, but still be dead in our sins. God is concerned about our heart. Are the commands of God constantly burdensome (1 John 5:3)? Are we constantly trying to produce on the outside what we don't feel or believe on the inside?
Gospel reminder: The work of the gospel changes us from the inside out. The New Covenant promised in Ezekiel 36 provides a new heart instead of simply changing us with external laws.
DO YOU PROCLAIM THE COMMANDS OF MEN AS COMMANDS OF GOD?
The Pharisees followed many man-made rules and enforced them on others. When Jesus and his followers refused to obey them, the Pharisees didn't appreciate it. Jesus tells them in Mark 7:8, "You leave the commandment of God and hold to the traditions of men."
There might be things that bother my conscience, so I personally refuse to take part in them. However, unless God calls something sin, we should be very careful about pushing men's opinions as commandments of God.
Gospel reminder: Oftentimes, when we add to God's law, we are doing so in an attempt to look or feel more holy. We might think such a strict lifestyle will win us extra favor before God, but the work of Christ is already complete and perfect, so we cannot add anything to it.
DO YOU FIND A WAY TO JUSTIFY YOUR DISOBEDIENCE?
The Pharisees found ways to justify themselves for disobeying the laws of God. In Mark 7:9-13, Jesus gives an example where the Pharisees were not helping their parents financially because they were "giving that money to God." While that might sound spiritual, Jesus said it's sinful not to honor one's mother and father, even if you are giving that money to the church.
We often find it easy to justify our sin. For instance, we justify our anger toward others by arguing they deserved it. Our secret sin isn't really a big deal because it's not hurting anyone, we tell ourselves. Our lack of church attendance is excusable because we're listening online. On and on we go, making molehills out of mountains. While the excuses may seem valid and appease our seared conscience, at the end of the day disobedience is still disobedience.
Gospel reminder: None of us can justify ourselves. Our debt has been paid by Christ, so we are now justified in him. Which means we should own our sin, confess it, and repent. Then, by God's grace, we press on without the weight of shame and guilt.
As we strive to be gospel-centered people of grace, let’s recognize the ease with which we can drift into a Pharisaical mindset. Let’s fight against this drift by continually looking to the gospel and beholding its beautiful truths.
"God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
James Williams has served as an Associate Pastor at FBC Atlanta, TX for four years. He is married to Jenny and they currently have four children in their home (three biological, one in foster care). He is in the dissertation stage of a PhD in Systematic Theology. You can follow James on Twitter or his church’s blog where he writes regularly.
Do You Take the Great Commission Personally?
In Acts 7, a leader in the Church named Stephen is dragged before the Sanhedrin and demanded to explain his beliefs. Assured by Jesus that the Holy Spirit would give him the words, he opened his mouth and started talking. What followed was a sweeping history of the people of Israel, culminating in their handing over Jesus to be crucified. As you might imagine, that didn’t go over so well with the Jewish crowd. Stephen was dragged out of the city and stoned to death. His death sparked intense persecution for followers of Jesus. So intense that, as we’re told in Acts 8:1,
There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
At the end of that verse, there’s an interesting detail. It says everyone was scattered “except the apostles.”
Why is that so interesting? Well, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus told his disciples they would spread his teaching from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and the rest of the world (Acts 1:8). The moment Jesus-followers were scattered, the spread of the gospel out of Jerusalem and into the rest of the world began.
And the Apostles weren’t a part of it.
Imagine if you had to pick one person or team of people from your church to go and take the message of Jesus somewhere new. You would probably pick your senior pastor or the team of pastors at your church, right? What a shock it would be to find out that, not only were they unable to go, but you and your small group were the ones that had to do it.
EVERYONE EXCEPT THE APOSTLES
That’s what the Bible is telling us here—a mostly unknown group of Christians took the gospel into places like Judea and Samaria, planting churches as they went. These were average people with normal jobs that had to earn a living and figure out how to spread the gospel.
That means they had to do something fundamental: they had to make disciples.
And they did. Acts 11 shows us where the believers who were scattered after Stephen’s murder ended up. They went all over the place, but some went to Antioch and started preaching the gospel to the non-Jewish people living there.
Barnabas, a trusted man in the church, was so impressed with what was going on in Antioch he brought his friend the Apostle Paul to check it out. Together they taught and encouraged this fledgling church where followers of Jesus were called “Christians” for the first time.
It’s easy to miss what’s going on here because, well, it’s missing. And that’s the names—the names of the Christians who took the gospel to parts unknown. These were literally no-name men and women who were making disciples and planting churches.
By the way, the church in Antioch ended up becoming the church planting center of the early church. The church in Antioch actually sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey.
From the beginning of the Church, then, we see everyday Christians making disciples, planting churches, and sending missionaries.
TAKING THE GREAT COMMISSION PERSONALLY
These early Christians knew they were part of a close-knit, life-on-life community that was called to love one another like their own family. The book of Acts and the Epistles attest to that.
The Church knew then, like it does now, that it had collectively been given the Great Commission. But the first Christians went one step further—they took the Great Commission personally.
They knew they were each called to make disciples. Not just the elders. Not just the Apostles. Every one of them. The early Christians took the Great Commission personally and collectively.
We’ve seen a renewed focus on the gospel and its sending emphasis of late, which is incredibly hopeful. Much of that emphasis is on churches as collective bodies, and rightly so. But let’s not lose sight of our personal call to make disciples and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded.
This lack of emphasis on a personal call to make disciples is why most churchgoers’ lives look no different than their unbelieving neighbors. It’s why the divorce rate is the same among Christians and non-Christians. And it’s why Christians believe they should share their faith, but most of them don’t.
DO YOU TAKE THE GREAT COMMISSION PERSONALLY?
Just imagine yourself in a modern-day version of the situation in Acts. Imagine being dropped off in the middle of a city like Los Angeles or San Francisco. But instead of churches all over the place, there are no believers to be found. There are no church leaders, no pastors, no denominations. If you found yourself in that situation, would you know what to do?
I’m afraid for too many of us the answer is a resounding no. We would have no idea where to begin. No idea of how to evangelize our neighbors, baptize them, and start teaching them to obey Jesus’ commandments. No idea of how to live in community with other believers in a way that’s so attractive that those around us can’t help but ask what’s going on.
We can say we don’t need to be directly involved in discipling people because we have the freedom to have large churches with lots of pastors and seminaries to train them to do the work (here in America, at least).
And that’s true. All of those things are possible, which is perhaps why that’s largely the way evangelical churches operate in America.
But does that make it the right way to operate? Just because we can structure things that way, should we?
Here’s a diagnostic question: If there was no church to invite people to, no engaging services to ease the anxieties of the unchurched, no safe and fun children’s ministry for their kids, would you still know how to tell your neighbors about Jesus?
The answer to that question reveals a lot about whether or not we should be operating in a way that removes personal responsibility for the Great Commission.
THE PERSONAL BURDEN TO MAKE DISCIPLES
Only when Christians wake each day with a burden to make disciples in their particular context—only when that is their primary calling and way they view the purpose of their life—does the church function the way it was intended. Only when Christians gauge their effectiveness based on their own fruit instead of their pastor’s does the gospel multiply.
Otherwise, the Church gets bogged down arguing about strategy and philosophy of ministry and all the things that keep it from focusing on Jesus’ last words (Matt. 28:18-20).
When Jesus came back from the dead, he called together the small band of people who followed him. His intimate circle included eleven men. At most he had 120 followers. It was to this small group that Jesus handed responsibility for completing his mission by making disciples just like he did.
True disciples have been made in this same way ever since: by a group of believers each investing in the people around them, giving them the best news they’ve ever received, and teaching them to follow Jesus.
Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three, as well the Managing Web Editor at GCD. He serves as Pastor of Community at his church in Charlotte, NC and has earneda MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Grayson’s passion is to equip believers for every day discipleship to Jesus. For more of his writing check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.
How Thrill Seeking Relates to Disciple-Making
Imagine this: a gorgeous, snow-capped mountain overlooking a range of other peaks covered with pine trees, carrying a magical sense of awe and wonder. Perhaps a bird soars effortlessly in the background, and a girl sits at the peak, snuggled under an Aztec blanket holding a coffee mug. Have you seen this photo? I have too. Probably fifteen different times. The baffling thing is how it continues to evoke a sense of longing within my soul every time I see it. I’m drawn to nature in a way that makes my heart beat faster, my soul sing louder, and my flesh desire deeper.
I’m not alone in this. My generation is enthralled with traveling the world, fighting for meaningful causes, and seeking fulfillment in adventure.
ETERNITY IS WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS
This desire has been intentionally and beautifully stirred inside of us.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 sings in my soul as I reflect on our unattainable longing for more.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Instead of letting the Lord gloriously reveal himself to us, though, we’ve grabbed onto our ideas of eternity and created realities out of them. We do it in church, at universities, even in business.
And quite honestly, I’m overwhelmed with how many movements, upgrades, and “once in a lifetime” experiences exist. The need for everything to be a necessity, a guarantee for life-changing transformation, is exhausting and unrealistic.
Have we left behind patience for God’s movement and instead created our own?
REACHING BEYOND OUR GRASP
Our longing for more may be leading us to build up experiences so high and mighty that we're trying to reach God's height.
I’m not setting myself against this persona. I can very much be classified with the majority in this. But the difference I hope to make is not to kill dreams, but to purify and purpose them.
Our churches and ministries are either full or void of young people, and the ones that are there are probably consumed with this zeal for adventure. What do we do with them? As disciple-makers, we should learn to come alongside this culture (inside and outside the church) and witness for Jesus.
