... It doesn't matter whether or not your hands go UP, DOWN, FORWARD, or BACKWARD when you sing. What matters is if your hands go OUT to others when you stop singing. Worship experiences should lead to changed lives. Worship experiences transform believers into disciples, and disciples are God's means for transforming the world. The church has too many true believers. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God isn't enough. The Devil's a believer. The Bible says the demons believe...and tremble. Many of the church ...
... bedrooms at home are full of magazines and books. My wife shudders each time we pass a bookstore! And yet, for all my love of the life of the mind, Jesus' call for discipleship is more than a call for scholarship. Jesus did not command his disciples to be just thinkers, but to be lovers -- and loving is an activity more inclusive than thinking. Just think of the devastation and destruction brought upon the world by great thinkers who were not great lovers. We now are challenged to use our great thinking to ...
... But for many it seems that there never is a suitably convenient place to unpack them all. Being a Christian in this kind of a "packed-value" (not "value-packed"!) postmodern culture challenges the church to be intentional about nurturing fully commissioned disciples in its midst. Our money-crazed world is still full of "sheep" people wandering aimlessly, following anything or anyone that seems to be moving no matter what the direction or destination. Without a sturdy, guiding set of values to shepherd them ...
... the idea in mind. We simply do not know all Jesus may have said to his followers. We have in the New Testament only a small part of what he said over three years. But we can assume Jesus put a great deal of time into training all of his disciples. As Jesus was moving toward Jerusalem he planned to stop in several towns along the way. He had been in those towns before, but now he prepared the seventy to go on ahead and announce that he was coming that way. He told the seventy that the harvest was great ...
... prayed all night? I'm afraid that if I tried, I would fare no better than Peter, James and John who kept dozing off. Verses 13 through 16 tell us that Jesus chose twelve to be with him constantly. We usually refer to those twelve as the disciples, but he actually designated them to be apostles. The word "apostle" comes from the Greek "apostolos" and means "someone who is sent out." The first thing that strikes you about the twelve whom Jesus chose is how ordinary they were. None of them was educated, famous ...
... and wash the blood off your hands, slap a bandage on it, and go out and hit another thousand golf balls! That's what it takes to hit a golf ball like me. (Jerry D. Butcher, "Just Do It!" Clergy Journal, February 1993, p. 11) Becoming a disciple will also cost us something. A few years ago someone promoted one of those fast-track evangelism programs designed to win the world to Christ quickly and easily. It involved putting a bumper sticker on your car that read "I Found It." Supposedly a person's interest ...
... Rock was a stone Jesus stumbled over. Jesus told Peter his thoughts were not from God but man. Then Jesus told Peter, "Get behind me." It sounds as if Jesus is saying, "Get lost, Peter!" He is not. Instead, Jesus is once again calling Peter to be his disciple. "Get behind me," was a call for Peter to assume his proper place following Jesus. THAT'S A CALL JESUS STILL ISSUES TODAY. That's the first thing we need to see. Jesus says to us, "Get behind me. Follow me." Tony Campolo was preaching in West Virginia ...
... before God to give an account of our lives, He will ask but one question. He will ask, “Well, what did you do with it?” What did you do with it? Did you die before you got around to growing up? Or did you become a committed, mature, growing, adult disciple? I know what I want to be able to say! Prayer: Loving Father, we are grateful that You have created us with such great potential for growth, and that, each day, You call us to come to You, to learn from You, and to stretch out to become the persons ...
... game. If worship were a matter of rest, we could stay home and sleep. But, worship is a meeting with God. It is the place where God and people get together. The longer I lead worship, the more I am convinced that if I am going to be a faithful disciple, I have to find ways and means to be consistent and persistent at worship. You cannot be a vital Christian if you do not find ways to be involved in worship. Worship is the heartbeat of faithful discipleship. It was the middle of the day when Jesus first met ...
... cup of cold water to these little ones will not lose their reward. Humble yourself like a little child. Pick up your cross and follow me. Forgive one another seventy times seven. Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. This is where disciples are made: by sitting at the feet of the teacher. He said to those who are baptized, “You have to learn everything I have commanded you. And then you have to live everything I have taught.” This is his commission, and it’s going to take us a ...
... is dark, except for the candle at the pulpit, one at the lectern, and the Christ candle on the altar. (The candles will be taken care of by the Pastor.) Pastor: On our altar are a number of candles. The tall white one represents Jesus, who told his disciples, "I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." First Person: Andrew (1), a follower of John the Baptist, had come ...
... one I’ll come back." We all need a friend. Jesus chose the twelve to be his friends. Who were they? Nobody. What qualifications did they have? None. How much training, influence, expertise, did they possess? Zero. But, he said to them, "Follow me." He took them on to be disciples. And, later on, he said to them, "No longer do I call you servants. Now I call you my friends." He took a bow! of water and a towel and got down on his knees in front of them, and washed their feet. He said, "My body I give, and ...
