I have a confession to make.

I am not who I believe I should be.  I am not who I want to be.  I am not who my wife thinks I ought to be.  But most of all, I am not who God made me to be.

I say all that to simply admit that I do make mistakes; mistakes in actions, in reactions, in words and in deeds.  I have to admit that it is even possible that my opinions and conclusions may be wrong sometimes.  But thankfully I usually try to admit that I could be wrong about those.  I am loud, passionate, and overbearing sometimes in my attitude and delivery.  I am human.  For that I apologize.

I have also been challenged more this past year about what it means to be Christlike than ever before.  I in turn have grown uncomfortable in my role in the mission Jesus left with us all.  I have tried to take the lazy way out and tell myself that my job was to discern and instruct, to study and to share.  But I realize that is not enough.  The time I spend trying to herd others onto the path I see, instead of taking the first steps onto that path myself, is wasteful.  And if there is one thing I know, it is that time is running out.

Our goal is to be a disciple and our mission is to go and make disciples.  Discipleship at its simplest is to become like the Master.  A lot of us are already working on the goal, including myself, but not so much on the mission.  It does seem that the vast majority of even steady, faithful, church goers are not ready to take those first steps.  I have been hesitant myself for too long and it grieves me more each day.  I know that the frustration that is building in me is starting to come out in ways that do the vision a disservice.  And it is not very Christlike at the same time.

I know that changes must come if the Kingdom is going to advance.  Changes in the way we have been looking at the mission.  Changes in the way we look at Church, denominational institutions, and leadership.  Changes in the way we present the love of Jesus to the world.  Changes in the way we relate to all of those around us.  Changes in the way we see ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of God.  Changes in our worldly nationalistic pride.  Changes in our tacit acceptance of our own evil agendas.  Changes in our hate filled grandiloquence towards those that we see as beneath us good Christians.  Changes that have to be realized and actualized if we are to show our Father we really are on board with Him.

I have desperately tried to relay this, just waiting for someone to take those first steps. What I did not see was that maybe I need to take them.  There are about to be changes in my life.  I am going to step up and step out.  I just have to remind myself the first steps are the hardest.

Love you all

I don’t like animals in my house.  Pets are just not something I care for at all.  It was not always like this though.  For a period of about five years, starting about twenty years ago, I experimented with all kinds of pets.  Like almost everything I do, I went way overboard.  At one time I ended up with a dog, two cats, a rabbit, two snakes, two iguanas, five turtles, a newt, four geckos, and two aquariums.  Oh yeah, my wife and I also had six kids.

I was out of my mind.  I admit to the insanity that I was going through at that time in my life.

The aquariums were the most fun and the remembrance of setting up these miniature landscapes is what led me to write this.  The turtles, snakes, iguanas and fish allowed me to be creative in building and establishing the habitats that I designed.  It wasn’t as much about the animals as it was those mini creations that I found fascinating.

I learned something about fish, especially goldfish.  The aquariums led to outdoor creations called water gardens.  I have built four of those over the years.  We lived without an abundance of financial resources, as you might imagine, so I looked for ways to do things on the cheap.  I found that I could go to Wal-Mart and buy “feeder” goldfish for about a dime in those days.  So I would pick up about twenty and put them in one of my little ten gallon worlds and see what happened.  These goldfish were not very hardy since they were only bred as food, but some would surprise me and live a while.  But they never got very big.

When I constructed my first water garden I did the same thing.  I stocked it with about forty of those little fish.  It was early spring.  By the end of that summer, one of the goldfish that had started out about an inch and a half long had grown to at least eight inches.  The kids and I called it Moby Dick.  Moby froze that winter and I looked in sadness sometimes at him locked in a block of ice.  But the next spring, when he thawed, that fish was still alive and grew another couple of inches before it just disappeared.  Probably eaten by a bird, I guessed.

Jesus implied that we are like fish when He called the disciples to follow Him and become fishers of men.  The thing that has gone through my mind as I have pondered this brings me to another conclusion about our growth as the church, the people of God.  As our focus has become so inward instead of outward we are becoming like those goldfish that are locked in an aquarium.

