Luke 9: 23 says, “If anyone would follow me [be my disciple], let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”  This verse says a whole lot.  We will discuss it at greater length later.  But the point I want to make right now is about our daily habits.  There are many daily functions in our lives; that we expect to do, that we need to do, that we virtually cannot fail to do every day and still maintain our earthly existence.  I’ll try not to belabor the point; but we can’t go many days without eating (and we certainly like to eat every day); we cannot live more than a few days, two or three, without drinking water or some comparable liquid; we have to sleep regularly, mostly every night.  If we don’t go to work or school every day like we’re supposed to, we won’t last long in those endeavors.  If we don’t do these things, and many others, every day, our lives will languish, and diminish, and die.

            I submit that if we don’t focus attention on our spiritual lives every day we will wither and die spiritually.  Because God wants so much to have a relationship with us, He gives us many, many extra chances to choose Him, so we won’t die forever.  If we want to have any vibrant relationship with God, we must do it daily.  We have to choose, this day, to serve Him.  If we don’t eat daily, we won’t grow and develop properly physically; and if we don’t seek God daily, then we won’t grow and develop properly spiritually. 

            The purpose of this message is not to dwell on daily quiet time; but if anyone wants to draw near to God; if they want to develop a personal relationship with God; then they must focus their attention on God every day.  One effective method is: 1] read a passage from the Bible, 2] read a daily devotional 3] meditate, (listen to God) 4] pray (ask for God to show you Himself).  In the beginning this might take 10-15 minutes a day.  If you don’t do anything else, you can get down on your knees and tell God that you choose Him this day (maybe 30 seconds).  It’s a great place to start.  You’ll be amazed at what God can do with such a small start.  Seeking God daily is one of the best tools you can ever develop for drawing near to Him.

OOTB3, 060814, CHOOSE

                At the end of the book of the Bible called Joshua, he is making his farewell address to the people, God’s chosen people, after he has spent his whole life trusting God and putting up with some pretty stubborn people.  He says, among other things, “Choose this day who you’re going to serve .   .   . as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.”⁷

                God created us to have a close, personal, eternal relationship with Him.  In the beginning He created us to enjoy Him and His Presence forever, and He provided all the necessary ingredients for us to do just that.  The first thing we must do, to draw near to God, is choose Him this day. 

                To start a relationship with God, you don’t have to believe everything in the Bible, or be perfect or sinless, or go to the jungle or the desert on a pilgrimage.  You just have to want to draw near to Him, to choose to draw near to Him.  Then in some supernatural way, once you choose, He gets things moving.  You couldn’t do anything to get things moving even if you tried, apart from choosing.

                Before the foundations of the earth, God picked you out to be His, He chose you.⁸   And He gave you the right, as a choice of your own will, to choose to be His.  He also gave you the right to choose not to be His.  God doesn’t want robots to worship Him; He wants people who choose to be His friends, not those who are forced.  

                So the first tool for drawing near to God is your personal will.  You get to choose.  And you get to make this choice every day, about whether you are going to follow God, to offer yourself to God, to be His.  So choose this day who you will serve.

060714: Making Disciples 2:

 Matt 28:19-20: “Jesus said, . .’Go . . . make disciples; baptizing . . . teaching . . . I am with you’ “

             What does it mean, “making disciples”?  It means two things: 1] Preaching the Gospel, which is “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes (trusts) in Him, will not die, but have eternal life.”  The Gospel is, “Jesus died on the cross to redeem us, to reconcile us to the Father in heaven; so we could have that eternal life (the same life that God and Jesus have) IN US, beginning right here, right now, and lasting FOREVER. And whoever recognizes their sinful nature, and their need for redemption can become a disciple of Jesus; a member of His family; [2] and “Making disciples” means “baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you.” 

