discipleship

BRING IT ON!

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PRAY 9

Dear Heavenly Dad:

Glorify your name in all that I do. Let not my path be one of ease and comfort, but one of challenge and dependency on you. You are always with me. Help me always be with you. Make you the center of my life. Let nothing come between us. Help me capture your vision, to see your work, to accomplish your will in everything I do.

Help me be a living example of kingdom life in today’s world. Let your kingdom surround me and surround all the people we meet today. Let your glory shine through me and in me so that every person we meet today knows they have met you. Amen.

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“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34

 

                        ”Play it safe.” “Don’t take any risks.” “Why rock the boat?” “It’s better to keep it dull and routine than expressive and unpredictable.” Or does it?

      The older I become the more predictable, dull, and routine this life seeks. What change I am confronted with only creates more work and effort on my part. Basically, my nature has moved towards laziness where I don’t want to make the effort. I would rather live life with contentment, peacefulness, and stability. But is that reality?

      The scriptures teach us that a people without vision will perish. We need a mission to focus our life towards. Now our life’s mission could simply be to avoid all confrontation, to avoid being involved in other people’s lives, to live for ourselves without a care of the world around us. We simple live our life so that when we are gone no one will have missed us. We live as a world unto ourselves. But is that an apprentice of Jesus Christ? Is that what the Kingdom of God is all about?

      Didn’t Jesus forewarn his disciples that He came to bring division among families and people? Didn’t He predict that we would stand before courts and rulers as a witness to Him’? Didn’t He compare our struggles with that of a pregnant woman in labor? Didn’t He threaten the status quo with His mission of preaching, teaching, and healing? Didn’t the apostle Paul write that Christ-followers are turning the world upside down? Didn’t he cause riots in the streets with his message of One God? Didn’t his former religious partners seek to destroy him? Didn’t small armies pursue him with the purpose of killing him? How controversial was he in his time? Yet didn’t he preach a message of peace, contentment, and stability?

            The Kingdom of God is not a tamed vision. It requires total surrender. It requires the death of selfish desires. It is not the path of least resistance. Instead, it’s a journey through battlefields. With the armor of God, we are proactive in our daily walk with Him. We do not know what to expect on any given day. All we know is that He is with us. Today may be a roller coaster of emotions, struggles with the self, darts from the evil one, or attacks from love ones. Through it all though, we have an Advocate who is with us and we rely on. In prayer and through faith we call for assistance. We move forward towards our heavenly call. Our mission is sure. Yes, we may desire the easy way out. But, as a disciple of His we have agreed to take whatever comes our way and handle it with His love. We may have initially desired tame visions, but in the pursuit of the Kingdom of God we take on more than we are capable of handling apart from Him. Yes, I like it dull, routine, and boring. But I gladly take whatever comes my way because it will make me stronger for the Kingdom, stronger for Him, and stronger for my love ones.

              Dr. Mike

How Often Do You Look Back?

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A DISCIPLE’S PRAYER:

Our Gracious Dad,

PRAY 9

            Thank you for the privilege of being a disciple of Jesus. Of all the occupations in this world, I can’t think of one that provides the challenges, fulfillment, and rewards than being a committed disciple of our Lord. We have no regrets for making the decision years ago. Our only regret is that others have not yet captured your vision. Help me live a life worthy of discipleship. Help me live a life that glorifies you.

 

            Again, thank you Jesus for clothing me with your righteousness. Thank you for being my elder Brother, Lord, Savior, and Friend. Thank you for opening the doors to have a relationship with all of you.

            Again, we thank you for you. We ask for your continual blessings in our Lord’s name.   Amen.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

“For many are called, but few are chosen.” Mathew 22:14

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Can You Truly Say”There Is No Going Back Now?”

