Arrogant Jerk

The video for this week's lesson is below, and the lesson and devotional readings are below it. I hope this week you are motivated to check your heart and attitude to make sure you are willing to serve rather than condemn those around you. We all have our shortcomings, and everything we are is by the grace of God. We need to keep that in mind and be patient with other people. Have a great week!



Here is the lesson: Arrogant Jerk.
Here is the devotional: Arrogant Jerk Devo.

Word...

So for the past three and a half months, I have been posting almost weekly. The main focus was on discipleship, using Bill Hull's six areas of transformation as a guide to help us see where God wants us to become more like Jesus. Along the way we focused on various parts of studying and interpreting the Bible since this is probably the most important item. I want to talk about that this week, as there is a fine line between studying the Bible for growth and studying the Bible for knowledge. And there is a difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible. I feel there is a need for both, and my reasons should become clearer as you read.

In my opinion, the way we live our lives is determined, more than anything else, by what we believe. Perhaps another word that may help you understand is "worldview." As Christ-followers, most of us would probably say we have a Christian worldview. Unfortunately, a Christian worldview really does not define much about what we believe since there are so many different beliefs that people consider to be "Christian." Honestly, it is really our theology that affects our worldview in this instance. But where are we getting our theology from? What forms our view of who God is and how God does things and what God is like? Well, I would hope beyond all hope that a major tenet of that belief for Christians would be based on the Bible. But even when we look at the Bible, we have different camps of belief about what the Bible actually is and what the Bible actually says. Obviously this will affect what we believe about God, right?

Before I dig into this further, I want to stop and say this. Whatever view you might have about the Bible, you should realize that it carries an authority with it. There are things written in the Bible that are meant to be obeyed. Therefore, to study the Bible and not have any interest at all in obeying it is very twisted. I want to get that out before I continue to get into a bunch of details about Bible study that will excite those of you who just like to know things, and it will probably bore the rest of you because you see little importance in knowing details about theology and biblical studies. Either way, this stuff is crucially important because the way you interpret the Bible will affect not only your belief about God, but also your belief about what you should obey!

So the big question right now is, "Why spend so much time studying the Bible?" This is a valid question. Some have gotten lost in the study of the Bible to the point that they lost sight of God. But in studying the Bible, the purpose must remain front and center or we can lose sight just the same. The reason we should spend time studying God's Word is because it is just that: God's Word. It is His self-revelation to us. If we want to know who God is, how God does things, and what God is like, we should probably become familiar with this divinely inspired collection of literature. Makes sense, right? Does God disclose Himself in other ways? I believe He does, but that belief is based on...what the Bible says.

Is it arrogant to think God could not disclose Himself to me in a way that the Bible does not describe? That's tough. It may be arrogant of me to think that, quite honestly. Not everyone has the Bible, so people have to take the message of the Bible to others. However, they must first know the message, right? But the real reason why the Bible becomes so important is because there are opposing forces, evil spirits, which are out to deceive us. God's Word becomes a ruler against which we can measure the still small voice when it comes. So when someone says God told them to kill that person or leave their spouse for someone else, we can measure that against His Word, which doesn't agree.

Forgive my rambling to this point, I just want to make sure it is clear that we cannot overemphasize the importance of knowing God through His Word. The big issue comes when we realize this importance, we believe God through His Word, and we are seeking to live according to His will. Why is that an issue? Because we all want to interpret the Bible differently. Seriously, there are so many different ways people view the Bible, and many more different interpretations of scripture. Some people believe the Bible is an instruction book for life, some view it as God's story, some view it as different pieces of literature with a common thread, some view it as a mystical book of law and prediction, etc. As I have begun paying more and more attention to this the last few years, I have noticed several different ways of interpreting the Bible, that each have positive and negative attributes. For instance, homosexual interpretation views the Bible in a way that most of us would call liberal, saying that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. They have scholarly people that have aided their cause. Now, I believe that their interpretation is wrong, but I do think the strength of their interpretation is that it focuses on love for everyone. A recent Messianic movement over the last 60+ years has begun to focus on the Law of Moses and the prophets. Even Gentile believers are moving toward this view. The strength of this view is a heightened view of God, moving away from humanism and a value of the Bible from cover to cover. Some areas of concern are legalism, a view of prophecy as primarily predictive, and a seemingly arrogant way of communicating their view. Then again, whose teachings do not seem arrogant?

