Category Archives: Discipleship Series

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

Think on These Things

May 15, 2018 faithfulwon Leave a comment

I have been taking a leaf out of Dr. Caroline Leaf’s book (sorry couldn’t resist that pun): “Switch on your Brain” and used a mind map to do a 21 day meditation on a single thought.

In this case the thought is Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable; if there is any excellence or anything praiseworthy; think on these things.”

In the mind map above I have taken the 8 words from the original New Testament Greek and put them in boxes around the central theme of the verse. Then I have taken the most common translations of the Greek words and listed them against each box. The words in a different colour (e.g. “true”) are the ones used most often, or, in some cases, exclusively by the main English translations (NIV, KJV, NKJV, NLT, NASB, ESV, NRSV).

I have also been spending quite a bit of time adding to the branches the things that are actually true, honourable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. It is quite amazing the amount of things that fall under those categories once you start to expand on them. There are numerous elements to God, family, church, the bible, work, creation, music, books, films, etc. that fit into each category. In other words, there are plenty of good things to think about.

Caroline’s basic thesis is that mind is over matter. More specifically she says that thoughts are manifested in our brains as actual matter. They grow on brain nerve endings like fruit on trees. If we spend 21 days thinking on the same thing, that will turn it into a solid ripe piece of brain fruit that can modify your behaviour. Like it says in Romans 12:2: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

She advises that you hear what the Spirit is saying to you about a toxic thought to replace and what to replace it with. Her book is well worth a read and implementation.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, good news, Law & Grace

Kneeling to Pray

October 1, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

The US NFL controversy (in 2017) brings up that old problem about a Christian’s submission to civil authority. On the one hand Romans 13:1-7 is very clear:

“Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. ²So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. ³For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. ⁴The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. ⁵So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.

⁶Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. ⁷Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.”

On the other hand the Scriptures have some clear examples of Christians not obeying the governing authorities of the day. In Acts 4:1-21 for example Peter and John have been hauled before the authorities of the day who “commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.” Their reply was “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? ²⁰We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

The two passages above describe the dilemma faced by Colin Kaepernick and other Christians like him who believe they are faced with the choice between honouring a flag / country and honouring Christ.

In fact we can all face the same dilemmas in some simple things like paying the full amount of taxes we owe or standing for the national anthem in Ireland as a Christian. If born again believers in the US have a problem with the President of that country because of his perceived stance on racism and decide to kneel during their national anthem as a result then what should we do who have an openly proselytising gay Taioseach and a lesbian Minister for Children?

Nothing? Perhaps. At least we can openly share the Gospel in this country. I would find it hard to come up with a Scriptural principle which says that we should oppose authorities (and only ever peacefully) over anything less than something I could not do even if they commanded me. For like Peter and John I can’t help but speak of the love of God expressed through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and of His wonderful resurrection life now living in and through me.

I really don’t want to make a fuss about anything else. It’s all secondary and not the main thing.

But if you believe God is calling you to take a stand on something like abortion or LGBT then who am I to say you are wrong?

Autobiographical, Discipleship Series, General Principles, Prophetic Writings

Fruit

September 23, 2017 faithfulwon 1 Comment

We have two fruit trees in our back garden, a plum and a pear tree. Both have produced an abundant crop this year (2017), a crop unlike any of the other 8-10 years they have been planted.

The fruit of the plum tree is super abundant. It is hard to imagine how such a small tree can produce so many plums. There must be at least a thousand plums on the tree.

Over the last few Sundays we have brought a lot of the plums to the church we attend where they were eagerly devoured in a matter of minutes. Olive also made a couple of plum tarts for the family which we all enjoyed. During the weeks of the harvest I have been eating a couple of plums a day, the rest of the family have been eating some as well.

However a lot of the fruit is not as sweet as we would like it to be. It’s quality is not great and we seem to remember that in other years the fruit tasted better even though there was much less of it.

During the months leading up to the harvest we neglected the tree. One day when I did get out to look at it late in the season before the fruit was ripe, I noticed that the tree was utterly infested with greenfly. The leaves were curling and some branches had grown with no fruit but totally covered with greenfly. I took away the worst infested of these. This action seemed to improve the situation later.

Nevertheless the fruit kept coming. In the end a lot of it fell off the tree and was inedible as soon as it was on the ground for any length of time. Slugs and other less visible insects quickly spoil the fruit. Some of it shriveled on the tree and never fully ripened, others were attacked by wasps and spiders while still on the tree.

At various stages I was torn as to whether to harvest the plums off the tree or not. We didn’t seem to get enough sun and the plums didn’t seem ready to fall off the tree.

I imagine this is a spiritual picture of what can happen if we neglect the spiritual fruit of our lives or allow sin to take over. The results can be mixed. Much of the fruit is good and useful but a lot is lost through neglect, disease and demon interference.

The pear tree has also produced a lot of fruit. There must have been about 100 pears.

In contrast with the plums this fruit is almost perfect. We have lost a couple to windfall but on the whole we have been very successful in harvesting and using them.

We brought some to the church, made cakes out of others and I and the family have been having one each per day for the last few weeks. The cakes didn’t last long.

