Deurpost

Had to post this link. It is so funny!!

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/06/06/the-50-best-pun-stores/

Came across this poem. Thought it was quite funny

English is Tough Stuff
A poem on the difficulty of pronouncing English

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!

So, looking at all that has been said, what shall we say then?

All of this can be summed up in what Jesus said to the Pharisees: “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” (Matthew 22:34-40)

So, the question I have to ask is: Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind? Do you really love Jesus with everything you got, trusting Him and following Him no matter what? Do you have the Word of God (the Bible) as the highest authority in your life? Do you read it, study it, meditate on it, memorize it, and apply it into your life? Do you really seek God with your whole heart? (Psalm 119:10). Do you really long for Him with your soul? (Psalm 84:2). Do you really want your mind to be renewed? (Romans 12:2). Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Do you love your enemies? (Matthew 5:44). Do you consider all to be your neighbor, as Jesus explains in the parable of the Good Samaritan? Do you live by the “golden rule” of Matthew 7:12? “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets“

Discipleship is something you are, not something you do. It is a way of life for all of life in all areas of life (work, school, marriage, family, friends, etc.). It is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. We are called to be and make disciples!

I am currently reading the book “Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ” by John Piper, and the topic of the first chapter is about the glory of God, which ends with a prayer that I thought conveys beautifully the heart all of us should have towards God, and so I want to close off with this prayer by John Piper:

“O Father of glory, this is the cry of our hearts – to be changed from one degree of glory to another, until, in the resurrection, at the last trumpet, we are completely conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Until then, we long to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord, especially the knowledge of his glory. We want to see it as clearly as we see the sun, and to savor it as deeply as our most desired pleasure. O merciful God, incline our hearts to your Word and the wonders of your glory. Wean us from our obsession with trivial things. Open the eyes of our hearts to see each day what the created universe is telling about your glory. Enlighten our minds to see the glory of your Son in the Gospel. We believe that you are the All-glorious One, and that there is none like you. Help our unbelief. Forgive the wandering of our affections and the undue attention we give to lesser things. Have mercy on us for Christ’s sake, and fulfill in us your great design to display the glory of your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.” (John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p17-18)

So, what does this all mean for us in our daily lives? What is it that a disciple of Jesus does? Let me list five things a disciple of Jesus does.

A disciple is a Reborn Follower of Jesus
There is no distinction between being a Christian and being a disciple. Christian means “belonging to Christ” and thus that Jesus Christ is your Master, your Rabbi, which means that you are His disciple, and thus follow Him. Now, here we could go into all sorts of discussions of belonging to Christ means justification, and that those who are being justified also will be glorified (Romans 8:30), so that no sanctification or following is required of a Christian/disciple/follower of Christ, for you will be glorified anyways. But regardless of the fact that this is true, this doesn’t take away the fact that Jesus Christ demands a lot from a Christian, which (if He is your Master, because you are His follower) must be obeyed. For those interested to find out what Jesus exactly demands from a Christian (and the world), a good book to read would be John Piper’s “What Jesus Demands from the World” which lists 50 demands from Jesus. Like I said in my first post, in the old Jewish tradition, the relationship between a disciple and his teacher is one of complete loyalty, dedication and submission. In Matthew 4:18-20 we read about the immediacy of following Jesus where it says, “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” And in Matthew 8:18-22, Jesus tells us what it means to follow Him, “Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’” But I think John’s writing is the most clear when he wrote, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

A disciple Submits to At Least One Other Person Who Teaches Him How to Follow Jesus
Character develops in community, but in order for character to develop it requires something. It requires submission. You need to be willing to submit to someone and letting that person speak into your life, and this requires humility (“Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” (1 Peter 5:5). So, humility leads to submission leads to character development (which means transformation into Christ-likeness). Humility is a starting point, not an end goal (see my post “Good Works Versus Humility” for more insights). The Apostle Paul in particular points this out in several of his writings. He says to Timothy, “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me” (2 Timothy 3:10-11), and “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). And Paul says to the Corinthians, “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” (1 Corinthians 4:15-16). And we read in Ephesians 5:21 to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Being a disciple means to be a servant, and in this case it is a servant/servant relationship towards each other.

