The Outward Movement of the Gospel

Daily Reading: Numbers 9:15-23; Acts 28

So a time was set, and on that day a large number of people came to Paul’s lodging. 

He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Scriptures. Using the law of Moses and the books of the prophets, he spoke to them from morning until evening. Some were persuaded by the things he said, but others did not believe. Acts 28:23-24

It is a powerful example of Paul that wherever God takes him he continues to use the same method to spend the Gospel that was given in Acts 1:8. Even after being almost killed by the Jews in Israel Paul does not give up on them. When arriving in Rome his first initiated contact is to the local Jewish community. Paul brings them together and shares the gospel. Even though, by now, I’m sure Paul knew before hand that most of the Jews would reject his proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ he still gave them the opportunity to receive the invitation.

This past week I have been at a retreat called Missio Ecclesia, which has been a powerful call for our church to begin to live missionally. The retreat was brought to us and hosted by our Bishop, Ken Carter. During the first evening he shared powerfully from his heart and we were challenged that we need to be making disciples both within as well as without the church. The bishop told us that he was looking for Methodist within the Methodist church to bring the church back to its rightful place. The church is full of religious people who are not disciples of Christ.

We next heard from Alan Hirsch, one of the great missiologist of our day. Hirsch continued to tack on from the bishop by telling us that “If the religious are saying nice things about you, you are probably not living like Jesus.” What was true in the first century is still true today. Many of the religious establishment will simply not get what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but we still have to try to share with them the invitation to surrender to become disciples of Christ. 

Don’t miss one thing from the passage today. After the majority of the Jews rejected Paul’s invitation into the Body of Christ we read in the last two sentences of Acts that, “For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.” (Acts 28:30-31) Paul never stopped proclaiming the great news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We to, if we are disciples, need to be in the business of making disciples, to whom ever God places within our paths.

Lord, Help me to be bold with your gospel, in the church and outside her as well.  Amen.

Take Courage

Daily Reading: Psalms 23; Acts 27

But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me… Acts 27:22-23

Acts 27 tells us that after battling a horrible storm for several days, having not eaten and fearing for their lives Paul comes to the ships crew and gives this powerful encouragement. Paul had such an intimate relationship with Christ that he had angels of the Lord come to him and direct his path. Here’s the great news, we can all have this relationship! In fact, if we are surrendered to Christ and growing in our walk with Him we have our host of angels walking alongside our path. 

I have never heard God speak to me through the physical presence of an angel coming to stand beside me, but I have experienced the voice of God clearly speaking in my mind to give me direction, especially in a time of distress. I have experienced the living presence of the Holy Spirit walking with me and in me.  

The question for me is, “Am I growing as a disciple of Christ?” This is the key. John Wesley often talked about the “means of grace.” These are the disciplines that we do to put us into a place of openness to the filling of God’s grace. They are practices that are not to be looked at legalistically, but with joy, as God has given us certain things we can do that open pathways of connection with Him.  This past few days I have been at a Clergy Retreat called Missio Ecclesia where we were reminded of our primary calling as Christians, which was and is to be disciples and disciple makers.

During our first day our Bishop, Ken Carter gave us a working definition of discipleship from the book Longing for Spring, by Heath and Kisker.

Discipleship

A process of initiation

into a holy life,

revealed in Jesus Christ,

anchored in the church,

empowered by the Holy Spirit,

surrendered to the reign of god,

for the transformation of the world.

As I read through this active description of discipleship it is evident that there is work involved in this process, but I see the glow of God through it as well. I am spending the next couple of weeks, while on a mission trip to the Congo to break down his discipleship process for me own life. So that I can grow in the presence of God with me daily!

Lord, grow us in you, so that we can sense the fullness of you with us minute by minute. Amen.

I Admit I Follow the Way

Daily Reading: Numbers 2:34; Acts 24

“But I admit that I follow the Way..Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people” Acts 24:14a, 16

One of the things that is most striking to me about Paul is that he never retreats from his faith. Paul had been radically converted on the Road to Damascus and there had been no turning back. Not only is Paul bold in his faith, Paul also is clear in his conscience. 

