ECIPLESHIP for Passionate Christ-Followers

God’s compassion, grace, and love are beyond our comprehension.

The Father in the parable of the two lost sons (Luke 15) demonstrates compelling grace. It draws you in. It blows your mind. It inspires us to imitate. The power of grace is staggering.

Susan and I spent a little time with a family in crisis last night. A prodigal has fallen even deeper into the insanity of sin. The irrefutable consequences will be severe. We felt their pain, standing on the precipice of hopelessness, wondering if there is any way things could get worse. And then–we remembered the Father. His arms are always open, His heart tender, His wisdom confounding, His patience enduring, His love overwhelming, His grace compelling. There is ALWAYS hope with God.

Nothing is too difficult for God.

No waywardness is too far removed for His grace.

No hopelessness to great to dispell.

There He stands with open arms…

He may be waiting for you right now…to restore, comfort, strengthen, sustain, or forgive.

Just go…

Characteristics of the “older brother” are revealed both in the parable of the two lost sons and through the lives of the Pharisees and scribes to whom Jesus is telling this parable. The older brother in the parable represents them.

Pride rather than humility. “I have always served you and did everything you have always asked me to!” the older brother proclaimed. In the same way, the religious leaders of the day were so proud of their achievements and position of spiritual authority that they could not humble themselves enough to listen to a simple unrecognized rabbi from Nazareth. Can anything good come from there?

Anger rather than joy. “The older brother was angry and would not go in.” Especially when things to do not go the way “they should”, the older brother types respond with anger. This can come in many forms, of course. In this case, it kept the older brother from experiencing the joy of the moment with the rest of his family. He could not see the good (and there was lots to celebrate), but only the negative aspects of what was happening according to his perspective.

Resentment rather than gratitude. “You have never given me even one kid to celebrate with my friends.” Older brother types usually see what they do not have rather than what they do have. In this scenario, the older brother had every reason to be thankful for the return of his brother. Instead, he could only see how “he had been cheated” all these years. He seethed with resentment rather than being overwhelmed with gratitude.

Judgmental rather than valuing others. In this case, even though his brother returned home…and the father responded just the way a father should…the older brother could only be critical. He could not appreciate the innate value of his younger brother or the benefits of his return. Instead, he could only stand in judgment from his lofty condition of self-attained spirituality.

These are a few of the characteristics of older brother and sister types. The challenge for us is to face the truth about ourselves. Along with this, we must also face the truth about God. Just as he said to the older brother in Luke 15, he says to us: Please, just step into my embrace…and let’s party!

There were so many amazing things this Israelite king did so well. Jehu was brave, decisive, and had God’s blessing as well. 2Kings 10 tells us that he “wrecked the temple of Baal converting it to a toilet.” Now that’s making a statement! Verse 28 goes on to tell us that Jehu “destroyed every trace of Baal worship in Israel.”

You also get the feeling that this man had quite a personality! In fact, my Mom would say of my wild-driving brother, “Here’s comes Stuart — he driveth like Jehu!” This ancient king was such a crazy-man that they could tell it was him coming from a far distance…just by the way he drove his chariot. What’s that? Two horse-power? He got everything out of he could, evidently.

Unfortunately, this man had a closet. There were a few things he decided he couldn’t part with. 2Kings 10:29 states, “He did not, however, destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan, the great sin that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.” The synopsis statement concerning his reign in Israel is made just a couple of verses later: “But Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit,” (verse 31).

As I read about Jehu, I’m reminded that it is not our personalities, industriousness, outspoken nature, brave actions, or spiritual accomplishments that mean a whole lot in the end. What matters most is that God has “all my heart”. This means that there is nothing in my personal closets. It calls me to clean house in the places that are currently dishonoring God. The “acceptable” idols…even among us Christians today…must be destroyed.

Our favorite sinful “places” must be seen as the enemy’s toilets.

So — I started my day out slow. Very slow. I woke up late, sat in bed and had devos with Susan, and then spent some time just chatting and moving around like a sloth.

It’s our 27th anniversary!!! It’s hard to believe, but Susan and I have been hitched for quite a while. I used to think that people celebrating their twenty-something anniversary were really old. Interesting how getting there changes your perspective. Anyway — as Susan and I were praying together today, I was fairly overwhelmed with God’s goodness in our lives. Oh–we’ve had some incredibly hard times. Lot’s of really good ones, too. But through everything (and this isn’t just Christian jargan) God has been SO faithful and good too us. We are overwhelmed at His undying love and grace extended toward us.

Psalm 146 says it pretty well:

How many jars do you have?

I love the story of the widow and her two sons. It’s recorded in 2Kings 4. The widow’s former husband was a fellow prophet of Elisha’s. Having passed on, the rest of the family is now in financial straights. They seem to have no (or little) income, debts are  due, and the widow is in danger of losing her two sons to the slave requirement. In that culture, if a debt was due that couldn’t be paid, it was paid through forced labor.

The widow cries out to Elisha. LESSON ONE when in trouble: Cry out! She didn’t know if Elisha would help her, if God would help her, or if anyone would help her, but she cried out. She was desperate enough to ask.

After finding out she still owned a simple flask of olive oil, Elisha tells her to borrow and collect as many empty jars as possible. Not knowing what the plan might be, she simply obeys. LESSON TWO: Just do it. We often do not know what methods God will use, but if He tells us to do something, just do it. It’s faith in action that God responds to more than anything else.

