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

Back to the Roots . . .

“Your beliefs are your actions. What you say is just what you think.” That was one of the first quotes I began using for my posts that then became the basis for daily blogging on the website. Back then I wasn’t thinking about the folks in Christianity that believe in “once saved, always saved” or thought saying a one-time prayer made everything else in your life alright, BUT I am now. Back then I was looking at the hypocrisy of my folks in the liberty movement and the hypocrisy of the folks that supported evil and immoral things. Even without Christ, I was looking for Truth. And if you look long enough for Truth, you will eventually end up meeting Jesus. And I did.

In both a broad sense and a specific sense, your beliefs are your actions. That is the basis for how we judge folks. We say things about folks saying one thing and doing another. And in this schizophrenic society that jumps from one world-shaking problem to another, folks can easily lose their moral compass. Folks can start living with a disjointed situational morality that gets to be exhausting and hypocritical. I prefer being based. I actually enjoy being called based. When I was a Libertarian, I used to be the object of jokes for having principles. Being principled was really important to me then and it still is today. Principles are what define our actions. Those principles distinguish what we truly believe. 

It is easy to just talk about things. Folks do it all the time. This is a society of talkers and not doers. And that can be seen all over the place. Ask folks to do an activity related to a cause and they are all in. Ask folks to actively participate in making change and notice that no one is around. Folks would rather give a few dollars, sign something, walk a few steps, carry a sign, update their profile picture, or any other activity that does not involve making real change. I see it in every organization with which I give my time. A small percentage of people are actually doing the work. 

It is a sign of an unhealthy church when discipleship and service are lacking among its members. I visit a lot of churches and during the cold months when the tricycle sits in the garage, I get more opportunities to wander further and visit more broadly.  And a healthy church is a church that is serving the community. That is kind of the purpose of churches. They are embassies for Ambassadors of the Kingdom to serve the world. If the church is only there to hold a service two or three times a week, then it is missing its purpose, its calling, its actions. If we are only involved in church to sit in a pew, sing some songs, and drop some cash, are we being disciples? I don’t recall Jesus teaching that sort of service. He was out healing, helping, and serving the community. And I see a lot of churches, a lot of Christians missing that mark because it is a lot easier to leave that work to the help. BUT we are the help. Or, at least, we should be.

What do your actions show that you believe?  

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