Vision of Discipleship

Before my trip to AUS in April, God had impressed something upon my heart concerning true discipleship. In the modern-day church, there are few terms as vague, subjective, and confusing as discipleship. It is a word that sums up the constant process of following Jesus and submitting every aspect of our lives to His authority. The trouble with current "discipleship" programs is that we often rely on a pamphlet, book, or some outside means to teach people of God. From my study of the Word, Jesus did not have a lesson plan or handbook drawn up from a rabbi He made His disciples read and fill in the blanks. Discipleship is pure "on the job training" while following Jesus with immersion in the Word. Xerox not required! It is not about facts as much as obedience to a Master. And if we have been commissioned by Christ's all-encompassing authority to make disciples of all nations, we ought to know what discipleship is.

I am convinced that there are two separate camps that Christians fall into concerning discipleship and the role of the church: hospice and rehab. This may not make any sense at all to you, but stay with me. During my previous trip to OZ (without a blog at the time!) this is something I wrote that may speak to your heart about your view of discipleship.

Hospice is defined as “a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.” A definition of “palliation” emphasizes the key point of hospice: “(from Latin palliare, to cloak) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliative_care).  It is focused on minimizing pain and does not address the root cause of the illness.  There is a growing group that is clamoring for people to “die with dignity,” and have the right to choose suicide to end suffering (http://www.deathwithdignity.org/).  Pain is seen as the greatest evil and suffering to be avoided at all costs, even by the shortening of one’s life. When you ask someone, “How is your Grandma doing?” and they reply, “She’s in hospice” you know that all hope and seek of a cure has been abandoned.

Sometimes terminally ill people are still functional in mind and body, not in a comatose state. Nothing is required from them as food is brought three times a day or they are fed intravenously and receive continuous care. People in hospice are simply waiting around to die. They waste away, longing for a day when they will be free of pain. They receive visits and cards of well-wishers, sharing memories and avoiding talk of the inevitable end. I do not say this to minimize the need for kind people who provide loving care to terminally ill people. This is not to mock or shame people who have received hospice care, as some in my family have. It is simply to point out a prevalent philosophy concerning terminally ill patients. If hospice has a "vision," it is a peaceful, painless existence and death without suffering. The feelings and emotions of the patient receives the full focus of the caregivers. The patient is the purpose for the care.

Contrast this with the concept of rehabilitation or physical therapy. People undergoing this painful and arduous process have often had a brush with death or a catastrophic injury. The prognosis for a full recovery is often doubtful at best. Physical therapy is defined as “a health care profession which provides services to individuals and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout life” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_therapy).  Drug rehabilitation is aimed at addressing and eliminating physical and psychological dependency and assisting the addict in becoming a functional part of family and society. While physical therapy and rehab are focused on the individual, there is not the resignation found in hospice care. The purpose of these practices is to empower a person to overcome injury and addiction and live life at the highest possible level.

Instead of seeking to avoid pain and difficulty at all costs, pain and suffering are part of the process to laying hold of the hope of a better life. Physical therapy is draining, taxing, and painful for the participants. Patients are forced to exercise their atrophied limbs to utter exhaustion. But the pain and struggle are for a purpose, a goal believed obtainable through determination, grit, and endurance. For some the goal is one again walking unaided. Some wish to participate in their favorite hobby or sport. Others have a commitment to a program to remain clean of all drugs and alcohol so they can be reunited with their family. Therapy looks to the future with a confident hope. Rehab participants are looking to a new life, refusing to revert back to the old ways that robbed them of real life.

Now as you look at the contrast between hospice care and physical rehabilitation, consider which camp you belong to in your Christian experience. God does not simply offer us medications and "palliative" care when we are born again by the Spirit: He gives us a new beginning and purpose in glorifying God with our lives! Our eyes are not longingly set on heaven, but fixed upon the person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:1-3 says, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [3] For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." I believe many professing believers become disillusioned because they think Christianity is spiritual hospice care. When the trials and temptations come and the painful labor involved in sanctification hits hard, people are ready to quit. It is hard work to follow Jesus. In the words of G.K. Chesterton: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." Do you have a vision of what God wants to do in your life? Are you willing to press toward that goal with all of your God-given strength and purpose? Do not resign yourself to the hospice bed, eyes misty with tears of regret. Your whole life lays before you with unknown potential for God's glory. Give God your past, for He holds your future as well. May you not only be covered in the dust of your rabbi Jesus Christ, but filled with the Holy Spirit as you labor for His glorious name!

