No Shoes, No Service, No Harvest

More and more I think of the spiritual protection of having our feet shod with the equipment of the gospel of peace. 

When you look at the armor in Eph. 6 everything is vital and has a function. I think we think we are good on truth and righteousness, and let's say we are. What do those do for you without the readiness to share the gospel? It leads to harmless, self-absorbed, defensive, aloof Christianity. I know there will always be a tendency toward imbalance and there is much more to say regarding abiding in Christ's love, in His Word, being led by the Spirit, but the armor is meant to protect us.  If a piece is missing, that should matter.

As disciples, the warning is against the "wiles" of the devil. The danger is trickery, deception, cunning attacks. Obviously if Satan could kill us, that would leave him unhindered room to work. That isn't an option, so we have to be rendered harmless. Attack our adherence to the truth or righteousness and we have no credibility. How much better to let us have these, as long as we're silent.

At the end of the armor Paul talks about prayer and alertness and  it seems this is just general intercession, but Paul adds himself to the list and asks for continued boldness in proclaiming. The credibility of our witness can be destroyed, but Paul's concern and need was for declaring the gospel. In Philippians, Paul refers to giving the gospel 3 times and twice fear is mentioned. Even Timothy, in Paul's last days, had come into danger of being ashamed to testify to Christ or to identify with Paul.

If we remove "feet" from the armor, we have no problem. Our lives and churches go on for the pastor, the elder, the run-of-the-mill Christian. Take the feet out of this (and we all do mentally) we are still protected and able to please God. But just from the logic and truth of God's word, this has to be impossible. How can we remove one of the first 3 pieces and say we're Ok?

So what does it do for us, that is missing in today's church and in the heart and mind and life of Jesus' disciples, when our feet are shod with the readiness of the Gospel of Peace. (No particular order and you can add to it.)

We live in concern of His coming Judgment on the Lost.
We live with an eternal perspective.
We understand God's working in the world.
We value the heavenly more than the earthly.
We cry out to God for lost people.
We know that only people will be saved from this planet.
We live knowing this life is temporary.
We live knowing we’ve been commissioned with a vital message.
We know we have a tremendous privilege.
We know we have a tremendous responsibility.
We know we have to say something.
We know people need to be told.
We know this life is about the mission, not heaven on earth.
We know sacrifice.
We know His power.
We know His suffering.
We know His heart.
We know His joy.
We abide in Him.

The list goes on….things that can only happen if we are ready with the Gospel.  And we are protected. 

Every other aspect of the armor can be done in the living room, alone, without ever having to talk to another person. Without the readiness with our feet and our lives and our mouths, we are tricked into believing that this is about us living clean lives before God.

Do we believe, John 15:8 "in this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples?" What part of this statement can we ignore? Fruit is defined earlier in context in John 12:24. Now, Jesus says there is sowing and reaping, and Paul adds watering, but still it is a life focused on the harvest, every person ready to share and work.  The fields are still white.  Are we ready?

Without our feet shod with readiness to give the Gospel, our understanding of Jesus is crippled, our lives sag inward into a stagnant, self-absorbed spirituality. The Lost trample us underfoot on their way to hell, and here is Satan's biggest achievement, our Father is not glorified and we do not prove to be Jesus' disciples.

October 2010

In talking to people doing this survey of our "target area" we find the thought of "security" coming up a lot. People are concerned about health, the unknown, and the economy adds a shudder to most lives. People who have questions for God regarding what's up are the people we're looking for to invite to a discussion evening this month. What seems obvious when we talk to the unchurched or de-churched (Christians who stopped going to church) is that there is no answer for their need for security in the church. People don't seem to find enough there to get them close to God; just to music, to social contact and to an inspirational speech, and honestly, if that's all church is, and people have told us this, they can do that at home. It makes you think about the purpose of church.

But back to security. I'm studying the life of Christ, and go figure, that when He began his ministry he quit his job and roamed the country with some other guys who quit their jobs. It's comical when Mary tells Jesus the wine was gone at the wedding. How do you account for that short interchange and Jesus' answer, "My hour has not yet come."? Maybe she was thinking, "O Weh, 30 years old, no job, no wife, if you're going public with this thing, just do it." When Peter, Andrew, James, John and the others left their jobs, what were they thinking? You could only carry so much money and food, and Jesus was in some isolated places. Yet, we know there was no more secure place on earth for them to be, than with Jesus, even on His boat trips.

