disciple in the making

1 Samuel 14:7 (NIV)
⁷ “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” (emphasis added)

Ruth 1:16-17 (NIV)
¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “. . . Where you go I will go . . . . ¹⁷ Where you die I will die . . . . May the LORD deal with me . . . if anything but death separates you and me.” (emphasis added)

I’ve been wrestling over this post for awhile. I’m having a hard time communicating in words what God is communicating in my spirit.

The bottom line is that spiritual maturity, growth and fruit requires a decision to commit (despite any hardships). Commit to what? You tell me . . .

We all have areas of our lives that we’d love to abandon, hop the fence and frolic in the grass on the other side. My church isn’t feeding me. Let me try the church down the road. This relationship is too much work, how about I move on to that pretty looking girl over there? I’m not content at my job. Let me keep my eyes open for an out.

In the verses above, the armor-bearer and Ruth both stand firm in their commitment to Jonathan and Naomi. Wherever they go, we go. Kinda reminds me of the My Buddy and Kid Sister commercials of the 80’s. 

It is this commitment that eventually brings God’s blessing. Jonathan and the armor-bearer defeat the Philistines. Ruth marries Boaz and becomes the great grandmother of King David (I think I did the genealogy right).

Commitment is a lot like planting a seed. Your life is a seed.  When you choose not to commit and plant yourself somewhere else, you start from the beginning. You have to re-grow your roots. Keep bouncing from here to there and you’ll never see any fruit in your life.

Psalm 92:13 says those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish.

Roots are critical to growing things.
~ Stu Weber in Tender Warrior

Do you have roots where you’re at now? If not, plant yourself. Make the decision to commit regardless of how difficult, painful or inconvenient it may be.

(Obviously filtering it through God first.)

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If you haven’t read the essay in my previous post, I would encourage you to do that first.

That essay really resonates with me and affirms the cry of my heart.

Jesus needs us to be tenacious about his Gospel. Our lives need to be in a continual battle to ensure we are in line with God. We need to be idealists; believing one person can change the world through the power and Spirit of God within us.

Brooke’s words are a subtle reminder to that and how short our influence on the earth is.

James 4:14 (NIV)
¹⁴ . . . What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Brooke passed away at fourteen.

Intellectually we all know that we will die . . . We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever. (emphasis added)
~Frederick Buechner

Why do we frolic along in our lives thinking we have the rest of eternity to accomplish the plans and purposes of God in our lives? Or that we can spend the first half for ourselves and then the last half for God?

I will go on adventures and change the world. . . . I’ll be one of those people who live to be history maker. . . . I’ll be one of those people who go somewhere with . . . a world-changing plan, and nothing will hold me back.
~Brooke Bronkowski

I want to spend eternity in Heaven knowing I’ve left behind an eternity on Earth.

An eternity of Kingdom influence. An eternity of disciples who are building up new disciples. An eternity of passionate, sold-out, radical little Tran-babies passing on the fire from generation to generation.

But we don’t have an eternity to leave behind an eternity.

We have to start now . . .

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Below is an essay written by Brooke Bronkowski, a girl I read about in Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

The essay was written at the age of twelve and is a humbling expression of maturity from from a girl who later passed away in a car accident (at the age of fourteen).

Since I Have My Life Before Me

I’ll live my life to the fullest. I’ll be happy. I’ll brighten up. I will be more joyful than I have ever been. I will be kind to others. I will loosen up. I will tell others about Christ. I will go on adventures and change the world. I will be bold and not change who I really am. I will have no troubles but instead help others with their troubles.

You see, I’ll be one of those people who live to be history makers at a young age. Oh, I’ll have moments, good and bad, but I will wipe away the bad and only remember the good. In fact that’s all I remember, just good moments, nothing in between, just living my life to the fullest. I’ll be one of those people who go somewhere with a mission, an awesome plan, a world-changing plan, and nothing will hold me back. I’ll set an example for others, I will pray for direction.

I have my life before me. I will give others the joy I have and God will give me more joy. I will do everything God tells me to do. I will follow the footsteps of God. I will do my best!!!

~Brooke Bronkowski

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Monday Morning insight posted an article today entitled Drastic Measures to Avoid Moral Failure. It links to posts from Perry Noble, Craig Groeschel and Shaun King which highlight reasons pastors have moral failures and/or safeguards they’ve put into place to avoid having one themselves.

The idea of accountability has been a main thread in my brain for a few weeks now.  The question I’ve been asking myself is what makes accountability truly effective?

I’ve been in a fair number of accountability relationships ranging from highly ineffective to moderately effective.

But none I would call highly effective.

