Discipleship - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2023 | Day 05: The Gospel’s Purpose

In the previous post, we looked at the Gospel’s Focus. That the good news of Jesus Christ is found in his death, burial, and resurrection. And by this, the problem of sin is dealt with. Sin is the obstacle that prevents me from having a relationship with God. Therefore, if this issue is not resolved, then I am unable to reestablish any fellowship with God. I do not have the ability to live according to the righteousness God requires in my own strength.

The Gospel’s Purpose Restablishes Fellowship

This latter reality is the Gospel’s Purpose: To reestablish fellowship between human beings and God.

The Gospel addresses the issue of sin so that I might have fellowship with God. That is why the Gospel exists, must be proclaimed, and ultimately believed. Every single one of us needs to have fellowship with God. In that fellowship, we can finally discover our purpose and live in peace. Without that fellowship, we flounder trying to determine why exist.

Of the many reasons we struggle in life, our limited knowledge and wisdom create the greatest challenges. When we try and make decisions, chart a course for living, or simply try to communicate with others, we are limited by what we know. And potentially harmed by what we don’t. The difference between these two is not always felt. But the risk is always present.

Decisionmaking in the Dark

So often in life, we make decisions and choices in the dark. We really don’t know what we should do next. No matter how hard we try. We try to mitigate the mistakes we make. But that only works when we have a sense of the scope of the consequences. And again, most times we simply do not.

In reality, we are just doing the best we can. And there is nothing inherently wrong with this.

But what if we could consult with someone who knew what was coming? What if we could seek the wisdom of someone who had “seen in all before”? How would that change how we live?

I think it would reduce the anxiety many of us feel when trying to make sense of the world. Having someone who can warn us of danger and redirect our steps would save us a lot of heartaches.

However, what tends to happen is we dismiss this possibility when it comes to God. We have been trained to believe this is wishful thinking. That to trust in God is to rely on whims of fancy. But, who else can we trust?

The Gospel Addresses the Fundamental Problem

The Gospel speaks to the critical issue hindering us in life. We are not perfect. In every case we can imagine, we are deeply flawed. Sometimes bemused by our own decisions. At other times because of the decisions and actions of others. Regardless of the reason, the truth remains the same, we are all looking for something that will make life easier. Or at the very minimum, more tolerable.

Why then does faith in God get dismissed? Could it be because we inherently know that our fellowship had been broken? That there is something that must happen in order to re-enter the conversation with God?

It may be difficult for some to see this, but I think this is more the truth of the situation than many are ready to admit. We all instinctively recognize that if we are flawed beings there should be at least one being marked by utter perfection. It only makes sense. And yet, when offered an opportunity to explore the possibility of having a relationship with such a being, it is cast aside.

This is truly a remarkable set of circumstances.

The Gospel Speaks to our Deep Longing

So, what does this have to do with the Gospel’s purpose? Namely this: if one of the greatest longings of the human soul is to find perfection, then why do we balk at the idea of that perfection being found in God?

If God exists, he would have standards. And those standards would be far more demanding than any we could think up. And this is the reality that the Gospel posits.

God exists. And God has standards. But he has also provided a way of resolving the problem. We have to trust in the method and means God has provided for the restoration of fellowship.

God is not asking us to pay for the reason the rupture in fellowship exists. That is not God’s demand or expectation.

What God asks of us is to accept the way he has provided to reestablish fellowship.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 4: The Gospel’s Focus

The Gospel is Simple

As the years have passed by, I have reflected more and more on what the Gospel is and what it is the answer to. The Gospel is a response to a specific issue in the God-human relationship. There are other things that could be discussed about the Christian faith, but those should be brought up after the Gospel has been shared and accepted. To do it earlier would confuse what the Gospel is and why it is needed. (A problem quite common in our day.)

Too often we think that all the content and ideas that we now know as part of the body of knowledge of the Christian faith must be also received and accepted in order to share the Gospel. This is not correct. All of the theology and concepts that make up orthodox belief are learned after faith in Christ. A faith in Christ that is initiated through an acceptance of the Gospel’s call to repentance.

The Question the Gospel Answers

So, what is the focus of the Gospel? It is to pinpoint the issue that is keeping any person from having a relationship with God.

