iCrucified

Archive for the ‘Bible Journey-Reading’ Category

Bible Reading 2010

“Bible Reading 2010” almost sounds like a title for a sci-fi thriller…at least to my “40-something” brain. Nonetheless, I thought I’d share my “high-tech” plan for Bible reading this year. My approach might be a little unorthodox and might even seem like overload to some personalities, but it works for me. I am a somewhat choleric (high-task) personality and I find that I work best with multiple goals, filters, and systems in my daily routine; it helps me focus and maintain a forward progress.  Multiple layers (my filters) help to ensure that I stay on track with my daily reading too. If I miss one “filter” there are other layers to keep me connected to the daily word.  My personal rule of life follows this structure and Bible reading is part of my rule of life, and so…

Bible Reading Plan 2010:

Revised Common Lectionary – Cycle C: I’m actually using two tools to follow the Lectionary. I’m using a book I enjoyed last year, Ancient Christian Devotional, as well as Living the Christian Year. Both of these books utilize the Lectionary which also tracks the cycle of the church calendar drawing from Old Testament, Psalms, Epistle, and Gospel readings through the week. The Ancient Christian Devotional also brings with it excerpts from the writings of the church fathers. These writings are among the classic Christian writings of church and Christian history. I am using the Lectionary readings as my lectio divina style of contemplative-meditative reading.

One Year Chronological Bible – NLT: This Bible seems to be one of our “family preferred” methods of reading the Bible. As part of our morning family devotions (Mon.-Fri.) we read chronologically. I love to read the Bible chronologically. It helps me (and us as a family) stay in the thick of the Biblical narrative…the story that is God and man; ultimately the story that is God and us. If you noticed, we join in family reading Monday thru Friday; we are responsible to “stay up with the story” reading the weekend texts individually.

The Wesley Study Bible – NSRV: I purchased this Bible last year with the plans to use it as my primary “reader” this year. I used the NLT (New Living Translation) Bible last year as my primary reader and prefer to change translation versions year-to-year in order to keep my brain confused (insert self-deprecating joke here).  Personally, I think we can get used to a preferred version very quickly and our reading can become “lazy” or complacent. I don’t want this to happen to me, so I shake up my yearly reading with alternating translation versions. Another pleasant by-product of this approach is that it helps me with memorization. I remember where passages are by book, chapter, and verse because I am forced to by virtue of changing Bibles. When I was using one Bible as my primary tool, I got used to turning to a “certain page.” I’d look for a certain passage in a certain corner of a page or think, “it’s somewhere in this section…” Reading from multiple translations and Bibles helps me to overcome this deficiency. Another helpful aspect of this approach is that it keeps the language and interpretation fresh…which ultimately, helps me to be a better story-teller and communicator.

I continue to use a number of other tools for my reading and study, but these are my BIG THREE approach for this year. So, what plan or approach are you following? And, what versions or tools will you be using? Please feel free to share here in the comments section of my blog; I’d love to hear from you!

Send article as PDF to

Christmastide Reflections: LIFE and The Great Light…

John 1:1-18

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ The LIGHT shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –

“He was made man that we might become God…” St. Athanasius

John 17:20-26

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³ I in them and you in me…”

Ephesians 3:1-12

² Assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you… ³ God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. ⁵ God, by his Spirit, has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. ¹⁰ God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. ¹¹ This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.

“Come and see…” “Go and tell…” Jesus

~Pay attention ~ Be astonished ~ Tell about it ~ Mary Oliver

My soul is exploding…my intellect cannot contain the revelation of the Great Light that has come to us. I do not pretend to fully understand the Incarnation…but my soul knows that it is real! I am alive at the core of who I am in Him. The prayer of my God and Savior, Jesus, is alive in me. His Life gives me life; I can feel His heart beating as my own and I am filled with incomprehensible, indescribable, and infinite joy! But then the paradox of Love wraps its fingers around my throat and begins to choke my joy…while His Kingdom of wisdom, power, peace, and love is as kindled embers in my heart, the bonfire of His Eternal Kingdom is something “remembered forward.” The Kingdom is here, but it is not here. And, tears come to my eyes. I know people who don’t know the Great Light. I know people who are still stumbling in the darkness…and I feel like a traitor. How is it that I can rejoice and celebrate in the Light when so many are blind to this joy? I only stand on the promise of my Savior, the Light, who said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… and Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” I pray for comfort. I pray for the Kingdom in full. I pray for boldness to proclaim the Truth of the Great Light who is my Lord, my Savior, me Jesus…the God who Saves. Come and see the Great Light. Go and Tell about the Great Light. May the words His Spirit gives me awake deafened and blinded hearts to this wonderful and glorious Light that has come into the world.