A lot of accountability relationships involve trustworthy people regularly asking the tough questions. Are you looking at porn? How is your relationship with God? Are you spending daily time in the Word? In worship? In prayer?  Are you avoiding situations that you know will tempt you?

These safeguards involve transparency with other people and setting very specific boundaries.

All those are great things and should happen; however, they can and will fail if one condition is met: you no longer value your relationship with Jesus Christ above everything else in the world.

When that happens, deception will follow. People can ask the tough questions all day long, but if being in a right relation with Jesus is not mission critical to you, lying becomes easy. Finding ways around Internet filters is trivial. Gazing lustfully at another woman is as easy as breathing.

All that to say accountability fails when our relationship with Jesus fails.

True accountability has to be between you and Jesus. No one else will be able to be as strong and as supportive as you need them to be.

Dear Jesus,
I pray that I will always be transparent before you. That you will be my first love and that nothing will ever deceive me into thinking I need it more than you.

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Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. […]

You know this verse if you’ve been a Christian for any period of time. Along with Matthew 22:36-40 ,this is probably one of the most significant commands Jesus ever gave us.

Because of its significance, it’s worth marinating on. Are we fulfilling it?

It’s important to note the Great Commission was given to individuals. Not to the church.

Jesus asked us (individually) to go and make disciples.

1. How many people pursue God more because they’ve seen you passionately pursue God?
2. How many trust God more because they’ve seen you trust God in all seasons of your life?
3. How many people are comfortable in prayer/worship outside of church because they’ve done it at your house multiple times before?

If we are not teaching people to walk out the Word of God, we are not making disciples.

Are we failing miserably?

I feel like I am.

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One Verse

One Point

We shouldn’t be afraid of failure.  Instead, we should be afraid of being successful at the things that don’t matter.
~ Unknown

Have we maximized our time?  Have we taken every opportunity God has given us?  Or have we let our days become consumed with things that don’t matter?

The days are evil. They will overtake our time and energy without an afterthought.

One Application

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Ask me what I did on my day off?  Spent about six total hours dismantling my sister’s Canon SD400 to troubleshoot why the lens wouldn’t retract.

Apparently this is a common problem.

So after much research, I collected a bunch of illustrated guides from various places on the web and went to town.

Links

• How to repair a Canon E18 error (lens error) (things to try before taking your camera apart)
• E18 – Repair Guide (Illustrated, Canon S100)
• Fix Canon SD600 Lens Error (Illustrated)
• Canon E18 Repair Guide for SD300 (Illustrated PDF)
• Canon PowerShot S500 E18 Repair (Illustrated)

Suggestions From My Own Experience

Clean out any dirt/debris from both the lens and gear box.

Unscrew things in sections.  For each section, get a blank piece of paper and diagram where all the screws are.  As you unscrew stuff, place the screw on your diagram in its approximate location.

This will make your life infinitely less complicated as you put your camera back together.  Now you don’t have to worry about which screw and which size screw goes where.

Just be sure you put these diagrams away from your work area.  A small bump will send your screws flying and make your diagram worthless. 

The Good

I was able to clean out a lot of sand from the inside of the camera (i.e. lens mechanism, gear box).  The lens now retracts and extends.  It used to not do that. I’m awesome!

The Bad

Some of the gears controlling the movement of the lens are stripped.  That prevents the lens from extending/retracting smoothly and without a lot of grinding sounds.

The Ugly

The camera is un-fixable.  I now have a slick-looking paper weight.

Moral of the Story

My sister should give up being an agronomy major. Then she would be far less excited to take her camera into a soil pit.

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I find myself praying a lot lately.  Praying on the beach, in small group.  Over the phone with friends and in my own quiet times with Jesus.

But I’m laying here in bed asking myself when was the last time I just chilled with Jesus?

I’ve been praying for a lot people.  It’s been awesome.  The fact that I find myself praying so much for people is an answer to prayer.  But all this praying has been a “push” relationship with Jesus.  I’m pushing things his way and find myself not “pulling” much.

There’s just something about chillin’ with Jesus with no agenda.  It’s these times I find myself most at peace with God.  My spirit comes more in line with His Spirit.  My thoughts, His thoughts.  I get to pull from the very source of life.

Alex.  This is your reminder.  You need to chill with Jesus more.

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Here’s some more quote lovin’ from Andy Stanley in Communicating for a Change.

… spiritual maturity is gauged by application not contemplation. James says it best, “Faith without deeds is useless. (James 2:20)” “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22)”

Application

When asked which of the commandments were the greatest He summarized the entire law with two action-oriented imperatives, love God and love your neighbor.

Not Contemplation

It’s interesting that the group who knew the Old Testament Scriptures best were the very ones who considered Jesus a blasphemer and arranged for His crucifixion.

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