... not always God’s means. We see with the vision of the immediate. God sees with the vision of eternity. God knows. We only think that we know. And then there is Simon Peter how impetuous he was. Always willing to look before he leaped. When Jesus told the disciples that they would all fall away, it was Simon Peter who shouted Lord, thou they all fall away, I will never leave your side. But Simon Peter did fall away. He denied Jesus not once but three times. He would remind us that to follow the master we ...
... have been me . . . and it could have been you . . . denying Christ. That’s why this story has been told millions of times over these two thousand years. It’s our story. That doesn’t keep it from stinging. After all, Peter was the chief of Jesus’ disciples. If he could fall, anybody could fall. And, of course, that is exactly the point. Anybody can fall. In one of his books, writer Philip Yancey tells about a friend of his who is a recovering alcoholic. Tom’s a Christian, but has had a difficult ...
... Spirit in our day and time is almost more than we can handle. It is like another Day of Pentecost has come upon us. We have witnessed some glorious proof in the pudding! Saint Paul and his co-workers knew first hand that the Spirit gives life. Disciples are made as this wonder of wonders works in the daily lives of precious people. It is indispensable in our ministries to convert others that we be permeated or at least profoundly influenced by this Spirit. As we get more and more acquainted with this force ...
... How come no girls at the school love me at all?" Checking out the scene, searching around the edges, trying to find out what a disciple might really be. Sam Shoemaker some years ago jotted down this creed for his life entitled “I Stand by the Door." The first three or ... far out, The door is the most important door in the world. It is the door through which men walk when they find God. A disciple is one who searches and checks out the scene. What they need most at that moment of life is not a sermon from a ...
... will be. The wind and waves batter us all sooner or later. And in that time you might be tempted to fear. You might be tempted to doubt Jesus’ love. You might be tempted to ask, “Do you not care that I am perishing?” When that time comes, remember the disciples that day on the Sea of Galilee. Remember how they moved from fear of the storm to fear of the Lord. Remember how they moved from alarm at the power of the wind and the waves to awe at the power of Jesus. Remember how they moved from the failure ...
... Do not be impatient. There is a way out, and it will be made plain in time. Remember that faith is essential for a person who lives for what is right." The selection read from Luke’s record emphasizes the same theme. Jesus had been talking to his disciples about some of the trying experiences he was sure they soon would be encountering. Then he told them a parable which, according to Luke, was to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. The parable was about a widow who tried to get ...
... t walk down the streets of Old Jerusalem even today without a leg of lamb slapping you in the face, or a salted fish looking you in the eye. Salt kept meat from spoiling. Without it all of life became rotten and rancid. The first disciples had no problem getting the point. You, my disciples, are the salt of the earth, the preservers of society. There are some questions, it seems to me, that salty people ought to be asking in our day. Sometimes we get used to things that I’m not so sure are good things to ...
... mere emotion. It is, rather, action. I invite you to choose to see it as an acronym, F-A-I-T-H. F-A-I-T-H stands for Forsaking-All-I-Trust-Him. Jesus says, "Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). When we receive Christ by faith, we then receive the second great possession of those who come to Christ completely. It is the possession of Christian experience. It is evidenced over time in new desires, new goals, new direction for your life, a full heart, and in ...
... six days in the week when healing the sick was lawful, and what earthly reason did he have for doing this on the sabbath? Technically he was right, Jesus did break sabbath laws, and I couldn't imagine how he was going to respond because the rest of his disciples and I knew in our hearts that he had done the right thing. Jesus turned it right back on them and called them hypocrites. He said that there was not a single one of us who would not water our livestock on the sabbath and technically speaking that ...
... and Israel’s early salvation history. Luke’s text turns from Jesus’ preaching and teaching to prophetic power and miracles in today’s reading. The focus of Luke’s narrative narrows down to Jesus for the first half of this encounter. The disciples and other followers drop from view. As Jesus enter Capernaeum his reputation precedes him, since he is known to a certain “centurion” — that is, a Roman soldier in charge of one hundred men. Remarkably this centurion sends members of the local ...
... us. He cannot really be himself without us. You see, however, none of this would have happened if Jesus had just remained right here on earth. "Oh," but you say, "it would be so nice to have Jesus here now with us; it would make it easier to believe. The disciples had it easy; they had him among them." Well, people, let me tell you; we have Jesus among us right here - plain as day. If Jesus had not ascended into heaven, God would not be with us in all of the good things of life that we experience. At least ...
... Lord's love practiced in the churches always has a way of moving beyond the walls, so the world can experience our trademark. When we begin to grow old, we sense the Lord is still pleading for us to love one another, so the world will know we are his disciples, and it seems to become more preciously piercing. It is his way of letting us know he has not given up on his children. The message is the same. We cannot alter it and he refuses to grant an abridgement. The Christ of the ages keeps right on insisting ...
... who don’t have any children there. They do it because it’s one more job that has to be done. Children Certainly we ought not waste our good talents on children! We are greater than that, good enough to be an advisor to the boss, or a disciple of the master. And the Master asked them that embarrassing question. It grew very quiet when he asked, "What were you talking about?" You can almost feel the flush in their faces. Jesus had been talking with them about his coming death. He even told them about the ...