Send article as PDF to

I continue to spend time meditating on this Advent season; more words are stimulating my thoughts. Additionally, the books I am reading to stimulate my thoughts have really been helpful with this Advent journey.  Words that are presently stimulating my thoughts follow:

• Parousia – (literally divine presence) refers also to the second coming of Christ or the second Advent
• Repent/Repentance
• Live
• Lament
• Exile
• Coming
• Rescue
• Hope

“Prepare the way of the Lord. What is the meaning of ‘Prepare the way of the Lord?’ It means, make ready for the reception of whatever Christ may wish to do.” Cyril of Alexandria

“It is not simply a matter of waiting and rejoicing in what Advent promises us. It is about learning to live while we wait.” The Liturgical Year; Joan Chittister (p.68)

“The life of Jesus, if it is meaningful to us, is meant to reveal the nature of God” The Sacred Meal; Nora Gallagher (p.135)

A Lament:

As I consider thoughts of Advent and the words that are “bouncing” around inside my head/heart, I am also being influenced by another book, The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher (see quote above). Something that struck me last night is that Jesus came to teach us how to live; He should know about life, considering He is the Creator of Life and the Giver of Life (we could learn a thing or two from Him). As Jesus, the Incarnation, He modeled this living-style for us. For some reason, we do not want to believe the Christ-life can be fully lived by us while in our temporal bodies. I think this smacks of heresy and in a backhanded way, pronounces Jesus a liar. I am concerned; if we do not learn to live as Christians now…we may never “Live” as Christians.

Hope and Rescue:

Jesus said…

“I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6)

“Abide (remain) in me…” (John 15:4)

“I have come that you may have life and life abundant” (John 10:10)

“My sheep follow me…” (John 10:27)

“Whoever serves me must follow me… (John 12:26)

Repent and Prepare:

Jesus came to teach us how to live. If we don’t learn how to live here and now, we may never truly live. The promise is that we can…live, today, as Christ did when He walked the earth in the flesh of man. We cannot excuse ourselves from learning to live while we wait.

Parousia ~ Advent ~ Maranatha:

“…The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

“I will come back… we will make our home with him…” (John 14:1-3 John 14:23)

“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back…” (Acts 1:11)

Live:

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6)

If we don’t learn how to live here and now, we may never truly live.

“The voice of Advent in our ears is loud and clear year after year. Its three year cycle of Scripture winds over and around us, reminding us, assuring us, prodding us to bear Christ in our own lives.” The Liturgical Year; Joan Chittister (p.67)

Send article as PDF to

Here is an embedded player that has all the audio files updated into a single player. Scroll through the list to select the sermon/message you’d like to hear.

Send article as PDF to

Yesterday was my rotation for leading the congregation in hearing the Word of God. I felt strongly inclined to “do something different.” Something in my deepest self feels a sense of remorse over the lack of attentive reverence given to Scripture. I’m not an advocate of Bibliolatry…pushing for the worship of God’s Word; however, it seems to me that since the Holy Scriptures are a primary means that God speaks to humanity, we should give more attention to it…reverence, awe, and worship for the Giver of the Word. It is for this reason that I do not care of the typical (at least what I am used to) contemporary worship service…if you can call it that. It seems almost sacrilegious to call it “worship.” Sorry…it’s a pet peeve, but I take it as an affront to Christ for people professing to “love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength” to give Him such little attention. Here’s an example; the typical modern service lasts approximately 1 – 1.5 hours in length. This service will generally consist of a welcome, announcements, a few hymns/choruses, and a brief reading of the Word and sermon. The sermon, most often, is more of a devotional thought (at least in the contemporary setting) with a few “relevant” points and a “what I’m supposed to do with this” to do list for good Christian boys and girls. I know I’m sounding cynical…but we’re talking about the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE here! I hear of people sitting down and watching an entire DVD series of a TV show at one time, playing console games for hours straight, and/or waiting in traffic jams and long lines for a sporting event and then sitting through inclement weather for hours to watch said event. Conversely, we are told repeatedly that people don’t have the attention spans to sit through much more than a 25 minute sermonette in a worship service. Baloney; people will sit through what they want to sit through provided they find there is value in it. Personally, I cannot find anything of more value than hearing the words of my God…He is indeed, the Pearl of great price.

Enough of my rant…

So, yesterday I read a letter, a letter to the church. This letter was compiled by me from eleven of the church letters and epistles comprising the New Testament Scriptures. There were thirty-four passages of Scripture taken from the letters each annotated and foot-noted in my manuscript. I believe the letter is contextually true and is as relevant for us today as it was when it was originally written/read.

I shared with the congregation that the ancient church would often go months or longer before they might hear from one of the apostles and when they did it would be with great excitement they would gather to hear the reading of the letter. This is the letter I read to my church family yesterday. A copy of the letter (here) and small group discussion points (here) are included  for download.

My thinking for this letter was to simply let the Word of God do what it does; teach, inspire, challenge, rebuke, correct, and convict. I assumed that God did not need me to tell the people what to think on this occasion. I know this is a lot of information in one letter, but I am under the conviction that people would walk away hearing only what God the Holy Spirit wanted them to hear. Time will tell; feedback from this Sunday was rather sparse…dunno what to make of that, but I feel I was true to what the Spirit laid on my heart. Amen.

2009NOV29 DearChurch jborden by icrucified

Send article as PDF to

Today marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year. This is the first Sunday of Advent 2009…

I plan to focus this year on the Liturgical Calendar. My tradition has not been one that expresses participation with the Christian seasons in full. As an act of discipline and spiritual exploration I intend to enter the journey of the Christian year beginning today. I’m using several tools that will help educate and guide me; in all likelihood, I will pick up a few more along the way. These present tools follow: Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross; The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister; Ancient Christian Devotional – A Year of Weekly Readings edited by Thomas Oden; and I will be utilizing resources that introduce me to historical prayers during the Advent season. I will share additional resources as I learn of them and incorporate them into my journey.

During Advent we focus on

• The arrival of Christ in history; the coming of the Christ child and Messiah Jesus
• The final return of Christ at the end of time when all things will be restored
• The intermediate entrance of Christ into our lives (our personal redeeming salvation)

The themes of Advent are:

• Death and Life
• Darkness and Light
• Doubt and Longing

Advent is a time of expectant waiting…our longing for Christ deepens as we slow down and focus our attention and intentions upon Him, our Redeemer-Reconciler-Restorer. O joyous wonder awaits expectant hearts!

“The Biblical scope of Advent stretches from the garden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation. Advent concerns first and last things. It involves looking back and learning forward. In Advent we ponder the promises of God from beginning to end.” (Living the Christian Year; p.42)

Opening Prayer for Advent

To you, my God, I lift my soul,
I trust in you; let me never come to shame.
Do not let my enemies laugh at me.
No one who waits for you is ever put to shame.

All-powerful God,
increase our strength of will for doing good
that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming
and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven,
where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Father in heaven,
our hearts desire the warmth of your love
and our minds are searching for the light of your Word.

Increase our longing for Christ our Savior
and give us the strength to grow in love,
that the dawn of his coming
may find us rejoicing in his presence
and welcoming the light of his truth.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Send article as PDF to

“Before we can conquer the world, we must first conquer the self.” Oswald Sanders; Spiritual Discipleship

The LORD is our righteousness… (Jeremiah 33:16)

I’ve been spending extended time in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah as I meditate and study through other passages of the Bible… sort of like examining all of the Scriptures through Jeremiah’s eyes. Today as I was doing this, I returned to Jeremiah (chapters 2-3) and noticed a disturbing parallel between the retelling of Israel’s and Judah’s unfaithful relationship with God and modern Christianity; specifically, the North American Church. Painting with a broad brush, we are no different. Here’s what I found that led me to this conclusion. I’ll start with a passage from 2 Timothy 3:1-9 – my recap follows:

• People love themselves (2 Timothy 3:2)
• People are ungrateful (2 Timothy 3:2)
• People love pleasure/comfort more than God (2 Timothy 3:4)
• People act religious but reject the power of God to live godly lives (2 Timothy 3:5)
• People have a counterfeit faith (2 Timothy 3:8)