I once heard a preacher admonish our congregation that we need to live a life that is above reproach before humanity accept for the fact that we are children of the Way. I have taken this to mean, within my own life, that I am called to live purely within my community, but I am to outwardly live my faith. If people are going to convict me of something it will be because they have issue with my Christianity, not with my moral conduct.  

We may be reading this and say, “Well, isn't this how all christians are called to live?” I would say yes, but at the same time I have been amazed with how I watch brothers and sisters in Christ bifurcate their lives, separating their secular life from their spiritual life. When they are within the church or at a fellow christians home their faith is strong and evident before all. Walk with them the next day with their secular golfing buddies and there is no mention of their faith or even an indication within conversation that they might be a follower of Christ. I once was sharing this idea with a congregation and after the service one of our young men came up to me and admitted that within his work place no one knew that he was a Christian. He wanted to get ahead in his job and felt that if he shared his christian ideas it would hurt him in his work place and so he had hid them from his co-workers.  Please understand one thing here. I’m not calling people to be rude or obnoxious in our faith. I know people who everyone knows is christian because they are beating everyone up with their faith. But, I know that Paul understood that he could speak on no matter or enter no situation where his faith was not prevalent to the discussion. 

If we are disciples of Christ, growing in our faith, then our faith will direct our conversations, our ideas, our discussions. Let us live a life connected in love with our neighbors, community and beyond, and let us within this connected live love our community well enough that we will not shy away from our faith but let that faith come through in our dialogs and discussions.

Lord, help me to always show that I am truly a follower of the Way.  Amen

Leonard Sweet Books

Greetings Everyone,

I'm sorry I have not posted anything for the past several days. I'm finding that my writing time has gone away while I'm getting ready to go on our mission trip to the Congo. I will try to do better over the next week, but may not be able to post while in the Congo.

This past Sunday I was asked to recommend my favorite Leonard Sweet books as some of you would like to go deeper with him after having him share at the church. Below I list three of my favorites and also a couple of my other current reads that I am getting into.   Good Reading!!

Below are two books I have been into lately. The first is a classic by E. Stanly Jones and the second is a book that anyone who is concerned with church growth should read, Better Together.

Preaching to the Choir

Daily Reading: Acts 17

As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. Acts 17:2

Some of us are slow at learning truth. For years I have read Acts 1:8 where Jesus tells the disciples that they will be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth in the wrong way. I always interpreted Jerusalem to mean our local community. I live in Wildwood, FL so for me my Jerusalem would be Wildwood. Something occurred to me through my reading over the past few days. Whenever Paul enters a town he goes to the synagogue first. Paul always takes the message of Christ to the religious insiders. Maybe Paul’s Jerusalem is the religious insider. Maybe our Jerusalem is our own church! 

Several years ago I read a very compelling book called The Continuing Conversion of the Church, by Darrell Guder where he calls us to the ministry of the continual conversion of our own christian community. Guder shows how our church communities are often full of non-disciples. If I change how I read Jesus’ call to be a witness it gives me a more complete picture of the mission field before me. First, we need to go to our own sisters and brothers where we make sure we proclaim the true gospel and from there enter into our community to friends and neighbors and then to the people whom we would not normally go to, the people who are different from us…finally we have to go to the whole world.  

It is further insightful that Paul’s greatest attacks always come from the religious insiders. When I started a Christian Coffeehouse, in Tallahassee, over the course of four years the only attacks we received all came from Church people. The most common attack would come because we would not disseminate one groups propaganda over another groups. We would tell a secular group who wanted to put out materials that we would put nobodies information out, so that we could be equal to all. None of these groups ever had a problem with it, in fact we often would get a affirmation. But, when we would tell a church group the same thing they would invariably attack us and say that we are not really “Christian.” 

Let us not forget to live out the gospel to our own brothers and sisters in the church freely telling the story of God’s great love.

