The next day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look here is the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. – John 1: 35
I’m reading a book at the moment, ‘Miraculous Movements’ by Jerry Trousdale. It’s remarkable, as it tells the stories of Muslims coming to Christ quite literally in the millions and tens of millions across Africa and the Arab and Asia world, all in the past decade or so. Why now and not before you may ask?
I don’t want to present a simplistic solution to a situation engineered by God, but by their own admission those pioneering in this world show clearly when they began to adopt ‘hidden Biblical principles that are plainly in sight’ everything changed. What does that mean really? It means that God’s model for growing his Kingdom is plainly detailed in the pages of Scripture, but has been largely ignored for millennia. Jesus instigated and revealed the model that works in the pages of the Gospels and later in the New Testament. None it, just by the by, involved founding churches. Jerry Trousdale testifies to the fact that when they began obeying simply (and simply obeying) whatJesus instructed, the whole movement across the Muslim world began.
I’d like to focus on this a little over the next few weeks, as I believe we are in an age where finally God has brought us around to the truth about what he really intended for believers. Given the Gospels deal alot with the relationship between Jesus and his disciples, and it is also his final command to us, surely it deserves more attention.
A disciple means apprentice colloquially at least, and that perhaps best describes Jesus‘ disciples relationship to him. An apprenticeship is a mix of being taught, but also learning by doing. They listened to Jesus, but also did what he did (see Luke 10 as a classic example). His disciples were obedient to his calling.
One of the great reasons for the demise of the church in the West, has to be based around this issue – we have built Christendom on a doctrinal base, not an obedient base, and so we have set out to ensure people ‘know Christ’ (or know about him) rather than actually ‘follow him’ as he called us to do. We have chosen to teach people week in week out, without ever asking them to live out their lives.
The consequence of that, is that we have many professing Christians living a totally in-congruent lifestyle to their belief. If they were challenged to actually align their beliefs to their lifestyle, many would consider forsaking their faith. Over the coming weeks I would like to discuss this in greater depth, what it really means for us to follow Jesus as he has a calling on all our lives.
Before then, let me leave you with two things: firstly, none of our lives live up to the challenge of Christ, we are all sinful. This is not intended to leave us feeling guilty about our failings, and if that is the case I want to encourage you to read Ephesians (eg 5:1-2) where we are repeatedly told that God deeply loves us, as does the Son. His grace is sufficient.
But secondly, let us each ask ourselves this year, am I living as a disciple of Christ, in the sense of being an apprentice? Will I commit this year, to learning what that means, and trying to follow him – of which he (not me) will be the source of all strength needed to fulfill that task.
If you get a chance to read Jerry’s book please do – it will take your breath away.
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