MUSINGS

A reminder that it is better to listen attentively to a person than interrupting and speaking endlessly.

MUSINGS

Everyone has an opinion. The wise keep their wisdom and knowledge to themselves unless requested to give an opinion. The Bible tells us that sharing wisdom and knowledge with another person when he has not asked for it is like throwing pearls before a swine.

COUNSELING

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I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6

Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial…

Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly…

Because God already has laid the only foundation of our community, because God has united us in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive. We thank God for what God has done for us. We thank God for giving us other Christians who live by God’s call, forgiveness, and promise. We do not complain about what God does not give us; rather we are thankful for what God does give us daily. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Do You See Me?

I wonder whether, when teachers of the law first signed up as young men to devote themselves to a life of service, they had warm hearts for God and others. Weren’t they in fact motivated by love? But over time something happened. All their learning about Scripture filled them with pride. All their efforts at obedience filled them with disdain for the less devout. All their giftedness filled them with impatience toward those who were weaker. All their spiritual power filled them with contempt for the weak. And they became as enslaved by a cold heart as an addict can become enslaved by crack cocaine.

“Sins of the spirit” have less to do with our biology than with our souls. They have names like pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, and judgmentalism. They are generally not as colorful as sins of the flesh. They don’t provoke nearly as much gossip—perhaps because gossip is itself a sin of the spirit. Rarely does a church exercise discipline over one of these sins. If you hear of a pastor having to leave a church for “moral reasons,” you can be pretty sure it’s not pride. Churches in our day are not usually scandalized by sins like arrogance or self-righteousness.

The New Testament tells a striking number of stories that involve the triad of a “sinner of the flesh,” a “sinner of the spirit,” and Jesus. There is the story of the Pharisee and the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet, of the Pharisee and the tax collector, of the prodigal son and his older brother, and—yes of the religious leaders versus the woman caught in adultery.

In all these stories, the people guilty of the “sins of the flesh” knew they were in big trouble. They also saw Jesus as a person they could run to. They finally came home.
In all these stories, the people guilty of pride and arrogance were also blind. They thought it was possible to love God and despise people. They actually thought they were paragons of spiritual maturity because they avoided sins of the flesh. They had no idea that their sin crippled their ability to love—which makes sins of the spirit the most dangerous and destructive sins of all. 

What is so insidious about the sins of the spirit is that the carriers don’t have a clue. At least with sins of the flesh, you find out you have messed up. With the sins of the spirit, you may not even know. You just walk through life with a stone in your hand:

• Judgmental thoughts
• A superior attitude
• Impatient words
• Bitter resentments
• Little room for love

People stand around you—trembling in brokenness, guilt, fear, lost-ness—but you’re so caught up in your own self-righteousness you don’t even see them. Or worse yet, you see them and are not moved. You don’t even notice—you’re not in the life-saving business anymore.

Has the time you have walked with the Lord made you more obedient to his command to love God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself?

© 2014 by Zondervan. From 'Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them' , John Ortberg 

Seven Principles of Biblical Discipleship

 Dr. David A. DeWitt

• What is and what is not biblical discipleship?

• What must I do in order to disciple someone?

• What must I become if I am to be a disciplemaker?

Biblical discipleship is the act of one person intentionally impacting the life of some other person in the direction of Christlikeness (2 Timothy 2:2).

So biblical discipleship is:

 Intentional --Discipleship is not simply someone learning about Christ. It is not accidental. It’s intentional. It is not a function of the learning of the learner but of the teaching of the teacher. Someone must intend to do it.

Impacting --Discipleship has not happened because a student is excited about or impressed by a teacher. Discipleship brings about a change in virtues, values, beliefs, and lifestyle.

Personal --Discipleship is not covering material. Neither is it being part of a group (a class, congregation, family, etc.). Discipleship is one person dealing with another person personally.

Christlike --Discipleship is not just a mentee modeling a mentor. The modeling must be moving in the direction of Christlikeness.

Seven Principles

(1) Biblical discipleship is incarnational.

Incarnational means in-the-flesh. (“Carnation” means “flesh.” For example, chile-con-carne means chile with flesh. “Carnal” desires are fleshly desires, etc.) In-the-fleshness is what God used to reveal Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14 and 1 John 1:1). Christ’s apostles continued the incarnational approach. Paul reviews his ministry with the Thessalonians by comparing himself to a nursing mother tenderly caring for her own children, and giving them not only the Gospel but his own life (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8). So biblical discipleship is done in the flesh. It cannot be done via books or

tapes or TV or speakers in auditoriums. All of these things may be useful, but discipleship is being there.

