Merry Christmas 2010

No need to tell you how quickly time flies… you all know that already! It has been an interesting year for me. Two “highlights” – if you would call them that are:

:: Joining Nashville Songwriters Association International and getting fairly involved in writing – primarily for the country music market. I have made a lot of new friends and learned a lot in the process. If you’re interested you can keep up with that at my website:

www.johnrowlandsongs.com

:: I was promoted to Manager of User Support at Murphy Oil Corporation, where I have worked for a little over twelve years. My new responsibilities involve managing PC support at El Dorado, Houston and remote sites which are connected to Houston, including rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. I am also still responsible for managing the MOC email system worldwide. I have begun making lots of trips to Houston which makes my kitty and doggy sad. Such is life.

God is good – and so, life is good. I am excited about what the future brings and I hope you are as well.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Amen.

Best wishes,

John

What is Discipleship? To All Generations

Continuing beyond the incarnation, there was Jesus and the Apostles, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Titus. These continued the discipleship model into our modern age. Let's look at some examples, beginning with Jesus, the Son learning from his Father and carrying that theme into the apostolic work and beyond.

Smack dab in the midst of a long run of prophecies concerning the messianic age, we find Isaiah 50:4-5:

The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
The Lord GOD has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.

My opinion is that this describes the relationship of the coming Messiah with his Father. Jesus was a disciple of his Father. The Father was his mentor. Continuing the theme in John 5:19-20, Jesus says of this relationship:

"... Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel."

Jesus used the same mentoring relationship with his disciples, who would later become the apostles who became foundational in the building of Jesus' church.

Jesus' parting words to the apostles were the schema by which the apostles would apply all they had learned and establish the church among the nations, from Matthew 28:19 -- "Go and make disciples of all nations...." Discipleship was the paradigm in which evangelism and brining the nations back under his authority would happen.

Some examples of this discipleship paradigm in action. First Paul writing to churches he planted:

He treated them like a father training his children:

1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 -- You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

He encouraged them to be like their heavenly Father (like father, like son):

Eph 5:1 -- Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

Pay attention to my "son" Timothy -- he will be just like me being there."

Philippians 2:19-23 -- But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me.

In his communication to his ministry associates, he communicated the father's mentoring and discipling was the acid test for doing the same work in God's family, the church:

1 Timothy 3:2-5 -- A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober
minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)

Titus 1:5-6 -- For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.

The point here is that "discipling" is the paradigm, "even to the end of the age." The pastor is a like a father training God's household. The way he becomes that is by how he trains his own household. Discipleship is "baked in". It is a standard feature, not an extra-cost add on. Discipleship, like parenting requires personal interaction. Sadly, we have adopted a classroom paradigm for training the household of God, teacher up front, students in the seats dutifully being lectured to, then going their own way.

Slap Forehead

This is one of those things that is probably obvious to everyone else, but in light of all that is going on politically at the present time, I had one of those "slap the forehead and say 'doh'" moments. Here's the thing:

They always say "we are a nation of laws" and that is true. What occurred to me when reading an article about the power of the Tenth Amendment is -- we are ruled by a Constitution, not by people. The people, the public servants, are servants and stewards of the Constitution. It defines what the can and cannot do. The Founders had the foresight to structure our system this way to protect us from the excesses of "rulers". This is why the Constitution is under such attack by those who want to rule rather than serve.

Remembering A Birthday

Today would be Cindy's 57th birthday. I have had many, many people remember her and appreciate their respect of her memory. I posted on Facebook a statement that Jesus made regarding God and his relationship with Abraham, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Cindy is alive. In the months before she passed, she often commented about 2 Corinthians 4:16 - 5:8 and the hopeful reality that she would be passing from life to LIFE. I have no doubt she has done that.

What is Discipleship? Focusing on Moses as a Model

We are exploring what "discipleship" means and how it relates to a 21st century person. I have asserted that discipleship is a mentoring relationship between God and man (and person-to-person) and that this relationship is the warp and woof of life.