Fruit is a seasonal phenomenon. Based on how little or how much attention we pay during the earlier parts of the year, and on the weather, next autumn there could be more or there might be very little fruit on the trees. Professional fruit growers seem to know how to produce a large, high quality fruit harvest on trees year after year though I think even they are at the mercy of the weather. It takes God’s favour, and a farmer’s skill, nurturing and time to create a consistently abundant, high quality harvest.

How is your fruit?

Discipleship Series, General Principles, good news

Significance

September 17, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

I was watching a documentary about the Voyager space missions called “The Farthest” last week.

For those who don’t know, the Voyager space missions took advantage of a rare planetary alignment to launch two space probes to explore the outer planets of the solar system. The missions started in the ’70’s and both probes are still transmitting back information to earth.

After watching the documentary and listening to the scientists and engineers who worked on the project, my overwhelming impression was one of pathetic insignificance. This is epitomized in a documentary by Carl Sagan who presented the speck of dust – the pale blue dot picture that was taken by Voyager 2 from somewhere beyond Neptune. Earth is seen as a barely perceptible speck in the brightest of the bands in the photo.

Many of the scientists talked during the documentary of how significant it was that mankind had managed to send a vehicle into outer interstellar space for the first time. But no, this is not Star Trek, not even close.

So I wake up for a morning’s quiet time with God.

“God I’m nothing.

Less than nothing.

We are all less than nothing.

Why do you bother?”

Then my sin – my falling short – pops up its ugly head again.

Like a fleshy root or fungal growth out of my flesh, like Alien it is too powerful for me. It looms large in my imagination, overwhelming me, threatening to completely take over my life and destroy it, me, my family and destroy Christ’s reputation in work, church, friends.

Whoa, stop, back up, it really is no more significant than I am. It’s also pathetic.

Then I hear a voice gently calling my name:

“Brendan”

“Yes, that’s pathetic little me” I think.

“Brendan”

Is that really the God of the universe calling my name?

“Brendan, I am LOVE, that’s why”

And then it all comes rushing back.

God is infinite powerful love.

He cares about me, us, everything.

One day He will put me to sleep and remove this sin that so easily entangles me maybe on my last mortal day, maybe before then.

In the meantime there are good works to do which He has prepared beforehand. Works that He cares about, works that give us significance.

What a wonder it is to be called a child of God!

Discipleship Series, good news

The Schoolyard

January 15, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

Jesus said that the people of his time were like children playing a game in the public square:

¹⁶“To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,

¹⁷‘We played wedding songs,
and you didn’t dance,
so we played funeral songs,
and you didn’t mourn.’

¹⁸For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

(Matthew 11:16-19 NLT).

This could probably translate to a schoolyard in our time just as well. In the passage he describes the reactions of the other children to John and himself. They are playing the normal games and these guys just won’t fit in.

I’ve tried to paraphrase it a bit, bring it up to date and look at it from a neutral observer’s point of view:

[A few days in] “So the other day we were playing the usual games of tag and the new guy – John – starts going on about something. He not only doesn’t want to play but he starts up a new thing of his own over near the drinking fountain. He doesn’t dress like the rest of us and he doesn’t go along with the gang. I think he has special needs.”

[Sometime later] “John has managed to get a surprising amount of people to put their heads under the drinking fountain! The teachers are getting involved now. He has even been telling them they are wrong in what they are teaching in religion class! Apparently he doesn’t agree with them saying one thing and doing another. Keeps going on about judgement coming. I don’t think the teachers like it much. I still think he has special needs.”

[Later still] “John’s cousin turned up today. The first thing he did was to go up and put his head under the drinking fountain.”

[Later] “John has got expelled. His cousin is hanging out with all the druggies, drinkers and girls who everyone knows have slept around. It seems like he has gone the complete opposite direction to his cousin. I don’t think the teachers like him either though.”

So I guess we all know how this ends. But at the time Jesus drew this analogy (in Matthew 11:16-19) this was roughly where things were at.

Interestingly, it wasn’t that either John or Jesus were wrong even though they both had such polar opposite ways of approaching their relationships with their peers. John is confrontational, Jesus is winsome (at least at this point – that changes later). Jesus ends his little analogy with the comment that there is wisdom in both approaches.

I think teenagers in particular struggle with that breadth of acceptance of those they perceive to be different. But they are not the only ones.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, good news

Be Attitudes – repost

January 6, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

This post first appeared in Aug 2015

The eight beatitudes are nearly the first thing Jesus says in the Gospels. They reveal His heart.

These are the types of people God has time for:

The poor in spirit. People with this attitude are the opposite to the pushy, showy type that is always in your face and who is full of self importance. We all know someone who is “poor in spirit” but filled with the Spirit. That’s because the Holy Spirit is, like Jesus, humble and gentle at heart. These are the type of people that get into heaven.

Those who mourn. In this life there will always be mourners. At some stage we all are likely to mourn the loss of someone we love. Jesus knows that and says He will comfort us.

Those who are humble. I’m not sure what the difference between these are and the poor in spirit. Nor do I know why they inherit the earth specifically. Perhaps there isn’t supposed to be a difference. The lowly in heart get both heaven and the earth.