More specifically, we must find ways to challenge the spirit of worshiping creation over Creator. The photo of the girl on the mountain stirs a desire to go see the mountains, but also to feel that wonder and awe. We’re not just idolizing the physical mountain; we’re idolizing experience and the emotional thrill that comes with it.
A recognition of the object of our worship would actually refocus how we seek fulfillment. In this we are led to redefine what fulfillment is, and discover the omnipresence of God.
I remember hearing the term “mountain top experience” in youth group, and at summer camp we would come home with “camp high." The term was used to describe the heightened awareness of God at work within us. Every time I heard it, though, I was a little frightened that I may lose track of his presence. We all tried to doubt and dismiss the idea until a few weeks later we were left slightly disappointed with the normalcy of life.
It’s natural to elevate a time or experience that’s especially impactful to our spiritual well-being. It’s not good to expect that every day.
COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE
In my younger years, I think the crashing reality of this mountain top experience was helpful in encouraging me to build healthy spiritual disciplines. I was drawn to pray for God to not leave me, I was inspired to remind myself of his character through his Word, and I was provoked to ask older and wiser friends how they would deal with this disappointment. The cultivation of these very necessary Christian principles showed me how my faith could be sustainable in normal life.
As much as I wanted to live at summer camp forever, I knew that was not a possibility. The daily search for Jesus was attainable, however, and that sense of awe and hunger for more helped train me to look for Jesus in my local surroundings. This has been so vital to my faith that I don’t know if I’d still be walking with him had I not learned.
However, it still cost me disappointment when I saw people growing faster or deeper than I was. It also cost me a lot of time that was seemingly worthless at the moment. But the most costly was the deep grief I felt when others didn’t understand what God was doing inside me. I haven’t grown out of these costs, and I still have to endure their price as I walk forward in faith.
I’ve learned, though, that daily and weekly practices like Bible reading, prayer, and living in community with the church are some of the most influential tools in carving out intimacy with Jesus. The costs revealed that no community, mentor, or experience compares to knowing Jesus. And I know him better because of my daily practice of acknowledging his presence.
MY SPIRITUAL HIGH IN THE LAND DOWN UNDER
I spent a short time of my life living in Australia. My season there was marked by the deepest union I’ve ever felt with God. I could physically see mountains, but I also felt that spiritual high I referred to earlier.
I remember one night I was praying and reading Scripture on my bed, and I noticed a warm glow outside my window. I walked over to the window and peered out into the darkness. Flickering stars covered the sky with dazzling light while the moon was a perfect crescent shape framing the sky, producing a remarkable glow. My breath was literally knocked out of me, and warm tears blurred the scene in my eyes.
My physical response was weak compared to the way this moment impacted me spiritually and emotionally, however. One of my greatest friends always quotes Psalm 19:1 which reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” I couldn’t ignore the powerful declaration of God’s glory because my eyes were witnessing it in the skies. This verse came to life.
God is the most magnificent artist, and his earth manifests the work of his hands. When we witness this, our hearts are moved to worship with an incomparable fullness. It’s a heavenly fullness, one spoken of in Ecclesiastes 3:11.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ELIJAH’S MOUNTAIN TOP HIGH
This same heavenly fullness was experienced by Elijah when he was on a mountain.
And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. —1 Kings 19:11-12
Elijah experienced the mountain top high, am I right? This movement of God is not to be downplayed or ignored. When the world around us is quiet enough for us to listen, we become divinely aware of God. It’s in these moments that we hear the Spirit gently speak to our hearts, and remind us that we have been created for eternity.
The peak of the mountain doesn’t compare to the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s a sliver of a glimpse, but it can’t be manufactured by mankind. We can’t stir the Holy Spirit with our overdone methods and strategies; we have to trust and remember that the Spirit is who stirs us.
HOW THRILL SEEKING RELATES TO DISCIPLE-MAKING
This wave of thrill seeking, adventure, and passion to change the world is moving people to do more than they ever have. It’s challenging people to venture outside their comfort zones and to think beyond their normal capacity. It’s a trend inside and outside the church, and it has the potential to be incredibly helpful to both.
However, if we aren’t producing healthy, loving, disciple-makers then these sentiments and actions will only fall flat. Our first and foremost pursuit must be loving God. Things will begin to crumble if we aren’t intentional about this first pursuit. It can’t be the spiritual high, new experiences, or even service. The fruit of our labor is only a result of loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. That’s where fulfillment is found, and that’s where transformation begins.
Ask those you disciple, your community, and yourself questions like these:
- If I was called to invest in one community for a decade, would that be enough?
- What do you spend most of your time praying for/ about?
- How do you define fulfillment? Do the ways you find fulfillment point you to God, or do they simply leave you wanting to chase another experience?
We are created to seek fulfillment in God, not this world or the experiences it has to offer. When we become vulnerable to the incompleteness of us, we become aware of the very complete presence of God.
Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) is currently living in Nashville but has spent time in Texas, Thailand, and Australia. Obviously travel is a passion, along with hours in the kitchen or across the table from good friends. She does freelance writing, editing, and speaking for various organizations and non-profits. She hopes to spend her life using her gift for communication to reach culture and communities with the love of Jesus. You can read all of Chelsea’s article here.
Be Like Me: Discipleship's Roots in the Rabbinic Tradition
The last words of Jesus contained the command to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). The implication of this command is multiplication; followers of Jesus are expected to make new disciples. Christians today are descendants of disciples who made disciples. But how many churchgoers have been exposed to an intentional discipleship process? How many church leaders have an actual plan for making disciples? Or do many of us just stumble into it? Is there a model we can follow?
A CLOSER WALK
After I made a public confession of faith in Jesus, my youth minister would try to meet for lunch several times a month, go through a book study, and discuss what we learned.
But the thing I remember most was him pushing me toward a closer walk with Jesus. Teaching me how he applied Scripture to his life; how he was attempting to live like Christ.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for anything deeper at the time; I was too immature. But over time, those lessons caught up to me.
A few years later, one of my pastors and his wife spent significant time with me. I saw them raise their kids and shepherd a church. Some of the lessons I learned previously were being modeled on a deeper level.
During this time I began to sense a calling to ministry, and they helped guide that call. That pastor also gave me my first full-time church position, and I joined his staff in Texas.
Even as a pastor, he continued to disciple me, though I don’t think we ever called it that. We spent time together and I learned how to shepherd people through his example, and by going along with him as he did it.
At this church, I began a friendship with a young man in our college ministry. He was still faithful while many of his friends were away at school or had dropped out of church.
We started working out together in my garage. This went on for several years before I realized it was discipleship.
He would see me interact with my family, talk about church life, talk about his work and his vocational call. I didn’t even see it as discipleship until another staff member asked what material we were working through in our discipleship meetings.
We weren’t working through any material, just sharing our lives. Our meetings expanded to include another young man and soon there were three or four of us. I had the privilege of sharing life with these young men over the last three years I was at the church. These relationships have even extended over ten years and 500 miles. What I discovered is that this informal plan of discipleship is connected to the models we are given in the New Testament.
LIVED GOSPEL TRADITION
I recently re-read a little book, The Origins of the Gospel Traditions by Birger Gerhardsson, a distillation of two of his earlier works. He discusses how rabbis would pass down their teachings to their students and how faithful these students were to commit them to memory.
As I was reading, I noticed how the process of discipleship has been passed down from the rabbis through Jesus and Paul; there is much we can learn from this process.
The first five books of the Bible are known as the Torah in Hebrew. Torah means “instruction.” Great importance was given to the study of the laws and commands of the Torah.
To learn the Torah one must go to a teacher. Students would then flock around teachers. Such a group became something of an extended family. The teacher was the spiritual father, the students his spiritual children.
They spent time with him, followed him, and served him. Students would learn much of the tradition by listening—to their teacher and his more advanced students.
They learned by posing questions and making contributions of their own within the bounds prescribed by modesty and etiquette. But they also learned a great deal by simply observing: with attentive eyes, they saw all the teacher did, then proceeded to imitate him. The Torah is above all a holy, authoritative attitude toward life. Students can then learn by simply watching and imitating those who are educated.
The Talmud is the collection of the exposition of the Torah by the great rabbis of Judaism. In the Talmud ,the teachings of the great rabbis were preserved, but so were their actions: “I saw rabbi so-and-so do thus and so.”
The rabbinical tradition preserved examples of how bright and eager students followed their teachers’ actions even in the most private situations, motivated by the belief that “this has to do with Torah, and I want to learn!” This includes a humorous story of students hiding in a rabbi’s bedroom because they wanted to learn the Torah in that “situation.”
TORCHES LIGHTING TORCHES
Seeking to preserve their teachings on the Torah, the rabbis were not only interested in what Gerhardsson calls the “cramming and mechanical recitation” of their teaching. They were very conscious of the importance of comprehending and personally applying what had been impressed upon one’s mind. For this reason they carried on an energetic struggle against lifeless knowledge.
According to the rabbis, a disciple shouldn’t be a dead receptacle for received tradition. Rather, a student should enter into a discipleship relationship so that he or she understands and is in agreement with it. Only that way can they actually live according to it, be a faithful steward of it, and pass it on to others in an infectious way.
A living bearer of the tradition is to be like a torch that has been lit by an older torch, in order that it might itself light others.
Paul picks up this mantle of rabbinic discipleship, seeing himself as a spiritual father to those who have been won for the gospel (1 Corinthians 4:17; Philemon 10). He encourages his congregations to be imitators of him in all respects, even as he himself is an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:7).
