The followers of Jesus live for His sake. They renounce every personal right.
"The only way to overcome evil is to let it run its course so that it does not find the resistance it is looking for. Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames. But when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacle but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn, and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match. Of course this can only happen when the last ounce of resistance is abandoned, and the renunciation of revenge is complete. Then evil cannot find its mark, and it can breed no further evil, and is left barren."
By willing endurance we cause suffering to pass over our heads.
Suffering willingly endured is stronger than evil, stronger than the death of the evil person.
"There is no deed on earth so outrageous to justify a different attitude. The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he must leave the evil person for Jesus to deal with, for that is no concern of his."
This is truth. I've experienced it. Thank you, LORD!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Cost of Discipleship: Truthfulness
The truth of every word a disciple utters must be above suspicion.
"The commandment of absolute truthfulness is really only another name for the fullness of discipleship."
It is only because we follow Jesus that we can be genuinely truthful, for then He reveals to us our sin upon the cross.
Truth towards Jesus also means truth towards man. Untruthfulness destroys fellowship, but truth cuts false fellowship to pieces and establishes genuine brotherhood.
"The commandment of absolute truthfulness is really only another name for the fullness of discipleship."
It is only because we follow Jesus that we can be genuinely truthful, for then He reveals to us our sin upon the cross.
Truth towards Jesus also means truth towards man. Untruthfulness destroys fellowship, but truth cuts false fellowship to pieces and establishes genuine brotherhood.
Cost of Discipleship: Woman
To follow Jesus means self-renunciation and absolute adherence to Him, and therefore a will dominated by lust can never be allowed to do what it likes.
Lust is unpure because it is unbelief, and therefore it is to be shunned.
The gains of lust are trivial compared with the loss it brings--you forfeit your body eternally for momentary pleasure.
Marriage is consecrated to the service of love, which is possible only in a life of discipleship. Christianity sanctifies marriage. The law helps to uphold the purity of marriage.
Protect your marriage. It is a beautiful thing.
Lust is unpure because it is unbelief, and therefore it is to be shunned.
The gains of lust are trivial compared with the loss it brings--you forfeit your body eternally for momentary pleasure.
Marriage is consecrated to the service of love, which is possible only in a life of discipleship. Christianity sanctifies marriage. The law helps to uphold the purity of marriage.
Protect your marriage. It is a beautiful thing.
Cost of Discipleship: Brother
To be a disciple means to be completely innocent of anger.
"Anger is always an attack on the brother's life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction. Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offense against both God and his neighbor."
The way of a disciple is self-denial. Every time we utter a word out of respect for our neighbor we place our life above his. The angry word is a blow--struck to destroy. Open insults are worse because we are disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world. This causes our hearts to burn with hatred. We are passing judgment on him and this is murder. There will be judgment for it.
He who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.
We need to be reconciled with our brother.
The way of self-denial is the way of the cross.
"Anger is always an attack on the brother's life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction. Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offense against both God and his neighbor."
The way of a disciple is self-denial. Every time we utter a word out of respect for our neighbor we place our life above his. The angry word is a blow--struck to destroy. Open insults are worse because we are disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world. This causes our hearts to burn with hatred. We are passing judgment on him and this is murder. There will be judgment for it.
He who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.
We need to be reconciled with our brother.
The way of self-denial is the way of the cross.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Ode to how we "poverty"
What is poverty?
We define it in terms of "stuff." People don't have "stuff" or access to "stuff." Even the Church defines it as "stuff" so we give "stuff" to the poor.
We think poverty is materialistic, so by giving people whatever material thing they need we can help fight poverty.
Besides being wrong and short-sighted it does not work. Many think they are truly fighting poverty, but they are maintaining it at best.
But, this is, after all, how we "poverty."
And, after all, scripture tells us that clearly "the poor will always be among us" which leaves us duty bound to do something. I mean, anything really. Just something. Even Jesus hung out with the poor people so I guess we should, too.
This is how we "poverty."
OR--if we are REALLY serious about poverty we may even take a mission exposure trip. You know, one of those trips that have good intentions, but are really just poverty tourism in another part of the world, or even worse, in our own community as a church group signs up to serve dinner in The Salvation Army homeless shelter once because, after all, that is doing something. We poverty tourism in our own community.
This is how we "poverty."
OR--if we are REALLY, REALLY serious and good Christians we will financially support someone or something else that is povertying in some way. Then, we can say, we have paid our poverty indulgences to God and can live in a clear conscience. Oh, Luther and the Church and the sale of indulgences! Nothing is new under the sun. We can even pre-pay our povertying.
Now, not all who do this are trying to short-change their Christian duty and I want to acknowledge that. There are many, if not most perhaps, who even financially support or serve in organizations because they truly want to get involved and to serve out of devotion to their Lord. This is great. They simply do not understand poverty.
Why?
Poverty is a mind-set. You can't just give "stuff" to change a way of thinking. If you give someone fifty food boxes with a smile and a "Jesus loves you" it may not mean much to them. It's not that those giving the boxes aren't sincere or that those receiving the boxes aren't grateful.
It's more than. It's feeling inferior to whoever is giving "stuff" because they hold the power and every time you "need" them you are reminded that you do not hold even the own power to care for yourself or your children.
It's feeling ashamed (although, some people adapt to this well and take on the mantle of entitlement).
It's feeling stuck and depressed in a cycle that you have no idea of how to climb out of or how you ended up there in the first place.
It's the lack of contact. Yes, you have received fifty food boxes from the same people but you know them and they know you just the same as the first time you came for a food box. Nothing has changed. It's like a dirty transaction. You don't know their story and they don't know yours--at least not much of it.
It's feeling humiliated.
It's not being treated with dignity.
It's social isolation.
It's voicelessness.
It's continual fear--the struggle.
It's hopelessness.
It is everything that is not Jesus. That is poverty.
To combat the mindset of poverty takes time. Lots of time. It is intentional relationship building. It is not doing for someone what they can do for themselves. It is realizing that giving someone a handout may do more harm than good. It's multifaceted and doesn't have easy answers.
It is easy to think, or perhaps even tell, someone that they should budget their money better. But it is an entirely different think to sit down with someone and teach them how to budget their money and then walk with them and hold them accountable to do it.
Relationships are key throughout the Bible. Our systems are bad because relationships are bad.
One writer says, "poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings."
People have a poverty of being. This includes the haves and the have nots, the Church and those outside the Church. We are mutually broken on both sides of the fence (why there even is an "us" and "them" is an entirely different topic--one that warrants its own merit some day).
We don't need to have "god complexes" (we are superior while they are inferior) to save people. We need to recognize that we are all journeying through life together. In fact, we do not need to save them. We need to focus on saving ourselves and, as an outflow of that communion with God, allow Him to lead us to relationships with others and let Him do the saving. We just get to be part of it.
This is why the poverty situation for some people does not change. She will still be coming for the food box. She's still broken. So are you. Until someone realizes it and does something about it, she will receive her smile and "Jesus loves you."
We define it in terms of "stuff." People don't have "stuff" or access to "stuff." Even the Church defines it as "stuff" so we give "stuff" to the poor.
We think poverty is materialistic, so by giving people whatever material thing they need we can help fight poverty.
Besides being wrong and short-sighted it does not work. Many think they are truly fighting poverty, but they are maintaining it at best.
But, this is, after all, how we "poverty."
And, after all, scripture tells us that clearly "the poor will always be among us" which leaves us duty bound to do something. I mean, anything really. Just something. Even Jesus hung out with the poor people so I guess we should, too.
This is how we "poverty."
OR--if we are REALLY serious about poverty we may even take a mission exposure trip. You know, one of those trips that have good intentions, but are really just poverty tourism in another part of the world, or even worse, in our own community as a church group signs up to serve dinner in The Salvation Army homeless shelter once because, after all, that is doing something. We poverty tourism in our own community.