Our security or following Jesus into His? How many of your ideas of following Christ have been lost to "reality," you know, "that's just the way it will always be?" You read that the "fields are white" but something tells you, "Calm down, that's idealism, that's for other people. Look at church, we're fine." I don't know all of what holds people back, but I do know what moves them forward: "And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way." Just believing His Word. "Lift your eyes and see how the fields are already white for harvest." Just believing it, following Jesus and doing it regardless of the cost, equals security.

So here we are planting a church, at a time when we're finally getting senior citizen discounts at most fast food places. No secure salary. No big group. No worship service. Just praying like crazy and following Christ - seeing Him increase our faith and conviction as we do this survey, as we invite people into our homes, as we "practice" making disciples. Believing that church is the most vital thing in the world because Christ died for it, and it is here we equip, strengthen and encourage one another to follow Christ into the harvest and make disciples who make disciples. And we're seeing the Lord work and encourage.

Last week in the parking lot of the Salvation Army, I was sort of shamed by the Spirit of God. This guy is walking into the store with his teen daughter, sees us and is urged toward us. I knew that he would ask for money, but that is precisely why I just got $20 for my wallet as "give away" money. So he asked for money for him and his daughter for supper and was shocked that I went for my wallet so easily. Then I stumbled. All those milli-second thoughts and urges. What would $10 do for him and his daughter for a meal, but I held back and only offered him $10 for some stupid reason, some innate 'locked-up-ness.' The Holy Spirit knew I had 20 bucks and had moved me to put it my wallet and once again Kachikis was having a minor malfunction. I was rebuked and He was right. And then, the Spirit moved the guy and I saw it coming. He asked, "How about $20?" Again, I was so quick with the other $10 that I'll bet it scared him. Good that he stopped there, I was broke. As he walked away thanking me, he asked me to pray for him for a job and I have and will. I was glad that I was ready to give, but mad at me for being such a tight-wad, and truly impressed at how the Spirit guided the whole thing. The Spirit and I know we are working on me being more perceptive and ready to respond to Him.

Now, I'm not kidding or writing this for drama, but five minutes later, the pastor of a local church called, and in the course of the conversation, asked me if I had money for our mortgage. In keeping with my "locked-up-ness" I told him the mail hadn't come in yet. He had to get another call and we left it there. Still, it was a very surprising call. The next day he called again and asked if we had the money, and I told him we didn't and, now for the third month, the Lord has found an unexpected way to pay our mortgage.

So, as senior citizens we are growing in faith, taking risks, finding that there is no safer, more secure place to be than following Jesus into the harvest. And we're doing this because we believe His Word, that the fields are white, that the church must make disciples who make disciples, and that our Father is glorified in that we bear much fruit and so prove to be Christ's disciples. That's worth living and dying for, and you get the thrill of standing in the field with Jesus saying, "Hey Lord, what's for supper tonight."

Pray for Mike, a new believer

Pray for Jeff, Michelle and kids as they reach out to their neighbors.

Pray for us as we host an Oktoberfest at our house

Pray for New Song as we begin inviting unchurched people to come out and talk.

Learning in the Harvest

Saying we want to make disciples who make disciples is easy. In fact, it's easy to "say" anything. But we really want the Lord to show us how to see reproduction and to orient people to the harvest from the beginning. We think that the only way for a Christian to be oriented, after birth, is to follow Christ back into the harvest. Orienting people toward the academic and toward church seems to produce, my observation, Christians who think they have fulfilled their duty if they have gone to church and learned something. Doing the survey, we meet Christians all the time now who don't attend church anymore. It seems that their needs are better met at home. So what does that have to do with discipleship or the assembly of disciples who briefly come out of their fields on Sunday to meet and strengthen and encourage one another to go back into the harvest, to labor for their Lord? Who defined church for "me." Who invented this organization that meets my needs, rather than the one I love that equips Christ's disciples for Christ's mission?

New believers must be oriented to Christ and His mission from the beginning. I think, this has to be in the first talk. You see Jesus send the man who had had the legion back to his family and he influenced the entire region of the Decapolis. The woman at the well influenced her city knowing far less than the average Christian (but Barna says that's changing). Matthew and Zacchaeus had an immediate ministry to their friends and partners. Jesus involved His disciples in ministry knowing less than most of us know.

So I met with Mike last week, who at 70, has prayed to receive Christ. It is easy to say "make disciples who make disciples," but now I'm on. I made up my own lesson, not knowing what lesson 2 would be. Now, in talking with Mike I know what the next lesson will look like, but like the first, it will be directed to being a follower of Christ in Christ's mission, in His harvest.