The Danger of Isolation

There is a verse that has God has impressed upon my mind a couple of times today:  Proverbs 18:1.  It says, "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment."  The KJV says it in a different manner:  "Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom."  The word "intermeddleth" means to "be obstinate," or someone who is stubbornly opposed to wisdom.  God is the source of all wisdom, and Jesus has become for us the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).  To be isolated from God by our desires is to invite our destruction.

When a person is born, he is born into a life of sin.  Selfishness is natural.  Taking thought for your own life and how a situation impacts you is normal.  Our sin separates us from God, as it is written in Isaiah 59:1-2:  "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. [2] But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."  Jesus is our Peace, who has broken down the middle wall of separation caused by sin, and allows us to draw near to God (Eph. 2:14).  We can be washed clean through the blood of Christ, having been born again by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When a man is married to a woman, the minister will say something similar to what Christ says in Matthew 19:6:  "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  The church (made up of born-again followers of Christ) has a relationship to Christ that a bride has to her husband.  We have been joined with Him, and should not seek to isolate ourselves from Him.  But the common tragedy is married people still retain their own desires and often break the marriage covenant with divorce.  This disaster is often seen in the church as well, when the desires of people override the unity and wisdom that God has provided us through His Word and Holy Spirit.

I'm learning firsthand the tough lesson that comes from separation from the ones you love and the ones that love you.  But being away from a wife and children for two months is nothing to the absolute hell that comes from being separated from God.  Heaven is the most beautiful place conceived of because God is there, and hell is the ultimate in ugliness because it is devoid of God's presence.  There is no shortage to the unspeakable wickedness that lies in the heart of mankind, and I cannot imagine the putrid foulness of the filthy uncleanness of the demonic spirits and depraved people who lie festering in that fiery, dark, scream-filled pit that is called hell.  It is an ugly picture to be sure.

Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit with desire, ate of it, and gave some to Adam who desired to please his wife rather than God.  Their actions literally severed them from the presence of God with all of their progeny.  But because of the glorious truth of the Gospel, we can be united once again with God through spiritual regeneration by faith in Jesus Christ.  Once God has united us with other believers in the Body of Christ, we are no longer to seek our own desire.  We are to be led by the Holy Spirit, for we find our unity through the power of God.  Ephes. 4:1-3 exhorts us:  "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, [2] with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, [3] endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

There is no division or isolation in unity.  If we are opposed to God's wisdom, then we err by following after our own desires.  Christ is for us wisdom, and is the Head of His Body, the church.  To rage against wisdom is to seek destruction of your own soul.  I thank God for the unity of His Spirit, and the power of Christ to free us from sin, death, and our own destructive desires.  How many have been shipwrecked upon their own lusts, never again to rise?  Glory be to God who has delivered us from the power of our own flesh, for in us dwells no good thing.

Kind of like a puzzle...

Today Louis and I borrowed Phil's trailer and headed over to Ike and Cecile's house about 25km away.  They are moving and offered me their dining room table, chairs, and stools.  It is a gesture most appreciated and everything packed very neatly into the corner of Louis' garage.  Louis said, "Isn't it amazing how God puts the pieces of the puzzle together?"  To which I remarked, "He certainly puts them together in an interesting order."  One would think the provision of a visa would be forthcoming, seeming to be much more critical than a table and chairs.  But the clear provision of God through the saints is no small thing, and I praise God for His faithfulness.

When you put a puzzle together, you take it out of a box that has a picture on top.  You see the end result before you begin.  When I think about God's calling upon my life to preach and minister in AUS, I can't see the complete picture.  Many of the puzzles I have worked over the years have beautiful landscapes with clearly defined portions:  blue sky, white clouds, green grass, trees, animals.  An exception is a puzzle I bought for Laura before she was my wife by M.C. Esher, the classic waterfall that seems to travel uphill.  The major difficulty of this puzzle is the lack of colour.  So much of the picture has the same dull hues and tones and everything seems to blend together.  When I look at the wilderness experience where I find myself, it's hard to tell exactly where I am or where I fit in.