Now, back to Jeremiah and my comparison/parallel observation…

• We feel shame only when we’re caught… (Jeremiah 2:26)
• We keep our back turned to God most of the time, but in times of trouble, we are quick to turn to Him (Jeremiah 2:27)
• We accuse God of wrongdoing (“why would a good God let _______ happen?”), but we are the ones in rebellion and solely responsible for evil in the world (Jeremiah 2:29)
• We like to profess our innocence before God and pretend that He is okay with everything (Jeremiah 2:35)
• We claim to be children of God and profess Him as our Guide, but continue to live our lives on our own terms (Jeremiah 3:4-5)

All of this looks, to me, uncannily like the American church.  It doesn’t have to be this way…and the apostle Paul (speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says it won’t stay this way (2 Timothy 3:9). I continue to pray and teach that we embrace fully the teachings of Jesus and become fully devoted subjects to His Kingdom. It will take first, our determination to overthrow the kingdom of self; a feat that requires a radical faith… This is the essence of what it means to be born again; dying to self in order to be reborn into the Kingdom of God. If we continue to serve self, we are not His disciples and not part of the kingdom. “Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You.” (Psalm 25:4-5)

Incline, O Lord, thy merciful ears, and illuminate the darkness of our hearts by the light of thy visitation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Gelasian Sacramentary)

Send article as PDF to

Reveille

Main Entry: rev·eil·le

Etymology: modification of French réveillez, imperative plural of réveiller to awaken, from Middle French reveiller, from re- + eveiller to awaken, from Vulgar Latin *exvigilare, from Latin ex- + vigilare to keep watch, stay awake — more at vigilant Date: 1644

1. : a signal to get up mornings
2. : a bugle call at about sunrise signaling the first military formation of the day; also : the formation so signaled

Wake up.

^ESV Romans 13:11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

^NRS Ephesians 5:14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

^NIV Revelation 3:2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

^NLT Revelation 3:3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpectedd as a thief.

Wake up.

This has been echoing, echoing, echoing…beating, beating, and beating in my head-heart for a long time, but especially so for the past several months. My heart is burdened for people…so many in the world I live are “sleep” walking their way through life…blind to the realities and promises of the God of all creation, Jesus Christ. I am fearful for the many and I am fearful for the people that Holy Spirit has led me to shepherd over and minister to. So many in the circles I have traveled have “over-personalized” the gospel message reducing the proclamation of God’s Kingdom to individualized salvation. While our relationship with Jesus is intimate and personal, if this personal relationship isn’t made public in word and in action…it has not been made personal at all.

“…indignant and insulted…the temple leaders and religious leaders questioned Jesus over his actions. Specifically, they were concerned over his leading children astray… Jesus’ response to them was this question; ‘Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures?’” –Matthew 21:15-16

Over the next few days and weeks I will try to flesh out some of my thoughts in this blog with regard to the promises of life our Lord has invited us to partake in; a life free from the bondage of sin. All of these promises clearly spelled out and contextually accurate in their interpretation from the Bible. There is no reason for us to be accused of the same failure as the Sadducees and religious leaders in the day of Jesus.

“…Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” Jesus – Matthew 22:29

Wake up.

^CSB Proverbs 6:9 How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?

^NLT Psalm 57:8 Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.

“Whoever hungers for righteousness wants to live actively according to God’s righteousness; this is proper for the person with a good heart. One who thirsts for righteousness wants to acquire the knowledge of God that one can gain only by studying scriptures. This is fitting for the person with an attentive heart.” –Anonymous

Send article as PDF to

“Be You Imitators…” (Ephesians 5:1)

Our ultimate goal is to be like Jesus; it is also the highest desire of our Lord. Nothing should beset us from striving to make this our greatest call. The following passages support the call to become “like Christ”:

• Phil. 2:5
• 1 Jn 2:6
• 2 Co 3:18
• Romans 8:29
• Eph 4:13
• 2 Co 5:17
• Eph 5:1

An excerpt from the great preacher Chas. Spurgeon gives insight to this passage from Eph 5:1 –

“Be you imitators”—that is, do not only meditate upon God and think that you have done enough, but go on to copy what you study. Meditation is a happy, holy, profitable engagement. It will instruct you, strengthen you, comfort you, inspire your heart and make your soul steadfast. But you may not stop at meditation—you must go on to imitation of the Character of God! Let your spiritual life not only bud and blossom in devout thought, but let it bring forth fruit in holy action. Be not satisfied with feeding the soul by meditation, but rise up from the banquet and use the strength which you have gained! Sitting at the feet of Jesus must be succeeded by following in the footsteps of Jesus!