I'm a seminary grad yet I'm a new learner. I wonder why all of our teaching isn't connected to following Christ in His mission. Could it be that if we persist to teach stuff as detached from following Christ in His mission, that our knowledge only becomes trivial pursuit on a masters or doctoral level. And then in our churches, discipleship becomes the acquiring of knowledge and piety in the comfort of suburbia, rather that following Christ into the harvest. I'm just wondering if we let a person sit removed from the harvest, teaching him stuff that is not intentionally connecting him to and equipping him for the harvest,  and we do this 12 months a year, what good does it do to send him on a missionary trip as a missionary tourist for 2 weeks in the summer?

So I'm meeting with Mike and it's stretching us both. It's not an easy matter to follow Christ into the harvest, making disciples who make disciples. But who would want to do anything else?

Remembering the End of the Harvest

In my daily reading I finished Isaiah last week. I never “realized“ what the final words of the book are. I do now.

The Lord is talking about the restoration of the Jews and the completion of His promises for them. This passage actually talks about a new heaven and new earth. His final words however, bring reality home.

Isaiah 66:24 "And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

The eternal torment of all who die in their sins without receiving Christ is still "front and center" biblical reality. The “snide” among us crack jokes about hellfire and brimstone preachers, but in spite of their imbalance they were conveying something important, which we, in our imbalance, have forgotten. There is a coming judgment. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him." "His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor, to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. So with many other exhortations (John the Baptist) preached good news to the people."  It’s part of the Good News.

As I'm knocking on doors doing this survey, bothering people, getting "that look," watching some people immediately turn away when they know it has to do with "religion," I know that even in this step there is something very important at stake. Inwardly it does me good to see someone who appears to be seeking God, who has questions. Mostly, people are busy and distracted and even the thought of having a question for God seems like a radical thought. The Gospel is hidden by Satan, their hearts are in rebellion from sin, yet God is patiently showing love, making contact and working. The Lord knows the stakes and hasn't given up. Do we? Have we?

As we're out in the fields looking for those who the Lord is urging toward Him, and while we are planting seeds, you can't help but feel sorry for people who don't care. Obviously this survey isn't the way to reach people. But I'm praying that someone close to them comes to Christ and reaches out. They don't know how much danger they are in. They also don't know how close they are to love, forgiveness, security and a reason for living each day in Jesus Christ, and to boot, you get eternal life. “You don’t enter into judgment but pass from death to life.”  That’s good news.

Giving and Receiving His Blessings in the Harvest

Yesterday in the parking lot of the Salvation army I was sort of shamed by the Spirit of God. This guy is walking into the store with his teen daughter, sees us and is apparently urged toward us. I knew immediately that he would ask for money, but that is precisely why I carry cash and I just got $20 for my wallet as "give away" money. So he asked for money and he was immediately shocked that I went for my wallet so easily. Then I stumbled. All those milli-second thoughts and urges. What would $10 do for him and his daughter for a meal, but still I held back and only offered him $10 for some stupid reason, some innate "locked-up-ness. "

The Holy Spirit knew I had 20 bucks. He himself had moved me to put it in my wallet, and once again Kachikis was having a minor malfunction. I was rebuked as I was handing him the 10 and the Spirit was right. And then, the Spirit moved him and I saw it coming. He asked,  "How about $20," and again I was so quick with the other 10 that I'll bet it scared him. Good that he stopped there, I was broke. As he walked away thanking me, he asked me to pray for a job and I have and will. I was glad that I was ready to give, but mad at me for being such a tight-wad, and truly impressed at how the Spirit guided the whole thing. The Spirit and I know we are working on me being more perceptive and ready to respond to Him and the needs He shows me.

So now, I am not kidding and not writing this for any drama, five minutes later, the pastor of a local church called, and in the course of the conversation, asked me if I had money for the mortgage. In keeping with my "locked-up-ness" I told him the mail hadn't come in yet so I didn’t know. He had to answer  another call and we left it there. Still, it was a very surprising call and he didn't call back. This afternoon he called again and asked if we had the money and I told him we didn't and ……..now it's in the mail.

So as senior citizens we are growing in faith, taking risks, crawling out on the limb, finding that there is no safer, more secure place to be if God has called you there.

Being a Disciple in the Harvest, Making Disciples

Yesterday it hit me again how important discipleship is and how self-frustrating it is to have a silly, non-biblical, non-functioning view of discipleship.