A disciple Learns Jesus’ Words
On this point obviously much can be said. Like the old Jewish disciple had an oral tradition which required them to memorize everything their rabbi said (and often meant memorizing the whole Law (the Torah or the Pentateuch or the five books of Moses) and much of the Prophets), so we should learn Jesus’ words. This should not be taken lightly at all. We should know Scripture by heart. It should ooze out of us, ready to be used “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We should have Jesus’ words ready in our heart for all circumstances, which means next to the aforementioned verse also for defending and confirming the gospel (Philippians 1:7) and for fighting the devil (Ephesians 6:11-17), which includes the Word of God being a sword (Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12). I like what Donald S. Whitney says in his book “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” when talking about Scripture memorization, where he explains the Word of God being a sword to be used. He says that if you need to defend yourself and you take out your sword, that knowing only Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16 will not be sufficient to defend yourself in most situations. (This obviously does not mean that we should turn the Word of God into a list of handy verses to be used for different situations!).

“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” (John 8:31-32). We need to abide in His Word if we are truly are His disciples. Why? Because we will know the truth! But there are more reasons, and the Psalmist says it quite beautifully. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7-8), and “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-3), and “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11). So, the Word of God is perfect, it revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes, and it keeps you from sinning. In other words, it is life-giving!

A Disciple Imitates Jesus’ life and Character
This could actually be the most important one, although this should flow naturally out of submitting yourself to Jesus. Yet, this is a thing that many times is skipped in the process of being a Christian. Imitating Jesus’ life and character means sanctification, means spiritual formation, and means transformation into the image of Christ. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It means that we should “have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7).

Imitating Jesus’ life and character leads to living a life of humility, for “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3). Imitating Jesus’ life and character leads to living a life of sacrifice, for “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1). Imitating Jesus’ life and character leads to living a life of submission, for “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Imitating Jesus’ life and character leads to living a life of obedience, for “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36) and “Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” (Acts 5:29). Imitating Jesus’ life and character leads to living a life of persecution, for “indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

A Disciple Finds and Teaches Other Disciples Who Also Follow Jesus
Jesus spent three years teaching and training the apostles, and when He left He told them in Matthew 28:19-20 to “go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The Great Commission is the normal job of a disciple: to raise up more disciples, and we could say that the Christian faith has done a pretty good job in ‘going’ and ‘baptizing,’ but that unfortunately the ‘making disciples’ and ‘teaching them’ could be described as the Great Omission. Something Dallas Willard wrote a whole book about. With the great commission transformation became mission. It reveals Jesus’ heart and priority. It launches a rescue mission. All followers receive orders to take action: “When he saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” (Matthew 9:36-38). When all who become disciples make disciples, the result is not reproduction (adding one disciple at a time), but multiplication (one become two, becomes four, etc)

These are the things that Jesus demands from His disciples.

As an example of what Jesus meant by discipleship, let’s have a brief look at the life and ministry of Paul.

Traditional Upbringing
He spent the better part of his life learning the ins and outs of traditional Jewish discipleship from Gamaliel, which means Paul was accustomed to the “old way” of discipleship. Paul says, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day” (Acts 22:3). In other words, Paul was raised up based on the traditional way of Jewish discipleship, which means he knows and practiced what I have been talking about in my first post.

A Father to Many
Paul regarded himself as a father in Christ to both the Corinthians, the Thessalonians and to Timothy. He said to the Corinthians, “I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” (1 Corinthians 4:14-16). Of Timothy Paul said, “But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how a as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.” (Philippians 2:22). And to the Thessalonians he said, “For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

The father/son language is characteristic of the Jewish teacher/disciple model. Furthermore, he urges the Corinthians to imitate him, thus spurring them on to live out their discipleship. Paul’s language of father seems to contradict Jesus’ words of “call no man your father on earth,” but Paul doesn’t instruct them to call him ‘father’ (as in the “old way” use of language), but merely refers to the fact that he laid the foundation of the church and the gospel among them. They were made Christians by his ministry. He is their spiritual father, but he does point them to Jesus for he said, “What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:12-13)

