Year: 2018

Categories
Christian Living

Milestones: Annual Celebrations of Important Spiritual Markers

Okay, I’ve written a lot about Discipleship. Maybe you’re ready for a change…

(Anyone know this tv show without googling it?
If so, you are getting a glimpse into my weird sense of humor!)

I know that everything I post here won’t scratch you where you itch, therefore, I’ll keep trying to change things up and not stay on one topic too awful long. I plan to jump between articles I’ve read, quotes from good books, excerpts from sermons, etc. So even though all of it won’t be a perfect fit for you, I hope a majority of it will be enjoyable for you much of the time.

So here’s something not about discipleship. In fact, it’s really just a quandary I have regarding my own life.

Each year, the Jewish people were (and still are) to take part in the Passover meal remembrance. a picture of a table set for the passover meal - reminding us that celebrating spiritual milestones are importantDuring the annual meal, the explanation of the Passover was to provide a clear message to the children of the family of the great things that God had done. How well are we choosing important aspects of God’s history and celebrating His greatness? How often do we remind ourselves and our families of God’s mighty power and love?

Certainly we might do so at Easter and Christmas. But even then, how well are we retelling the story?

What else should we celebrate in the life cycle of a year so that we keep telling God’s story to ourselves and to our families?

The book of Leviticus indicated Seven Feasts the Israelites were to celebrate. These were spaced throughout the year, and each feast reminded them of what God had done.

What about us? We thank God during Thanksgiving, but we might not recall any historical aspects. We thank God for our military heroes during Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, but that is a remembrance of them more than of God. We celebrate Moms and Dads during May and June, but again, even if we are thanking God for them, the day really is a celebration of people. So it seems that in America, a country that has often been called blessed by God, we have turned to celebrating the story of our own progress as humans, instead of recalling God’s mighty power.

How can Paige and I change that in our own family?
How could we do a better job of taking some important milestones and using them to talk to each other and to our extended family about God?
Certainly we can make sure we tell God’s story during Easter and Christmas. Perhaps we could also find out every person’s baptism date (or better yet, actual day of salvation), and talk about how God’s story intersected ours on that day. Perhaps we could let each person share their testimony each year?

As I said, I don’t have a clear answer, but I do know that celebrating spiritual milestones are important. This is needed in our lives! What do you think we could do in this area?

Categories
Christian Living

The Christian Life is not a Private Matter. It is Life Lived Together.

Many people think that their spiritual beliefs and the way they live out the Christian life is a private matter that no one else has a right to speak into.
photo of a chain with the word "private" to keep people off the property, symbolizing our Christian life is not a private matter
I’ve heard people say things such as, “I go to church, but in regard to how I run my business, the church has no right to say anything.” I’ve also heard, “Well, what he does in his private time is between him and God. That’s not a matter for the church.”

Completely false. Church is a family. And what you do matters to your family. Being a Christian gives you a new name and a new Father. And your actions either glorify His Name or dishonor Him. And the Church family that you have committed to has a responsibility to hold you accountable to glorify His Name. When you join a church family, you are indicating to them that you are willing to be held accountable for your behavior.

I’ve been encouraging you to be in a Discipleship Group. And maybe you were even thinking: “But isn’t my faith a private matter?” And as I just said – Actually it is not.

But don’t take my word for it. Instead, take God’s Word. The Bible gives us many verses about how the Christian life is life lived for Christ together. Look at the list that Robbie Gallaty points out:

    • Love one another. (John 13:34)
    • Be in agreement with one another. (Rom.12:16)
    • Accept one another. (Rom. 15:7)
    • Instruct one another. (Rom. 15:14)
    • Greet one another. (Rom. 16:16)
    • Serve one another. (Gal. 5:13)
    • Be kind and compassionate to one another. (Eph. 4:32)
    • Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Eph. 5:21)
    • Admonish one another with all wisdom. (Col. 3:16)
    • Encourage one another and build each other up. (1 Thess. 5:11)
    • Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. (James 5:16)
    • Be hospitable to one another. (1 Pet. 4-:9)

Gallaty explains:

    While some of this can be practiced on a Sunday morning, in reality, a D-Group is an ideal setting for living out many of these commands. For example, consider confessing your sins. Larger contexts such as Sunday school or small groups aren’t well-suited for this. But it’s something we need to do regularly, since sin festers and grows in isolation. A d-Group is significantly less threatening for addressing sins, and believers may be more apt to open up about present struggles in this context.
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasizes the dangers of isolation: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive the power of sin over him.” This is why participation in a group is essential.
    The concept of a “passive participant” doesn’t make sense either. Everyone comes prepared to contribute. Through community with like-minded brothers and sisters in a discipleship setting modeled by the Master, spiritual growth is made possible, but only insofar as it is based on the firm foundation of God’s Word.

Your Christian faith and your Christian growth and your Christian life is not a private matter. Your Christian life is about being together with others who will help you walk the narrow road well.
Get in a group!
Get growing!

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Categories
Church

Family: The Gospel Unites Us in a Way Nothing Else Can

photo of the inside of a sanctuary where a church family meets each week
A Church? Nope. An Empty Sanctuary. The Church Meets Here Each Week.

In his book Love in Hard Places, D. A. Carson discusses the fact that church is a family:

The church itself is not made up of natural “friends.” …What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together…because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says….

In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.

Do you view your church as family?
Are you bound together in love by Jesus Christ with those you worship with each week?
Are you not that committed to your church because you don’t view them as family?