The life of imitation comes into being when obedient disciples receive (and pattern their lives according to) the instruction of their teacher. After his admonishment to “be imitators of me,” Paul follows with this statement:
“For this reason I am sending to you Timothy… He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:17).
When Paul speaks of “my ways” he is referring to patterns of his life and teachings. Imitating Paul means receiving and living according to the teaching he proclaimed in all his congregations. Paul isn’t just passing down oral or written teaching, but the very way he lives.
We see this fleshed out even more in Philippians 4:9: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.”
The Philippians were even told to look in their own community for imitators of Paul: “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you” (Philippians 3:17).
Paul is passing down a tradition of rabbinic discipleship. Just as the rabbis gathered students and passed on both instruction in the Torah and a lifestyle that exemplifies the Torah, Paul exhorts his followers to not only hold fast to his teaching, but to imitate his lifestyle as well.
BE LIKE ME
We see that for the rabbis and Paul, discipleship is not a program or a book study to take someone through, but an opportunity to live out their teaching (in Paul’s case, the gospel) in front of students, encouraging them to follow along. It might seem deeply personal and time-consuming, but it is the model we have been given.
While I was sharing life with these young men, I was tempted to feel bad because we didn’t go through organized study material. But we were already involved in Sunday School, corporate worship, and other activities.
Instead, our discipleship was allowing them to observe me applying the lessons of Scripture to my life and to speak into issues in their lives.
If you are walking with someone who is not currently involved in any kind of Bible instruction, by all means, incorporate that. But more importantly, let your people see how you apply those lessons to your life.
Bill Victor works for the Missouri Baptist Convention as a team member of the Making Disciples Group. He helped start Missio Dei, a campus ministry at the University of Missouri. He is currently an adjunct professor of New Testament at Liberty University’s School of Divinity and Regent University. He also has worked in various pastoral roles.
Let's Get Real About Women's Discipleship
Many women think discipleship means hosting Bible studies in tasteful homes where shrieking kids and dirty dishes don’t exist. But that’s not what Jesus had in mind.
Less than a year ago, I helped organize a women’s ministry event focused on discipleship. During this hour-long event, we offered women the chance to ask anonymous questions to a panel of female leaders in the church about the practice of discipleship.
It went well. Frankly, a little too well. The five of us participating on the panel ran out of time long before those in attendance ran out of questions. While I was encouraged by the interest women showed in the topic, I left the panel feeling somewhat burdened by the trend I saw in the questions women were asking us.
Many women in my church seemed to struggle with the essential rhythm of discipleship, mostly because they had unrealistic ideas about what discipleship should look like in the first place. They were frustrated by their lack of theological prowess or their inability to squeeze a group Bible study into their schedules, and rather than doing discipleship “wrongly” they were just foregoing discipleship completely.
In his book Discipling, author Mark Dever offers a to-the-point definition of discipleship as “helping others follow Jesus”. This doesn’t seem to be the definition many women are applying in their personal lives. If Instagram is any clue, most Christian women think discipleship is limited to hosting thoughtfully curated Bible studies in tasteful homes where shrieking children and dirty dishes don’t exist. This glossy ideal sits like a yoke on many women’s shoulders rather than spurring them onward in Christ’s Great Commission.
That yoke leads to many problems, all of which could be rectified by letting go of perfectionism and getting real. Here are three ways to start getting real about women's discipleship.
1. STOP SEARCHING FOR THE UNICORN DISCIPLER
The most common question I hear in women’s ministry is some variation of “where can I get a Titus-2 woman to disciple me?” This isn’t a bad question, but it is sometimes asked with something unhelpful in mind. I’ve watched repeatedly as Christian women adopt a heavy-handed application of the passage in Titus 2:1-5. In these verses, godly, well-respected older women are instructed to teach younger women in the church. While this is clearly the Father’s intended model within a congregational family, sometimes our expectations are more detailed than the text itself!
I know too many women who are desperately holding out for a discipler that looks more like a unicorn than an actual human being. In our minds we sometimes conjure up this image of what sort of woman we want pouring wisdom into us: at least twenty years older, maybe she’s the pastor’s wife or women’s ministry leader; she’s got kids, preferably a lot of them. Yet this older woman with a pastor husband, a women’s ministry to run, and a bunch of kids to raise can magically find the time to meet with us three times a week at a coffee shop to read the Bible.
Not only do we sometimes have unreasonable expectations for those we want to disciple us, but sometimes we find ourselves unintentionally ignoring women in our midst who already want to pour into us. That single sister or college girl is just as capable of reminding you of the gospel as anyone else, and may be the very woman God has put in your life to help you grow and mature as a believer. Let go of the unicorn, and praise God for any woman of any age or life stage who is willing to disciple you.
2. SIMPLIFY DISCIPLESHIP RHYTHMS
Another concern women have about discipleship is about “how” to do it, with many convinced the only acceptable way to disciple someone is to have one-on-one Bible discussions. Interestingly enough, the Bible shows us that discipleship takes many forms.
The book of Acts describes the death and resurrection of a disciple named Tabitha (Acts 9:36-43). She specifically cared for women in Joppa who lost their husbands. As this community was grieving the loss of their beloved sister-disciple, nobody mentioned Tabitha’s hostess skills or if she coordinated the best Bible studies. Instead, these widows wept into the clothes that Tabitha made for them in their time of need. With this simple, unflashy act of faithfulness Tabitha deeply influenced the women of her church community. So much so that when she died two men ran to another town to find the Apostle Peter and ask for his help.
Peter raised this woman who was “filled with good works and charity” from the dead so that she could continue discipling and serving her sisters in the church. She may not have led a Bible study, but Tabitha was a discipleship powerhouse by simply living alongside these women, observing their needs and doing her best to meet them in Jesus’ name. Our own discipleship can be that simple too.
However, the practical servant discipleship of Tabitha is not our only example. In the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul writes a letter to the believers in Thessalonica. Paul is actually engaging in discipleship just by writing this letter of encouragement and instruction to other believers. In chapter 5 of this letter, Paul gives the church some specific charges in discipleship; “admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all”. All of the things Paul detailed here are considered discipleship actionables, and all of these things are incredibly powerful in the life of believer.
Think of the last woman you spent a significant amount of time with. Did she have a physical need? How could you meet that physical need and use it to remind her of her great need for a Savior? Is she experiencing a personal trial? How can you encourage her and remind her of God’s goodness? Are you aware of any sin patterns this woman may have in her life? What words and approach should you use to gently admonish and restore her?
Asking yourself these kinds of questions and letting the answers guide your interactions is discipleship in its simplest form.
To be clear, there is great value in dedicated time for discussing scripture with other women. But if you want to develop a rhythm of discipling others and being discipled, you are also going to have to embrace the messiness of life, and that often means organized study sessions take a backseat. You will have to talk over screaming kids. You will have women flake out because of other responsibilities. You will often talk about scripture while one of you folds laundry or finishes up a work project. All of these things are okay. There is a lot you can learn from another woman just by observing her in her daily routine without any special appointments or studies.
3. KEEP IT ALL ABOUT JESUS
Ultimately the kind of discipleship women need is the kind that stirs their affections for Christ and encourages them to become more like him. But many women worry they aren’t theologically capable of discipling or teaching someone else.
Luckily for believers, there is no prerequisite for discipleship. If God’s word is living and active, then God’s story has the power to challenge and mature believers independent of our abilities or intellect. Your job as a discipler is to simply show others who Jesus is and remind them what he did for them, over and over again. When they are hurting, remind them. When they are angry at their co-worker or spouse, remind them. When they are sinning, remind them. When they need grace, remind them.
THE SIMPLE GOSPEL
The simple message of the gospel is what changes our lives both in the temporal and eternal sense, and the gospel didn’t lose its power after that happened. To assume that God cannot continue to change a person’s heart or sanctify them despite our bumbling words or lack of apologetic knowledge is to underestimate his power. The good news of Jesus Christ and someone willing to speak it is all that is truly necessary for discipleship.
Rachelle Cox converted from Mormonism six years ago and is now passionate about helping women understand God’s good word and good theology. She is a women’s ministry intern at Karis Church, and is beginning her theological education at Boyce College. She loves serving her husband and two children, and writes at http://eachpassingphase.com .
Taste and See that the Bible is True
How do you know that God is good? That He’s trustworthy? How do you know the Bible is true? Many times we’re told we just have to believe these things by knowing and accepting them. In my life, these questions required much more than acquiring knowledge. Coming to answers involved knowing about God, yes, but also experiencing God.
TASTE AND SEE
Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
Notice the progression in this verse. First you taste, experiencing the fullness of flavor as your taste buds fire signals to your brain about what you’re eating.
Then your brain interprets those signals and you notice the food is perhaps a bit undercooked, too salty, or—like those scenes in Ratatouille—fireworks go off in your mind as you’re overcome with delight.
Tasting opens our eyes and allows us to see—to know—something for ourselves. Taste and see are experiential words. They involve the senses, which are able to bring abstract concepts to life.
When I think of food, I think of donuts. I’m an evangelist for Jesus, but I’m also a part-time evangelist for a local donut shop.
These things are amazing. The donuts themselves are like a mix between funnel cakes and the donuts most people think of—crunchy and slightly crisp on the outside, soft and delicately fluffy on the inside. And then come the toppings. Oh, the toppings! The glazes, frostings, sprinkles, even bits of bacon. My personal favorite is a simple maple glaze.
