Category Archives: Discipleship Series

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

The Lord is my Shepherd

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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.

Autobiographical, Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

Resting in God’s Protection

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The Psalms have several recurrent themes. One of them is that God’s protection is around those who trust in Him (see for example Psalm 125:2).

I have found that trust is an active thing on my part – I have to actively trust God by committing things to Him, praying to Him, spending time with Him and, very importantly, obeying what I believe He is saying to me. I can’t just carry on my own way and then say that I am trusting God.

There are things I have to do deliberately to ensure that I am trusting Him. One of these is to discipline my time so that I have set aside times in the day and the week to spend time praying alone with Him and reading the Scriptures. Another is to obey the commands that I am not to worry or be afraid, that I am to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:17). These are not always easy commands to obey and work is required to carry them out.

We have just finished a series of studies of James at our local church, Open Arms. Works and faith go hand in hand.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, His Story

Watch your heart!

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Spirit Radio’s word for today was from Proverbs: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23.

I’m reading through the bible again and again there is this ongoing theme throughout about the first commandment:  Love God above all and first of all.

Time and again (and again and again) the message comes through “Don’t worship false idols”. This is a matter of the heart’s direction. Take it from me, after 35 years I know what this means. My heart and its leanings have determined the course of my life. It is the same for everyone.

So what does it mean to “Guard your heart”? To me it seems obvious that it means to keep it focused on obeying those commandments that Jesus said sums up every commandment:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart……”

What direction are you going in?

Discipleship Series, faith, General Principles

Believe

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There is a wonderful Hebrew word called אָמֵן, ‘ʾāmēn’ from which we get our word “amen“. According to Strong’s Concordance it means “Be established, firm”. But it can also mean “Believe” and shows the connection between stability and faith that James talks about in James 1:6-8:

“6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

There is a place for being absolutely dogged and firm when it comes to doing and thinking what we believe is right. Faith, in a deep sense, means to stand firm (cf. Ephesians 6).

Autobiographical, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Not my will but yours be done

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Wouldn’t it be great if our wills and God’s were always perfectly aligned like Jesus’ will is?

Oh, wait, he did say “Not my will but yours be done” on one occasion (Matthew 26:39). I guess then that makes him more like us than would otherwise be the case.Prince of Peace Hillsong

“Not my will but yours be done” I’ve said to my Father about a thing I don’t want to do.
Just so you know, it doesn’t compare in any way with what Jesus had to go through, in fact if I told you what it was you would think, wow, can I do it instead if you don’t want to? In fact I am competing to do it. The only similarity is that I don’t want to do it but I believe my Father wants me to do it. Mind you that wouldn’t be the first time that happened sadly.

No one – except God – can really share your pain and neither can anyone really know your joy (Proverbs 14:10). We are all so different. But His love surrounds us when our thoughts wage war and all our emotions are like a volcano inside. He is the Prince of Peace.

Not my will but Yours be done!

Discipleship Series, General Principles, good news

A Step Up: Rejoice Always

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Yesterday I posted an Old Testament command to not allow feelings of depression to overcome me.  Or at least that is the way I interpreted Joshua 1:9 and, with some success but also some failure, put into practice yesterday.  Being brave and not allowing myself to be discouraged certainly beats moping about all day (or even moping for an hour or any amount of time). This morning the Lord brought to my mind the New Testament command (by the Spirit through Paul in 1 Thess. 5:16-18) to:

  1. Rejoice always
  2. Pray without ceasing
  3. In everything give thanks

Which is a step up on what I was putting into practice yesterday.

The Holy Spirit in us is our hope and one of the fruits of the Spirit is self control.  If God is commanding this then it must be possible.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out.

This is God’s Word and it is either living and active to you or it is not.  If this word is living and active to you then why not put it into practice?  He wouldn’t have brought it to your attention unless He wanted to give you the strength to also do it.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, good news

Be Attitudes

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

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

11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:3-11

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 are always in your face and who are 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 (Matt. 11:29).  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!

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Law & Grace

Priorities

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Pierce my earI was speaking recently with a good friend about the law and he said to put the word “instruction” where you see the word “law” and that gives a better sense of the meaning.

So what is the next instruction that God puts in Exodus after the Ten Commandments? Actually it is about altars. But what is the one after that (in Exodus 21)?

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. 3 If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him.

4 “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. 5 But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ 6 If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.”

I don’t want to go free, God has given me everything.  Pierce my ear to the door of your house, O Lord!

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Law & Grace

Doing away with law

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law-books1So here’s the thing:  any law gives sin power (Romans 7:13) and fallen human nature being what it is as soon as we see a law we long to break it (Romans 7:21-24). To make things worse, there can be great pleasure in breaking laws.

But I’m not living on that planet. Well I am but my spirit isn’t. I’m somewhere else (Ephesians 2:6). I died to the law when I was born again to a new life in the Kingdom of Light, the one where the great Lover is king.

I recently asked a friend to quote the 10 commandments. She began by saying: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. And love your neighbour as yourself.”  (Matthew 22:34-40). Just like a true Christian should. It’s all about love. We have died to the law (all laws including the ones in the bible) and now we live in a love relationship with Yeshua (Romans 7). Of course, being in love, all our thoughts are wrapped up in Him and what we can do to please Him.

There is a problem – we are in a long distance relationship. We are in love, so He lives by His Spirit in our hearts, we know what He wants, we can hear His voice in our hearts and follow in His ways. But He is not here bodily, He is in heaven. Thankfully He sent us a lot of good love letters over the ages which tell us all sorts of His/stories about how He deals with people and what pleases Him and what doesn’t. Included among them are a lot of commandments, laws and prescriptions for life. We don’t have to do them of course – we are not under law – but if we do them we may find that that pleases Him depending on the law and the heart with which we carry it out. Laws are also a good way of checking if we are still in first love. If they are a burden to carry out then it is probable that we are not in first love. His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). Sacrifice doesn’t feel like sacrifice when it is done in love (Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9:13, 12:7).

So recently I’ve been challenged to think about doing those laws that please Him like keeping the Sabbath holy. For me the Spirit in me is indicating that that means sitting around all day reading the bible, which is nice. He also has shown me that (again for me- we are not under any law in these matters) that it starts at 6pm on a Friday evening and ends at 6pm on a Saturday. The great thing is that you can take it or leave it, I on the other hand, have so enjoyed the extra fellowship and time with my first Love that I can’t wait to do it again. Well I can but you know what I mean.