(2) Biblical discipleship is reproductive. Being productive is not a goal of biblical discipleship. Businessmen, sportsmen, professionals, even pastors and evangelists, are usually considered productive when they accomplish a quantitative goal. Biblical discipleship, however, emphasizes:

 (a) Multiplication, not addition

 (b) Quality, not quantity

 (c) The potential people have, not the positions they hold

(See Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8.)

Consider the impact of a lifestyle of discipleship:

 In one year, an evangelist reaching 1000 people a day would reach 365,000 people. Someone discipling one person a year, who reproduces that with one other person a year, would reach two people.

In ten years, an evangelist reaching 1000 people a day would reach 3,650,000 people. Someone discipling one person a year, who reproduces that with one other person a year, would reach 1,024 people.

In 25 years, an evangelist reaching 1000 people a day would reach 9,125,000 people. Someone discipling one person a year, who reproduces that with one other person a year, would reach 33,554,423 people.

(3) Biblical discipleship invites personal discovery. A disciple has to discover truth for himself. The discipler’s job, then, is to present truth that must be self-discovered. Jesus often presented things in such a way that people had to look beyond the obvious and make the effort to discover what He

meant.

• In John 2 He threw the money changers out of the Temple. When challenged about it, He said, destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up (verse 19). He was referring to His own bodily resurrection, but understanding that was not easy.

• In John 3 Jesus required Nicodemus to discover what it meant to be born again (verse 7).

• In John 4 the woman at the well had to discover what He meant by living water (verse 10).

• In John 6 the disciples had to discover what it meant to eat His flesh and drink His blood (verse 53).

Discipleship was never simply a matter of parroting back answers or learning a program. It required a faith and focus that led to self-discovery.

(4) Biblical discipleship reasons, persuades, and gives evidence.

• Discipleship is not based on mysticism, emotions, or blind faith.

• Through Isaiah God told Israel, Come now, and let us reason together (Isaiah 1:18).

• Concerning Paul’s discipleship, we read that he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks (Acts 18:4).

• We also read that Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead (Acts 17:2-4). (See also Acts 19:8-10; 28:23-24.)

(5) Biblical discipleship counts the cost. One of the differences between discipleship and mentoring is the cost involved. Jesus said, if anyone comes to Me; first sit down and calculate the cost (Luke 14:26-28). In this passage Jesus gave us two costs to count:

• The first is the cost concerning others. He said we must “hate” our family and those close to us. Hate is not the opposite of love: apathy is. Rather, it is a choice which prioritizes one over the other (Malachi 1:2-4).

• The second cost has to do with ourselves. Jesus said we must hate our own lives (Luke 14:26) and lose ourselves for His sake (Matthew 10:39; see also Ephesians 5:29).

(6) Biblical discipleship is giving. God loves extravagance and hates stinginess (Luke 6:38). Discipleship is extravagant giving, which involves laying down our lives for others (John 15:13). It is an act of love, and love always results in giving of the sort that expects nothing in return (John 3:16; Ephesians 5:25). One of the greatest challenges for maturity in life is to learn how to become a giver (of time,

talent, resources, etc., not just money).

(7) Biblical discipleship has an eternal perspective. Let’s look at the example of Jesus Christ again (1 Corinthians 11:1), this time from John 5:

He pointed people only toward God (verse 19).

He did only what God was doing (verse 20).

He sought only God’s will (verse 30).

He judged only with God’s judgment (verse 30)

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Mathew 5:13

“You are the salt”․ Not “You should be the salt”! The disciples are given no choice whether they want to be salt or not. No appeal is made to them to become the salt of the earth. Rather they just are salt whether they want to be or not, by the power of the call which has reached them. You are the salt․ Not “you have the salt.” It would diminish the meaning to equate the disciples’ message with salt, as the reformers did. What is meant is their whole existence, to the extent that it is newly grounded in Christ’s call to discipleship, that existence of which the Beatitudes speak. All those who follow Jesus’ call to discipleship are made by that call to be the salt of the earth in their whole existence.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER