Library of Thoughts

I Cor. 4: 1-5 "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God…" There is no cultural context for being a servant in our modern culture. Let alone being a dedicated steward. Consequently the church is full of pastor's who wear the title of servant, but whose lives are incongruous with the concept. As a full-time christian worker, I include myself in the group of "those who struggle" to understand and live it out. Moreover, as a disciple maker, your impact in the sphere in which the Lord has placed you is greatly impacted by your convictions about being a servant and steward. It takes a heart level pursuit and understanding of the role of a servant and steward to engineer a good disciple maker. Servant: As much as we are commanded to serve one another, we are not one another's servant's. We are servants of Christ. I have not submitted myself to a capricious human brother or sister. But rather to an all ...

Malachi 1:1 " 'I have loved you', says the Lord. But you say, 'How have you loved us?' Worship - "Prostrate" God reveals Israel's automatic heart response to His love. Rather than live with a sense of reality, they have turned away from Him. His very covenant is ignored by them. They now believe that they will 'build up the ruins'. They don't bow before Him as God… Honor (Obedience) - 'if I am a father, where is my honor?' They don't obey Him, as a son would his father. Their will is not submitted to Him. Respect (Reverance) - 'if I am a master, where is my respect?' Their hearts and passions are not yielded to Him as king and Lord. Purity - 'when you present the lame and sick (at the altar), is it not evil?… a grain offering that is pure'  Choosing to not be holy (set apart), they don't trust the work of His altar.  So they seek a sacrifice, without sacrifice! A costless holiness. Worship is the...

"Follow Me…" "Seek ye first the kingdom of God…" "I did not come to be served, but to serve…" "I count all things as loss, in view of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. " We are living in a rising tide of "me". Individualized and customized in our food, clothes, and phones. More time is spent considering the question, "What do I want?" than ever before in the history of mankind.  Why? Because society demands you make a decision about… you… The body of Christ suffers under the weight of self. Scripture tells us that our lives are vessels, and jars of clay. II Timothy 2 reveals that what God is doing is taking "vessels for dishonor, and making them vessels for honor". He is cleaning out the volume of self (sinful, lifeless, and powerless), and replacing it with Himself (pure, alive, and grace filled). But a full jar holds nothing new… Surrender is the initial and perpetual journey of yielding...

When my children were little, they were time intensive. Janell spent a lot of time just making life happen and telling them what to do. When they were infants, even more so. Putting food in the grinder because they can't chew well. Placing them in the high chair, then putting on the tray, then putting the food on the tray. Right up to the moment where you push the spoon in their direction, and they open their mouths to receive it. "Good job!" we say, and we aren't patting ourselves on the back. We are encouraging them to do the one thing necessary to eat. Open your mouth! Spiritual infants require the same treatment. It may not be for long, but it matters to their survival! As the disciples, we have to initiate and demonstrate for the very young that God puts in our path. Initiate: In the days after someone comes to Christ, they are excited, but have no understanding how to move forward. The spiritual "spoon" sits on their tray, but they don't have t...

" They have also healed the hurt of my daughter slightly, saying 'Peace, Peace…", when there is no peace. " Jeremiah 6:14 There are phrases we want to hear from friends, pastors, mature believers when life is wrong "It will work out, God is gracious". "Don't worry" "God loves you" Grace words. Popular words in today's church. At times, they can be very appropriate. When the sin of the world presses in on us, and others selfishness impacts us in painful ways. When the cumulative results of sin in our physical world cause destruction, I may need your reminder of my Lord's grace like a compass needle pointing me back to the true nature of the one I follow… But in today's church, I hear a lot of misapplication of the grace of peace. It usually goes like this. "This sin you are struggling with is not who you are! You are a saint" (True so far) "Turn your eyes away from the issue of your flesh, just (or...

Phillipians 2:12-13   12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you , both to will and to work for His good pleasure. With a healthy perspective on grace, we can come to Phillipians 2:12-13 and hear Paul reveal God's work in sanctification. When we respond to His call and begin to follow, the change to Christlikeness that we experience is sanctification.  Clearly not a separate process from salvation, but a facet of the majestic diamond that is salvation.  It is God who author’s the work of sanctification. He is the originator of the process. Monergism is the doctrinal idea that God is the “first cause” of sanctification. He conceived of our transformed life before the garden. He shares no credit, and has no ghost writer in the work of making His children like Himself. The power behind sanctification ...

Koinonia, the powerful word for "communion" and "partnership". The word that tells us we have "common" things amongst us. Our relationship with one another is based on these. One Faith, one Lord, one Spirit. We also talk about "communing with God", in terms of our daily activity in relationship with Him. My communion through prayer and the Word, that fill me with the fruit of my relationship with Him. But the prequel to these chapters is the "union" I have with Christ. There is an objective reality, a done deal, that sets the stage for the rest of Koinania. I Corinthians 1:9 says, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Kaleo eis koinonia. Completed work. We are in Christ, in union. It is a state of being, this union. Our very spiritual life flows from this union. Our state of being is that we are "in Christ". We can talk of the fellowship or com...

Matt. 13:38 "… and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom…" In the OT, the word seed takes on a spiritual connotation. Seed not only brings physical life, but God's word brings  spiritual life! This theme begins in Genesis with God's promise to Satan that Eve's seed will crush his head. Defeating death brought about by Adam's rebellion, and tempted into existence by Satan. He says "Let the prophet who has a dream speak his dream. But he who has my words, let him speak them faithfully. What does the seed have to do with the chaff? My words are like fire!" In the parable of the sower Jesus makes clear that His word, the gospel, is the seed being sown on all types of soil. Bringing life to some, because it takes root in their lives and bears fruit. But in the parable of the wheat and tares, he replaces the "gospel" with "the sons of the kingdom".  Jesus is scattering the sons of the kingdom near and ...

Sharing with a young soldier, I was reminded again of our common ground. His need is the same as mine. If I were able to remove myself from the flow of grace found in a relationship with Jesus, my need would be as his is right now! The church in America has grown fond of adopting the society's arguments. "Let's focus on what we have in common." Belief? No common ground. Honor for God? No common ground. Humility? Purity? Purpose in life? No common ground. Need? Yes! This is where I am common, and have in common a core reality with everyman and woman not in His kingdom.  "For it is by grace you have been saved, and that not of yourself, it is a gift from God…" Following the new theology of commonality, we can either be impotent in our efforts to be witnesses; or actually preach a different gospel, making men and women disciples of something other than our Lord Jesus. I think I'll stick with my desperate need to be with Him, in His Kingdom...

"Aren't we just teaching people to perform, when we teach them spiritual disciplines and how to disciple others?" The young man asking me this question grew up in the church in the US. Many of these bodies of believers, though well intentioned, are places to sit and observe, but not participate. Consequently, when confronted with the actions necessary to fulfill the command to "Make disciples", he is seeing a paradigm unfamiliar to him. Unfamiliar, and uncomfortable. A pretty good definition of following the person of Jesus, and participating in His work of finding, recruiting, and bringing to maturity a generation of followers who both learn and reproduce the spiritual life. When we ask the question "Aren't we just teaching performance?" I am convinced that we are looking through the wrong lens.  The sin of the garden was the fallacy that we can be the directors and rulers of our own lives. In disciple making, this tendency causes me...