             I submit that what Jesus meant when He said, “teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you” was exactly the same things he was talking about when he said, in Matthew 7:24-27, “Whoever hears My words and does them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock; . . . But whoever hears My words and does NOT do them . . . is like a fool.”  So the conclusion is that “making disciples” is about teaching others (telling them and showing them how) to DO what Jesus said to do; to do what Jesus did and what He does right now. (through us)

Matt 28:19-20: “Jesus said, . .’Go . . . make disciples; baptizing . . . teaching . . . I am with you’ “

            Discipleship is all about building (growing and developing) relationships, with God and with others.  As we live our lives as disciples of Jesus, we are constantly involved in a process, a progression, of moving from being ‘natural’ (like the world and the flesh) to being spiritual (more and more like Jesus).  So it is with discipleship, a constant moving up the continuum from being more like me to being more like Jesus.  As much as we’re able, being like Jesus should be the focus of our lives in everything we do, especially in discipleship.

            So how do we teach disciples?  Just for clarity, I’ve deemed “make disciples” to mean     [1] “helping people make a commitment to Jesus”.  And, [2] “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I (Jesus) have commanded you”.  That sounds like we’re supposed to be teaching rules and required activities and acceptable associations.  My reading of the Bible indicates that is NOT what Jesus was talking about at all.  I submit that “teaching them” (the newly born-again disciples God has made through us) is all about teaching them the “mind” and the “attitude” that Jesus had when He was walking around on the earth, and teaching them to discern the attitude that Jesus has right now, through the Holy Spirit.  So while I’d like to present a seamless dissertation about what Jesus thinks and says, a tome which has a beginning and an end and three major points with three sub-points under each point; that method just doesn’t seem to fit the subject matter.  How do you teach the “mind”, the “attitude” of Jesus?  You do it one principle at a time; one story at a time; one shocking experience at a time.  By constant contact and relationship, you show what being a disciple looks like, so they learn the way a child learns, from the day she is born.

Blog 15, FORGIVENESS SERIES: Conclusion: 060614:  

            Do you know why God won’t forgive you if you don’t forgive others?  I’m sure there are a lot of Bible scholars and wise men and imminent preachers of the Gospel who might disagree with me, but I think the reason God won’t forgive the unforgiving is because He can’t.  Yes, I know, God can do anything He wants to.  And I’m absolutely convinced that’s true.  But He can’t in this case, because the person who refuses to forgive is blocking himself from receiving God’s forgiveness.  It’s just like in the situation about being converted and receiving salvation through Jesus.  In order to be saved, we must receive the gift.  If we’re not willing to receive the gift, by grace, through faith, we just won’t be saved.  In forgiveness, if we don’t open ourselves up, and surrender the hate and the bitterness that are involved in holding a grudge against someone, we’re never going to reach the point where we can receive forgiveness.  God is not going to MAKE us do this anymore than He’s going to MAKE us trust Him.  If we don’t trust Him, we can’t receive rest.  If we don’t forgive, we can’t receive forgiveness.

            Are you familiar with Leviticus 19:18?  That’s the second verse that Jesus quoted when someone asked Him what was the first and great commandment.  On the first one He quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.”  And he went on to say, “And the second is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”  That’s the last part of Leviticus 19:18.  The whole verse goes like this, “Don’t seek revenge; don’t hold a grudge; but love your neighbor as yourself.”  That whole verse has a lot of meat.  How are you going to love your neighbor if you hold a grudge?  Holding a grudge is saying, “I’m mad and I’m not getting over it.  I’m not going to forgive that person for what they did to me.  I’m going to harbor this anger and this pain and this hurt in me until I can do something about it.”  And revenge is just what a person does when they have kept on harboring these bad thoughts, lost all restraint, taken the law into their own hands, and decided to do something about it. 

            So here’s the question, “How can you accept God’s forgiveness, when you won’t forgive, and release yourself from the bondage you’ve got yourself wound up in because of your vengeful thoughts against that other person?”  You can’t!  That’s why God can’t forgive you.  God’s forgiveness is as all-enveloping as the air we breathe; but if you won’t forgive, you can’t take a breath.  Unforgiveness kills people every day.  It makes them physically ill; it hardens their hearts; it hardens their bones; it makes them so they can’t breathe, physically or spiritually.

