Pray before you read this, beloved. A strong probability exists that Lord Holy Spirit may reveal Truth to you here, the kind that messes with you. I received a message from Herb Hodges this week. In his email, our friend and teacher wrote:
It is my firm conviction that the command that Jesus gave in the Great Commission to “turn people into disciples” (the only command in His Great Commission) is not to be tampered with, but is to be taken literally. If Jesus had intended to say something else, He had clear language to use in conveying that “something else.” But He avoided other terminology such as “soul-winning” or “church planting” and used a term that includes all activities of the Christian life. I have heard His command in the Great Commission interpreted in several inadequate ways. The only thing that has ever satisfied my heart is to take these words literally and seriously, which means that I will spend my life being His disciple on His terms and seeking qualitatively to build disciples according to His model and His Mandate – that is, on His terms.
The importance of disciple-making to Jesus is revealed by His model, His method, and His mandate, and yet it is very easy for traditional interpretations to bury His emphasis and substitute inferior standards. Each individual Christian is responsible to be a disciple on New Testament terms, and to build other disciples as He commanded. That discipleship is to be standardized by Jesus only, not by the Christian’s dedication, or desires, or limits. That is, no Christian should determine the dimensions or set the limits of His life in Christ; that prerogative belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Let me address you by addressing myself for a few lines. Do I as a Christian have a strategy to reach people who are without Christ? If not, am I willing to repent of my sin of indifference and inactivity? If I have a strategy, would it be more accurately described in terms of the mere duplication of Christians (basically, soul-winning), or in terms of the multiplication of Christians (winning people to Christ, then building them into reproducing disciples who will multiply in an enlarging way through future generations—as Jesus did)? As a committed Christian, am I more in the business of counting people, or more in the business of building people who count?
Just this morning, I was in a group of disciples in which five generations of disciples could be traced from one disciple-making believer, and each one in the succession is continuing to enlarge his network of multiplying disciples. … It is astounding to see what God can do with just one man who agrees with Him about the Strategy He commanded in the Great Commission. What a blessing!
Measure Herb’s comments against those of our Master Himself. Consider Jesus’ own words in our Experiencing God memory verse this week: “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33, NIV).
My, these are challenging words! Such is the call to follow Jesus. My journey with Jesus this week included these words:
Day 1: If you want to be a disciple of – a follower – of Jesus, you have no choice. You must leave where you are to follow Him. You must make major adjustments in your life to follow God. Until you are ready to make any change necessary to follow and obey what God has said, you will be of little use to God (Experiencing God, pp 157-8).
Personal Prayer Response: O, God! Help me believe. Help me trust You totally. What could I honestly consider more important or valuable than You? Bring me to that place of absolute abandonment to follow You.
Day 2: … the God Who calls you is also the One Who will enable you to do His will (Experiencing God, p 163).
Personal Prayer Response: Lord, Your Word teaches: “For it is God Who is working in you, [enabling you] to will and to act for His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). I am amazed at and grateful for Your activity in our lives.
Day 3: … every step of faith could be interpreted as presumption by others. Only obedience and God’s affirmation of our obedience would reveal that we were doing God’s will (Experiencing God, p 165).
Personal Prayer Response: Dear God, this hurts! I have felt the sting of brothers opposing Your work in me. Help me to love and know and crave the joy of Your affirmation as I obey you rather than be dismayed, distraught, or discouraged when other believers misinterpret my surrender to You and Your ways as willful or selfish.
Day 4: God will reveal His plans and purposes to you, but your obedience will impact [read “cost”] you and others around you. … Not obeying God would be much worse (Experiencing God, p 168).
Personal Prayer Response: Lord, it is one thing for my obedience to cost me. It is a much harder thing when my obedience hurts the people around me, especially my family. Still, I trust You. I know You love me and the people near me. I know Your directions are right. I know You can be trusted to protect and provide for my loved ones.
Day 5: If you walk in a consistent relationship with God’s provision for you – the provision of His Son, His Holy Spirit, and His own presence in your life – then you should never come to a time when you do not know God’s will. Nor should there be a time when you are not enabled to carry out His will (Experiencing God, p 175).
Personal Prayer Response: WOW! My Lord, thank You for pursuing this kind of love relationship with me!
No comments:
Post a Comment