I could continue down these roads, but for now let's leave it at this. We all have a way of interpreting the Bible. All of our ways have their strengths and weaknesses, but we must understand that our theology is formed from our view and interpretation of the Bible. Nobody has a perfect theology. But the more we study God's Word, the more our theology will be shaped by it. We should approach the Bible with humility, not arrogance. We are a broken people, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to guide us. It is very worthwhile to pore over God's Word continuously as we seek to understand Him and become more and more like Jesus. That's the point: becoming more like the Lord in every way of our lives. If we miss that, then we run down the road of Bible study that has no end, no purpose, and eventually leads us away from Jesus. So consider this a call to study the Bible, pursue Christ-likeness, and keep an open mind to interpretations of the Bible that may not agree with yours. After all, we might be the ones whose mind is changed in the end.

Let 'Em Go To Hell

Below is the video introduction for this week's lesson. This can be a heavy message because we put too much pressure on ourselves to win people to Christ. However, the biggest thing is to have a heart for the lost that reflects Jesus' heart. Hopefully you can see ways to incorporate Christ into your daily conversations.



Here is the link for the lesson: Let 'Em Go To Hell
Here is the link for the devotionals: Go To Hell Devo

Leading the Pack

FYI - If you are looking for the video for this week's small group lesson, please scroll down to the previous blog entry titled "Flat-Line Faith."

Well, last week we looked at how we can be transformed in our ministry: serving as Jesus served. That leads perfectly into what I want to discuss this week: transformed influence - leading as Jesus led. The word that is best used to describe Jesus' leadership style is "example." His leadership was his way of life. There are many facets that may characterize Jesus' way of life, but a couple that I want to focus on are humility, submission, and obedience.

Perhaps it is odd to use these traits to speak of leadership, but it will make better sense as we break it down. Humility was at the core of Christ's leadership. As we examine Philippians 2:1-11, we see how humility was exactly what Christ exemplified. Verse three says not to do anything out of selfish ambition, but to consider others better than yourself. That is such a huge part of humility and service. You can't lead someone if you want them to serve you; you must be willing to serve them in order to lead them. That's point number one.

Submission may seem a bit out of place here, but let's think about this. Jesus had a mission. His mission was to bear the sins of the world and take the wrath of God in our place. Honestly, we so often reflect on the fact that Christ would come to earth to dwell with men, but maybe we lose sight of the whole reason he came. He was on a mission to save the world, as reflected in his very name: the Hebrew Yeshua means salvation or He saves.  But think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying for another way to accomplish this. He was exemplifying a very important aspect of Christian leadership - submitting to the will of the Father. If you want to lead people to follow, you have to follow yourself.

So what about obedience? Isn't obedience just submission carried out? Yes, but there is a point to this. As Bill Hull points out, Jesus was obedient to death and calls us to be obedient to death as well. Our faith is only displayed as we die to ourselves and allow Christ to live through us. That is our "mission" so to speak. The beauty of this whole idea is that if we allow Christ to live through us, we are also submitting to the Father and living humbly. So obedience is a huge part of leadership.

Is it odd to you that we are not talking about being decisive and charismatic? Should we spend more time talking about how to exercise authority over others without being arrogant? Maybe the answer to this is the answer to the question, "Was Jesus like that?" What do you think? It is good to talk about humility, suffering, obedience, and submission because in those attitudes or lifestyles we find ourselves being the example of Christianity for others, and that is what leadership is about.