            Forgiveness is so inextricably wound up with love that God can’t help but give it to us; and forgiveness is so inextricably wound up with love, that if we don’t forgive, and we can’t receive God’s forgiveness.     

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            Blog 14, Forgiveness Series 5: 060514; TALKING MEAN TO PEOPLE; especially MY people.

            25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”[a] for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”:[b] do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.    .   .   . 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:25-27, 29-32. NKJV

            I was raised in a family that did a lot of talking.  It was the kind of family where everybody talked, mostly all the time, often all at the same time.  If somebody wasn’t talking, they were either sick, or sad, or mad, or all three.  We used a lot of ‘sarcastic’ expressions, such as, (when we’d see a man with skinny legs wearing shorts), “Are those your legs, or is that a chicken you’re riding?”  Or when someone was talking much too loud for the space and the occasion, “‘Scuse me, but could you speak up a little, we can’t hardly hear you.”  You know, sarcasm is the art of telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they don’t get it until 30 minutes after you’re gone.  ‘Course everyone in the family, at least most of the men and some of the women, would say such things (some of which were truly cutting and hurtful to the victim) and then when they were sure that they had truly damaged the other’s feelings, would say, “I’m sorry; I was only kidding.”  I can still remember times in my childhood when my Daddy or my uncles would make fun of me (or someone in my presence) for various reasons, too smart, too dumb, too scrawny, too weak, or whatever came to their minds at the time; and then laugh when it was clear they had really struck a chord.

            As a result of my early introduction to talking loud, arguing a lot, being sarcastic, being talked down to, ridiculed and belittled by my elders and my superiors in my family, and following their lead by talking down to, ridiculing and belittling others who were younger, littler and weaker, I am now aware of what a great wrong I have done to many people, especially those in my immediate family, my first wife and my second wife, and all four of my children.  (I’ve occasionally used such tactics on people outside my family, but those occasions have been few and far between.  I was probably subconsciously scared they would whip my rear if I talked like that to them.)

            I cannot imagine (or only to a small degree) all the times and all the ways I have been disrespectful, discouraging, ungracious and spoken with “bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice”.  The verse doesn’t say cursing, but that too.  I owe people, especially my family, a thousand apologies for all those times.  Mea culpa.  I’m guilty.  I deserve to be punished over and over.  Probably the thing I most regret is when I use my breadth of language, volume and forcefulness, to drive home my points and verbally demolish the person with whom I argued.  When my oldest son Sam was about 16 we owned a Chevy Suburban that had a removable rear bench seat.  When we weren’t using it, we kept it stored in the garage.  One day we were going on a trip and we were taking several other people with us and we needed the seat to be installed in the car.  At the time Sam was almost as big as I was, maybe 5’10’ and 160 lbs, and I had no doubt that he could handle it by himself; so I told him to go get the seat and put it in the car.  Sometime later I walked by the garage and saw it still sitting there, pretty as you please, right where it had been stored for months.  I was hot.  I called Sam out to the driveway, pointed to the seat in the garage, and asked him what the deal was.  “Why didn’t you put the seat in the car like I told you to?”  He said, “I can’t do it.”  I said, “What do you mean you can’t do it?”  He said, “It’s too big and heavy; I can’t lift it.”  Well!  I walked straight to the seat, put one hand on the back of the seat, one hand on the bottom of the seat, picked it up, walked over to Sam, and said, (almost at the top of my lungs) “Take the seat and put it in the car like I told you!”.  He just stood there.  Didn’t even attempt to take it.  So I got closer and said, “Take the seat!”  He backed away.  I tried again and he backed away again.  I was fit to be tied.  I can only imagine how crazy and stupid I must have looked, chasing my own son around the yard trying to make him take the seat, with my wife following me saying, “Stop! Stop!”  I’m sure I never apologized to Sam for that scene.  If I’d had any sense, I would have offered to help him do it in the first place.  How can I forgive myself, much less how can Sam forgive me?  It’s those kind of stupid things we get ourselves into when we forget (or REFUSE) to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving, as God, for Christ’s sake, is to us.  Sometimes I can hardly stand to think about all the stuff I’ve put my family through.  But I’ll say again, “Jesus died on the cross so I, even I, can have forgiveness for all the stupid, evil things I’ve done.”  In faith, by faith in Jesus, I trust that He has, He is and He will continue to forgive me, as I confess (recognize) my sins and with His help repent and turn from them.  That just has to be part of what it means to be delivered from evil.  And He has done it in spite of everything I and the devil could do to the contrary.  Our God is an awesome God! 