Neither does the text say to us, “Be you admirers of God.” This we ought to be and shall be if we are true Christians. The pure in heart, who, alone, can truly see God, are filled with a reverent admiration of Him. With the angels, every gracious heart exclaims, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.” “There is none holy as the Lord” (Sam. 2:2). When the best of men are compared with the Lord, their holiness is not to be mentioned. “Who is like unto You, O God, glorious in holiness?” But we cannot rest satisfied with rendering such admiration—we must prove that we really admire by closely imitating. The world’s proverb is that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I shall alter it and adapt it to a higher use. “Imitation of God is the sincerest form of admiring Him!” Neither can we believe that you know God and are at all charmed with His holiness unless you endeavor, as He shall help you, to imitate Him as dear children. Read the rest of this entry »

Send article as PDF to

Simple; not Easy…

For the past several months, I have been “meditating” (opposed to quickly reading) my way through several books. I don’t approach all books in the same way. Some books I breeze through, others I read more intentionally, and some I spend months chewing on them. Occasionally, two or more books will align in a delightful way such that they complement one another far beyond mere chance or coincidence. Presently, Deep-Rooted in Christ by Joshua Choonmin Kang, The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson, Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings edited by Thomas Oden, and my Bible are working together in concert to sing a most divine song to my heart.

What is at the core of my post title, Simple; not Easy…? As the list of books above implies, a number of things are at the core…but when these are distilled down to the most common denominator and all the questions are asked and answered, what is left standing is one response; “simple.” What is simple? The answer is simple; the answer to every question and every challenge of life… and that answer is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength…then, love your neighbor as yourself. I’m sure there are detractors that say that is not the answer at all, and if it were the answer, it certainly is not simple, but I disagree. It is simple; we choose to put God first and then exercise with deliberate actions and intent to make it so in every facet of life. On the other hand, and as my title infers, it is not easy; not by a long shot.

Reading from The Contemplative Pastor Eugene Peterson writes; “Gabriel Marcel wrote that life is not so much a problem to be solved as a mystery to be explored. That is certainly the biblical stance: life is not something we manage to hammer together and keep in repair by our wits; it is an unfathomable gift. We are immersed in mysteries: incredible love, confounding evil, the creation, the cross, grace, God.” How true; life is a mystery…one we are all trying to figure out. The problem is that we are not equipped to figure it out on our own. There are simply way too many variables and complexities that make the equation unfathomable for us. Not the least of which, in this equation, is the deceptive heart; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Here God tells us that without Him, we are not able to even know ourselves. How then, can we hope to make it through life? It seems to me that without putting God first (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:28-31), our existence is only as sure as the next roll of the dice…not a very comforting thought.

I often listen to men and women express their discontent, confusion, and uncertainty about life; this isn’t new, unexpected, or abnormal. What perplexes me about this phenomenon of confusion and uncertainty is the amount of pastors, clergy, and spiritual leaders who are bound by it. I meet regularly with men who share a similar calling as I; we help to guide people in the ways of Jesus and faith. This is no easy task. As has already been mentioned, there are great complexities and challenges when human beings are involved…in anything. I am often perplexed and mildly disappointed when I meet with my peers. Many times I will meet with folks from different faith traditions and often I will meet with gentlemen of my own tribe; in either gathering I will frequently hear confessions and professions of faith that seem weak if not entirely contrary to the teachings of Jesus. My words should not be misunderstood; my intent is not criticism, or to judge someone’s faith, but as it relates to the leading of people or teaching the Word of God…it is most assuredly a matter that causes me great concern. Therefore, I am trying to understand why there is disparity between our views, opinions, and methods of counsel. Sorry for dropping off task for a moment, but I like to clarify and qualify my words. Back to my original thought now…

Recently I heard several leaders express their fears about the state of America (political and policy changes), the economy of our nation, and leading people through these times of transition and change. I heard them express uncertainty about knowing God’s direction for them as leaders in His Church and His direction for them as shepherds of His local flock…their home church. At the risk of sounding trite, I don’t get it. I don’t get the fear, I don’t get the uncertainty, and I don’t get the confusion. I understand there are ebbs and flows of our faith, especially so with concession given to physical, emotional, and outside-of-our-control circumstances; however, I think these are exceptions to our “normal” walk with God as opposed to the “natural” order of our faith journey. Yes, life can be difficult and in some cases it can be exceedingly difficult to the level of horrific proportion. It is not easy. The solution; however, is simple. Believe Jesus; take Him at His Word. Put God first in everything that we do; as He has said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” When we live with this as our primary directive, things change.

