Discipleshp

“Suffering”

“Suffering”

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) There are a lot of sayings about suffering; most of them, I’ve never heard of before. Sure, we have the ones everyone knows: “suffer a setback,” “suffer an attack (of something),” “suffer under someone,” “suffer the consequences,” and of course, Sylvester’s “Sufferin’ succotash.” But then, we have a whole host of expressions I’ve never heard of before: “Stir suffering into your soup,” “suffering by candle and quill,” “suffering in the shadows,” “suffering at the doorstep,” and “suffering counting the ceiling cracks.” That’s a lot of “new” suffering, but maybe we all need to learn something new about suffering. In Luke 9, Jesus prepares his disciples for what is ahead because what is ahead, is suffering. He says (Luke 9:23): “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and

“Forgiven to Forgive”

“Forgiven to Forgive”

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37) I know, it is hard to understand. And that is why we have so many replicas that try to make sense out of it. For instance, Percy Colson said: “Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so intensely.” I guess that makes some kind of twisted sense, but if we are going in that direction, we need more. We need Isaac Friedmann who said: “Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.” If only I knew my granting forgiveness enacted a measure of revenge upon my enemies, then I would forgive far more freely. After all, I am way more in favor of getting revenge than in forgiving and forgetting. But does it? I am not so sure. That’s why this quote from John F. Kennedy makes even

“Pray This Way”

“Pray This Way”

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. . . .’” (Luke 11:1-2) Back in the day, there was a TV police drama named, “Dragnet.” It set the stage for every good cop show after it with its great staccato musical sting, its gripping storylines, its real-to-life actors (Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday) and its great quotes. “The story you are about to see is true. . . .” “This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.” “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” “We were working the night watch. . . .” But today, we want to focus on Sergeant Friday’s most famous line: “Just

“The Greatest”

“The Greatest”

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39) Sometimes, when we walk our dog Ragna, he decides he wants to eat grass. And then he gags, and it just gets ugly. And so, we made a law: No eating grass. But then one day, we were walking and he took a bite out of a small plant that was growing by the side of the trail. Now, he felt that he was justified in eating this. After all, the rule was no grass. It never said anything about plants. And when we pressed him on it by saying, “You know what we meant,” he totally disregarded us and threatened to call his lawyer. And so, before we went walking

“Bearing Fruit”

“Bearing Fruit”

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) One summer, I worked at an apple orchard. I loved it, but after a month, I was offered a job that paid three times more money and required three times less exertion. And so I moved on, even though, at my new job, I couldn’t eat any of my work. For years, that’s all I knew about bearing fruit. But if we want to be disciples of Jesus, bearing fruit must become our priority and our passion. Right in the middle of the Farewell Discourse in John 15, Jesus begins to talk about fruit. Specifically, he talks about bearing fruit. And he hits it hard. He says that if we don’t bear fruit, we will be “cut off” (verse 2a). And even if we are bearing fruit, but not nearly enough, we

“So That”

“So That”

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Sometimes, reading the Bible is an adventure in missing the point. 2 Timothy 3 has been a favorite passage of mine for years, but my focus has always been on those first four words; “All Scripture is God-breathed.” Now, I can make a good argument for why the focus ought to be on those words. After all, the inspiration of Scripture is of critical importance, and scholars wrestle with the meaning of almost every word in this clause. But if that remains our sole focus, we will miss the whole point of the verse. See, the point of the verse is not found in the first four words, but rather on those two small words that appear almost in

“Follow Me”

“Follow Me”

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'” Matthew 16:24 One would never believe that defining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus could be so confusing. Jesus seems to make it very clear here in Matthew 16 (and twenty-one other times in the four gospels). It is comprised of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following him. Here’s my problem. For most of my life, instead of emphasizing Jesus’ command to “follow me,” I stressed his invitation to “believe” in him. In other words, instead of focusing on living like Jesus, I centered on thinking properly about Jesus; and my discipleship became a matter of having right theology. And while I may never have admitted it, right thinking was more important to me than right living. Now, “believing” is important and understanding theology