            So what happens when we say mean things?  People get hurt.  The Holy Spirit is grieved.  Damage is done.  What can we do to fix it?  I mean, besides being obedient to DO what it says in the Bible in Ephesians 4:25-32, about saying nice things and being kind and tenderhearted and forgiving, like God is to us; WHAT CAN WE DO?  In James 5:16, he says, “Confess your [sins] to one another, and pray for each other, that you may be healed.”  And 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”   All I can do is trust that since He gave us His own Son, that He can and will freely give us all things, like it says in Romans, 8:32, even this.  My whole life is resting on the idea that God will do what He says, whether I’m able to everything I’m supposed to or not.  THAT is one of the miracles of a relationship with the One True God.

            Blog 12, Forgiveness Episode No. 3: 060314; Mr. Yeldon is the head drama teacher at Hutchinson Intermediate School in Milam ISD, near Beaumont, Texas.  (The names have been changed to protect the innocent)  He was formerly the head drama teacher at Milam High School for many years, before retiring, getting bored, and going back to teaching drama again at a lower level, mainly for something to do in his retirement.  (A decision I respect him for, by the way.)  I don’t know exactly how old he is, but I assume he’s in his 60’s, short of stature, fairly slender, drives a Jaguar or some other recognizable sports car that he covers with a canvas cover when he parks it in the parking lot at school.  Reliable rumor has it that he is well-known and well-respected in his profession of teaching drama to intermediate and high school kids.

            I know Mr. Yeldon because for three (3) years, (6^th 7^th and 8^th grades) he was my son John’s drama teacher.  Without getting cranked up about it,  John is an actor.  He can sing, dance and act.  He had five years experience in acting, singing and dancing, with appropriate additional private training in all three fields prior to his association with Mr. Yeldon.  In the early stages, Mr. Yeldon often acknowledged John’s abilities and gave him appropriate parts in any plays for which he was available; when John didn’t have previous commitments.  We, my wife Lynn and I, and John, liked Mr. Yeldon, and appreciated his talents, experience and background in teaching drama.  They  got along well.  Mr. Yeldon seemed to be glad to have John in his classes and in his productions. 

            Along about the middle of John’s 7^th grade year Mr. Yeldon’s grandson passed away.  We don’t know the circumstances, but the boy was fairly young, in grade school, and many commented on how hard it must have been for Mr. Yeldon to get over.  We assume that this event had something to do with the change in Mr. Yeldon’s behavior.  For the rest of the 7^th grade and throughout the 8^th grade, Mr. Yeldon got progressively more combative, more consumed with discipline and less with teaching, often attacking his students verbally, exiling them from the room, and/or sending them to the principal’s office.  Drama class became progressively more difficult for John, who complained that Mr. Yeldon often attacked him personally for perceived disciplinary infractions which had previously been OK (a moderate amount of talking is to be expected; it IS drama class; some talking with classmates is required).  When John would try to explain his behavior, or that of an accused classmate, he would be sent out of the classroom to stand on the porch.  When John would ask permission to explain, he would be denied.  It should be pointed out that John is a fairly strong-willed child who does not mind defending his positions in a respectful way, for himself or for others.