A Disciple-Maker
Paul made disciples in Christ everywhere he went. In Corinth, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you” (1 Corinthians 11:1-2). In Philippi, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17). In Thessalonica, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

In the previous post I took a look at how the Jewish tradition dealt with the topic of discipleship. Now, the question that could be raised is whether Jesus’ views on discipleship were an exact copy of how the Jews did it, or if Jesus used the method of the Jews just as a stepping stone for deploying His model. You probably guess that Jesus’ model is unique, and actually twists the Jewish way at some very important points.

It Was Unique In Whom Jesus Chose
The first thing to notice is that Jesus chose His disciples, whereas in the Jewish culture the disciple chose his Rabbi. Jesus also specifically chose the Jews and their culture (rather than any other culture), and Jesus also chose unlikely Jewish people (like farmers, fishers, and carpenters as opposed to the rabbis or the sages) for His mission. Doug Greenwald, executive director of ‘Preserving Bible Times’ has a really good insight into the Jewish culture and why it worked perfectly for Jesus’ mission. He said, “The Jews had a passion to be pure. Purity being defined as doing those things that would honor God as interpreted by their rabbis. This means that they would never set foot on Gentile land or house; they would never dine with sinners; they would never seek out and fellowship with lepers; they would never see disabled people as being right with God; they would never see anything of redeeming value in a tax collector; they were zealous not to be compromised with Greco-Roman culture; they knew the Scriptures well; they were men of mostly ritualized prayer, and would pray at different times of the day; and they knew their own culture well.

Jesus chose men who had the basic raw material to help Him rescue the world, starting in Jerusalem. They had a passion and spiritual hunger; they were common enough to work outside the religious system; they had to give up a lot.”

It Was Unique in How He Defined Being a Disciple
In Matthew 23:8-12 we read how Jesus instructed His disciples to never raise up new disciples for themselves and take the role of master themselves (which was the Jewish tradition), “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.“

Now you may think that this contradicts other parts of the New Testament which clearly talks about elders, teachers and leaders being ordained in the community. But Jesus is specifically talking about the traditional disciple/teacher here. Jesus says that his disciples are not to be like other disciples in that regard. Other disciples, when they are trained go and raise disciples for themselves and then they become the teacher, the father, the rabbi, the master. But Jesus’ disciples are not to raise up disciples for themselves, taking on the role of master, but raise up other disciples and point them to Jesus, as He is the only Master.

We see how Jesus applied this Himself to the twelve apostles. In the beginning of ministry in Mark 3:14, Jesus “appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach,” and at the end of his ministry in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says to the twelve, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Now, this is a very familiar section of Scripture, but pay attention that Jesus says to His disciples that when they make disciples they should teach them everything that He commanded (as opposed to teach them everything that they commanded – which was the Jewish tradition). Why? Verse 20 says that He will be with them always. Jesus did not die, like all the “normal” Jewish rabbis did.

When Jesus started his ministry and people started following Him, his early followers did not ask any questions about becoming a disciple. We read in John 1:38 that his early followers immediately started calling Jesus ‘Rabbi’ (which means teacher) and started following Him. Why? Let’s see if we can find out why that was, shall we!

Now, the Old Testament doesn’t really talk much about disciples or discipleship, but that doesn’t mean we cannot infer discipleship relationships. We know that Isaiah had disciples (Isaiah 8:16); Samuel probably had disciples (1 Samuel 10:5); Elijiah discipled Elisha (1 Kings 19:19). But probably the most prominent discipleship relationship in the Old Testament is that between Moses and Joshua. Moses took Joshua with him when going up the mountain for the tablets of stone (Exodus 24:12-14). Joshua did not depart from the tent of meeting when Moses talked face to face with God (Exodus 33:11). God commands Moses to charge Joshua to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land (Deuteronomy 3:28). God commissions Joshua to lead the nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 31:23, Joshua 1:1-3). Joshua finished well in the eyes of the LORD (Joshua 24:31).

