Discipling the Undisciplined no. 1

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12 NRSV-CI).

I am not a big fan of religion. A lot of folks getting organized into groups and deciding this is how we do things seems to always lead to an us vs. them mentality that I cannot abide. Organizing into systems can be helpful BUT, given the state of humanity, is often a weapon for others to wield against the out group. And, folks, I am often in the out-group. And I know how it feels to have thoughts that the in-group does not like and how that turns out from life experience. I am typically at odds with most folks because I ask a lot of questions and typically am not content with the answers I receive. It took me nearly four decades to get this whole relationship model with God under control. So I am definitely a slow learner on how this whole thing is supposed to work. And that meant a lot of reading of The Bible and meditation. And when I say meditation I mean totally immersing myself into a book and really thinking about its impact in every aspect of my life. And that is what I have been doing since I first started studying The Bible nearly four years ago. Sure, I spent a lot of time in church and Sunday Schools and reading a verse here and a verse there BUT I never really immersed myself and meditated about these things until about four years ago. And what follows is me again reading through what I find to be the most important part of the entire Bible, The Sermon on the Mount. I am going to again go through the entirety of The Sermon on the Mount this year and focus on what truths I draw from it during this reading. I am then going to follow up this year with the speeches delivered in the Acts of the Apostles. I want to immerse myself into those speeches in the light of The Sermon on the Mount to hopefully shed some light on the confusion of what is so good about The Good News.

Again, the Good News is something that after four decades of trying to figure out, I think needs revisiting. And through the lens of Jesus and His Sermon on the Mount, I want to take some time to look at what His disciples were actually saying in front of crowds weeks and months after His death and resurrection. I mean if this is where the church started, it should hold a lot of direction for what the church should still be. So, spend a little time with me as I try to wander through this whole idea of discipleship and the Good News? I call it Discipling the Undisciplined because I think this study is going to shine some light on where discipleship today falls short in discipline and I hope to get myself refocused on exactly what it means to be a disciplined disciple of The Christ Jesus. 

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH

Serve One Another in Love no. 19

“Using the grace God gave me, I laid a foundation, like a skilled master-builder; and another man is building on it. But let each one be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah. Some will use gold, silver or precious stones in building on this foundation; while others will use wood, grass or straw. But each one’s work will be shown for what it is; the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire — the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work someone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward; if it is burned up, he will have to bear the loss: he will still escape with his life, but it will be like escaping through a fire” (1 Corinthians (1 Co) 3:10-15). Folks ask me all kinds of questions about The Bible and God. Folks have a lot of motivation for those questions, however, I think most are honestly seeking truth. One of the things I am focused about doing in this current walk with Jesus is to not be a stumbling block. I do not want to be a hypocrite or a problem for folks honestly seeking truth and answers. Now, I know not every question is asked in the spirit of truth and honesty. I am aware that some folks are trying to be adversarial and twist my words just like they twist His Truth. BUT that should not prevent me from being honest just like it does not keep God from being honest about Himself. He is wh He says He is.

So, back to the scripture from today and how that relates to honesty. I think about this idea of going through the fire a lot when I talk about death and the inevitable judgment all must face. Some of us have taken the call to follow Him to heart. Some of us are out there changing our hearts and minds. Some of us are taking up our crosses and following wherever and whenever He leads. Some of us are out there with a partial heart for Jesus and His commandments. Some of us have a warped understanding of God and the Truth. No matter our dedication to Him, we build upon His foundation with the materials we have at hand. His foundation is not going to catch fire BUT what we build upon that foundation is definitely going to burn. Or, at least, something is going to burn because what we build is not going to be perfect. And some of our building projects are going to be singed, some scorched, and some burnt to the ground. BUT that foundation is still going to be there. And I think that foundation is important to understand.

Some of us have foundations that need examination. There are cracks and places where the foundation hasn’t settled correctly. There are, as Jesus said, some problems with our structural integrity, “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on bedrock. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed — and its collapse was horrendous” (Mattityahu (Mat) 7:24-27)! That is the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in case you didn’t know. Those three chapters in Matthew are a great place to start working on our foundation in Jesus. 

I get asked a lot of questions about The Bible and about truth. And quite often I am pulling directly from Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 to guide my understanding of what Jesus reveals about God. He is the best representation of what God is like, “Yeshua said, ‘I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him’” (Yochanan (Jhn) 14:6-7). So the stories about Jesus reveal God because those folks have seen Him. And when folks see me they should also see Him. And what should they see? That’s your foundation.

Serve His Kingdom by serving one another in love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH