Disciples make disciples. Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Yes, we’re disciples; yes, our goal is to make disciples. But let’s reverse engineer that process by examining how Jesus describes a disciple. Full disclosure warning—this concept first touches current followers. Future followers are, well, future followers. Let’s first deal with our present.I explored some absolutes from Jesus that express the essence of following. Requirements. If we reject these, we reject ...
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Passionately Pursuing Worship
Forget Judge Judy—even though reports claim she’s the highest paid woman on television. Forget Judge Wapner—even though he was the first TV judge on the old “People’s Court.” Why? Put me in a worship service, and my church seat miraculously transforms itself into a judge’s bench. Just replace Judge Judy’s pic above with mine, and you get the idea. Well, skip the best paid and the gender, but you get the picture.
I judge the music—is it loud and strong enough, too loud, or too hymn-like?
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Total
Our pastor has embarked on preaching through the entire book of Matthew. Usually, he handles a chapter at a time, hinting at over half a year just on this one admittedly fine book. But today he examined only six verses of chapter six, covering just one topic in the Sermon on the Mount. At that rate, the century may end before we complete Matthew! But that’s OK, it’s God’s word.That projection intrigued me, so while he preached...
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A Passionate Pursuit--2
Near death experiences fascinate us. Whether it’s the recent books and movies Heaven is for Real or the earlier 90 Minutes in Heaven, we yearn for evidence for eternal life. Although the Bible says that, we often want more. But. Consider with me that we may short change the essence of eternal life.
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A Passionate Pursuit--1
Let’s begin a regular, continuing topic, OK? Once a month we’ll explore how much value God has, or doesn’t have, in our lives. Who is he? What’s he like? What does a connection with him look like? How can we craft that? I’m convinced that we need to identify those questions because our view of God, or the lack of it, will shape our lives. So this first post will start the process with two positions that represent the ends of the spiritual spectrum. Several years ago, a woman walked into Haagen-Dazs, and noticed Paul Newman...
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Dancing with the Devil
For too long, I justified myself with the excuse that dancing with the devil was justifiable if I didn’t slow dance. I’d edge as close to overt sin as I could without stepping over the line. Close enough to get some pleasure, but not too close to get trapped, to have guilt overwhelm the good times. In high school days, how much physical contact with girls was acceptable before it became sin? That became more subtle as an adult, how much information could I withhold, without actually lying, to give myself an advantage? Or, while remaining a nice guy, what balance should I strike between serving others and using others to serve myself? These are just a few of all those cases I could list.
That was fast dancing with the devil.
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Habituated
No, this may not qualify as unusual, but my email account got hacked. A friend forwarded an email he had received “from me,” with a link that obviously wasn’t from me. So, I changed the password that I’d kept for a dozen years, with just a few minor, rememberable tweaks, into a longer more exceptional one.
So, for the last two weeks, 90% of the times I sign in to my email...
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Heaven Tickets?
What’s the admission ticket to heaven? Do all get one, or just a select few? How do you obtain one of these, if you so desire? What if you don’t desire heaven as a destination? That issue has thrust itself into the conversation, with books like Rob Bell’s Love Wins, and a recent article on universalism by Ron Corson.
Bell and Corson and others suggest that in the end, all go to heaven. This short page can’t examine that issue in depth, but I do want to explore a foundational issue that we need to grasp before we reach a conclusion. Following Jesus...
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