So long before the days of Jesus, discipleship was already a well-established institution within Jewish culture. All the great sages (people famed for their wisdom), the rabbis, the sages among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Torah (the law) had disciples. The Hebrew word for disciple is ‘talmid,’ which means student. We translate this as disciple. A talmid’s job was to learn everything that his master had to teach. Discipleship was the primary institution for higher religious education in the days of Jesus. There were no Bible schools. There were no seminaries. There were no freely available Bibles. A young man seeking a future in teaching Torah would apprentice himself to a rabbi to learn the trade. The teacher/disciple relationship was a powerful bond. Disciples regarded their teachers higher than their fathers. They regarded themselves as slaves to their teachers. It was as it were a father/son relationship.

Looking at the relationship between a disciple and his teacher, we can say that a disciple performed five tasks, and these tasks describe the cultural context of the institution of discipleship in the gospels:

They decided to follow their teacher
There was an absolute dedication, loyalty and submission to their teacher which is basically incomparable to any situation in our own culture and experience.

They learned their teacher’s traditions and interpretations
It was a disciple’s job to learn the tradition of how his teacher kept the commands of God and interpreted the Scriptures. Every detail about the teacher was important to the disciple. The disciple needed to learn how the teacher washed his hands, how he kept the Sabbath, how he fasted, how he prayed, how he gave charity, how he said the blessings over food, etc. Furthermore, the way the teacher interpreted passages of Scripture, the meanings he drew out, the parables with which he clarified, the way he explained a verse or understood a concept, each of these was of utmost importance to the disciple. Details of this sort were not just trivia. To a disciple, these were like gems and pearls meant to be gathered and treasured.

They memorized the teacher’s words
The oral transmission process was the only inter-generational communication practiced among the sages. The great rabbis and Torah scholars of First Century Pharisaic Judaism did not write scrolls or compose books for their students to read and study. Instead, they taught orally and their disciples studied by memorizing their words. Through constant repetition, disciples memorized their teacher’s words and were able to repeat them to subsequent generations

They imitated their teacher’s actions
A disciple’s highest calling was to be a reflection of his teacher. A disciple studied to learn, to act, to speak and to respond the same way his master would act and speak and respond. A disciple studied to do the things his master did. His highest goal was to walk after his teacher. There is a story in ancient tradition that tells of a rabbinical student so devoted to his teacher that he hid in the teacher’s bedchamber to discover the mentor’s sexual technique. To be sure, this is a bit extreme, yet it demonstrates the level of commitment required to be a disciple. In Luke 6:40 Jesus said that “a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”

They raised up their own disciple
It was the job of a disciple, when finally trained, to raise up his own disciples. He was to create a new generation of students and to transmit to them the memorized words, traditions and interpretations and the actions and behaviors of his Master. The goal was to pass the torch of Torah from generation to generation.

These functions describe the cultural context of the institution of discipleship in the gospels. When Jesus called his disciples, these five tasks are the things they were called to do. This is how they understood their job. And that’s how we should view ourselves being disciples of Jesus.

For the last couple of weeks nothing less than an explosion of confusion has manifested itself in my head. Sounds lovely, isn’t it! The funny thing is that although there is much confusion there is much clarity on what the confusion is about. In other words, the confusion explosion is not an all encompassing confusion across the whole line of my life, but is quite focusing itself in one particular area. And that area is called my life with Jesus (no, not my life in Jesus. There is no confusion there). It is my life with Jesus and how it manifests itself in life and what we call the local church (as opposed to the universal church). I am sure by saying this that you are as confused about what I am talking about as I am about what I am confused about, so let me try to explain (hoping that by explaining my confusion the Holy Spirit is able to shed some light).