It works like this. If you want someone to be a disciple you have to have a biblical definition. That really helps. The great commission is a great place to start because it is life-long devotion to Jesus (baptism), it is seeking Him in the Word and following, and inherent in the commission is the charge for a disciple to be in the mission. There is lots to say here. Teaching without devotion produces educated, static, self-righteousness. Devotion without knowledge of and obedience to Jesus doesn't work. But without the commission being reproduced in the disciple it is all futile and you wonder if the devotion and teaching was ever anything more than academic.

For discipleship, the reproduction of disciples in the harvest is key, it is essential, it is the proof of discipleship and disciple-making. It has to be the priority of each disciple and each church. No disciple is a disciple unless he is involved in sowing and / or reaping to make more and better disciples. This is not a sport like American football where some guys are so specialized in what they do they can go their whole career without ever having to touch the ball. This is more like real football (soccer) where there are different positions, but everyone has to be skilled with the ball. All disciples have to be in the harvest. All disciples have to encourage the making of disciples who make disciples. No exceptions.

This means that the goal of discipleship, as it is reproduced, is for the disciples to be in the harvest, with their neighbors first and then wherever the Lord gives them relationships.

But here's the rub and our frustration, Jesus never produced reproducing disciples by telling them what to do. He did it with them. He brought them close to Him. They lived with Him. He had a group of 12 and a group of 3. In this context he involved them in ministry and they watched him. He oriented them and got them  involved without full teaching, because he was with them. The deep contact he had with them served as the correction of their practice and attitudes every day. Then, when they were hungry and ready to learn, Jesus taught them and they benefited. But His model and contact with them was the key. They knew how to enter a town because they had seen him do it. They knew how to begin attracting a crowd and preaching because they watched Him. They knew how to preach and what to say (I'm sure they imitated Him) because they heard him do it. So why do I think I can produce change and growth by throwing words at people. Jesus didn't make reproducing disciples this way. There is a place for exhortation and motivation, but not without biblical discipleship as Jesus modeled it. Obviously we want competent, self-motivated, independent, interdependent and 1000 more leadership-word disciples but our model of ministry and the pressure to grow quick and be successful does not serve us well. Whether it is 1-1 coaching, triads or life groups or all three, true reproducing discipleship takes time and contact and doing it with them. Imitating Jesus is important. The harvest is important. Making disciples is important. Bearing much fruit, glorifying the Father and so proving to be Christ's disciples is important. It isn't just important, it is everything and the passion of Jesus' heart.

I can wish for change. I can even pray for it, but watching Jesus, I realize I have to reset my schedule, and my mind and my heart and do it with them. Helping them become disciples in the harvest is my call as a disciple, to do it with them, to model, to show that I'm in it, too. But to stand on the sidelines and shout in plays isn't what we see Jesus doing. Lord, forgive me for being such a slow learner.

A Tender Heart in the Harvest

Once a year I stumble on a verse in Proverbs that always catches me, at least for that day, and always on the same day, since I read a one year Bible.

Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 12 If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not requite man according to his work?

I can't rest knowing that people are going to hell. And I really don't understand Christians who can "rest." I know that there is a genius to us not being able to fully absorb the danger of this life. If we could, we'd be totally hysterical and die of heart failure. So God is protecting us. We are led to laugh and enjoy what God provides. No problem there. But to ignore the dire need is, in my mind and heart, a disowning of the Faith. To not dirty our hands with the lost is to thank Christ for His gift and spit in His face.

Another verse that intensifies my hang up is in 2 Chronicles 34:27

Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you," declares the LORD.

Josiah wept when he finally got a copy of the Bible and read what was going to happen. It was this heart for his people before the coming storm and his desire to honor God that made him the best king Israel ever had. I wonder if we really care that there is a hell and people will end up there.

Laura and I were just studying 2 Cor. 5:14-21. How do you truly understand those words if you are not in the harvest.

Yesterday doing the survey I was praying to meet some people the Lord might have His hand on. The first guy "Joe" was what I was looking for. Not a believer and had never thought of the questions he might ask God, and when asked if he would have gone to church last Sunday, he said, "yes" in a sort of innocent way. He actually shook my hand for having bothered him with the whole thing. I think we'll invite “Joe.”

Then there was the Methodist in his man-cave, but obviously lost. A nice guy with no clue and running out of time.

Finally, buying stamps this woman comes in cussing up a storm as she swept into and out of the lobby of the post office. She apparently had been done wrong. I felt sorry for her, enjoying a little bit of hell here on earth. I remember what that was like, and in spite of all the other things that can go wrong, nothing rivals that sense of being lost on earth with no hope or solution.

Back at the ranch, I had a good talk with a neighbor and we sort of rekindled contact with the couple on the corner (all lost). All seed sowing, and I'm praying for a harvest.