This is how we "poverty."
OR--if we are REALLY, REALLY serious and good Christians we will financially support someone or something else that is povertying in some way. Then, we can say, we have paid our poverty indulgences to God and can live in a clear conscience. Oh, Luther and the Church and the sale of indulgences! Nothing is new under the sun. We can even pre-pay our povertying.
Now, not all who do this are trying to short-change their Christian duty and I want to acknowledge that. There are many, if not most perhaps, who even financially support or serve in organizations because they truly want to get involved and to serve out of devotion to their Lord. This is great. They simply do not understand poverty.
Why?
Poverty is a mind-set. You can't just give "stuff" to change a way of thinking. If you give someone fifty food boxes with a smile and a "Jesus loves you" it may not mean much to them. It's not that those giving the boxes aren't sincere or that those receiving the boxes aren't grateful.
It's more than. It's feeling inferior to whoever is giving "stuff" because they hold the power and every time you "need" them you are reminded that you do not hold even the own power to care for yourself or your children.
It's feeling ashamed (although, some people adapt to this well and take on the mantle of entitlement).
It's feeling stuck and depressed in a cycle that you have no idea of how to climb out of or how you ended up there in the first place.
It's the lack of contact. Yes, you have received fifty food boxes from the same people but you know them and they know you just the same as the first time you came for a food box. Nothing has changed. It's like a dirty transaction. You don't know their story and they don't know yours--at least not much of it.
It's feeling humiliated.
It's not being treated with dignity.
It's social isolation.
It's voicelessness.
It's continual fear--the struggle.
It's hopelessness.
It is everything that is not Jesus. That is poverty.
To combat the mindset of poverty takes time. Lots of time. It is intentional relationship building. It is not doing for someone what they can do for themselves. It is realizing that giving someone a handout may do more harm than good. It's multifaceted and doesn't have easy answers.
It is easy to think, or perhaps even tell, someone that they should budget their money better. But it is an entirely different think to sit down with someone and teach them how to budget their money and then walk with them and hold them accountable to do it.
Relationships are key throughout the Bible. Our systems are bad because relationships are bad.
One writer says, "poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings."
People have a poverty of being. This includes the haves and the have nots, the Church and those outside the Church. We are mutually broken on both sides of the fence (why there even is an "us" and "them" is an entirely different topic--one that warrants its own merit some day).
We don't need to have "god complexes" (we are superior while they are inferior) to save people. We need to recognize that we are all journeying through life together. In fact, we do not need to save them. We need to focus on saving ourselves and, as an outflow of that communion with God, allow Him to lead us to relationships with others and let Him do the saving. We just get to be part of it.
This is why the poverty situation for some people does not change. She will still be coming for the food box. She's still broken. So are you. Until someone realizes it and does something about it, she will receive her smile and "Jesus loves you."
Cost of Disipleship: The Righteousness of Christ
Which is our final authority, Christ or the law? To which are we bound?
Discipleship means adherence to Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ fulfills the law. Is one a disciple if they strictly adhere to the law?
No.
"Adherence to the law is something different from following Christ...it means that a legalistic adherence to His person is equally removed from the following of Him. It is, however, Jesus Himself who points to the law those to whom He has granted His whole promise and His whole fellowship. Because it is their LORD who does this, they are bound to acknowledge the law. The question inevitably arises, which is our final authority, Christ or the law? To which are we bound? Christ has said that no law was to be allowed to come between Him and His disciples. Now He tells us that to abandon the law would be to separate ourselves from Him. What exactly does He mean?"
Difference between old law and new law. New law because Christ binds his followers to it.
The law is required to enter the kingdom of heaven, for it is the indispensable condition of discipleship.
The law is not itself God, nor is God the law.
Only in personal communion with Him is the law fulfilled.