Several events led up or contributed to my confusion. These are: church structure discussions with the deacons, listening to a missiology teaching by Jeff Vanderstelt, participating in a three day European Church Planting (ECPN) conference, re-reading Neil Cole’s book “Organic Church,” preparing a teaching on being a disciple of Jesus, and a serious look at my own life in reflection to all of the above. The point is actually quite simple. What does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus? What does it mean to “do” church? These are the two questions that are pounding inside of my skull for the last couple of weeks, forcing its way out the hard way.

What does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus?
Without giving too much away from the forthcoming teaching, I have been challenged on my definition of a disciple. Maybe I should say that my definition has been stretched or has become clearer in the process of studying it out. It is not that I had a wrong definition at first, just an incomplete one. But I have been challenged by the question to what extent I actually am a disciple of Jesus. Sure, I believe in Him and I make feeble attempts to study His words and imitating His life. But this is not wholehearted submission to Him, right?! It’s a 21st century version, an extract of a lesser kind, customized and contextualized to my convenience, made fit to be part of my life, but certainly not be a starting point or center point from which my life emanates, right?! This is not about trying and failing. This is about not having Jesus at the center of my life. This is about not deeply studying, meditating on, and applying the Bible in my life. This is about about not trying to imitate Jesus’ life, character and ministry in every aspect of my life, regardless of cost. This is about “doing” the 21st century Christian thing: believe in Jesus, read your Bible, go to church, do the programs, get immersed in ministry life, be busy with all these things, and in the mean time Satan is laughing his butt off, because in all the doing you forget about being a Christian, being a disciple of Jesus. This sounds all very similar to a post from little over a year ago, called “I Wanna Be!” I am doing so much. My agenda is completely overbooked with all Christian activities, but because of that my relationship with Jesus is swept under rug for the sake of ministry. I am reading books which count as input to my activities or discussions or meetings (examples: I read “Clusters” for the ECPN conference; I read “Feed My Sheep” as input for ongoing discussions about the necessity of preaching in the church; I read “Vintage Church” for ongoing discussions with the deacons about church structure). Now, these are all great books, but all the hours reading these books are hours I am not reading the Bible. And Satan is laughing. In all the activities which should facilitate making disciples I forget being a disciple. And it’s frustrating the heck out of me… Now, you may ask: “what’s the confusion here?”. And that would be a good question to ask. My answer would be that the confusion is how to change it around. At the ECPN conference I learned to ask two really important questions. What do I need to start doing? What do I need to stop doing? I need to start to center my life on being a disciple. The confusion is about what I need to stop doing in order to facilitate the start doing.

What does it mean to “do” church?
This is a much more confusing question to be sure. Although I have no church background growing up, my input and experience so far has been the “traditional” model of “doing” church on Sunday and “doing” church through means of a small group on a weekday. Both are church, meaning the church gathers on Sunday for preaching and worship and scatters throughout the week for living life in community. Lately I have been really challenged in this whole concept. Why? Simply by asking myself the question about fruit. In other words, the good seed on the good soil. And the point is, I don’t see it. I fail to see fruit on many different levels. And so I am asking the question whether this is because of good seed on bad soil or because of bad seed on bad soil or because of bad seed on good soil. And I haven’t figured that one out yet, but my first guess is that it is to some extent bad seed on bad soil. To some extent. In any case, I feel that my life has been taken over by programs and meetings and is completely void of any form of natural or organic Kingdom living. Everything is planned out, programmed. And I feel it’s sucking the life right out of me. And I cannot imagine that this is what Jesus had in mind.

So what am I saying really? Well, let’s go from big scale to small scale. On a big scale there is the “church” gathering (traditionally on Sunday). Why do we have these gatherings? What’s the purpose of the “church” getting together? Is it not to raise up holy hands worshiping  the LORD our God? Is it not equip, edify, correct, encourage the local body of Christ? Is it not to experience the body at large? Then why do we program it all? Why is there a worship band practicing to “perfect” the songs instead of musicians getting together to simply worship through music? Why is there a professional teacher/preacher in the pulpit who spend 15 hours preparing his notes, based on preaching schedules and series, in order to share instead of those leaders (read: elders) who are gifted at teaching naturally arise to teach the body (for “let the elders who rule well be considered of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17))? Why are there serving teams and greeting teams and cleanup teams, etc., instead of a natural outworking of these things for if we disciples of Jesus we are servants of all and thus each other as well. Why is there so much programming needed and so little natural or organic outworkings because of who and what we are in Jesus?