This was evident in God's walk with Adam, and among other, Enoch, Noah, the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), Joseph -- Jacob's son, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Daniel, Nehemiah and Jesus. These are all "high spots" on the landscape. Of course, between each raised point there were countless others in the scriptures or not who had the same sort of thing going on in their experience of life.

Psalm 103:7 states that God "made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the sons of Israel." Exodus 33:7-11 talks about the tent of meeting outside the camp. This is where Moses went to have his "sit-down" face-to-face meetings with God, his friend. When Psalm 103:7 talks about God's "ways" it is talking about the "why's" of life. "How come" this and "how come" that. It is also talking about 'what makes things tick". God was letting his friend Moses in on the "behind the scenes" reasons for what was happening and giving Moses the rational for proper decision-making. The sons of Israel only saw what God did. Moses got to know why he did it.

Packed into this narrative is mention of Moses' future replacement, Joshua. Joshua was Moses' aide. After Moses had his sit-down with God, Joshua would hang around so he could get some of the same. No mystery why he became Moses replacement in the future. Joshua was a disciple, too.

Cindy Rowland - One Year Later

Today is the first anniversary of Cindy's passing. I have thought back this weekend about the events of June 26-28, 2009. I believe the last time she was conscious was Friday, June 26 in the afternoon. I remember her telling me as I bent down to her, "I think this is it."

In church this morning, the song special was "Follow Me" by Ira Stamphill. The last verse ends with:

"If just a cup of water I place within your hand
Then just a cup of water is all that I demand.
But if by death to living they can Thy glory see,
I'll take my cross and follow close to Thee."

Cindy, unpretentious, humble, loving, desiring God's glory. Those words Ira Stamphill took from Matthew 25 were special to Cindy. They reminded me so much of her.

What is Discipleship? A Recurring Theme and Working Model

In the last post, I talked about the relationship that Adam had with God in the garden. My point was that Adam was God's steward of the earth and that he was a mentor to Adam in that work. The text points out that God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day calling out for Adam. I would take this to be a normal activity between the two.

Other notable examples are:

Enoch, who "walked with God" and was so pleasing in relationship that he disappeared -- having been taken into God's presence in the unseen realm to continue their relationship.

Abraham, who was a friend of God and with whom God made enduring covenants. Abraham was the subsequent "model" of a trusting relationship with God.

Joseph, who God raised up from being a dreamer to being one who could reveal the meanings of others' dreams. God took this gifted young man, who excelled in all he put his hand to, and made him into the ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharoah, but only after taking him through years of hardship because of others' jealousy. God "worked with" Joseph to get him where he was destined to be.

Moses, who God spoke with as a man speaks with his friend -- face to face.

David, of whom the psalmists later wrote in Psalm 78, God "chose David His servant, And took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him, To shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." God used David's menial responsibilities to train him for great things.

In David's writings, you find an entire psalm (Psalm 25) which puts forward God personally teaching his people who want to learn his ways. God told him, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. Do not be like a horse or mule who requires a bit and bridle." (Psalm 32)

In Daniel, who like Joseph before him was a trusted servant of kings, who excelled in all his doings. God worked with him to be a revealer of mysteries to gentile kings who respected him.

In Jesus, who as a man had a disciple's relationship with his Father in heaven. The nature of this is foretold in Isaiah 50:4-6 and lived out in the pages of the gospel accounts as day-by-day and night-by-night Jesus gets alone with his Father.

In the apostles, as Jesus worked with them in his personal way and in which they worked with the people who God united with them as they lived out their callings.

Much more could be said and there is a wealth of detail about this disciple-relationship with God himself. Have you ever considered that God may want to teach you in such a way so you can bring the life and lifestyle of his Kingdom into the world around you?

To recap simply, discipleship is the true nature of man's relationship with God. It was before the fall and it is for those restored from the fall. To assume that the only concern of people is to get their "peace with God" and then wait till the afterlife for the good stuff entirely misses the nature of life with God as it is intended to be.

What is Discipleship? Original Intent

Continuing with the theme of Discipleship: I wrote previously about the Doctrine of Original Intent. This is not a church doctrine, it is typically used as the methodology of interpreting the Constitution. "What did the Founding Fathers mean when they said ..." The competing view of constitutional interpretation is to see it as an evolving document that -- sort of like silly putty -- can be bent and shaped to mean new things in relation to new challenges.