Now, I heard about these donuts for a while before I tasted them for myself. Everyone promised me I would love them, and I figured I would because, hey, I like donuts. But I wasn’t able to understand the fullness of their glory without tasting them for myself, allowing me to experience them through my senses in a way that brought those promises to life.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” works in the same way. It's an invitation to try out the promises of God, and as you do, you'll find that He is good.
PREPARING FOR THE FEAST
This is how I came to trust that God is good and trustworthy. It’s how I came to know that Scripture should be my source of truth and only guide for living. Several years ago my heart was gripped by the reality of what the Scriptures teach, and the eyes of my heart began to be enlightened (Eph. 1:18) to the truth of God’s word.
I began to understand that Jesus’ promise to be with us in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) was linked to our participation in disciple-making. I came to see that if I wanted to experience the power of God’s Spirit, I had to be engaged in speaking the gospel, the primary purpose for which the Spirit was sent (Acts 1:8). I realized that how I treated the poor and spent my money were measures of my faith and how much of my heart Jesus really had.
As I came to understand what the Scriptures were teaching, I had to know if it was true. I was tired of the supernatural stuff being stuck between the pages of Scripture. I wanted it to break out into my life in the here and now. So I started tasting.
TASTING DISCIPLESHIP
The first thing I “tasted” was discipleship. I had never been discipled one-on-one or as part of a group, so I didn’t really know what it looked like. But if it was the last thing Jesus said to do before ascending to his heavenly throne, it must be a big deal.
I read some books, talked to some people, and started praying for God to send me guys to disciple. I knew, based on materials I had reviewed, that one of the crucial elements in discipleship is availability – the person you disciple needs to be available to spend time learning to study and apply the Scriptures.
So I prayed along those lines. Within a couple of months, God made it clear who the guys were going to be. And the guys he sent me had just been laid off – making them highly available and incredibly open to learning and applying Scripture to their lives.
The next six months was a prolonged opening of my eyes. I had never really committed to investing in the lives of other men in the ways we see in the New Testament – spending time with them, encouraging them, challenging them, memorizing Scripture with them – which means I had never experienced the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in these awesome ways. I witnessed all of us grow closer to Jesus, and become more like him, as we spoke the truths of Scripture into one another’s lives.
I tasted the Lord and came to see that what God promised is true – that we sense Jesus’ nearness as we make disciples; that we tap into the power of the Spirit as we speak the gospel; and that wherever two or three gather in the name of Jesus, he is there with us (Matt. 18:20).
Not only are those things true but they are so, so good. For the first time in my life I felt like I was participating in the New Testament for myself and seeing the promises of Scripture come to life in my time.
Naturally, I wanted more. So I kept tasting.
TASTING MERCY
I was convicted by the materialism that ran rampant in my heart. I knew Jesus called us to put our treasure in heavenly things, not things of this world.
I read Luke 12:33 and didn’t see any wiggle room in the command to “sell your possessions and give to the needy.” At the same time, I wondered why Christians don’t use their homes for ministry as in the early church, and wrote an article suggesting ways to do so. One of my suggestions was to invite a homeless family to live with you, particularly if you live in the suburbs. So I started praying for God to show me what he wanted me to give up or to be open to.
A week later, I was notified at church that someone needed to speak with a pastor. I headed across the building to speak with them. After a couple of minutes of waiting, a mother came to me with tears in her eyes and told me the story of how she lost her home and ended up sleeping in her car. Her three kids were sleeping at their dad’s place so she could keep it a secret that they didn’t have a home anymore.
It was about a week before Christmas, so none of the normal referrals I would connect her with would be open, and she had no family nearby because she was an immigrant. As I was listening to her story, God showed me that this was what I had been praying for. I’m a middle-class guy with a wife and three kids in an affluent suburb—precisely what I had written about a week earlier. It was time to taste and see.
So on Christmas Day, this woman and her three children showed up at my house and spent the evening with my family. It was awkward at first. We didn’t really know each other well; my family wasn’t quite sure what we were doing; and my children moved into the same bedroom to make room for our guests.
But the discomfort was nothing compared to the blessing we received by having their family join ours for a time. We bonded with her children, and they joined our family worship times. We cooked meals together and laughed and cried together. That time transformed my family’s willingness to be obedient to whatever God calls us to do.
SWEETER THAN HONEY
So why do I trust God? How do I know He’s good? How do I know the Bible is true and its words are authoritative?
Because I have tasted God’s promises and seen that they are true. I have savored His goodness and found myself craving more.
Now, when I taste God’s Word, I have the same experience as Ezekiel. In a vision, God told the prophet to consume a scroll with his words written on it. As Ezekiel eats God’s words, he finds that “it was in my mouth as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:3).
Scripture is not only the authority in and for my life, it is “sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10).
Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three as well the Managing Web Editor at GCD. He serves as Pastor of Community at his church in Charlotte, NC and has earneda MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Grayson’s passion is to equip believers for every day discipleship to Jesus.
A Long Obedience In an Instagram Age
How do we get people's attention long enough to disciple them? Here are four ways to encourage people toward a long obedience in an Instagram age.
If the results of Microsoft’s infamous study are correct, you have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. That means I have eight seconds to grab your attention before you click away from reading this. The study led Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, to conclude we live in a world where “the true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.”
We’re more distracted than ever, constantly feeling overwhelmed by the torrent of information that floods our eyes and ears each day. Arcade Fire’s newest album, Everything Now, captures the spirit of our distracted age. In a surging song that sounds like several playing at once, frontman Win Butler holds up a mirror to the modern world with these words:
Infinite content Infinite content We're infinitely content All your money is already spent on it All your money is already spent Infinite content
Butler is warring against the Instagram age, mocking our contentment with endless streaming, infinite music, and never-ending social media feeds.
One of Eugene Peterson’s books on following Jesus is titled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. His message is that discipleship to Jesus takes discipline and attention, and he’s right.
But how do we get people's attention long enough to disciple them? Here are four ways to encourage people toward a long obedience in an Instagram age.
1. EDUCATE YOURSELF (AND YOUR DISCIPLES)
You probably feel like Tony Reinke about your phone:
My phone is a window into the worthless and the worthy, the artificial and the authentic. Some days I feel as if my phone is a digital vampire, sucking away my time and my life. Other days, I feel like a cybernetic centaur—part human, part digital—as my phone and I blend seamlessly into a complex tandem of rhythms and routines.[1]
We can’t go on living as if constant connection to our devices isn’t changing anything. Paul tells us we are to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). If our attention jumps every eight seconds, we don’t stand a chance against an enemy who would love to distract us to death.
Christians must become more educated about the good and bad of smartphones and other devices. We are a people of the word, a people who lift up the Son of God as being the very Word of God. If anyone is to take their attention seriously, it should be disciples of Jesus.
There are some great resources about technology and faithful discipleship to Jesus. Andy Crouch’s The Tech-Wise Family and Tony Reinke’s 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You are both excellent at giving an overview of the pros and cons of technology and how to live wisely with our devices.
Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist at Google, has some great articles and videos from a secular perspective that explain what’s really going on at big tech companies, and how they design their apps and products.
Educate yourself on what’s going on, then educate those you disciple as well. It would be a major disservice to those you’re discipling to never address the device that’s likely sucking up two or more hours of their day.
2. TEACH THAT SPIRITUAL GROWTH DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT
There’s a reason almost every metaphor for spiritual growth in the Bible relates to gardening. Spiritual growth takes time, and much of it is out of our control. Just like with gardening, disciples of Jesus will experience seasons of growth, seasons of drought, and times of harvest. There will be times to celebrate, and times to grieve.
We have to remember that the men and women we’re discipling are living in an “everything now” age. The titular song of Arcade Fire’s album exposes the desire pulsing through those you disciple:
I need it (Everything now!) I want it (Everything now!) I can't live without (Everything now!) I can't live without (Everything now!) I can't live (Everything now!)
If this is the internal dialogue of many in the church (and I think it is), then our constant reminders to have a quiet time or serve their neighbors can become really frustrating when they don’t see progress, especially when they’re used to Amazon bringing whatever they want to their door in two days.
We’re programmed to want immediate satisfaction, but that’s simply not how spiritual growth works. We want a microwaveable faith, but the one we’ve been given is a crockpot faith. Low and slow is the key to following Jesus—it’s how you get that unmistakable flavor of someone who has simmered in the flavors of Christ.
We have to constantly remind those we disciple that following Jesus is a lifelong pursuit. What they’re after is a life that’s more and more obedient to Jesus every day, even if they have trouble seeing the daily change. The good news is we’re not alone in our pursuit of holiness. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6 ESV).
Even though we’re guaranteed to screw up along the way, God will see through the work he started when he saved us. Teach your disciples that spiritual growth doesn’t happen overnight, and remind them they’re not in it alone.
3. ASK MORE, NOT LESS
The temptation is to cater your approach in order to get people’s attention. In the church, that means we start shortening services, asking less of volunteers, or lowering the bar for membership. But to ask less is to miss the point.
Jesus was constantly surrounded by people claiming they wanted to follow him. Every time people asked how they could become one of his disciples he responded not by lowering, but raising, the bar.
“I will follow you wherever you go!” someone proclaimed to the Messiah. “Think again; I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight,” Jesus answered (Luke 9:57-58).
“I’ll follow you. Just let me bury my father first,” another said. Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Luke 9:59-60).
“I’ll follow you too!” said another. But Jesus turned and said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62).
Jesus responded to sincere requests by raising the bar so high it forced his would-be disciples to count the cost of making him their Lord. And he calls us to do the same today.
