The Cross

To accept the cross is to deny all you value in life. We are a proud people, sensual and self seeking, desiring for pleasure. The cross tells us we are wrong. The cross says you must take this shape, that you are wrong about what life is and life is...only when it takes the form of the cross. The world lives in hostility to the cross, yet Christ was crucified to the world through the cross and the world to Him. Christians are required to live in the shadow of the cross. "He who does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me". Matt. 10:38 Bonhoeffer said, "when Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die." We have no reason or right to choose a different path than the path God chose for Christ Jesus. The cross is the pattern of our lives. We should place all our desires and egos on the cross. The occupied church will not take this danger on nor risk this call. It is much easier for the occupied church to draw up a list of moral code and attempt to give us security in that instead of Holy security. Our faith, Christianity, cannot be blended with "celebrity". They cannot blend, either you have one or you have another. They do not convert they confirm that the if the church looks like the world it is the world.
But we know there are enemies in the camp and our goal is to convert people to the cross. Jesus did not die at the hands of muggers and rapists, He fell to the well scrubbed hands of lawyers, statesman, professors, societies most respected members. Bonhoeffer says cheap grace is grace without a cross. I say I agree, do you?

Discipling is the answer today.

Large ministries, like large bank accounts, most often become monsters that devour their leaders. Our goal as church leaders should not be to grow large ministries that reach unchurched people but to build discipling ministries that develop mature followers of Christ who, in turn, reach large numbers of unchurched people.

As I sit here and type, I am listening to a friend who has called me and is talking to me about his passion for the Lord! How often do we hear passion for the Lord in our day to day conversation. How often have we had opportunity to speak with passion but we have none to be found. I believe it is in being radically saved that we are radical for Christ. I love the heart at which a new believer often speaks of his love for Christ to unbelievers. I am saddened by the unwillingness of "mature" believers to not share the Gospel to the unchurched. It is interesting to me that we have taken the word "mature" and made an assumption that any people who are of years in the Gospel faith are mature believers.

Mature believers are believers that understand the need for prayer, the need for meditating over the word, people whose heart break for the lost and ache for their Saviors touch! They do not judge harshly for they know they will be judged harshly, they have empathy yet they do not water down the Gospel, they discern when and how to rebuke, teach and be silent. This is what discipling is and this is who should be discipling. When we learn to disciple we will reap the souls of the harvest.

So Help Me God

Long ago but not so far away in a different time, a protest took place against the powers and politicians that seized power and control over palestine. Jesus, the candidate of their choice and life, on that final march, that Triumphant Entry that became a Tragic Ending "looked over the city and cried". He saw the venders on the side of the road selling their own brand of T-Shirts and slogans. I can just imagine them, "Jesus - Free US" "Put the Pilot Out" "Romans Rot" "Jews Rule" "Yahweh or the highway".
Yet Jesus made no speech on the Mount of Olives. He didn't ask for a televised debate. He didn't even endorse or approve anyone's ad. When Pilot asked him face to face, "What is truth?" Jesus answered with silence, not a word. I think his beholding piercing gaze said it all "You're looking at it".
May all us seek "the truth that sets us free". "Yet for your sakes he became poor so that through his poverty you might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9 As I sat today in a Book Study learning about what it is to be in a relationship with Christ and what it means to offer your all to God, I came to remember how hard it is to give up your self interest and trust His. To give up your "right to know" and trust His leadership in your life is easier said than done.
My prayer for you is to be "invaded" by the Holy Spirit that you would know what it means to truly die to self that He might live!

Randy