The reason Moby grew so big was because of his surroundings.  When you put fish, especially goldfish in a small environment they stay small.  By putting them in a larger one like my water garden they are free to grow like they are meant to.  As Christ followers, we are to be fishers of men also.  We are to go out into the great big world and grow large as we are fed by the Spirit of God and our mission.  But a lot of us are locked into our own aquariums, our church buildings, our programs, our ministries to those in the aquarium with us, and we have stunted our growth.

Let’s get out into the wild, deep waters of the world and become really big fish.  We might become big enough to be used by God to even swallow up reluctant men of God and erring prophets like Jonah.  And like that first freeze showed me concerning Moby, nothing can stop us.

And one more thing; let’s pray that our leaders become more than just aquarium keepers.

Love you all

I am constantly amazed with the way God seems to enrich my life.  I have played a small part recently in the development of a young adult fellowship in my church.  It was sorely needed so that relationships, growth, and  discipleship could be established among the few couples and singles that we have in attendance.  A few of them did not have a lot of opportunities for these things in church because of worldly interference such as work and children or mission interference such as working in the children’s departments and ministries.

The new group has a name and it is The Bridge.  This name was chosen because a bridge is something that connects.  A few people in my church have looked at this new group with concern, having let their minds go to thoughts such as division, separation or even revolution.  The Bridge has none of these things as an agenda.  The Bridge is a place for fellowship, for accountability, for biblical discussion amongst peers, and simply to celebrate our King in a way that is relevant to their age group.  As a bridge it is decidedly connective.  Connecting the individuals in this group to each other and the group to the lost in the community of like mind and interest and finally to the older generations in our church are the main goals we have in mind.  As one of the group, Wayne, put it; The Bridge is an addition and not a subtraction in our church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25NIV

As some of you already know, I used to be a loner.  I was introverted and pretty much hated everyone.  Then I met Jesus and entered his Kingdom as a child and servant of God and started the process of change.  As all of us know, God sometimes makes supernatural changes in us in certain ways immediately but he seems to do this in various ways.  Some may be miraculously delivered from addictions to tobacco for instance while another may not.  One way I was not changed was in my attitude towards assemblies, groups, fellowships, and even church.

I immediately started going to church but only for the Word of God, not for the people.  I would be the first to my vehicle when church was over, waiting sometimes not very patiently for my wife to finally be ready to leave.  I did not need anyone but Jesus and that was fine with me.  The roles have now reversed.  My wife often is waiting on me.  Somewhere along the line in my concerted attempt to love everyone, a bridge was built.  I was connected to the rest of the Body.

As the verse in Hebrews states, we all need to be connected to each other and never stop meeting or assembling with each other.  Why is this so important?

The main reason is, of course, the mission.  We are not a bunch of spiritual Rambo’s, furtively making our way through the jungles of life attacking all the spiritual forces we find aligned against us.  We are instead part of a unit of elite, trusted soldiers that must train, fight, and rest together.  The enemy is out there and he likes nothing better than finding one of us cut off and alone.  We cannot make it alone, even if God is there with us, simply because God decided long ago to work through us.  And the work he does through us is for others, not ourselves.

Another reason is the thing that brought this post about.  We need each other for the joy it can bring.  The relationships between believers enrich us, fulfill us, and mature us.  I was pretty good at being alone at one time.  But most of you probably don’t need to be told, being alone is not very fun or fulfilling.  Some of you also know the terrible, depressing feelings that come from loneliness.  I no longer fight depression.

And love is simply amazing.  Not the emotion but the true attribute called agape.  Intentional love, as it grows from being something we make ourselves do, to something we want to do, and finally to that thing we just do, does so much good for each of us individually and for the Kingdom that it just naturally spills over and flows out.  It is contagious.  It is life changing.  It is life enhancing.  It is rewarding and enriches not only ourselves but others, and especially the Body of Christ.

We need each other and even more so as we see the Day approaching because the enemy’s activities are ramping up.  I believe the final onslaught is here.  For our adversary, it is all or nothing.  We must stand and even more, continue to advance the Kingdom and we cannot do it or make it alone.