And what is that issue? It is our sin.

The Gospel is God’s answer to the question of what is keeping me separated from God.

That’s it. The Gospel is not answering any questions about theological quandaries, social problems, or any other questions we might have about life in this world.

The Gospel tells us what needs to be addressed and how God has chosen to address that issue.

We Must Know the Gospel

Several weeks ago I spoke on the theme that would be the focus of this year. Our theme, like this series of reflections, is on knowing the Gospel. In order to be effective disciples we must become experts in the message that saves. If we are not, then we will be unable to effectively engage with the world around us.

Any deficiency in our understanding of the Gospel will find its way into how we think about God, ourselves, and others. When we do not have a firm grasp of what the Gospel is about, we can make it about almost anything. This is a danger to all involved.

It may not appear to be so, but the temptation to “help” the Gospel will increase over time. The singular problem with this drift is it reveals a presumption we have. It is the belief that we know how to best communicate to others what God has perfectly designed.

There are two specific effects of sin that the Gospel addresses as it answers the question of sin. We will look at them now.

Our Identity was contaminated

The first effect is that our identity was completely scrambled by sin. When Adam and Eve accepted the serpent’s version of what God had said, they lost their identity. They were made in the image of God. That means they were reflections of God, not copies of God.

Humanity is not, and was never supposed to be, gods. But, by accepting the serpent’s false promise they have up what they were. They were guardians and stewards of God’s creation. Entrusted with its care and authorized to enjoy its fruits. But when they accepted the possibility of being like God they could no longer enjoy the task they had been assigned.

And ever since then, we have been trying to refashion ourselves as if we were God. This is not only an impossible feat, it is a prospect only a fool would entertain.

Fellowship with others became adversarial

The second effect of sin is that our relationships with others became adversarial. We were not in competition with those around us.

We see this when Adam and Eve both blame someone else for their sin. But we also see it in what happened to the first sons born outside of the Garden. The older, out of jealousy, killed his brother. And then pretended not to know that he was in fact responsible to look out for his brother.

Both of these effects are the consequence of sin. And both of these are answered by the entrance of Jesus into the world. Through his life and example, Jesus begins to show us what a world without sin looks like. But he does it amongst sinners. Giving us hope that we too can someday, somehow do it as well.

Conclusion

The Gospel is God’s answer to the issue of sin. This is the focus of the message we have believed.

Everything else is what we learn as we continue to be thankful for God’s grace in Jesus.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2022 | Day 39: Friend

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants.

We are now days away from celebrating the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. This single event defines the fullness of our faith. Without the resurrection, we are left with no hope for what lies beyond the grave. But in the resurrection, we find a reason to endure the trials of this life and look forward to the promise to be fulfilled.

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants. After all of their time together he had shared with them and talked with them about all that the Father had given to him. Now, as a result, they were ready to transition from those who were receiving to those who could give to others.

How do we know this is true? Jesus tells them he no longer called them servants but that he now considered them to be friends.

There is a big difference between a servant and a friend. The biggest of the differences is a servant does not have the same kind of access that a friend does. Servants cannot call upon their master and seek the same kind of comfort that a friend offers to a friend.

The reality this is describing is that at the end of our journey with Jesus we should be able to consider him our friend. In this case, what I mean by the journey is the journey of discipleship. That time where there is intentional and specific training, instruction, and encouragement to live out what is being learned. But there comes a moment we stop being students and we must begin to live for ourselves. Not ignoring what we have learned but according to what we have learned.

It has become my practice whenever I enter into a discipleship relationship to tell them from the beginning, “At the end of this discipleship process, however long the Lord gives us, if we are not better friends I will have failed to have discipled you properly.”

This mindset comes from what Jesus told his disciples. At the beginning, there was a great deal of transfer of information and correction from Jesus to the disciples. But as they matured they became more than just receptors of information and truth. Whether or not the disciples truly understood this does not change the fact that Jesus said this was his desire and his intention.

Whether or not we have ever felt like this about those who have discipled us in the past does not matter for how we should move forward. When we realize what Jesus was trying to do in and through us we become accountable for that.

And so as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s great promise of salvation we should give thanks to Jesus Christ who is that friend that sticks closer to us than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Jesus is the greatest friend we will ever have. Let us learn from him and be good friends with those whom we journey within this life. Even if it is only for a short time.

