Our Judea

Back in June, I had the awesome opportunity to attend the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis MO. While there, I heard a passionate message from the former SBC President, Dr. Ronnie Floyd. In his message, Dr. Floyd made a quote that has stuck with me since that day. He said "God has you where you are at the right time to accomplish the purpose of God". Now I don't know about you but I needed to hear this!

God is a sovereign God who is in control of all of our circumstances. He is not a careless watchmaker who sets things in motion in the beginning and then lets the watch go and fulfill its purpose. No, our God is one who has His hand in our everyday lives, not because He desires to control us, but because He loves and cares for us. He has placed you in your setting for a purpose. Consider the words of God recorded in Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you". Again consider these words recorded in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope". 

God knows us in our innermost being. He created us and He has purpose for us. Another thing that Dr. Floyd said in his message was this, "You may have given up on yourself but God has not. He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime". With over seven billion people on our planet, it is easy to feel insignificant, but God made us in His image with great purpose. We can leverage this to the advantage of the Kingdom. 
  
While we might not reach millions and certainly not billions, we can have a significant impact on our circle of influence; our Judea, if you will. Everyone of us can fulfill the Great Commission in our own communities. Do your neighbors know of the great love with which God loves them? How about the clerk in the grocery store? The person who sits across from you on the daily bus commute? The guy who picks up the garbage every week? These are people with whom we interact with weekly, if not daily. These are people God loves so much that He would send His Son to die for. Do they know the reason for the hope that is within you? 

God sovereignly created you for such a time as this. He placed you in the community in which He desires for you to serve. He makes no mistakes. It is time to be intentional disciple-makers in our communities. It is time to reach out to a world that is lost by simply walking across the street. Remember when you feel insignificant that "He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime". He is our strength! He is our boldness!

It Begins With You And It Starts At Home

The Great Commission is a global commission!

All too often it seems that people default to thinking about foreign missions when they begin to ponder the Great Commission. While this is a fundamental part of the Great Commission, it is certainly not the whole of the Great Commission. Acts 1:8 says "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” I have had this verse explained to me this way:
Jerusalem=Family
Judea=Friends
Samaria=Foes
End of the Earth=Foreigners

I know that this analysis of the verse breaks down on some levels and is not perfect but it has certainly changed the way that I think of the Great Commission. We are not supposed to only obey part of the Great Commission. We are to obey the whole of it. While it is not possible to go to every ends of the Earth individually, we are still responsible for sending...that is why  the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offerings are so vital. They enable us to send. But...

To obey the whole of the Great Commission is to begin at home with family. The way in which we live out our discipleship in front of our families speaks volumes of the authenticity of our relationship with Christ. It is simply not enough to put our "Christian" hats on at church. To follow Jesus is to follow Him wherever He might go and trust me it is His desire to be a part of our homes. Modeling Christ-likeness to your family may very well be the greatest influence that they have to become followers of Jesus for themselves. Being His witnesses requires that we bear testimony of our encounters with His Holiness wherever we have opportunity. What greater purpose can we have than to influence people to follow Him? What greater blessing can we receive than to lead those closest to us into a meaningful relationship with the King of Kings?

To fulfill the Great Commission is to make the final words of Christ on this Earth our first priority. Make it a priority in your life to fulfill the Great Commission at home with the people who are closest to you.

The next step of obedience is to be His witnesses in your "Judea". Your friends...your community. That will be the subject of my next post. 

Thanks for reading!

It Starts With You

To be a disciple-maker it seems rather obvious that first you must be a disciple yourself. Jesus made disciples who inevitably wanted to be His disciples. He never forced anyone to follow Him. Look no further than the account of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22 to find evidence of this fact. To make disciples is to obey the Great Commission but it requires desire in your own heart to follow.

Recently I preached a sermon at my church where I made an illustration of how contagious yawning is. At first the congregation had no idea what I was doing as I stopped in mid-sentence and let out a big yawn...of course this was intentional. I wanted to see how many people I could get to yawn back at me. The number of yawners was impressive...go ahead make your jokes...I know you are thinking that it was the skill (or lack thereof) in my preaching that produced this effect. HaHa! This little experiment was to demonstrate that our actions can be contagious. Such is a life that exudes the love of Christ.

Richard Foster is quoted to say, "Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects - and infects - every sphere of our living". Conversion is that moment when you decide to fully follow Christ...that is what discipleship truly is. Anyone who has genuinely experienced the redemptive love of Christ Jesus will ultimately be catapulted into a place where Jesus commands their very existence. It is then and only then that you can go about your life in obedience. When Christ has full control of your life, your joy and devotion to Him can, and potentially will be, contagious to those around you.

The Apostle Paul certainly understood this concept. He did not tell others how to live without demonstration. He did not adhere to the cliche of "do as I say, not as I do". Paul led by example. He said in Philippians 4:9 "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (emphasis mine). Let them learn. Let them receive. Let them hear. But above all let them see discipleship at work in your own life.

Start Simple

I follow a lot of church leaders who regularly invest in the kingdom by posting encouraging and uplifting material. My Social Media news feed gets filled up with pointers, tips, and top-ten lists of things to do to be a successful follower of Jesus or a successful ministry leader...I am sure that I will get to that level with this blog at some point...but I am new at this and I haven't been vetted yet...so you are still wondering if you should even be wasting your time with anything that I might have to say...so I am going to keep it simple for you.

Jesus said that the whole of the law could be summed up by:

Greatest Commandment #1: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Greatest Commandment #2: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Don't believe me...go look it up for yourself in Mark 12:30-31


Obedience requires loving God and your neighbors...(or everybody)!

Best way to love God and your neighbors?

Go and tell your neighbors of the majesties of God.
Tell them the truth about a God who loves them so much that He would give His very best in Christ for them! Tell them about Grace! Tell them about Mercy! Tell them about Jesus!....
........Make Disciples of them.

You have no greater purpose.

As you can see by the title of the blog...I believe that our greatest purpose in this life is to make disciples for King Jesus. I am beginning this blog to serve several purposes...to share my journey of faith as I learn more about how to make disciples as well as to...wait...you guessed it...actually make disciples. As I am inspired to write, I will be updating my blog regularly with material, devotions, and inspiration as it pertains to the Kingdom of God. So here it goes...Jesus' last words should be our first priority. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth to tell me to do something....I mean He is God and I am not...so He gets to tell me what to do...it is not the other way around!!!!

So what did He tell me? (well not just me) ;)... He told anyone who would follow Him.

He told me to Go and Make Disciples!

I am going. This will be one of the many ways that I will go as well as chronicle my goings.

Will you go with me?