So, that being said, are you leading? Better yet, are you leading the way Jesus led? If not, don't fret. Most of us are not. But we are being transformed in our influence to lead that way. What we must understand is that it is our mission to have that influence on others, so we must grow in our discipleship in order to lead others. It really is a cycle. Jesus started it by being himself and showing others how to be like him. Now we are continuing that cycle as best we can to be like him and influence others to be like him as well. That's what this life is all about. Grow in him and infect as many people as you can to follow that example!

Flat-Line Faith

Below you will find the video and the lesson for Flat-Line Faith. I hope it is helpful to you to encourage others or to be encouraged to step out of that place where your purpose in Christ is clouded. My biggest encouragement to everyone is to be at small group over the next three or four weeks to be a part of each others' lives and discuss these tough issues facing many of us in the church.



Here is the lesson: Flat-Line Faith.
Here is the daily devotional: Daily Devo: 4/19-4/23.

I hope you have a great week this week!

Foot-Washing Time...

FYI - If you are looking for the video and the list of one another statements for this week's small group lesson, please scroll down to the previous blog entry titled "Nobody's Got Your Back."

I know that last week's post was very vague in regard t what the spiritual disciplines are, but I hope it was very stimulating. Hopefully it drives you to consider and research the spiritual disciplines and to structure your life with these as a priority. I also hope that as you practice such disciplines you see how important they are to your Christ-likeness. This week I want to look at transformed service: ministering as Jesus ministered.

Often in American Christianity we become self-absorbed enough to think that we are consumers. We think that our church should do what we want her to do, play the music we want to hear, preach what we want to hear, and spend money the way we think she should. In such a view of the Church, we completely mistake the purpose of the Church in the first place. The Church is NOT to cater to our desires. The Church is to carry out the will of God, the Creator of the Universe. If you don't understand what I am saying, read and re-read Ephesians 1-3 until you see who the Church is.

The biggest problem with a consumer mindset is that we miss out on our role in the Church: ministry. We put ministry in the hands of the paid staff or the elders, but because I walk into a church as a "member," I think I am not responsible for the actual ministry in the Church. How far from Jesus' teachings is this thought process? Now, I know some of you reading this are serving in ministry, honoring the gospel message and glorifying God. However, this mindset is so prevalent in our culture. We "shop" for churches to see which one fits us. When they do something we don't agree with we complain about it. Then, when they tell us they aren't going to change it for us, we go to another church and start the cycle over again. How is God honored in this?

What is service anyway? When do we know we are serving? Is it a matter of works or of the heart? Jesus' ministry could be summed up like this: training disciples to make more disciples. Obviously there is a lot more to that than stated, but that is really the basic nuts and bolts of his ministry. He spent his ministry developing men whom he would use to found and expand the church. They spent time with him and watched as he healed, cast out demons, taught, preached, and shared love with sinners. He ministered to his followers, but he gained more followers by ministering to the sinners. Why do we get so focused on those already in the church and forget about those who need Jesus? Maybe it shouldn't be an either/or, but a both/and.

So if we want to become like Jesus, we must learn that the first here will be the last in His kingdom, but the last here will be the first there. What does this mean? It means realizing that you are no better than the homeless man asking for spare change on the corner. It means having compassion on the alcoholic who has hit rock-bottom. It means sharing a cup of cold water with a thirsty construction worker. It means developing a relationship with the kid who makes your coffee each day. It means revering human life so much that you not only strongly discourage abortion but even offer to adopt the unwanted children. It means that if we want to minister to someone, we must understand that we are less valuable than they are; we must place their well-being before our luxury.

Jesus counted himself as the lowest of all humans, taking the penalty for all of our sins. What would he have you do for someone else today? Jesus washed the feet of those who looked up to him. Who is looking up to you and how can you wash their feet today? Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. Don't get in the way of what God is calling you to do today. Minister as He ministered; be transformed in service!

Nobody's Got Your Back

As promised, the video for the upcoming lesson is below. I have also placed links at the bottom for the lesson, devotionals, and the "One Another" statements as indicated in the lesson. Please have patience with me as I work through some of the technological details to make all this work, but don't hesitate to let me know if something is not working properly. Thanks!!