Lent 2022 | Day 14: Labor

The word labor can be used to describe a variety of activities. And I’ll leave that up to your imagination what those could be. But regardless of how you envision what the word describes, at its simplest level it will involve effort in order to accomplish the task.

We live in a world where convenience and easy access to resources and entertainment are all around us. It is becoming so convenient to get what we desire. We can order it in one minute and have it at our doorstep within a couple of hours. Now, this is not true of every place in the world but it is very common in many places. This is not to denigrate those who have access to such conveniences. This is merely an observation.

The reason I make the observation is to ask a question: what impact has this convenience had on how we understand our faith?

My friend, Pastor Drew Anderson, has written several blog posts and two follow-up books that speak in greater detail on the questions of how, in my particular case, the American cultural experience has impacted my Christian faith. And I think it’s a question worth exploring. I bring it up in this conversation about labor to highlight the fact that an integral part of the Christian experience is the work of building vibrant faith communities in those places where we live. This is not some overtly strategic campaign by a local congregation. This is the simple call of discipleship and to discipleship for which Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected.

As Jesus departed from this earth he instructed the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples. This was the labor to which they had been called. And it is the labor to which we must enter in. It is not one we can pass off to those with official titles or organizational endorsements. The call to obedience to make disciples is the work by which we will be judged when we stand before God. Not that it will put our salvation at risk, but it will be a measure of our faithfulness to what God requires of his people.

For some, this may seem harsh or even exaggerated. But I don’t believe that it is. Think for a moment about what Jesus said in Luke 18:8. In that passage, Jesus asks a simple question. It is a question offered after describing the parable of a woman who persisted in seeking justice from a judge. Jesus asked, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

When Jesus returns, what will he be looking for? He himself says he is looking for faith. But what will be the evidence that faith has persisted? It will be the presence of his people on the earth. For if they are not present it will mean that his command to make disciples will not have been obeyed. But as long as disciples are made and formed by the people of God the hope that Jesus will find faith endures.

The season of Lent is a good time to draw these various strands of thought together. What does it mean to serve the Lord with our labor? What does it look like to obey Christ in the making of disciples? I think the answer to these questions is simple in one sense and complex in another.

It is simple in that we are called to faithfully declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means we point people to Christ for salvation. This means we call all sinners to repent, to surrender their lives and purposes to those offered by God the father. And it means we should not make it complicated for people to understand this message.

This can be complex for a variety of reasons. But I think the one that concerns me the most is when we add requirements to the message of hope and salvation that Jesus never did. Living a life of obedience is hard enough without the added burdens we can impose upon ourselves or others. The Scripture is replete with examples of people doing this. And each time those who initially heard what Jesus said, and those of us who read it now, are admonished to fight against the tendency and temptation.

So as we think about our labor, may we never lose sight that we do not work in our own strength. But we labor according to the strength that Christ supplies us by the Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:29).

Book Release: “Re-form a More Perfect Union” by Drew Anderson

Yesterday, one of our contributors released his second book. Here at Jeremiah’s Vow we are excited for this great accomplishment for our friend Drew Anderson.

Drew’s new book “Reform A More Perfect Union” can be purchased on Amazon! Go grab your copy today (link).

As one of our contributors, we celebrate with Drew, and offer his new book as a resource for navigating the current landscape of American Christianity. This book is the second in a two-part series. Make sure to grab the first book as well, if you haven’t yet: “No Longer Self Evident.” You can find it on Amazon as well. And they go together in order to reflect on the question: “Do we look more American than Christian?”

Maybe these resources can be a part of your journey of becoming more like Christ. Check them out today!

No shortcuts to a deeper relationship with God

I subscribe to a website that shows you when e-books get discounted. One day, one of the books on sale was related to discipleship and being able to increase the depth of discipleship in a short amount of time. While on the surface this does not appear to be a problem. I found that the more I thought about it, the less I liked what it was saying about the discipleship process.

What do I mean? It makes me uncomfortable to think people are trying to short-circuit the discipleship process in their lives.