Lord, help me to be consistent with the gospel wherever I am and may we see a revival come to the church.  Amen

And When You Fast…

Daily Reading: Acts 13

One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” Acts 13:2

Luke starts this chapter by giving us a picture of the leaders of the church in Antioch––A wonderful cross-cultural, multi-racial community of leaders. Immediately following this listing of the leaders he lets us know that they were “worshiping the Lord and fasting.” In the Preaching the Word Commentary, Kent Hughes says, “Fasting is always a mark of deep spiritual concern, indicating that a person is willing to set aside the normal demands of life in order to concentrate for a time on what God wants.” From the very beginning of the church our leaders have realized that to hear the voice of God takes discipline and commitment. Am I willing to fast and pray––set aside the normal demands of life––so that I can connect more deeply with the heart of God? 

Within the rise of Methodism, John Wesley emphasized fasting as one of the means of grace, admonishing his pastors to fast at least two days a week and for the laity to fast one day. Wesley was not trying to create legalism, but he understood that when the disciple sets aside something (food) and uses that extra time to center her focus on God that the door is opened to the disciple to receive more of God’s grace. 

On this Saturday before Ash Wednesday I am blessed to read this verse, “as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting.” It encourages me to commit to fast during this upcoming lenten season. Not as a legalistic enterprise, but as an opportunity to realign my heart and soul on the true provider of my strength and ability, Jesus Christ. 

Lord, Lead me to you and to no other as the center of my heart and focus.  Amen.

Just Like Us

Originally written February 3

Daily Reading: Acts 10

This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Acts 10:36

Acts 10 is a very special chapter of Scripture within my life. During the time that I was wrestling with God over my call I was in the process of reading through the New Testament and this story of Peter going to Cornelius’ house grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let go.

When I read this story I was drawn into the play between Peter’s faithfulness to separate himself from anything unclean and God’s call to reach out to that which Peter has considered unclean. I’m sure Peter worked hard to keep himself ritually pure, yet God calls him to enter into the house of a Roman military officer. In essence God was telling Peter, that Cornelius was just like him. God calls us to the whole world because the whole world is just like us. 26 years ago God grabbed my heart with this overwhelming conviction that I was called to reach out and sacrificially love the world around me, especially those within the world whom I would not normally want to go and love, because in reality they were just like me. 

The call has not changed. God’s call is summed up in verse 36, “that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of ALL!!” If Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL, the scripture implies that Jesus lived and died for ALL. The implication of this is that we then, as his Church are called to live and die for ALL whom Jesus loved, which is everyone.  We are called to share God’s love with everyone, plain and simple.  

Israel lost the blessing of God because Israel did not live into the call of God to bless the world. We too can easily lose the blessing, if we choose any path other than an outward missional path of sharing Christ love with the world around us.

Lord, help me to join with you in a mission of love to my Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.  Amen.

The Mission

Daily Reading: Exodus 32; Acts 8

…A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. Acts 8:1b

There is a lot happening at the beginning of Acts 8. We have just experienced the first martyrdom of the church, and we have just met Saul, the zealot persecutor of Christians, who is soon to become Paul the great missionary of the gospel. The biggest thing I see happening is our missional God doing whatever it takes to make sure we continue to be a missional people.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus had told the newly forming church that their marching orders were clear––they were going to witness to the world Jesus, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth. Already by Acts chapter seven we find the church closing in upon itself, within Jerusalem, starting to pull away from the missional call of Christ. How easily we do the same thing today. I am amazed at how many “mission” or “evangelism” meetings I have attended where we sit around a table and for hours plotting a campaign to share the gospel, where we do not have to leave the confines of the church building. 

The most common creative idea that I hear is we need to invest in an advertising campaign. The problem with this is that God’s call to his people is that we physically are missional in nature. We are called, as the body of Christ, to go out and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Statistics have proven over and over that 98% of people who come to Christ come through the invitation of a close friend or family member. 

To read the story of God is to experience the missional nature of God. From Genesis through the Old Testament God worked through his people, the nation of Israel, to try to get them to live up to their call to be a missional people. Yet they never would do it. So, God left Israel and moved his covenant to a new people, to us who claim to be disciples of Christ!! But our call is simple and the call is to be missionaries to the world. Are we willing to love our neighbors enough to live authentically as Christians before them? Are we willing to leave Jerusalem and get out into Judea and Samaria? God will do whatever it takes to continue to make his name known, the question is, will we be part of his great plan?

Lord God, use me to be part of your glorious plan to bless all the peoples of the earth. Amen.