On a smaller scale there is the outworking of what are called community groups or gospel groups or cell groups or home groups or something like that. These are groups of people coming together based on either geographical location or based on missional focus or just based on existing friendships, and experience the Christian life together. Here again I ask the question. What is the purpose of it? Does it need to be programmed or should it be naturally flowing out of our identity and desires in Jesus? By that I mean, it is clear that the early disciples of Jesus came together in houses to “devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42), but was this not something natural that happened instead of something programmed? By programmed I mean there is a designated leader or facilitator who prepares a teaching on some occasions, and on other occasions there is an evening of prayer and worship and communion organized, and on another occasion we organize an evening which focuses more on sharing our feelings, etc. How did the early disciples in for instance Corinth organize themselves? I find it hard to believe they planned and programmed it all out. My guess instead is that they naturally came together in houses, based on geographical location – because why travel all across town, and did whatever the Holy Spirit led them to, and just lived out community together, seeing each other every day because they were simply neighbors or co-workers etc. I doubt that all the “leaders” of these house groups would gather themselves for mutual edification, but that it found its outworking in city-wide gatherings (in temple courts), and that these leaders where actually the elders/pastors/shepherds/overseers which is talked about in the New Testament. Not a hierarchy of leaders, but apostolic leaders, like Paul, instructing his apprentice apostolic leaders, like Titus, to appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5).

On an even smaller scale, there is what Neil Cole calls “Life Transformation Groups” (LTGs) which are same-gender groups of two or three people who come together regularly (read: weekly) to hold each other accountable for reading the Bible, confessing sins to one another, and pray for there non-believing friends. Excellent principle and very much needed in itself, but why turn it into a program that has to occur on a weekly basis? Are LTGs nothing more than friends getting together and having fellowship with each other. Should Bible reading not be something you want to do out of a passion for Jesus and His Word instead out of necessity or guilt for not wanting to disappoint your LTG buddies? Is confessing sins to one another not a natural outworking of your life with Jesus (James 5:16)? Is praying for non-believing friends not something you are doing out of a passion for Jesus and a desire to share this with others?

All of this should be happening out of a love for Jesus and a love for your neighbor. If it needs to be programmed because otherwise it doesn’t happen then there is something terribly wrong and I dare say that if the latter is the case then maybe it is better to just stop it all and start from scratch (meaning, becoming a disciple of Jesus, and out of that let Him be the one who runs the program. He is far better at it for He is the only one who has the grand overview.

I must that I have no clarity yet on a couple of things in particular: a) how did true leadership and leadership gifting (E4 gifts – apostle,prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher) work itself out in biblical times (within a city, for a city, and for a region)? b) what about preaching and teaching – especially dealing with false doctrine and church discipline – in an organic structure? c) what about the mission and vision of the local church (i.e. should their be)? d) what about paid professionals – for the Bible does talk about financial enumeration for elders only.

So, what does this all mean? I don’t know. I don’t have the answers (hence the confusion explosion), but I have stopped being afraid of asking the questions for the sake of “tradition” or “because it is like it is” and instead put Jesus above it all and right in the center of it all, for He is my prophet and my priest and my king. Programs and structures are not. Does this mean I stop/drop everything I am doing for the sake of organic outworkings? No, but there is an order to things. First, I am a son of God, second I am a husband, third I am a father. Only after these come other things. And if either of these are lacking or failing for something which is outside of the top 3, then will not hesitate to have the order restored.

I think I watched this teaching over twenty times by now. Why? Because I want to continue to remind myself to assume nothing, to not agree on the latest fling for the sake of peace and unity, but to constantly challenge myself to stay as close to Scripture as possible with regards to what the role of preaching is, what the role of authority is within church, and what the basic components of a church are, without compromising. A challenge to be sure in a day and age of individualistic opinionism.