Once all the jars are collected from friends and neighbors (it’s good to have as many of these as possible), Elisha tells them to start pouring olive oil from the small flask into the large jars. She did it! LESSON THREE: Following God will often be counter-intuitive and will run the risk of looking foolish.

And then the story tells us that once the jars were full, the oil stopped flowing. LESSON FOUR: Collect as many jars as possible. Here’s what I mean by this — the number of jars the family collected represents both their faith in action and their diligence to the task. We have no idea how many jars they had collected, but more jars meant more blessing and more abundance from God. After the whole miracle was finished, I’m guessing the widow and her sons thought of several other neighbors or friends that they could have borrowed a few more jars from. Maybe  – maybe not.

Here’s the question: How many jars do you have? What kind of faith are you practicing and diligence performing? Are you giving your calling, commission, or task every opportunity for great success? The more jars you have, the more God can pour into your life.

The story ends with the widow selling the oil, not only to pay her debt, but to also live well on the wealth of her sales. I think she and the boys had quite a few jars…

Scripture declares that we are a royal priesthood (1Peter 2:9). A priest’s life is devoted to serving the King of Kings. One alternative of that for the believer is that we become navel-gazers. We essentially serve King Me. We become so enamored with ourselves, our faults and failures — our personal achievements or lack of them, that we find ourselves stuck on us. We unwittingly attempt to manufacture spirituality rather than being Spirit empowered.

Oswald Chambers has a few stimulating thoughts…

For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15

What an amazing thing that the Creator of the universe — the One who dwells “in a high and holy place” is eager to also be with us…specifically those with a “contrite and lowly spirit.” The Hebrew word for contrite means to be broken, crushed or pulverized. It is the picture of being turned to powder. The idea is that when are truly broken…when there is no way for us to “put things back together”, we are then in the place that, when seeking God, He is ready to come and dwell with us. In fact, it states in the above verse that He wants to “revive the spirit of the lowly”…and his or her heart too.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, broken, shattered, or pulverized by life, the Great and Holy One is eager to come and put you back together. AMAZING indeed!

One of my primary roles as a pastor is to make sure we do the Lord’s work. I’ve recently been told that we’re too evangelistic at Edinbrook and “that’s why very few evangelists become pastors”. The inference here is that “good” pastors just focus on the flock at hand.

The more I search the Word, however, I find that God’s heart is for the lost (“there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 that need no repentance”) and that the Lord’s work is to GROW the Kingdom of God through the making of disciples (“as you are going, make disciples of all nations…”). Remember, the first step to disciple-making is successful evangelism. I guess I’m always amazed at how many people think churches should focus on making disciples but fail to see evangelism as a part of that process. Seems to me we’ve overlooked a pretty critical piece if we miss the “getting them saved” part.

There is also the view that the church is only for Christians. Especially Sunday mornings…it’s “Me Time”. Really? When did that come about? The church has always been the means by which the world would find God. It was NEVER meant to be exclusive, never bigoted, never a closed club. Instead, the church has always been the greatest hope of the world. As we worship God, learn about Him, and grow in our obedience to Him, the world is invited to watch and learn. Any “event” that expects guests keeps guests in mind so that they feel welcome, understand what’s happening, and have every opportunity to benefit from their visit. The “church is only for Christians” argument is either a good way to excuse us from working hard at connecting with EVERYONE present or a fatal misunderstanding of God’s strategy for the church.

In the Luke 15 story of the two lost sons, it was the older brother who wanted nothing to do with the younger brother. With defiant superiority, the older brother was disgusted at the grace extended to the wayward rebel. And so it often is still today in so many of our churches — we are made up of so many older brothers that really don’t want much to do with younger brothers. Bring in a clean-cut respectable sinner who fits into our mold — one who doesn’t cost us anything, and we’re fine with that. “Just don’t make me adapt my expectations or convictions to reach those that don’t deserve it.”

And so — we have churches filled with older brothers who think they’re pretty good. And we have God-seeking, even repentant younger brothers who would never darken the door of a church. Who wants to live with judgmental super-spiritual older brothers?

Tragedy.

Within the evangelical world, there are few that would represent a greater contrast between leaders than John Piper and Rick Warren. However, much to everyone’s surprise, John Piper invited Rick Warren to teach at his Desiring God Conference this year. Needless to say, he’s receiving some kick-back. Check out the link that follows to hear (on the video) why Piper invited Warren. It’s fascinating…listen to the end.

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2323_more_details_about_our_national_conference/

I took my day off on Thursday this week. Susan is also home on Thursdays…she works at Bethel University Monday through Wednesday. Wow! Did we have fun!

• We slept in late
• We cuddled with dogs (after we cuddled with each other)
• I leisurely made an espresso and enjoyed it on the deck
• Susan worked in the garden…I watched the Twins lose
• We worked on some landscaping improvements
• We painted a “pie safe” cabinet for a front house display (but the color is “off”)
• Had awesome rye, meat and cheese sandwiches
• Took a ride together to get Susan’s birthday book — “The Joy of Cooking”
• Watched a movie — “Leap Year”

This was like a mini-vacation! I was reminded of what an amazing friend and partner in life I have in Susan. What a woman!