We cannot respond to an eight-second attention span with ten-second devotionals. Not if we’re going to build the kingdom of God. The Master himself spent three years of concentrated time with those he discipled. He walked, talked, taught, and slept right alongside them. That’s far more discipleship than most of us fit in over cups of coffees in the same amount of time.
Asking more of our disciples means we set the bar high from the outset. In my own discipleship groups, I’ve been clear about the expectations on the front end. I tell them it won’t be easy, that it will be more work than they’re used to, but it will also be a time of accelerated spiritual growth they won’t regret if they see it through. I let them know I’m asking the following of them over the next 12 to 18 months:
Daily Scripture reading (in the beginning, the willingness to form this habit)
Weekly Bible study homework (Discipleship Essentials or Multiply)
Weekly memory verses
Weekly meetings
Participation in serving opportunities throughout the year
They’re given time to think through and pray over that list before the first meeting, so they have plenty of time to count the cost. That way, if they know they’re not going to commit to those things, it saves both of us time and allows me to focus my attention on someone who is ready.
If we’re going to get our disciples’ attention, we have to raise the bar to the same place Jesus did. In a superficial time of excess, the call to true discipleship will surely be off-putting to some. But for those who are willing to make Jesus their Lord, the call to more is a call they’ve been waiting for.
4. SHOW THEM JESUS
While the answer to discipling men and women with tiny attention spans lies in asking more of them, we still have to be realistic about what we can expect, especially early on. They’re trying to become disciples of Jesus, but they’ve been discipled by the culture for far longer.
When a guy commits to being a part of a discipleship group with me, I know he’ll struggle with reading the Bible daily and memorizing Scripture. His attention span is short, he’s easily distracted, and might have trouble completing tasks on a routine basis. He’s used to looking at Facebook, Instagram, or email first thing in the morning, not Matthew, Mark, or Luke.
The same is probably true of those you’re trying to teach to follow Jesus. Know that growth may come slow. Expect to have the same conversation about turning off Netflix and opening the Bible over and over again. But beware of the temptation of frustration.
As disciple-makers in an Instagram age, we can end up being distracted by frustration over our disciples’ pace of growth, which causes us to miss explaining the most foundational thing in discipleship—Jesus.
When the weekly meeting comes up and the guys I’m discipling explain they didn’t get their reading done or didn’t memorize the verse, I can either get frustrated, or I can see the moment for what it is—a chance to give them grace and show them Jesus.
If you pay attention to the Spirit’s work, you can seize these kinds of opportunities and watch God make the most of it. These are the times when a man or woman looks up with guilt in their eyes and, instead of sighing and telling them to try harder, you get to say:
“I’ll be glad to help you come up with some strategies for getting up on time and getting your reading done. But first we’re going to talk about guilt, which is not from God. God convicts; only the devil condemns. When we put our faith in Jesus, it is no longer our performance that counts, but his. His perfect righteousness covers up our imperfect sinfulness. You don’t need to wallow in that guilt. Look to Jesus, believe your sin has been paid for, and keep moving forward.”
When they hear the gospel spoken into their life in a specific way, they’re driven to awe that Jesus laid down his life for theirs. The fledgling disciple’s heart is softened to the work of Christ, and the work of gospel change begins.
KEEP GOING
Following Jesus means entering into a lifetime of continual transformation. It means settling into a long obedience in the same direction.
And to teach others how to do it means we have to learn how to get—and keep—their attention.
[1] Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, p. 15
Grayson Pope (M.A., Christian Studies) is a husband and father of four and the Managing Web Editor at Gospel-Centered Discipleship. He serves as a writer and editor with Prison Fellowship. For more of Grayson’s writing check out his website or follow him on Twitter.
The Gospel in the Daily Grind
The sound of the rainforest drew me out of my sleep. It was actually a synthetic sound coming from an app on my smartphone. It’s supposed to slowly wake you up so that you don’t crash out of your sleep cycle into the daily grind. More gradual, less tired supposedly. At 5:20 a.m., I was always tired. I don’t how I survived that year without drinking coffee. I’d scrounge a quick bite to eat then zombie walk into the shower and get ready in the dark as my family continued their sleep.
Off to work. Eight hours of monotony. I answered phone calls and fixed broken technology. I repeated stock phrases thirty plus times a day. I’d try to make connections with people I never saw. I had worked in that kind of call center environment for eleven years.
For the first few years, I struggled finding value in my seemingly mundane tasks. If I’m honest, I loathed going to work a lot of days. I know I’m not alone because life in a call center creates camaraderie, and I’ve talked to countless people who share these feelings in and out of my industry. But then something clicked for me — something that gave me meaning in the mundane daily grind.
Jesus Works
The gospel starts from the very first pages of the Scripture. That truth changes the way you and I work in the marketplace and worship in the mundane of everyday life.
Most churches talk very little about work. They start their gospel presentation with the fall: “We are rotten to the core and in need of redemption” (Gen 3). If they do touch Genesis 1 and 2, it’s usually to discuss creation and evolution. We treat “in the beginning” as if Jesus wasn’t around yet. We function as modalists.
Paul tells a different story,
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. – Colossians 1:16
John tells the same story,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:1-5
This thread of Christological creation isn’t some gnostic truth. Paul elsewhere says we were “chose . . . in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) and John calls Jesus, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8 KJV). Matthew reports Jesus’s words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt 25:34). Peter says, Jesus “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Pt 1:20). Paul admonishes the Corinthians, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’” (2 Cor 4:6).
From the first words of Scripture “In the beginning, God” to the final curse of Revelation, the Holy Spirit shines a spotlight on the work of Jesus Christ. He isn’t hidden. And finding Jesus in the beginning completely transforms our understanding of the original creative mandate and propels our purpose in working.
Working with Purpose
First, Scripture teaches Jesus actively works from before the foundation of the world and in the world now. He is choosing, creating, and founding. He is holding all things together. He is advocating for us on his throne. When he creates man, it’s no surprise he says, “‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion . . . . ’ And God said to ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion’” (Gen 1:26, 28). Part of our createdness, built in the very fabric of who we are as humans made in God’s image, is the necessity of dominion and work.
God works. We work. Jesus creates. We create. We are sub-creators to his divine creative masterpiece, but we still image God when we work. We have intrinsic value in our work because it’s connected with who God made us to be. Part of Adam’s task was tending the garden and naming animals. Talk about mundane and routine, but, before the fall, Adam obeyed God and worked as his ambassador and found meaning in doing so. When we work in the workplace, we are also obeying this creative instinct to image God. Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God and the prototype of glorified humanity. We see that image clearly when we follow his lead in working.
Second, Scripture teaches this image of God is found in every human equally. In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis says,
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. . . . There are no ordinary people.
This fundamentally changes the way we work and the way we treat others who we work with and who may do jobs we might be tempted to turn our nose down at.
Each of those people when working and doing their job with excellence are, even if dimly, reflecting the original image of God. They are not ordinary. They are humans who were made very good. For those who lay hold of the promises found in Jesus Christ and believe, this image is even more visible (“transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another,” as Paul says). We should appreciate and encourage those who work skillfully. We should remind each other we are a picture of Jesus Christ who works. He has been working from the beginning and will not stop working until he’s brought us all the way home.
Fourth, Scripture teaches our work now images of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. As noted earlier, the Holy Spirit inspired many allusions and direct references to creation and many of these directly point us to our spiritual redemption. The image of light and darkness is found throughout the Gospel of John. John also talks about the new birth (John 3). Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 compares God’s original divine fiat with his raising us from death to life. He says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’” (2 Cor 4:6). As we work, we must not forget Christ’s work for us. It’s a daily gospel reminder in the daily grind of our work.
Fifth, Scripture teaches we please God. Jesus’s ministry starts with his baptism and God the Father proclaiming, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). When regenerated by the Spirit, chosen by the Father, and redeemed by Jesus, we are united to Jesus Christ. All the promises and blessings found in him are ours. Jesus pleases the Father and so we please the Father. A robust understanding of common grace, also, suggests when we work well and create excellently it pleases him in as far we reflect his image well. This work isn’t salvific in any way, but it’s valuable nonetheless.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell, an Olympic runner, says, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” Meditate on that truth when your alarm wakes you up in the morning or when you repeat the same task for the hundredth time at your job remind yourself: “God delights in me when I work.” Feel his pleasure. Repeat, “When I ______, I feel his pleasure.” That’s not an insignificant truth.
Finally, Scripture teaches work will not always be laborious. Before the fall, the creation didn’t war against us as we created, tended, and worked. After the fall, God curses the ground and work becomes difficult. Paul says, “the whole creation has been groaning” as it waits for its full redemption (Rom 8:22). We are waiting for the new heavens and new earth—when God will makes all things right. We will be glorified and the earth will be redeemed from its sorrows. The reality of our ultimate rest in Jesus Christ doesn’t remove work. Jesus redeems work. The end of the story is an earthy ending. We live on the new earth in his eternal kingdom and worship God in all we do (Matt 5:5, 25:34).
We struggle now in the daily grind of the dirty now and now, but we look forward to the redeemed not yet of the new creation. So work well now. Struggle. Labor. Toil. Create. Do it all with excellence, purpose, and hope. But find rest in Jesus Christ in the not yet, while eagerly longing for the redemption of our bodies and this world. He will return and he will make all things new.
Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!
4 Questions and Answers to Understand God’s Calling
If your heart has been gripped by the gospel, sooner or later you'll find yourself asking, "Where is God calling me to go?" That’s a normal question, because the gospel that saves is also the gospel that sends. That doesn’t make it an easy question, though, because it creates all kinds of follow-up questions. Does God want me to go overseas? Does He want me to quit my job and work for a ministry? Or does He want me to stay where I am when I thought it was clear I had to go?
The Apostle Paul knew that he was God's chosen instrument to reach the Gentiles, so he knew he would be going where the Gentiles were. Peter knew he was called to lead the church in Jerusalem, so he knew he would be going across the street and into his neighborhood. But that kind of clarity isn't the norm, either today or throughout the Bible.
More often, we are left with quite a bit of freedom for adhering to God's commands. While that freedom can be a relief, it can also cause incredible stress as we seek to live out God's will for our lives. We can get lost in our heads, playing out every possible scenario, and wind up paralyzed, not taking any steps toward going and making disciples.
If that's you, here are four questions and answers that might help you understand where God is calling you.
Four Questions to Help You Understand Where God Is Calling You
#1 – What did Jesus come to do?
Answer: To seek and save the lost.
When Jesus went to eat at the home of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, the religious people of the day scoffed, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner."
They were correct. That's precisely what Jesus was doing, because that's precisely why he came to Earth to begin with.
After Zacchaeus repents and is saved, Jesus provides a retort to the snide religious peanut gallery, telling them why he hung out with people like tax collectors. In perhaps the most glorious phrase ever uttered, Jesus, the God-man, said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10).
If Jesus had a vision statement, this was it. He came to seek and save the lost. That meant he was going to spend a disproportionate amount of his time and energy around people who didn't know anything about him. He would be going out among the lost to seek and save those who were without hope.
That's exactly what Jesus did throughout his ministry. And it's what you will do if you want to go where God has called you.
But what about today? How does Jesus seek and save the lost now that he's in heaven? That leads us to our second question.
#2 – How does Jesus seek and save the lost?
Answer: By sending us out as sheep among wolves.
We have one really good look at what it was like when Jesus sent out his disciples for ministry. It's recorded in Luke 10 where we see Jesus' instructions to 72 of his followers as he prepared them to go out on mission.
One of the most interesting things Jesus says here is that he is sending his disciples out like sheep among wolves (Luke 10:3). Have you ever thought about that? When a sheep fights a wolf, the sheep doesn't come out on top.
This is a sobering picture of what life on mission is like. Those who would follow Jesus and witness for his name are not promised a comfortable life (in fact, they're promised the opposite; see Luke 9:57-58). More specifically, this means that if we're really going to live the way Jesus calls us to, we'll live our lives among the wolves (the lost).
But before you think this is a recipe for being miserable, consider that when the 72 came back from the mission field they were ecstatic with what they saw God do. Yes, it was hard and exhausting and scary, but they saw God move in ways they never would have if they stayed among the sheep (believers). The same principle is true today.
We can spend our time among the sheep and still know God. But if we want to experience all that Jesus offers we have to live among the wolves. If you want to go where God has called you, there's no doubt that it involves a significant amount of time among wolves.
#3 – What are we supposed to do when we live among the wolves?
Answer: Go and make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded us.
Imagine seeing someone you love at their funeral, then being lowered into the ground at their grave. Now imagine that same person walked up to you on the street a few days later and had something to tell you. Whatever they had to say, you would listen. They were dead, but now they’re living. That gives their words authority.
This is the exact setting in which Jesus gives his disciples the Great Commission. He had been stripped, tortured, beaten, and murdered on the cross. His disciples knew he was then carried to an empty tomb with a Roman guard placed out front. . We know the importance of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, but miss how critical the beginning of verse 18 is:
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’”
Jesus, the dead guy they had seen crushed and buried before their eyes, was now standing in front of them. That’s why Jesus leads his commission with the crowning authority he now possessed. The guy that conquered death has something to say, so it’s time for his disciples to listen.
What does he tell them?
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:10-20 ESV)
Here we have Jesus' last words, his last instructions for how to continue what he started. It was simple. Go all over the world; as you go, make disciples; then baptize them and teach them to obey all of Jesus's commands. That may sound simple, but it affects everything in a follower's life.
This command is for every follower of Christ. It is the primary thing each disciple is called to, before their career or anything else. It's not optional. It's not something some of us are called to and others of us aren't. First and foremost, we are disciples of Jesus of who make disciples of Jesus.
That's why the primary question associated with our purpose in life isn't what we are supposed to do, but where we are supposed to do it. The Great Commission makes it clear the “what” is make disciples. The only question, then, is where do we go to do that?
#4 – Where do we go?
Answer: To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 gives us another glimpse at Jesus' final words. Here we see Jesus giving specific instructions about where his disciples are to go once he takes his seat at the Father's right hand. The disciples already knew they were to make disciples, but now Jesus tells them where to go:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV)
Jesus is sending his followers to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. No corner of the world is outside of the Great Commission. Starting right where they were (Jerusalem), Jesus sent them out to continue spreading the Kingdom of God.
Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria are real places, and Jesus was actually sending them there. But beyond their importance at that time, those locations remain significant because they help us see where Jesus is sending us today.
Notice the progression. First, Jesus sends them across the street into Jerusalem. Next, he sends them to a place with a similar culture by sending them to Judea. Then, Jesus really ups the ante by sending them to a culture most of them would have hated — Samaria (Remember how culturally explosive Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan was?). If that wasn't enough, Jesus then sends them to the very ends of the earth.
This variety means that Jesus' disciples could obey his Great Commission by going to any of those locations, and the same is true today. As Ruth Ripken says, "Serving God is not a matter of location. It's a matter of obedience."
We don't all have to go overseas, though more of us should than are open to it. If we don't go to another country, we are commanded to go across the street (Jerusalem), to the community next door (Judea), or to the people we would never think to associate with before coming to Jesus (Samaria).
That leaves you with only one more question.
Where will you go?
Will you go across the street and tell your neighbors about Jesus? Will you go into the largest city near you to witness to the gospel? Will you build relationships with the refugees and immigrants that came to your community from unreached people groups around the world? Will you go to one of the 2.8 billion unreached peoples around the world?
The possibilities are limitless, but the mission is the same: go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Where will you go?
Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three. He serves as Pastor of Community at his church in Charlotte, NC and is currently pursuing a MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Grayson’s Passion is to equip believers for everyday discipleship to Jesus.
Take Delight in Growing Up
Kids want to grow up. We see the excitement on their faces when it’s “Show and Tell” day at school. Kindergarten classes across the nation create a special day for kids to dress up and proudly announce what the many years of school in the future will be in pursuit of. Consequently, three-foot-tall firemen, teachers, doctors, and athletes decked in costume from head to toe drag whatever props necessary and get to pretend their dreams have come true for a few hours. When I was a young girl, I gave myself an extra middle name. I proclaimed to everyone I met at the grocery store, doctor’s office, and my school that my name was Jennifer-Lauren-Big Girl-Cooper. This title proved my big-ness and so did my liking for coffee. I took on coffee drinking (and never stopped thankfully) and the reading of the newspaper in the mornings with my dad. Even more, I told every waiter I was too big for the kids’ menu and too big for a booster seat and too big for my britches—though I didn’t mention the obvious.
As I wanted to become more like my parents—the grown-ups, I watched, asked questions, and mimicked all while they smiled (or laughed) at my doing so. Likewise, my daughter instinctively (and with some practice) reaches milestones of development, and we, too, take much joy in watching while she, in turn, delights to see our joy. In a similar way, our Heavenly Father delights (yet infinitely more) in seeing his children grow, and we also have joy in learning everything about him and understanding his love for us.
But this desire to grow-up does not remain. One day, which seems like in the blink of an eye, we stop wanting to grow-up because we fear growing old. Better yet, we may get bogged down with the monotony of life. There’s nothing left to look forward to. Every day repeats itself. Wrinkles set in. Exercise hurts more. The good days are gone. The days of carrying around the Hello Kitty lunchbox without condemnation are gone. Growing up didn’t live up to its expectation (or so we think).
We Should Want to Grow Up Too
As Christians, many of us go through a similar season. A point came where we heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and put our faith in him—repenting from our sinful ways. We took great delight in his Word filled with promises, stories, and hope. We saw the more spiritually mature Christians (and hopefully Jesus) and wanted to grow to be like them. We wanted to read the Bible, memorize it, and live it. We graciously delighted in it, and our Father exploded with joy in the heavens. But we grew weary of growing and stalled, not because God is not faithful but because of our lack in perseverance. The everyday spiritual disciplines became a chore though they shouldn’t, and God felt like someone you knew too well (although he’s unsearchable).
I’ve gone through seasons of devouring the Word and seasons of fighting to desire the smallest piece of it. I’ve discipled girls who week in and week out justify how they didn’t have much time for God’s word. Sadly, I guarantee they took the time to eat three meals a day. They realized the importance of food for their body, and they want it, too. It’s delicious. It even brings comfort.
A few verses to illustrate:
“I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.” –Job 23:12
“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that ma does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” –Deuteronomy 8:3
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” –Psalm 119:103
“As newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” –1 Peter 2:2
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” –Jeremiah 15:16
God’s word is more delightful than honey and dark chocolate and filet mignon and scalloped potatoes and sweet tea and dare I say—coffee! Oh, how we should feast on it and be filled!
Five Ways to Eat the Word
My pastor Dustin Cook and his wife have taught me these five ways to eat God’s Word through years of teaching, relationship, and mentoring. We eat Scripture by hearing it, reading it, memorizing it, meditating on it, and studying it. Below we will look at each:
– Hearing the Word
- We hear the good news of the gospel—either audibly through another Christian or from his written Word—in order to put our faith in Christ (Rom. 10:17).
