Where is he leading you?

A disciple is one who follows Jesus. If you are a follower where is He leading you? Can you give a specific place, direction or destination where Jesus is taking you?

If yes, that is awesome. This means you have true focus and direction in life.

If no, that is tragic. This means you are wandering aimlessly with no real meaning or purpose.

Solution? Find a small group and start living the disciple's life together. You with the focus and direction are needed badly by you who are wondering and wandering. How about getting together, forming a group and together follow Jesus.

Discipleship is awesome cause it is!

Are you betting on it?

Jesus tells a story about a master heading out for an extended vacation. Before he leaves he gives three of his servants a little cash to invest while he is gone. Each servant is given an amount equal to their ability to properly use that amount to please their master. One gets five talents, another two and the third receives one. The first two go our and start wheeling and dealing and in no time have doubled the master's money. The third is too afraid to take a chance and decides the best investment strategy is to dig a hole and bury the money.

After a while the master returns and has a meeting with his servants to discuss his portfolio. Servant one and two are pleased to announce how well their strategies worked and handed over the master's fortune. The third however was able to muster only excuses as to why he did nothing but hide the gift he had been given. Can you imagine what Jesus had in mind when He told this story in relation to a discussion about His future physical return to earth some day?

I don't think He was trying to fill some more space in His Father's best seller. He wasn't trying to play tricks on His hearers or obscure the real meaning. No, I believe Jesus hit the proverbial (pun intended) nail on the head with this one.

True disciples keep reading, the rest of you can go ahead and look at more pictures on Facebook.

OK. What does Jesus mean by this parable. Simply put He teaches (and warns) us that He is coming again and He expects us to have done something with a gift He has entrusted us with. We will not have any excuse as to why we haven't done what He desired of us; we will only have a time of eternal accountability. So I leave you with a couple of questions.

First, what gift are you aware of He entrusted to you and how are you using it to grow His kingdom?

Second, are you ready for His return and the accounting that follows?

Third, is Matthew just pulling our leg or is Jesus serious about this giftedness thing?

Fourth, have you correctly chosen to "Enter into the Joy of the Master" or do you rather like being considered a wicked and evil slave?

Yeah that was more than a couple of questions but we should be more concerned with the choice we now have to make. Need help? Drop me a line and let's work on it together.

Obedience as a Disciple

OK. So I'm reading about the disciples in Matthew 16. Jesus asked them what people are saying about Him. Then He gets personal and says, "Who do you say I am?" Peter says "Your are the Christ!" Then Jesus announces His plan for the church and in verse 20 warns them not to tell anyone He is the Christ. Sad thing is, this is one of the few areas we obey Jesus on a daily basis! Thoughts?

I find it sad that after Jesus did so much for us we are so hesitant to live and speak in a way that reflects His grace and Mercy.

An interesting sidebar is found in Mark 7:36.

Following Jesus

Just the other day I posted a status on my Facebook page that asked for a response from people in regards to there level of discipleship. Luke 9:23 teaches us that disciples are to deny self, take up crosses daily and follow Him.

Follow Jesus! Now that is a key concept. You see, I received but one response to this question: Where specifically is Jesus leading you?

You can check out my FB page and see that no one replied specifically. Now I don't want you to see that as a total negative because more than likely it took many by surprise. But now I am asking that question again. If you are a disciple then you must be following Jesus. If you are following Jesus where are you going? Where is He leading you? Can you be exact and specific?

I will re-visit this again later so give it some thought and prayer.

Small Groups

Small groups. Home Bible studies. Connection groups. House churches. Whatever you choose to call them they are the most primitive but also the best way to become the church as Jesus planned. The large group concept works well for some areas of the walk of faith but there are several areas of a believer's life that cannot be mastered apart from the small group experience. Over the next several postings I will discuss those areas that typically are week in the modern church. So often we in church life strive to "be" church people or good Christians. We attend some, pray some, read some, fellowship some, minister some and serve some. But Jesus has commanded us to do all we can for His Kingdom. Please don't get the impression this is a spanking rather see it as a place to truly evaluate your position in Christ as it relates to His church. Are you being a disciple or doing discipleship as Jesus desires?

God at work

A copy of an email I received from Larry Richmond:

Awakening 2009 Results Granite City (population 35,000) has seemed to have been God’s target for a crusade. For only a few weeks starting this last summer, the Lord has led in the development of a crusade where 25 churches from different denominations have come together to pray, plan, and prepare for evangelism in Granite City. Bill Saye was the evangelist for the week. Sunday and Wednesday evenings had the largest attendances, approaching 2000 in attendance at the high school football field. Since it was and outside event, we were all praying hard for good weather for the event, and God responded, stopping rain before the start of the crusade, and the forcast is to resume rain on Thursday (today) after the crusade. We are praising the Lord for the results: 177 professions of faith in Christ and 139 people recommitting their lives to Jesus (includes crusade and pre-crusade decisions). Many others came for prayer. One other significant result was seen. There was an unusual unity among churches of different denominations as partnerships developed. Pastors were thanking the Lord for breaking down “walls of division” that have been in place for years. The unity of the local churches also resulted in support from other local leaders and agencies. Pastors of the cooperating churches desire that their cooperation be extended to other activities in the future. It seems that this is only a beginning to what the Lord wants to do in Granite City. We are also attempting to start several groups of seekers to address their spiritual questions by providing biblical answers. We would very much like to start a house church movement from the results of the crusade. That, of course, depends on how the Lord leads over these next few weeks. Here is more good news. This can happen in any community where spiritual leaders work together to pray and seek the Lord and follow His direction in doing His work to bring people to a saving relationship with God.

Giants have to die

There he was. Little David the handsome young teenager standing before the champion of the Philistines. Goliath had struck fear in every one of God's warriors from Saul to Abner to the rest of the faithless and gutless army of God. God's people allowed the taunting and harassing from the enemy because as much as they looked around all they saw was Goliath. A giant looming before them caused them to focus on nothing but the giant. Hey, that's what giants do isn't it?

So because of an uncircumcised disgrace and defier of the living God, (David's words) God's people had become powerless, fearful and a laughing stock to those around. David decided to do something about it. He wasn't motivated by greed, power, prestige or a personal agenda; he was angry that so many of God's chosen ones had failed to seek God's direction and alone knew they could do nothing.

Not David though. He saw a giant, yes but he also believed in a God much bigger than Goliath. You see, the physical giant will always loom large over us when we close our spiritual eyes. God is a pretty big God and desires some pretty effective faith from His people. If David can kill Goliath what giant do you think we can kill with the power of God at our disposal?

I guess the question really is do we even believe God is bigger than the bogey man?