 This is one of those scriptures that always puzzles me.  Jesus states, after His parable on the wedding feast where a man  is thrown  out because he was not properly dressed, that “many are called, but few are chosen.” I have heard many interpretations of this scripture and they all seem feasible. But the one that stands out and grabs me more often relates to personal commitment.

truth 12“Many are called” refers to the millions who have heard the message of the kingdom of God and to have an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Dad. “But few are chosen,” means that not all who are called are allowed to take part in the entire Christian celebration because they are not properly clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The wedding garment pictures the righteousness that comes outside of our keeping the law which includes any work or activity that we do to make ourselves right before God. When we realize what the entire sacrifice of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection truly means, we humbly accept His authority into our life. Yet to totally surrender your life to Jesus, to trust in His salvation takes faith and a personal commitment to keep moving forward no matter what happens in the process.  Jesus Himself stated that no person who looks back at what he has given up for the kingdom of God is worthy to accept His calling (Luke 9:62).

       My father emigrated from Poland via Germany to the United States after WWII. When he stepped over the boundary of Poland into Germany he left behind all his earthy possessions: his farm and blacksmith business, family, friends, and everything else we as humans cling to in this life. He stepped over the line realizing that he was never going back and that whatever he left behind was not worth what lied before him. He immigrated  into the U.S. and never regretted it. He was more blessed in this country compared to what he gave up. He made the commitment to accept the choice and pay whatever price he had to when he crossed over the line. We likewise made the decision to step over the line; the line that separates God’s Kingdom from earthly powers; the line that separates Christ-centered discipleship from church membership,  the line that separates total surrender from self-gratification. The line has been drawn. We have to make the final decision whether or not we are going to take the step. If we don’t, then we will never become a disciple of His. If we do, we have His promises, His commitment, and His future to secure us. The decision may be initially difficult to make, but when made, it brings a sense of peace and challenge into one’s life. It gives you the peace of Christ which supersedes all understanding (Phil 4:7) and the greatest challenge this life has to offer  – To be a disciple of His.

How committed are we to keep moving forward rather than look back at what we gave up?

Dr. Mike

“BE STILL…” ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

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           “Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”

Palms 46:10 (NIV)

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             In today’s culture, where multiple activities, performance-orientation, and the push to achieve greater results are the showcase of a successful life, it is easy to get caught up living the same trap, being so busy that God is pushed out of the picture and the relationship becomes stranded. When we become the center of attention rather than God, and the self is more important in the equation than God, we have lost our greatest strength.  By always first applying Palms 46:10 in the equation, it allows us to focus our lives and participate with “God’s work through us” rather than jump into our work “hoping God will bless it.”  When we stop ourselves to focus on God first, God allows us to capture a better glimpse of his majesty and power.

Every relationship takes time to build and the more intimate relationship even takes greater time. In Luke 10:38-41, Mary sits still before Jesus listening to His teaching while her sister Martha is busy with the necessary activity to provide for the hospitality of their guests. Jesus even states that Mary has chosen the better of the two. In my early twenties when we were very performance-oriented and moved mountains before even asked to, we approached life from the perspective of starting first, then asking God’s blessing on it after starting, and wonder how come things wouldn’t work out as planned. It took awhile to learn how to determine whether a project was my ministry, the church’s or God’s.  It took time to reach the point where we wouldn’t even begin a project until we “first heard from God”.  Over time, we leaned the difference between seeing the hand of God on a project versus only our hand.  Many times God had to intervene to safe us from ourselves.

Of the various individuals who have impacted me, none other than George Mueller would qualify for the top ten list.  His faith to perform a work and wait on God to provide is a lesson for all to take heart.  His experience and confirmation of God’s involvement was constantly demonstrated by the miracles of assistance without asking anyone but God in prayer. He ministered to over 10,000 children without asking for assistance from anyone but God. Therefore, he knew God’s hand was involved through the entire process and it strengthen him during the low moments of his ministry.

Trust begins with baby steps and over time leads to the Mueller experience. Since we are all on a journey of transformation in Christ, why not stop kidding ourselves and begin to live the adventurous life of a saint. I assure you. If you started a written journal today, you would find by life-end a story worth publishing into a Hollywood movie.  It all starts with “Being Still…”

Dr. Mike

What will it take for you to be still for one day?