Two Hands

Saw this on a Facebook post...too good not to share!


Journey Box Media - Hands from journeyboxmedia on GodTube.

Church...

I believe this video from Four Square Church says it all...

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

Disciples...

Jesus chose His disciples from the common people. Four of them were fishermen, one was a tax collector, we're not sure what the others did before Jesus came into their lives but suffice it to say they were probably involved in the family business. He chose these men to preach, teach and lead. He called them to set up, plant and grow churches. Most of the disciples were untrained (in anything other than the family business), uneducated and in many ways not spiritual in worldly terms. He didn't raise them to lofty positions. He simply called them to make disciples of their friends and neighbors...who would then make disciples of their friends and neighbors. Thus the cycle begins and grows.

Why then have we made it so hard? We leave the task of making disciples to the “experts”...preachers, teachers, youth leaders. We send them for training and throw money at them. Some are brilliant leaders...but where did we ever get the notion that it was “their” job? When did we abdicate our position in God's Kingdom? Is it because it's too hard? We might be ridiculed? We're too apt to play a numbers game and thus make it a competition? We don't have the time? We don't want to expose ourselves or our feelings?

Should we not simplify the nature of making disciples? Each new disciple of Christ reaches out to help make another. Think of the possibilities if this was one of our primary duties...the churches we have now could scarcely contain all the new members. The task is not to be the greatest disciple, it is to make as many disciples as possible.

Being an heir...

When we think of becoming an heir, it usually means suffering through the loss of someone close to us. And then inheriting a home, money or something else they felt was equally important to leave us. What we don't think of being is an heir to someone while they're still alive.

If your parents (or grandparents) or someone else close to you has taken you to church and led you to Christ during your childhood and teenage years, you are already an heir. They have given you an heir loomed faith. You carry on what they have begun in you. At some point it is your responsibility to pick it up and make it your own...claim your inheritance. Start living and believing it by choosing to be the person God calls you to be.

We are also heirs with Christ, even though most of us see ourselves as less than Christ. We avoid the full honor as well as the full pain of the Christian life. We fail to remember that the Spirit that guided Jesus guides us. In Romans 8: 16-17, Paul says: "The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ".

Can we fully grasp what this means? Certainly not before we become active participants! When we start living according to this truth, our lives will be radically transformed. We will not only come to know the freedom of being a child of God but also the rejection of the world. It is understandable that we hesitate to claim the honor so as to avoid the pain. We recall the words from Luke (12:48)..."To whom much is given, much is expected..." God does not call us to a life of ease but, if we are willing to share in Christ's suffering, we also will share in His glory.

Discipline...

Discipline is the other side of discipleship. Discipleship without discipline is like waiting to run in a marathon without ever practicing. Discipline without discipleship is like always practicing for a marathon but never participating. But discipline in the spiritual life is not the same as discipline in sports.

In sports it is a concentrated effort to master the body so that it can obey the mind better. In the spiritual life, discipline is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to His guidance.