The reason for this is there is no shortcut to a deeper level of discipleship. There is no quick way of growing in intimacy with God. And to think that there is we put ourselves on a path toward self-deception. A path that leads to spiritual harm and weakness. Discipleship is a journey. It is a journey that takes time and endurance in order to achieve the ultimate goal.

This raises an interesting question: What is the ultimate goal of discipleship?

I believe the ultimate goal of discipleship is a deep and abiding relationship with God. That’s it. That’s the whole of it.

tThe ultimate goal of discipleship is a deep and abiding relationship with God. That's it. That's the whole of it.

That relationship with God cannot be achieved by taking shortcuts. Now, I know that the book and other books like it are not trying to necessarily give the reader the impression it is possible to have a deep relationship with God in a short amount of time. However, that was the effect it had on me. And I have been maturing in my understanding of discipleship for over 20 years.

The fact that we struggle in our discipleship journey does not mean there is not some redemptive purpose in it. None of us likes to struggle. None of us likes to think there is a measure of suffering we all must endure. But life does not always come wrapped in a tight little bow.

Sometimes life is messy. In other times it can be downright vicious. But in spite of whatever comes at us in this life, we will do all we can to look towards what God has promised and not merely what we hope for him to fulfill at our request.

In my own life discipleship has often been costly. The reason for the cost of true and lasting discipleship is it requires us to sacrifice something we would normally never consider we could sacrifice. And what is that? We are called to sacrifice our very lives.

The reason for the cost of true and lasting discipleship is it requires us to sacrifice something we would normally never consider we could sacrifice.
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This is the very thing Jesus does in his own example to us. Jesus enters into the world and he lives a life among people who do not understand who he truly is. He lives among people who only see someone who can bring them out of their own suffering and into what they believe is a life of abundance. But not the spiritual kind of abundance God desires to give. But the kind of abundance that says we are supposed to be rich in the world’s treasures. But Jesus says he has come to give us life and that life to the fullest.

I think what troubled me the most about books that promise to give us special insights and a quicker route to a deeper relationship with God is it offers something that not even God has promised to us. God calls us into a deeper relationship with him through his son Jesus Christ and invites us to live all eternity with him. Too often we find this invitation to be too far off. And so what we do, we look for ways to help God give us what we desire. But it’s not something we desire according to God’s purposes. It is what we desire according to our own.

I think one of the great challenges of the Christian faith is trusting in God’s timing. Learning to rely upon God to bring us to those moments and places he has determined are for our greatest good.

And so we need to learn to be patient. We need to learn to be more trusting. We need to learn to be more content with what God is giving us rather than looking for a “get holy quick scheme.”

Lent 2020 | Day 25: “Go”

The irony of today’s word focus is not hard to notice!

The world has virtually stopped. What was once hustle and bustle has now become still and quiet. This is the world ruled by an invisible adversary.

And yet, in the midst of all of this God has called us to be a people who go. Go the extra mile. Go for the sake of others. Go into the highways and byways of the world. God to the least of these.

Just because we have to be more aware of the threats around us does not relieve us of the charge to go. We may have to get more creative. We may have to do things we never thought we could. We may even have to step far outside our comfort zone. But the admonition to go is about making an assessment of our own hearts. Are we willing to consider others before ourself?

It can be quite challenging to serve one another. It can even be down right difficult to serve a stranger. But, the call to go is at its core a call to serve. What many of us don’t realize is that we will discover the assignment or task when we get moving. Not before.

God wants to see us get up and move. Then he can see if we are being serious. Not everyone is ready to take a step like that. But, I think only difficult step is the first one. After that I just becomes a habit.

Until we see that the biggest issue with going is in the heart, we will find ourselves worried about the where we will be sent. Don’t worry about it. If God is in it, you will never be alone.

Why is our evangelism broken?

A friend posted the following question on Facebook. I wanted to respond, but I did not want to blow up the thread. So, I decided to take some time to think about the question and respond more fully (mainly for my sake).

On to the question.

Should our focus lean more towards training church members to invite someone to church so they can hear the gospel or on training them to share the gospel without a church invite in mind?

Let me make a couple of observations right at the beginning.

I believe framing of the question is all wrong, but I understand (at least I think I do) why it is asked this way.
The problem the Church has to address is its insistence on defining/describing the church as a location.

