Discipleship Archives - Page 56 of 167

Lighten Up!

Sometimes we just need to lighten up.

I don’t now about you, but sometimes I can get so caught up in Bible Study and Theology that I forget to laugh and smile. So I really appreciate this month’s Synchroblog theme about lightening up and having fun.

And rather than write a serious post about why we should lighten up, I just decided to post a few things that I hope will make you laugh.

Enjoy!

Here is one of my favorite parking videos of all time. But just so everyone knows… my wife is a GREAT driver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rHY1qKLLws

[Read more…]

Jesus Welcomes Doubters Too

By Jeremy Myers

32 Comments

What does Jesus think about doubt?

It is common in Christian circles today to require faith and certainty before people are allowed to serve. We feel people need to be sure that Jesus was the Messiah, was God in the flesh, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead before we give them an opportunity to follow Jesus into the world.

Until people get this faith and certainty, we often don’t feel they are fully qualified to serve in church. Instead, we recommend they read a book on proofs for the Christian faith, attend a class about the basics of Christianity, or perform some sort of other study so that they can gain the faith and certainty we feel is necessary for followers of Jesus.

It does not appear that Jesus feels the same way.

Throughout His entire ministry He was calling and inviting people to follow Him who knew next to nothing about Him, and were sometimes even antagonistic to who He was and what He stood for. But Jesus knew that if they followed Him, they could learn about Him while they were in the midst of loving and serving others.

One event in the Gospels shows this more than any other.

After Jesus died on the cross, and after He has risen from the dead, and after He has appeared numerous times to His apostles, and after He has eaten with them, talked with them, and let them touch His resurrected body, He appears to them again.

And this time, Matthew 28:16-17 says that some of the apostles bowed to Him, but others did not bow, because they doubted.

Do you see it?

Some of the apostles still doubted.

There is lots of debate in the commentaries and scholarly articles about whether it was really the apostles who doubted or someone else, and whether or not they really doubted, or it was just an inquisitive faith, or maybe they didn’t really doubt Jesus, but they doubted that this person who appeared to them this time was really Jesus, and on and on it goes.

But let’s call a spade a spade.

Some of the apostles doubted.

The Greek word for “doubted” is tricky here and very rare, but let’s not use fancy seminarian hermeneutical tricks to remove the force of the text. Some of the apostles did not bow to Jesus. Why not? Because they doubted.

Does Jesus care that some doubt? Not one bit.

The very next section in Matthew is one of the most important in the Bible. It contains the Great Commission. The greatest task ever given to mankind by God is given to this motley crew of apostles, some of whom believe, and some of whom doubt. He takes all the power and authority that is in heaven and on earth and gives it to them. Yes, all of them. The doubters too. And he says, “Go. Be like Me to the world.”

I love this about Jesus.

People who have been with Him for three years. Have seen Him work miracles. Have heard His teachings. Have eaten meals with Him. And after He dies and rises from the dead, while some of them believe, others still doubt.

And Jesus just shrugs His shoulders and says, “It’s good enough. Go. Whether you believe or whether you still have doubts, you can still act like me, and talk like me, and love like me, and serve like me in this world. Go. Be Me in the World.”

When some of the disciples doubt, Jesus shrugs His shoulders and invites them to follow Him in loving others anyway.

So do you believe? Do you doubt? Maybe you have some odd mixture of both? Either way is fine with Jesus.

For now, He just wants you to be like Him in this world. To follow Him in loving and serving others.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death?

By Jeremy Myers

23 Comments

It was Patrick Henry who spoke these immortal words when calling for the United States colonists to rise up in arms against Great Britain:

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Upon hearing this, the crowd reportedly rose to their feet and shouted, “To arms! To arms!”

I love this quote from one of our nation’s founding fathers, as I love much of the history and values of our great country.

Whose Unalienable Rights?

But I am often surprised and perplexed that men who wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, could so quickly seek to take the first of those rights—the right of life—from others.

In other words, it is strange that people seek to defend their life, liberty, and rights by taking away the life, liberty, and the rights of others.

I understand that this is the way the world works, but I also understand that the way of the world rarely matches the way of Jesus.

The Way of Jesus

While it is true that all people are created equal, and that God has given us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is not true that the best way to achieve these rights is through the subjection, enslavement, and killing of others. Do not they also have the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

But what happens when rights collide? What happens when one person’s pursuit of happiness requires the unhappiness of someone else, or worse, their enslavement or death?

It is here that the way of Jesus is highly instructive. It is also here where the founding fathers of our government, as well as nearly all governments of the world, have missed the mark. And it is also here where most Christians, pastors, and churches have also lost the way of Jesus.

Jesus, in contrast to Patrick Henry, said, “I give you liberty BY my death!”

Christians and churches should follow this example as we seek to be Jesus to the world.