We gain so much by being part of a church family.
Make sure you have one.
And make sure to love the people in it!

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Categories
Christian Living

Discipleship takes the Long View: It’s a Marathon, not a Sprint.

The idea of being a growing disciple and a disciple-maker requires patience and a willingness for thinking long-term – like preparing to run a marathon. I like this illustration from Robbie Gallaty’s Rediscovering Discipleship:

    A student asked the president of his school whether he could not take a shorter course than the one prescribed. “Oh yes,” replied the President, “but then it depends on what you want to be. When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years. But when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.

Ha! Great point. Are you seeking to be a squash or a mighty oak?
photo of large tree symbolizing the idea of discipleship being a marathon
A mighty oak of course. So how will you get there? You need to be thinking of your Christian life as a marathon, which takes a very different type of preparation than a sprint.

For such a life-change, I keep encouraging you to consider joining a small discipleship group. Here’s why I’m sold on them… because they have been instrumental in changing my life.

First, through a one-on-one Paul/Timothy model with a Mr. R.G. who mentored & discipled me as a college freshman and sophomore. (As he is still doing this with others in various places around the world, we try to keep his name off the internet so as to not pose difficulty for him entering certain countries.)

Then at FBC Bay St. Louis, Al Green invited me to be part of a group of pastors including LaRue Stephens, Paul Crowley, and D. Broughton. This group had a huge impact on me! And from there, several men in my Sunday School class at BSL formed a group that provided great growth. And in Newton, I have been in several groups with men of all ages, and each has challenged me in unique ways.

God has changed me through D-groups and continues to do so through them. Wherever I am, I guarantee that I am going to find a small group of men to be in a d-group, so that they can encourage me, support me with prayer, and hold me accountable to walk more like Christ.

Robbie Gallaty:

    Are small groups indispensable for life change? Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger think so. In their book Transformational Groups they provide evidence to support the indispensability of meeting in a smaller context. The findings revealed that people in a group read the Bible more attentively, pray more regularly, confess sins more frequently, share the gospel more freely, give more generously, and serve more faithfully than those by themselves.

Wow. The research shows that d-groups create mighty oaks for God. Isn’t that what you said you wanted to become?

I believe that the reason such groups are so impactful is due to the fact that the group members are holding each other accountable to reading God’s Word. God’s Word transforms lives. And yet too many of us are reading too little of it. We read a brief devotion that has 1 scripture verse, a ½ page of comments, and a prayer to recite. It is not that these don’t have some value, but the Bible is meant to be read in larger chunks. And a chapter of a day isn’t much. Make the commitment to read large chunks (at least a chapter a day) of God’s Word. It will transform your life.

“The Word of God contains all the practical, real world advice a man needs. When you get in the Word, you learn how to be a better father, a better parent, and a better follower of Christ.” (Robbie Gallaty)

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Categories
Christian Living

Discipleship Doesn’t Occur In a Vacuum. It Requires the Help of Others.

Discipleship does not occur in a vacuum. If you want to see radical growth in your Christian life, you have to surround yourself with others who will disciple you to more maturity. Can growth occur without others? Perhaps. But that would be rare. Even the Gideon Bible in the hotel room that you pick up to read by yourself was placed there for you by someone else who cares about your walk with Christ. The plan of God is for us to teach Jesus’ commands to one another. One of the best ways to accomplish this is in a group that meets with transparency and accountability to sharpen one another’s Christian walk.

picture of a person potting a plant symbolizing the need to plant ourselves in a place for maximum growth. Discipleship doesn't occur in a vacuum.
Have You Planted Yourself In A Place For Maximum Growth?

Robby Gallaty:
By yourself, you are incapable of producing spiritual fruit, but you can plant yourself in a position to experience it. That’s the value of being in a group where you are intentionally pursuing Christ with other believers, what I’m calling a D-Group. Discipleship is more than a weekly group gathering, but never less.

And this isn’t a new concept:

Around 30 A.D., Jesus walked with the 12. They were disciples. Jesus was the disciple-maker.

About 60 A.D., we read in 2 Timothy 2:2 that Paul had discipled Timothy and challenged Timothy to do the same with others.

Robbie Gallaty points out that around 400 A.D., Augustine’s preaching indicated the need for groups and that such groups would be a means of unity, a method of spiritual growth, and would develop healthy Christian friendship.

In the 1600s, Phillip Jacob Spener established what he called “gatherings for piety.” Gallaty states, “Going against the Catholic practice of one-on-one confession to a priest, Spener insisted that truths learned from Scripture are meant to be lived out in a community. Spener despised individualism, claiming that ‘it acted like a medicine which was more dangerous than the disease it was supposed to cure.'”

And in the 1700s, we find John Wesley developing and encouraging discipleship groups as well.

All this simply to say that groups matter. Disciple groups were important in the past. And they are still important today. You need to find a group. If there isn’t one for you to jump into, then you need to pray that God would put some people in your mind to start a group with. And then get them together to start meeting and growing!

Gallaty provides encouragement regarding this:

Start a discipleship group. I know that seems obvious, but at some point you actually need to get started. You can begin investing today. If you are a man, find a group of men to disciple. If you are a woman, gather several women together. It’s challenging to take someone on a journey you have never been on yourself, but it’s not impossible. You don’t need another Bible study to get ready for this. Take the Bible you already know and study it with two or three other people weekly.

And if you need more help getting in a group or starting one, let me know. I would be happy to provide you with the tools that we use at FBC Newton to get a group off the ground!

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