The list of "one another" statements is here: New Testament One Anothers, and the lesson is here: Nobody's Got Your Back, and the devotional reading here: 4/12-4/16 Daily Devo. Thanks!

Boot Camp?

On the journey of discipleship, being conformed to the image of Jesus, we have explored having a transformed mind, transformed character, and transformed relationships; we have talked about believing what Jesus believed, living the way Jesus lived, and loving the way Jesus loved. But how do these things actually happen? How do we get to the place where we can actually begin to look a bit more like Christ? Perhaps the answer to that is in another area of transformation: transformed habits: training as Jesus trained.

I believe that sometimes we get this idea in our heads that we can just turn on "Jesus" mode, and we become Super-Christians. However, it is not like that at all. You see, when we finally surrender our lives to Jesus, that is our spiritual birth, not our transformation. Just like a natural birth, it means the beginning of a growth process. Our inner self is changed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, but our outer self, our physical, mental, and emotional self, still needs to be transformed. As we read in Romans 7, their is a constant struggle between our new inner self and our outer self to become more Christ-like.

So the way to become more Christ-like is not to try harder. Doing things on our own is born from the outer self. Human beings have a tendency to think of themselves as self-sustaining. If we just keep trying, we'll get it right, but that is impossible. The only way to get our outer self to grow and be transformed toward Christ's image is to train. When we want to have the image of a body builder, we train in the weight-room. When we want to have the image of a track star, we train on the track. When we want to become the image of Christ, we train his way. His way includes what we call spiritual disciplines. The track star and body builder both have certain disciplines that help them to grow, so it is not crazy to think that a Christian should have disciplines to help them grow.

The danger with the disciplines is that we may look at them as an end rather than a means to an end. In other words we think of fasting, prayer, or solitude as a goal, rather than a spiritual exercise to help us toward the goal of transformation. The danger is when we think we have accomplished the goal because we fast and pray and spend time alone. That would be like someone thinking they are a body builder just because they went and lifted weights and drank a protein shake a few times this month; it's like a person thinking they are a track star because they ran a few sprints on the track last week. The spiritual disciplines are exercises for us to perform in order to train our outer selves to become closer to the image of Christ.

Just as running everyday builds endurance and weight-training builds muscle mass, so participating in spiritual disciplines builds character. It helps us even though we are not sure how. But the thing about the spiritual disciplines is that we don't need to practice all of them all the time. Each discipline has a specific purpose and a time for being exercised. Now, there are tons of resources on different spiritual disciplines, thought there may not be a comprehensive guide available. A couple of resources that are available to help explore them are The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, and Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donal S. Whitney. The idea is not to make sure you practice the disciplines, but to find a way of getting into a rhythm with these disciplines at the core of your life. The only way to become a track star is to train as one. The only way to become like Christ is to train like he did.

I feel like a huge part of this training includes the realization of who we are in Christ. As believers, who are in Christ, we must know our place. Part of our training is realizing that we have been raised with Christ and have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Our sins have been forgiven, we are justified before God, and we must grasp this in order to see the need for and the value of practicing the disciplines. Without this realization, we are denying the power that is at work within us to transform us. There is such a paradox at work in the Christian life. We are motivated to do certain things, but the things we are motivated to do help us surrender our lives to Christ so that we will not try to earn God's love through works. So our works are done because Christ compels us to do them, not because we are trying to do things on our own. The reason I bring this up is because what we do will flow out of who we are. The more we recognize who we are in Christ, the more we will be in training. Conversely, the more we train, the more we will realize who we are in Christ. It's a wonderful cycle, and it becomes a wonderful reality of transformation. The more we seek Christ's life in us, the more we live in Christ!

So what's holding you back from studying your Bible, meditating on God's Word, praying to the Creator of the Universe, being by yourself, or even being silent? More than likely it is not Jesus holding you back. If Christ-likeness is your ultimate goal, you will not allow anything to hold you back, but if you are not sure...well, then where is your faith?