Scripture reminder and breakfast on a quick stopover to catch a flight to Beograd.
Category Archives: disciple making
Dubrovnik
Filed under disciple making, photos along the way, seeking understanding
READ: @jr_briggs interviews Eugene Peterson
J. R. Briggs (did you read FAIL yet? you should. go HERE) anyway @jr_briggs interviewed Eugene Peterson about being “The Relationally Grounded Pastor.” It’s about pastoral ministry. Shepherding. Check out these quotes that struck me:
“I’m alarmed that we measure things by what the world counts as important.”
“…if we let people define themselves in terms of problems then they get defined in our minds as problems. We have to fix them, and that’s just death for a pastoral vocation.”
“…let your congregation be the congregation it can be out of who they are.”
Read the interview HERE. I hope you will be challenged and encouraged.
If you have not read Pastor, Peterson’s memoir, you owe it to yourself to make time, maybe this summer, to dwell on this scholar/pastor’s story.
Filed under being a disciple, disciple making, leadership
Easter and the Bible
Today is Good Friday. It’s a big day for Christians using the Western calendar (Orthodox Easter is next week) and as it happens it’s also Passover (not always, just sometimes) and the Stock Market is closed (the New York Times commented that the only reason seemed to be a tradition that dates back to the mid-19th century). Much has and is being said in the blog and Twittersphere about the events surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. People are rightly called to make a decision about Jesus. His followers will attend services today through Sunday morning in right celebration of the Jesus’ work that made salvation possible for those who believe. May Jesus be exalted today and every day!
But I want to in a different direction for a moment. How do we know about this greatest of all news? Is it through church, a preacher, or the person who showed this news to us? Is it through the radio, movie or the myriad television programs that will air this weekend? Wanna bet you can find “The 10 Commandments” on TV this weekend? On Easter and Christmas the TV networks suddenly become quite open to religious programming. No, none of these sources are where the real source of the Great News of Jesus is kept clear and available. The real source is the Bible.
Recently I’ve been reading a lot about the world’s religions for the program I’m in. Two things stand out: first, that there is such a myriad of choices out there for people to believe in and follow and second, the more I read about the other religions and their texts the more thankful I am for the Bible. I am thankful that God inspired the very words of Scripture and then, for two millennia has preserved that word which has stood the test of time and the rigors of textual criticism. I am thankful for it because by reading and understanding His word, I don’t have to rely on the changing whims and methods of men. How great it is to sit each morning and soak in the word of God and read words like “it is finished” and “he has risen” which could be 6 of the most important words ever uttered and then written, 3 on Good Friday, 3 on Easter.
Read more of these amazing words here.
Newbigin applied
I first heard of Lesslie Newbigin at a conference in 2007. I’ve been a fan of his writing since. In an article in CT Newbigin is applied to church planting but it has a broader appeal to all churches, especially the “embassy” bit. Read on by clicking HERE.
Filed under culture, culture > disciple making, disciple making
the difference a week makes
last week our neighborhood pond looked like this:
Almost solid ice, you could see footprints where someone had walked across the frozen pond.
_____
Today:
What a difference a week makes.
Whatever has you hardened and frozen over, seek the Father through Jesus, let the Holy Spirit help you walk in faith and God will help you through until spring.
Filed under disciple making, experience, photos along the way
Be encouraged, be challenged
I learned that when I preach a message, I need to present the context of the text, explain the text itself, and apply it to life.
Sweet Anna and I visited a friend’s church today, a Korean speaking church. I caught bits and pieces of the sermon (my Korean is very limited) but because I can read a little and know many of the books of the Bible, I figured out the outline of the message (there is a point to these details). Sweet Anna told me it was about ring encouraged. So as I followed the texts on the slides I saw the sermon shaping up as I read their contexts: like figures in Scripture, we get frustrated and discouraged in life, but there is hope.
Moses was frustrated by the whining of the people and expressed his own struggles to God.
If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” (Numbers 11:15 ESV)
Elijah on the run from Jezebel.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” (1Ki.19.4 ESV)
Jonah (you should need no intro).
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4.3 ESV)
Let’s press on. They got discouraged, but God used them:
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Gal. 6.9)
The Prodigal came to his senses and ran home to his waiting father. God is waiting for us:
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20 ESV)
Look to Jesus who endured, Jesus is our strength to endure and press on:
…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Heb. 12.2-3)
Press on!
Here’s the beauty of this sermon: it was so based on Scripture and the power of God’s word, it was not dependent on the preacher (or my ability to totally understand the preacher’s words).
The Word of God preached its own message.
Preachers, let’s be reminded: God doesn’t need your passion, pastoral abilities or plans, just preach the Word of God as the Word of God.
Preach the Bible not your agenda. The Bible preaches itself as long as we keep ourselves out of its way.
Press on in Jesus’ power, sharing His word! Be encouraged!
kingdom travelin' 