Jesus, the champion of the true law, must suffer at the hands of the champions of the false law.
The law matters. It matters to Jesus. It matters to me as a follower of Jesus. I must abide by the law.
"It is possible to teach the law without fulfilling it" (pg. 107)
Only the doer of the law can remain in communion with Jesus.
"Again, it is not enough to teach the law of Christ, it must be done" (pg.109)
Discipleship means adherence to Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ fulfills the law. Is one a disciple if they strictly adhere to the law?
No.
"Adherence to the law is something different from following Christ...it means that a legalistic adherence to His person is equally removed from the following of Him. It is, however, Jesus Himself who points to the law those to whom He has granted His whole promise and His whole fellowship. Because it is their LORD who does this, they are bound to acknowledge the law. The question inevitably arises, which is our final authority, Christ or the law? To which are we bound? Christ has said that no law was to be allowed to come between Him and His disciples. Now He tells us that to abandon the law would be to separate ourselves from Him. What exactly does He mean?"
Difference between old law and new law. New law because Christ binds his followers to it.
The law is required to enter the kingdom of heaven, for it is the indispensable condition of discipleship.
The law is not itself God, nor is God the law.
Only in personal communion with Him is the law fulfilled.
Jesus, the champion of the true law, must suffer at the hands of the champions of the false law.
The law matters. It matters to Jesus. It matters to me as a follower of Jesus. I must abide by the law.
"It is possible to teach the law without fulfilling it" (pg. 107)
Only the doer of the law can remain in communion with Jesus.
"Again, it is not enough to teach the law of Christ, it must be done" (pg.109)
Cost of Discipleship: The Visible Community
The disciples of Jesus are to be the salt of the earth.
Jesus calls from the salt of the earth.
Salt is the most "indispensable necessity of life."
Jesus calls his disciples to be the salt of the earth (not Himself) because He entrusts His work to them.
The disciple community must be faithful to the mission the call of Christ has given it. (Think of this in the context of our beloved Army... what happens when we are not faithful to the mission that the call of Christ has given us...?)
In the imperishability of salt we have we have a guarantee of the permanence of the divine community.
"Ye are the salt." Jesus does not say: "You must be the salt." It is not for the disciples to decide whether they will be the sale of the earth, for they are so whether they like it or not, they have been made salt by the call they have received.
The call of Christ makes those who response to it the salt of the earth.
Salt can lose its saltiness.
"The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed between it. There is no question of a second chance."
The call makes disciples the light of the world.
This light is not an instrument that has been put into the disciples hands, such as their preaching. It is the disciples themselves.
The call can be denied. Extinguished. This happens due to fear, idols, false allegiances, deliberate conformity to the world, complacency, comfort on all levels, entitlement, pride...
Christ calls. We respond. We bear Him image.
The call keeps us.
Communion with Him matters.
Jesus calls from the salt of the earth.
Salt is the most "indispensable necessity of life."
Jesus calls his disciples to be the salt of the earth (not Himself) because He entrusts His work to them.
The disciple community must be faithful to the mission the call of Christ has given it. (Think of this in the context of our beloved Army... what happens when we are not faithful to the mission that the call of Christ has given us...?)
In the imperishability of salt we have we have a guarantee of the permanence of the divine community.
"Ye are the salt." Jesus does not say: "You must be the salt." It is not for the disciples to decide whether they will be the sale of the earth, for they are so whether they like it or not, they have been made salt by the call they have received.
The call of Christ makes those who response to it the salt of the earth.
Salt can lose its saltiness.
"The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed between it. There is no question of a second chance."
The call makes disciples the light of the world.
This light is not an instrument that has been put into the disciples hands, such as their preaching. It is the disciples themselves.
The call can be denied. Extinguished. This happens due to fear, idols, false allegiances, deliberate conformity to the world, complacency, comfort on all levels, entitlement, pride...
Christ calls. We respond. We bear Him image.
The call keeps us.
Communion with Him matters.
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