            Things got progressively worse in class throughout John’s 7^th and 8^th grade years, but Mr. Yeldon still wanted John to perform as often as possible in school productions and in competitive drama tournaments, which John did, whenever he was available.  Mr. Yeldon was suitably gracious concerning John’s performances.  John, for his part, grew more and more restive about staying in Mr. Yeldon’s classes, and even began to talk of giving up drama altogether.  For our part, Lynn and I attributed John’s negative attitude toward theater directly to Mr. Yeldon’s treatment of him and other students in the class.  We began to believe that Mr. Yeldon was acting irresponsibly in treating the students in such a heavy-handed way.  (This from a father who grew up in an environment and raised a previous family of three kids with the attitude that if you got a whipping at school, you’d get another one when you got home.) 

            Oh, yeah, now I remember, they don’t give whippings at school anymore; they just figure out other ways to put the kids in their place.  From previous activities in other schools and other acting engagements, we knew that John’s favorite activity and favorite future goal was all about acting, singing and dancing, and we truly were angry and sad that Mr. Yeldon was having such a negative effect on John’s attitude.

            The last straw came at the final performance of John’s 8^th grade year, when he was the leading actor, and by all counts (even Mr. Yeldon’s) the star of that performance.  We all expected that at the awards ceremony a few days later, John would get his due.  He received a notice in the mail saying that he should attend to receive an award; so he did.  At the awards ceremony he did receive an award, for some minor activity of such little consequence that I don’t even remember what it was.  We were hot.  We couldn’t believe it.  The students who won the major awards weren’t even on the same level as John (in difficulty of the roles or in performance of the roles).  Sometime later, after the drama year was over, Mr. Yeldon explained that because John was unable to participate in all the scheduled drama events during all three years (because he was performing in other venues), under the school rules Mr. Yeldon couldn’t give him the highest awards, even though John merited them.  Later they had an informal awards banquet in which Mr. Yeldon said John would receive awards; but we didn’t even go, because we expected, rightly or wrongly, that John would be humiliated again. 

            Now Lynn thinks that Mr. Yeldon was really suffering under the burden of his grandson’s death and therefore deserves some consideration.  As for me, until recently I was telling people, every time the subject came up, that Mr. Yeldon was a “petty little man” who wrongly took his own depression out on unsuspecting students; and more, that he mistreated my son to such a degree that John almost quit theater for good, when he truly loved it.  I was hot, and I wasn’t getting over it.  Now, due to intervening circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that under the rules Mr. Yeldon may NOT have been able to give John what I thought he was due; that maybe Mr. Yeldon would have rewarded John in some manner commensurate with his talents and skills if we had gone to the (second) awards banquet; and that ultimately I owe Mr. Yeldon an apology as much or more than he owes John an apology.  Since I just came to this conclusion, I’m going to have to let it sink in a little before I actually go apologize, but I’m seriously considering doing that.  

            So how does all this fit in with forgiveness?  Numero Uno: when I actually believed Mr. Yeldon had wronged my son, I should have forgiven him, up front, without saying a word to him or about him to anyone else.  The real cruel joke is that I may be, probably am, the petty little man in this story.  Whew! That’s bitter medicine.  Forgive me, dear Lord, for being such a stupid idiot.  I hope someday to be able to surrender to God enough on a day by day, moment by moment basis, that I can forgive perceived wrongs as soon as they happen, rather than waiting until my semi-annual trip to the altar at the prison ministry weekend.  Somewhere in this story, Jesus is standing off to the side saying, “What about, if you’re going to claim to be a Christian, that you try, just a little, to act like it?”

            On a different note, what if I had started out with love in my heart, trying to see the good in Mr. Yeldon, trying to understand why he did what he did before condemning him.  It seems reasonable to expect that following that behavior, God might have moved everyone (even me) in the direction of reconciliation rather than condemnation.  It might’ve changed all our lives for the better.  It’s genuinely supernatural what God can do with us if we just surrender and trust and obey.