- We hear pastors preach the Word (hopefully) and receive it with all eagerness while testing its validity according to the scriptures (Acts 17:11).
- We hear it in fellowship with other believers as they exhort, rebuke, or comfort us (Heb. 10:24-25, 2 Cor. 1:3-5, Gal. 6:1)
- We hear from God himself by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rev. 3:20, Is. 50:4).
– Reading the Word
- We read the Word every day so that we may fear God and obey him in humility (Deut. 17:18-19).
- We read all of the Word, Old Testament and New Testament, for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16).
– Memorizing the Word
- We memorize scripture because God commands us to (Prov. 7:1-3, Col. 3:16, Deut. 6:6, Prov. 22:17-21).
- We memorize scripture to avoid sin (Ps. 119:11, Prov. 15:28).
- We memorize scripture to fight Satan (Matt. 4, Eph. 6:17).
- We memorize scripture to share it with others (1 Pt. 3:15, Jer. 20:9, 1 Thess. 2:13).
– Meditating on the Word
- We meditate on the Word by talking to ourselves, reflecting, pondering, and exercising our minds with the purpose to renew our fleshly mind into the mind of Christ and to better apply what we learned (Josh. 1:8, Ps. 1:2-3, Jas 1:25, Lk. 6:45, Phil. 4:8, Col. 3:2).
– Studying the Word
- We diligently study God’s Word to have a right understanding of it (2 Tim. 2:15).
- We study the Word to teach it (Ezra 7:10).
- We study the Word to recognize false teachers (2 Pt. 3:16).
All five of these ways to feast on the Word of God causes growth in the believer if put to practice. Scripture teaches that we should read the Word and be in God’s presence (Ps. 119:147-148). The final three methods of memorizing, meditating, and studying may call for specific times. We must put these into practice first. Then, share it with others. As result, we will grow and make disciples who grow as well..
Kids want to grow up. They delight in the process and even try to hasten it. We, too, should delight in the process towards spiritual maturity. What a privilege it is to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ! May we feast on God’s Word and allow it to nourish us as God intended it to.
Jennifer Brogdon is a stay-at-home mom who ministers to college athletes and international students. She and her husband, Shane, live in Mississippi and are preparing to move overseas long-term. For more of her writing, you can check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.
Listen Up: A Much Needed Skill
“Christianity demands that we have enough compassion to learn the questions of our generation.” – Francis Schaeffer
Do you hear what Schaeffer is saying? Our witness and discipleship requires that we understand the questions our generation is asking. To understand these questions, we must listen. However, Schaeffer puts his finger on our problem, which is much the same as it was in his day:
“The trouble with too many of us is that we want to be able to answer these questions instantly, as though we could take a funnel, put it in one ear and pour in the facts, and then go out and regurgitate them and win all the discussions.” (2 Contents, 2 Realities, 414)
Schaeffer describes far too many of my witnessing opportunities and discipleship relationships. One moment still resonates in my mind. After sharing the gospel with a man during an outreach event, he looked at me and said, “Thanks for sharing your spiel, but you don’t even know me!”
I know I’m often afraid that if I slow down to ask questions and listen, I may encounter a difficult conversation. Schaeffer is right: “Answering questions is hard work.” He continues, “Can you answer all the questions? No, but you must try. Begin to listen with compassion. Ask what this man’s questions really are and try to answer. And if you don’t know the answer, try to go someplace or read and study to find the answer.” (414)
Are you listening?
We must listen with compassion, listen for questions, and seek to give an honest answer.
Easy enough. But how do we listen well? How do we listen so that we identify the questions people are really asking? And how do we then respond to these questions with gospel-shaped answers?
Here are three categories to think through to help us learn and answer the questions of our generation:
Tell me your story!
Jeff Vanderstelt brings this out clearly in his recent book Gospel Fluency. Everyone has a story and everyone’s stories reveal important truths and questions. It is in the sharing of stories that we have the opportunity to listen well.
“My regular counsel to Christians these days is to spend more time listening than talking if they want to be able to share the gospel of Jesus in a way that meaningfully speaks to the hearts of others.” (Gospel Fluency, 175)
– Listening well to people’s stories means listening with the gospel story in mind.
Ask yourself: In what ways are they looking for answers that the gospel provides? How does the gospel meet them where they are in their life? Who is the hero of their story? How is Jesus better than what they are pursuing or trusting in?
Vanderstelt provides the following list of questions that flow from the gospel story:
- Creation – In what do they find their identity or sense of purpose and significance?
- Fall – Whom or what is the fundamental problem they blame for the things that are broken in their lives?
- Redemption – Whom or what are they looking to as their savior to rescue or deliver them?
- New Creation – What does transformation look like and what is their ultimate hope for the future?
– Once we have listened well, we can begin to speak gospel truth into their story in a way they can understand and will hear.
Perhaps you are speaking to someone who has not yet trusted in Jesus Christ, you will be able to see where they are finding their identity, what problem they are facing, what functional savior they are trusting, and what hope they are holding on to in their lives. The gospel offers a better word—a new identity, an answer for our brokenness, a gracious Savior, and a secure hope.
This truth also applies in our discipleship relationships. Transformation happens when gospel truth meets real life. We must slow down and listen to one another’s stories rather than merely working through our bible studies. As we listen to another in discipleship, we can rehearse the gospel story and apply it to each other’s lives. The more we rehearse and apply the gospel to our lives in discipleship, the more equipped we will be to hear others and bring the gospel to bear on their stories.
Ask Questions…And Actually Listen
Francis Schaeffer once stated, “If I have only an hour with someone, I will spend the first fifty-five minutes asking them questions and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then in the last five minutes I will share something of the truth.”1
In order to do this you must think rightly about people. Every human being is made in the image of God, and we are called to display Christ-like love and compassion as we engage them. This skill also takes a level of curiosity, patience, and intentionality in our conversations. We must understand how people think, what questions they are asking, and what answers they are looking for. Not only that, but we must also find ways to ask them the questions that God asks of us. All of this will require us to ask questions and then to actually listen as they respond.
Jonathan Dodson captures this well:
“As you slow down, listen closely what people really believe; listen for the desire beneath the words. Where appropriate, ask questions like: How does that make you feel? What do you really want? If you could change the circumstances to fit exactly what you want, what would it be? Look for trigger words that indicate fear, joy, anxiety, hope, despair, concern, and anger. Then think about how Christ intersects that need. When you do this, you’ll find that the gospel says something that the person will find worth believing.” (Unbelievable Gospel, 50)
Dodson’s counsel brings to mind David Powlison’s x-ray questions. It probably should not surprise us that a biblical counselor would have great wisdom in helping us learn to listen well and apply the gospel to people’s lives. That is, after all, what biblical counseling is all about. By addressing the specific heart issues of people with gospel truth, true repentance and lasting change can occur. Notice that these questions can be used when seeking to share the gospel with a neighbor or encouraging a fellow believer in community:
- What do you want out of that relationship?
- What you working for in this job?
- What do you fear in this situation?
- What are your plans or intentions with this opportunity?
- Who are you trying to please right now?
- What really matters to you?
- Where are you looking for comfort or security?
- Whose opinion matters most to you?
- How do you define success or failure in this particular situation?
Powlison offers the following explanation for these questions:
Notice that each question circles around the same basic issue: Who or what is your functional God/god? Many of the questions simply derive from the verbs that relate you to God: love, trust, fear, hope, seek, obey, take refuge, and the like. Each verb holds out a lamp to guide us to Him who is way, truth, and life. But each verb also may be turned into a question, holding up a mirror to show us where we stray.
Thinking this way and asking these kinds of questions is not a formula for success in evangelism or discipleship. However, it is a way of genuinely loving and compassionately engaging people. As we open ourselves up to others and they see our love for them, they will share their real questions, fears, and hopes. When they do, we must be ready to speak the gospel.
Speak the Gospel
Whether we ask these questions or use them as a filter to listen as people share their stories, we will be positioned to see real needs and point to real hope in Jesus Christ. Just as we must listen to people’s stories with the gospel story in mind, we must also be comfortable speaking gospel truth in response to people’s questions.
More than anyone else, Jonathan Dodson has helped me think through how to do this well. Dodson points out five gospel metaphors from the Scriptures that help us connect the gospel to people’s real needs in a believable way. Those metaphors are justification, new creation, redemption, adoption, and union with Christ.
These metaphors taken from Scripture display the richness of the gospel and its ability to speak to deep longings within the human heart—whether they are seeking acceptance, hope, intimacy, tolerance, approval, or community.
Listen to Jonathan explain this himself:
https://vimeo.com/107745823
The gospel is the answer to people’s deepest needs and most pressing questions. Dodson’s challenge to us is to ask, “How is the gospel the answer?” To answer that question, we must listen up. We need to share stories, ask good questions, listen with compassion, and then speak the gospel in a way that connects with real life and can be embraced by repentance and faith.
Michael Guyer is the Minister to Students at Open Door Church where he has served for the last five years. He gets most excited about good coffee, enjoying friends and family, making disciples, engaging culture, and planting churches. He writes to help others delight in, declare, and display the gospel in all of life. Connect with Michael on Twitter or his website.
This article was adapted with permission
Why You're Not Being Transformed
“In many cases our need to wonder about or be told what God wants in a certain situation is a clear indication of how little we are engaged in His work.” – Dallas Willard, Hearing God
As a pastor, I talk to people all the time who are frustrated with where they are spiritually. They want to be “better.” They desire to grow more like Christ. But they just aren’t getting anywhere.