It seems a little on the wild side that Laura would have sold our kitchen table and chairs back home, and now in a garage in AUS sits a table and chairs set aside for our future use.  When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac his only son, the astute young man said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"  Genesis 22:8 says, "And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together."  Abraham built the altar, put the wood in order, and bound his son and laid him upon the wood.  After he took the knife in his hand to slay Isaac, the Angel of the Lord told him to stop, saying that He now knew that Abraham feared God because he had not withheld his only son.  Genesis 22:13-14 states, "Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. [14] And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided."

God has provided abundantly for me, my Jehovah-Jireh.  Shall I be as Isaac and say, "Here is a table and chairs, but where is the home I will use them in?  Where is the visa?  Where is the place I will dwell?"  It think it better to be as Abraham and say, "The Lord Will Provide."  There is no doubt in Abraham's words.  "Will" does not mean "might."  Abraham speaks with the certainty of faith.  I say as the father of the demon-possessed child:  "Lord I believe:  help my unbelief!"

When picking up the trailer, little Andrew (Phil and Linda's son) asked me a question.  He asked, "Do you wish you could go home to your family?"  "No," I honestly answered, almost surprised by my immediate response.  "But I wish they were here with me."  I have a table and chairs, but I don't have my sons and wife by my side.  God puts the puzzle together in His order and in His time.  As Corrie ten Boom used to say, we only see the back side of the embroidery.  God sees from the vantage point of eternity and knows what He is doing.  We see a random mix of color and say, "What beauty could possibly come from that?"  Eccles. 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

Most people start with the border when putting a puzzle together.  It feels like the puzzle of my life has been flipped upside down, and all I can see is the grainy cardboard.  In the middle of the table lies two pieces fitted together, and no border in sight.  God will provide all that I need in His time.  I long for the day when Jesus will say to me, "Now  I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your life, your only life, from Me."  Because of Christ's sacrificial payment I have a life to live.  As the song says, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.  Though none go with me, still I will follow.  No turning back, no turning back."

To Do the Impossible...

Last night I did something that I don't always do.  I chose not to pray for any specific requests until God told me what to pray.  Sometimes I feel like I can fall into a rut of going down a "list" of sorts, praising God, asking blessings upon my wife and children, thanking Him for the Landman family and all those who are supporting me...these things are all fine and good to pray for.  But last night I said, "God, I'm not going to pray for anything until you tell me what to pray or how to pray.  My prayers are lame."  Then His words came to me like an invigorating rain upon my parched soul:  "Pray for the impossible."

Consider the implications of the statement.  How often do we limit our prayers to what is possible?  How common is the prayer that asks God to do what we could do ourselves?  What a difference it makes in our prayers when we pray for God to do what is impossible for us to do.  This works upon us in several ways:  1) it causes us to look to God's all-sufficient strength, wisdom, and power; 2) it causes us to admit our helplessness, weakness, and blindness; 3) it causes us to grow in faithful expectancy that what God has promised He is able to perform; 4) it allows God to be God.  Jesus said that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.  When the disciples heard that, they were shocked and asked, "Who then can be saved?"    "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).  A rich man will trust his riches and not look to God to supply his physical or spiritual needs.  He is sufficient in his own eyes.  When we limit our prayers to the possible, we limit God by our senses.  Spiritually speaking, this is nothing short of a catastrophic disaster.

Psalm 78:40-41 discusses the conduct of the children of Israel in the desert after God brought them out of the land of Egypt.  "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! [41] Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel."  Did you catch the second part?  Because of their unbelief, the Israelites provoked, grieved, tempted, and limited God!  When we pray according to sight and not according to the power of the Spirit, we limit God by our superficial prayers!  Isn't it ironic that prayer is the very means God has devised that we would use to release His power upon all the earth, yet that is the same means that can limit God?  We can be like king Joash, who struck three arrows into the ground when he should have struck five or six times.  Elisha was furious with the king, who was content with three victories instead of total victory.  It would not be enough to destroy Syria, the enemy of Israel (see the story in 2 Kings 13:15-19).  What a shame to not pray for victory because we cannot see how God will do it!

Receive this encouragement from the LORD to pray the impossible.  Are you afraid that God will not do it?  Are you concerned that God cannot do it?  Then you are not praying to the real God in heaven, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the great I AM.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and without Him I can do nothing.  For our God the miraculous is common operation.  Give God the freedom with an open invitation to do miraculous things in your life.  If this makes any sense to you at all, it is likely He already has!