Those who hunger and thirst for justice. Jesus knew these guys would be satisfied. He also knew at what cost that would be to Him. There will be justice also for those who refuse to receive the grace of God and create injustice.

The merciful. This is something we should all do. We will all need mercy.

The pure in heart. These will see God.

The peacemakers. Peacemakers are not looking out for their own wants, but are involved in reconciling opposing parties. Everyone can see that they are children of the God of peace.

Those who do what is right. You don’t have to explicitly do something in the name of Christ for this to apply to you. Anyone who stands up for the oppressed or does what Jesus would do might be persecuted for it. These also are the types of courageous people God wants with Him in heaven.

Jesus’ followers. Be prepared to be mocked, persecuted and lied about. But be very happy about it when you are!

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
⁵Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
⁷Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
⁸Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
⁹Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3-10

Discipleship Series, General Principles

First Tested then Trusted

January 4, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” (Matt. 4:1)

So God decides to face the tempter head on immediately as a man. We shouldn’t think it strange when we face various trials (1 Peter 4:12). God is confident that we will overcome (1 Cor. 13:7). Later on though Jesus teaches His disciples to pray “Lead us not into temptation”, which is a good idea (Matthew 6:13). He probably remembered the trial of it and wouldn’t want us to go through that if it could be helped.

Jesus deals with all the temptations in the same way – He quotes the Scriptures. The devil does too but the heart of what he is saying is wrong.

Once Jesus passes through this He is ready to call disciples after Him. First tested, then trusted. That’s a sequence we all have to follow.

Matthew 4:1-22

Discipleship Series, General Principles

This is My Beloved Son

January 3, 2017 faithfulwon Leave a comment

Matthew skips straight from the dream led wanderings of Joseph – Jesus’ step father – through the ministry of John the Baptist to the baptism in the Holy Spirit (and fire) of Jesus. And then the Father is recorded as saying, without more ado:

“This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:17

I think Matthew is trying to bring out the point that the well pleasing of the Son was there anyway independent of anything He had done to that point. That is the way a son ought to be to a father, well pleasing. The beloved aspect starts at birth and goes on through all their mutual lives. The well pleasing isn’t always consistently the case for any normal father son relationship. In that way this particular relationship was different.

But if there was any thing that triggered the comment from the Father that He was well pleased with Jesus, it was His submission to all the righteousness of the Spirit of God through baptism. There is something significant about obeying God that way. In this case the baptism in water was accompanied by the baptism in the Holy Spirit and both could be seen happening.

Matthew 2:19 – 3:17

Discipleship Series, General Principles

The threefold nature of success

March 9, 2016 faithfulwon Leave a comment

Nature

Just like you had no control over what parents you have, the colour of your eyes or hair or where you were born, so also you do not have control of the talents you were born with. God the Father gave them to you and expects you to use them (Matt. 25:14-30).

Nurture

We are all given opportunities to develop at least some of our talents. Hard work is a key to success when directed along the path of our natural God given talents. It is Jesus who enables this also though. As Paul said: “I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Cor. 15:10)

Anointing

If someone could bottle and reproduce the form of Leicester City in the Premier League or an athlete breaking a world record when they are not on drugs they might be able to capture the thing many observers call “flow”. Flow is something that seems most akin to anointing by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20) . David knew it as did the prophets and we can know it too. It is that difficult to explain thing that causes upsets in competitions and enables anyone to make the fullest use of their God given talents and hard work. Ask and you will receive.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

The Lord is my Shepherd

March 7, 2016 faithfulwon Leave a comment

The image of us being sheep and God being our good shepherd is sprinkled lavishly across the Scripture both new and old. Whole chapters are devoted to the idea (Psalm 23, John 10). Men are like sheep to be slaughtered (Psalm 44:11), lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7) and scattered sheep (Matthew 9:36). Sheep bully other sheep (Ezekiel 34:17-22). The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11).

sheep

There are 7 billion people on the earth. Of those a tiny fraction are ever in the news personally. Often groups of people are mentioned and people are tarred with the same brush, but that never tells the story of a single soul. There are wars and rumours of wars and too many people live in absolute poverty and in ignorance.

But lift your eyes from the news and see what God has done. There are 7 billion people in the world and most of them are at peace. For many the Lord is their shepherd and where that is the case they lack nothing, He supplies good food, He leads them in peaceful places and restores their souls. These ones – and I like to count me and my family among them – walk in righteousness so as not to bring shame to the character of Christ. Yes we go through bad times but He is always there with us. He uses the long, thin rod of discipline to keep us on the right path at such times and we know that His staff is strong enough to beat away all wolves. Even in the midst of the devil and his angels, thrown down to the earth and as angry as hell, we still enjoy His presence and our lives are full and overflowing. He takes what we are and have and anoints us to bless us and cause our works to multiply. As we go on with Him, we leave a legacy of goodness and mercy behind us. It is truly wonderful to know that this living with Him continues forever. (Psalm 23).

The grace of God has abundantly produced good in this world despite the depravity of man. Let us think about those things instead of always watching and believing the news.

Nature

Nurture

Anointing

A Christian in a relationship