They’re trying to address it, and many times even good things. They’re reading their Bible. They’re going to church every weekend. They’re even in a small group. But still, they’re not seeing any transformation. So what’s going on?
What they’re really saying is they’re not being transformed. That the power of God isn’t evident in their everyday life.
How transformation happens
Many of us have misconceptions about how we’re transformed into the likeness of Christ. We think we can just read different books or listen to different radio stations or go to church every week and somehow we’ll change into godly people.
The Bible teaches something very different, though. In terms of transforming the human heart, it teaches that we’re actually powerless to do anything. That left to ourselves we are incapable of being righteous before God. And that’s the glory of the gospel—that we are offered salvation and eternal life solely through the magnificent grace of God.
But when it comes to transforming how we live, the Bible’s teaching is that God transforms us through his Spirit by the power of his Word, and that we are to make every effort to strive to live godly lives. Most believers and their churches have at least a basic understanding of how God’s Word transforms and renews us. When it comes to making every effort to live godly lives, though, it seems that many of us are less clear.
Make every effort
The language of “make every effort” comes from the Apostle Peter’s epistle:
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” – 2 Peter 1:5-7
We’re told that we should be exerting effort to supplement our faith with actions. That’s what the list that follows the command is referring to, these qualities of living that display on the outside how we’ve been changed on the inside. Now, notice that Peter says these efforts only supplement, not replace, our faith.
Perhaps nowhere is this same teaching seen as clearly as in the Apostle James’s writing, where we’re told simply to,
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” – James 1:22
What James is saying here should shock us, because he’s saying that listening to the Word of God is not enough. Through James, the Holy Spirit is saying that listening to sermons and podcasts, reading Christian books, and even reading the Bible itself, none of these things are enough on their own. They must be accompanied by doing something, otherwise we’re just deceiving ourselves.
In John 8:44, the Apostle John tells us that Satan is a deceiver, using all kinds of schemes to distract us from obeying God. If we listen to the Word but never do anything with it, then we are doing his job for him. We are deceiving ourselves if all we’re doing is sitting through a church service on Sunday or even attending a group during the week, while not ministering to others in obedience to what we’ve heard.
Lack of Exercise
When someone breaks their leg and they can’t put weight on it, they have to do physical therapy when it’s time to walk again. That’s because their leg muscles have atrophied. They’ve shrunken from not being used.
When you exercise, you’re actually tearing muscle tissue. Muscle is being built up by continual tearing that is then healed by scar tissue. As that happens more and more, muscles begin to grow.
Many of us in the church experience spiritual atrophy. We’ve spent so much time taking information in that we’ve forgotten how to exercise what we’ve learned, and now our spiritual muscles have atrophied from lack of use.
What’s needed now is action—putting those muscles to use. And yes, it will be difficult. It may even be painful. But it’s only through the hard work of exercising our faith by the power of Spirit that we begin to see transformation. Because of his work of love in us, we work in love towards others. Exercise may tear your spiritual muscles, but the grace of God acts as the scar tissue that heals the wounds and builds you up into something more perfect along the way.
Doing and Sanctification
After James makes his case that believers should be doers of God’s Word, he says something very interesting:
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” – James 1:25
That last phrase, “he will be blessed in his doing,” points out something that’s so often overlooked: that our sanctification happens as we minister to others. Our sanctification, our being transformed into the image of Christ, happens as we put our faith into action.
Most of us think we need to be transformed before we minister to other people. But what the Bible teaches is that we’re transformed as we minister to other people. It is in dying to ourselves, taking up our cross, and being obedient to Jesus that we’re transformed into the image of Jesus.
And that’s really what being “doers” of the Word means—being obedient to Jesus. So if we want to experience transformation, we need to ask ourselves if we’re being obedient to Jesus’s commands. Are we making disciples? Are we living on mission? Are we sharing our faith?
We can’t expect to become like Jesus if we’re not doing what he did. We can’t expect to be transformed if we’re not obeying his commands.
But this obedience isn’t oppressive, or something that should cause us to groan. God created us for good works.
How obedience to Christ brings freedom
In Ephesians 2:10, Paul tells us,
“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
We are God’s workmanship. Another translation says that we are his masterpiece. And he created us as masterpieces for a reason, which is what? For good works.
We were saved by Christ that we might do good works in Christ. Which means we won’t fulfill God’s purpose for our life outside of obedience to Jesus. But in that obedience there is outlandish freedom.
That’s why James uses that paradoxical phrase, “the law of liberty.” He knows that if we’re obedient to Christ then we are free from the law and, ultimately, our sin. If we’re obedient to Christ, we are free to experience the transformation God has in store for us.
If we are obedient to Christ, we are free in Christ. Which is why Jesus said,
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. . . . So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:31-32, 36
Grayson Pope is a husband to Maggie, father to three kids ages five, three, and one. He serves as the Pastor of Community at Mecklenburg Community Church. He’s also a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he’s pursuing a MACS.
Following Christ in the Age of Authenticity
In a recent issue of New York magazine, Heather Havrilesky, the columnist for “Ask Polly,” says readers should not see the millennial generation as “spoiled,” “entitled,” and “overconfident.” The millennials she hears from “feel guilty and inadequate at every turn.” They “compare themselves relentlessly to others. They are turned inside out, day after day, by social media.” Guilty. Unworthy. Anxious. Failing to meet society’s standards. A secular generation may not talk much about sin and judgment, but guilt and anxiousness lurk in every human heart. And it’s not just because of social media, although our online interactions do magnify the problem. Feelings of unworthiness won’t go away.
What should we do? The world says pursue happiness, whatever the cost, by becoming the best version of “you” possible. Look inside for salvation, and then look outside for affirmation. The problem is, “the curated version of you that lives online also feels hopelessly polished and inaccurate,” Havrilesky writes, “and you feel, somehow, that you alone are the inauthentic one.” Show your true self and you’ll be shamed.
Another problem is that this pursuit of happiness—finding yourself and being true to whatever authentic person you decide to be—turns out to be rather exhausting. “Merely muddling through, doing your best, seeing friends when you can, trying to enjoy yourself as much as possible, is, according to the reigning dictates of today’s culture, tantamount to failure. You must live your best life and be the best version of yourself, otherwise you’re nothing and no one.” In other words, if you’re not happy, you’re to blame.
So what does Havrilesky suggest? Millennials should get over their feelings of guilt and shame by accepting themselves as they already are: “enjoy exactly who you are and what you have, right here, and right now.” In other words, if they’re not happy with themselves, they need to look deeper within and become happy with themselves. This, to me, is like giving fatty foods as the medicine for someone who has high cholesterol. It’s compounding the problem by doubling down on what is actually causing the issue.
So, here is the question we as Christians should ask: do we have a better story than this? What if Jesus’ counterintuitive call to lose our lives, to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses, is actually the invitation to happiness that goes far beyond anything we could conjure up in our own hearts?
If the gospel tells a better story of salvation, it’s only because it first tells a starker story of sin. First, we have to note the severity of our sinfulness. We have to take a stark look inside to discover the dark depths of our own hearts. The problem we have is not that you feel guilty, but that you are guilty. The problem is not that you feel unworthy of happiness, but that you are unworthy of any good gift that comes from our Creator. Scripture doesn’t brush off feelings of guilt, anxiousness, and unworthiness. It presses deeper into them.
Secondly, we need to recognize that “following your heart” is more complicated than it sounds. Who really knows what the heart wants? As G. K. Chesterton wrote: “The self is more distant than any star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, but thou shalt not know thyself.” Figuring out what your heart wants is actually harder than pursuing what your heart wants. “The heart is more deceitful than anything else,” said the prophet Jeremiah,” and incurable – who can understand it?”
Thankfully, the gospel has a fresh word for the weary and guilt-ridden. We don’t look inside ourselves for salvation, but up to God as the Savior. The gospel should come as a relief to people, not as a burdensome list of moral regulations we are now to fulfill. We are relieved that the pursuit of happiness is not something we must attain on our own, but that the God of all joy and love has pursued us, into the depths of our wicked hearts. We are relieved that we are not the center of the universe, but that God is at the center and we find our fullness in loving and enjoying Him. We are relieved that the gospel tells us of a Savior who cried out “It is Finished!” so that His accomplishment is where we find our peace.
To be authentic, as a Christian, means I am to be true to the person Christ has named me, not the person I think I am inside. I am to live according to what God says I am—His redeemed child, a person remade in the image of Christ— and I now act in line with that identity. As a Christian, saved by grace through faith, I am not authentic when I sin. I’m sinning against my newfound identity. I am being inauthentic when I choose to disobey God, when I give in to temptation. I’m rejecting the identity God has spoken over me. True authenticity is not accepting my own self-expression but accepting the self-expression of God through Jesus Christ.
To be a conformist, as a Christian, means we are seeking to have our minds renewed and our lives transformed. We want to be conformed into the image of Christ. But this conformity means we look like rebels to the rest of the world. The true rebellion is in the heart of the Christian who follows Jesus by swimming upstream against the currents of the world. That means, when everyone else is following their hearts, we will follow Jesus.
What is our ultimate goal in life? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The Christian’s hope is for our greatest desire to meet our greatest Delight. That’s what sets us out on our adventure.
Trevin Wax is Bible and Reference Publisher at LifeWay Christian Resources and managing editor of The Gospel Project. You can follow him on Twitter or receive blog posts via email.
Adapted with permission from Trevin Wax’s This Is Our Time: Everyday Myths in Light of the Gospel