Build a bridge.  Be a bridge.  Protect your bridge.

Blowing up bridges is one way all enemies seek to divide and conquer.

Love you all

I don’t feel like I am doing much of anything.

I asked some questions on Tuesday that hit close to home.  I believe that we all have problems fulfilling the great commission.  If we think we don’t we are probably deceiving ourselves.  I have been serving Jesus for seven years now and I have personally not had one person that I have asked actually come to my church.  I have not personally led anyone to accept Christ as Lord of their lives.  I can’t even convince my kids that God is worth serving.

With my limited ability I do my best to teach two classes a week at church.  I read the bible a lot, read all sorts of forums and blogs and try to interact with both Christian and non Christian to a degree.  I pray.  I will discuss God and the Kingdom with anybody at anytime.  I write these blog articles and try to promote it and my brother’s blogs also.  I pray before meals in restaurants and in hospitals while visiting family.  I try my best not to even make a promise that I am not sure I cannot keep, much less lie.  I am not ashamed of the gospel or my Savior in any way.

But is any of this in any way really going out and making disciples?  Is it still possible to even do that in the hustle and bustle of life in the good ole USA?  (Read Mikes comment on the previous post.)

To answer my own last two questions from Tuesday is inextricably tied into my own personal mission.  If I am not doing it then to some degree my church is not and if it is not then we are not seeing the growth we should.  We will knock the seeker sensitive churches, and rightly so in a lot of ways, but if they are growing by the thousands and our growth is in single digits, what is really so bad if only ten percent of their growth is real. Ten percent of thousands is much more than 100 percent of nothing or even ten.

We live in a world and at a time that is way too busy.  But Jesus did not say “go when you have the time.” He said leave it all and follow Him before we are told to go.  Have we and are we willing to strip down to the necessities and fulfill our mission?  Are we really ready to forego some traditions and styles if it will keep the few visitors we have long enough to start the discipleship program?  I just don’t know.

Shannon talks about relationships more than anyone I ever met before.  He has it right.  In his last comment on my site he brought up the thoughts about being the church instead of doing church.  This the biblical approach.  I think I had a post in the past also about this but you will have to search the archives.  Being the church is relational at the very core.  Going out to make disciples is relational.

So I do know that it starts with relationships.  We absolutely must start new ones and grow deeper in the relationships we have.  And since we must do everything on the go, we must figure out how to do relationships on the go.  How and what would that look like?  Here is some food for thought.

The most obvious is right here.  The internet.  Reach out with blogs and forums.  There are loads of free resources out there.  Satan definitely uses the internet in a number of ways but why can’t we use it to reach out all over the world and talk about the fact that Jesus is King.  That is the heart of the gospel.  Satan has no control except when we let him.

Look at all the ways we stay in touch with everybody, all the time.  Are you texting, tweeting, IMing, emailing, etc.?  Are any of those instant communications about Jesus’ love?  Could they be?  We must engage the communications mediums of the day and learn to use them effectively.

When you go in a store or a restaurant, do you greet the cashier or waitress or do you sort of just ignore them?  These are relationships even if they are only momentary and temporary.  Being a witness, the traditional understanding of what we are to be, is much more than just praying before that meal while eating out.  Being a witness is also relational.  Letting someone know that you notice them and appreciate them is one way to impact the world even if it seems so small.  But add them all up.

Does anybody even know their neighbors name anymore?  Do we care?  There are relationship opportunities all around us.  At the mailbox, at the gas pump, at the dry cleaners, at the ball parks.

We have to develop strategic approaches to create relationships in the world of today.

Going and making disciples in our busy world will not look like it did a hundred years ago.  Life is tremendously full and busy and time still passes by at the same pace it did thousands of years ago.  I, for one, wish I had more even though I have a lot at the moment.  We have to get creative in our methods of fulfilling our mission.  We cannot afford to just let it go as we have been.

And I must start, myself.

Love you all

Thanks to Shannon and Mike for much of this post.