I want to unpack my two observations a little more fully. This is an important issue and one that we have to work harder at addressing in the Church.

First, I believe the question is all wrong.

Why? Because it poses a question that God, Jesus, the Bible, the apostles, church history will NEVER be able to answer. And the reason the question won’t be answered is that it doesn’t actually identify a problem the aforementioned saw as an issue. The idea of inviting people to go to a location to receive information has been completely foreign to the life of the church.

The notion of “thought leaders,” “content matter experts,” “influencers” and gurus is a modern innovation. This is not the way that people generally looked for answers to their questions. Life was the great teacher. And the people you did life with were the primary source of learning and growing.

To go a little deeper here, the Church does not have a focus, it has a mission. Christians don’t do training, we engage in discipleship. We don’t invite people to church, we receive them into the body. The church is not the place to hear the Gospel, ~~it’s where believers receive instruction for Gospel mission~~ it’s when believers assemble to receive instruction for Gospel mission. Until we straighten out how we are thinking and talking about these issues, we will continue to have issues.

Second, we have to stop talking about the Church as a place. Period.

The Church is everywhere. And, there may be expressions of that one Church in local congregations. And, those congregations may meet in a variety of locations. But there is still and always will be one Church. No matter how messed up the people who make her up.

This is something I’m actually working on myself. I don’t want to invite people to church. I want to invite them to visit our fellowship, or to come and enjoy our community, or attend our gathering. Anything that makes the invitation about the people present.

We have to move away from using the concepts of marketing and branding as the lens through which we interpret the Church’s identity and purpose. These are tools. Tools that we should redeem. But when the tools become the means by which we understand who and what we are, it may be time to check our hearts!

Lent 2019 | Day 3: The Challenge of Grace

For the last couple of days, we have looked at a couple facets of God’s grace in our lives. Today, I want to look at grace, not from God’s perspective, but from ours. What I mean is that after we have become aware of the breadth of God’s grace we are confronted with a significant challenge. That challenge is to become ambassadors of God’s grace to the world.

The world is a hard place to live in sometimes, but we have been enabled and empowered to live in it. There are many ways for us to be distracted but God has given us everything we will need to live for him in this crazy world.

I find that the great challenge is to take what we have received to those God will bring into our lives. We don’t have to be afraid to talk to people of what God has done. We are works in progress. We are in the path of sanctification. We are not what we are supposed to be, but if we stay faithful to the truth of the Gospel, the truth of God’s grace we will find the challenge is still present. Just not a burden that causes us to be hindered.

I pray that we will see the call of God to be ambassadors of Christ to be a challenge worth taking and not a challenge needing to be avoided.

Lent 2018 | Day #19: Discipleship

As I have been discipled and have done discipleship I have realized that what makes discipleship work is the friendship that is created in the process.

For the last several years the idea and practice of discipleship have become a life-changing passion. I have thought about it, written about it, and become more intentional about practicing it. The remarkable effect of becoming focused on any subject, you quickly learn how little you know about what you are studying. That was the case for me. Even with all I have learned, I know that I can refine my application of all that insight.

Today I would like to share what I believe is the most important lesson I have learned in my investigation of discipleship. As I have been discipled and have done discipleship I have realized that what makes discipleship work is the friendship that is created in the process. This is exactly what Jesus tells us at the end of his ministry on earth.

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

There are two points to focus on. The first is that Jesus intentionally identifies the disciples as friends. After three years of travel and ministry, Jesus did not see them as servants. They had become friends. The shared experiences of life had forged a bond among them all. We do not know all of the details because the Bible does not tell us, but we do know how Jesus felt about the relationship.

The second point of focus is that Jesus shared everything God had sent him to share with them. This means that sharing is an important aspect of discipleship. But the purpose of sharing is not merely to inform, it is to help that person be transformed. If all you do in a discipleship relationship is get more information, be careful that transformation is sacrificed in the process. Information is a poor substitute for a transformed life. And too often we accept it when we should be looking for a lasting change. But, we all know how difficult changing is!

As we move closer and closer to Lent I would ask you to consider your own discipleship. Are you being discipled in a way that leads to transformation? Or are you getting fat on new information? Chose the kind of discipleship that does the first! You will never regret it and you will never be able to deny it.