Problem: Things aren’t changing.

Why aren’t things changing? Why aren’t our church leaders, our spiritual guides, leading with confident trust in God? Why is it that so many of our professed teachers of Christian spirituality seem to have an uncertainty about God’s direction and will for His people? Once again, I think the will of God is pretty obvious (if we are open to the idea of reading the Bible). Jesus taught us what the will of the Father was during His time teaching the Twelve. Jesus shared repeatedly through His public teaching what the essence of God’s Kingdom was. He also told us to pray, teach, and live for the Kingdom of God at every single opportunity. We are to be Kingdom people. The command is simple; implementation and execution are not easy.

Why aren’t we living in compliance with the prayer and instruction of Jesus?

Generally speaking, I believe we have not become disciples. Oh, we profess to know Jesus and we claim to believe “in” him. We call ourselves followers and disciples, but we live frightfully similar lives in terms of those who openly reject Jesus and his teaching. We are easily offended by each other, we strive to purpose our personal agendas, we live immoderately and wasteful with regard to our personal resources, we are more concerned about individual comfort over the plight of the impoverished and marginalized citizens of earth, and we repeatedly rob God of the first fruits of His blessing to us (first fruits extends to every facet of our life: skills and gifting, time, talents, finances, etc.). I ask again, what is the reason for this offensive representation of Christianity? I believe the answer is; we have not become disciples. Jesus said, no one could be his disciple unless he was first willing to deny himself. He went on to clarify that statement to include “being willing to give up everything” to follow him (Luke 14:25-35). Jesus made a number of similar statements to these in other narrative accounts in the gospels; the point being, we must first be willing to die to self in order to become his disciple. This was the heart of his exposition to Nicodemus (John 3); “you must be born again.” One cannot be born again unless he first suffers some form of death whether it is literal or figurative… And again, on yet other occasions, Jesus spent considerable energy trying to explain the “first and last” concept along with the “lose your life to find your life” concept (see Matthew 10:32-39; 16:24-26; Luke 9:23-25). Could it be that our failure in becoming disciples is directly related to the fact we have not first “died to self?” I think this is the problem exactly and I think it is as prevalent among the Five-fold ministry (Eph. 4:11) as it is among those who are not. Yes, evidence indicates there is a large number of people professing to be teachers and leaders who have never become disciples. This is a tragedy. These “would be” teachers are in seriously dangerous territory (see Matthew 23 and James 3:1).

What is the answer; what is the takeaway?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the takeaway is simple, but not easy. The “Sign of Christ” only comes to those who are first willing to deny (die to) self. The sign of Christ is the transformed heart… without it there is no real evidence of a Christ-filled life.

“The sign of Christ drives the destroyer away from us insofar as our heart receives the Savior.” Augustine

In Deep-Rooted in Christ, Joshua Choonmin Kang reminds his readers of Jesus’ words from John’s Gospel… Jesus portrays his life with rich comparison to seed and fruit (John 12:24-25). “A seed that falls to the ground but doesn’t die won’t produce new life. Only when that seed is broken will the new life begin.” Pastor Kang also asks; “How can we let the life of God flow free? As the Lord said, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 9:23).” Paul also discovered that the power of God flowed without limits when his self was broken. “I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:31).

“If we say ‘I believe in Jesus’ but it doesn’t affect the way we live, the answer is not that now we need to add hard work to our faith so much as that we haven’t truly understood or believed in Jesus at all.” Timothy Keller

I would add to Dr. Keller’s thought; we have not started down the path of discipleship…I am not following Jesus. My belief only trickles down from my brain to my lips. My belief has not consumed me to the point that it has affected the death of my Adamic nature and put to rest the cold, stony heart of this self-made-man…allowing the reconciling resurrection and restoration of the God-heart (Ezekiel 11:19 and Ezekiel 36:26) evidencing the transformational work of the Holy Spirit. This is the true sign of a disciple and how it begins to affect the way we live.

Simple; not easy.

The result of disciple-flavored leadership is confidence in the face of adversity, joy even in seasons of grief, gentle calmness of soul even when chaos surrounds, discernment, knowledge, and wisdom…yes, the very mind of Christ in a world that reeks of uncertainty. He has given us everything we need to live a godly life; even to sharing in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-4). How do we do this; what is our part? Our part is to trust, obey, die to self and follow. It isn’t easy, but it is simple.

Send article as PDF to