I prefer to approach the scriptures with a "doctrine of original intent" -- taking Genesis chapters 1 - 3 as the seed bed for the rest of redemptive history up to and including the return of our Lord in glory. If we get the first three chapters wrong, we skew the whole rest of the story.

How does this sync up with discipleship? It is my belief that discipleship could be the defining characteristic of Adam's relationship with God. God had created Adam to be his "manager" of creation. In doing so, Adam had to learn the ropes. Who would teach him? The Creator, of course. God was the one who knew how it all worked and what He wanted Adam to accomplish with it. With that in view, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God came "walking in the garden in the cool of the day." I believe that this was an example of "mentoring" times that He shared with Adam prior to the fall.

Is this all stated in the text? Not in so many words. As we continue this series we will look at other things later in history that point back to this.

What is Discipleship?

Christians toss around "lingo" a lot. Many times we use words which if we were asked to define, we are unable to, or we find that our definition differs from how others would define it.

Discipleship is one of those words. What is discipleship? How we answer that is pretty important because the Great Commission (another lingo phrase) as it is given in Matthew has "making disciples" as the central, focal thing for us to be engaged in "till the end of the age". By contrast, Mark's version focuses on "preach the gospel" to all creatures.

Now if we unpack those two accounts there is a wide difference in how they are fulfilled. Theoretically, if we could rent helicopters and fly over every habitation of mankind and broadcast the message, the Four Spiritual Laws, or the Roman Road or some other device, the job would be done -- if we go by Mark's version. Conversely, unless we confine the term "making disciples" to a my-mouth-to-your-ear activity, there is a lot more to it. The first involves words, the second involves living life, in fact, as I will deal with in future posts, it is all about life, not just words.

I have been keeping up with a series of articles written by John Armstrong of Act3 Ministries dealing with this subject. What is discipleship?

Armstrong says, "I am convinced that we have reduced the meaning of this extremely important word to: (1) Learning information from the Bible, or content about faith, and; (2) To relating our lives to the local church and its programs. In the process we have emptied the word disciple of deep meaning and allowed people to profess a faith that does not require them to imagine what can or should be done as radical followers of Jesus Christ."

In other words, we have removed discipleship from the messy arena of daily living and we have made it a matter of passing on information and participating in church activities.

Being a disciple is life-engaging. Making disciples should be, too.

In my next few posts, I will try to follow the theme of discipleship through the narrative of the Bible and show that it is "baked in" to spiritual life, not tacked on.

Rearranging the Furniture of Creation

In my last post, I talked about how as God created everything, it was part of his designed purpose for each thing to reflect a facet of Himself, his character. Even mankind had a unique purpose of being his image-bearer. Everything seen, of this creation, temporal, points to the unseen and eternal.

Considering the fall, when Adam and Eve chose to break God's covenant of life with them, new realities had to be reflected in the "furniture" of creation. The reality of death and decay now had to be reflected in all things, again, in part as a testimony to mankind. This is implied in Romans 1:18 and following. All created things now reflected this tendency. Creation was still beautiful but it was broken. God promised to redeem it. (Think about reclaiming something from the dumpster and making it useful again).

Likewise, his image-bearers, as living models of the relationship between God and his people, needed to act out new realities.

For Adam, bearing fruit no longer was automatic. The investment of toil, sweat, etc. could be met with thorns and thistles. This is reflective of Hebrews 6 where it is noted that blessings can be poured on a piece of ground which only grows thorns and ends up being cursed.

For Eve, childbirth was no longer the EZ button that it would have been. It would come with travail. Likewise, we, God's people bear fruit with travail. It is not easy. Paul commented on the correlation several times in his epistles.

So again, God has continued to use everything, everything to be a constant reminder of himself, his character, his eternal purpose. More than anything, it testifies of his faithfulness. In a nutshell, his only requirement for Adam and Eve was "trust and obey" like the old hymn says. So it is for us. He is trustworthy.