• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

Did you say ‘passion’?

Posted on September 3, 2016 by wtdavid

In a recent post, I asked the question as to where had our passion gone.  I started out with an example of my waning passion for training runs.

Well, the other day, while getting myself back out on a run, I jogged through a neighboring town, only to see the following sign on the front wall of an evangelical church pastored by a friend.

20160821_095113Loosely translated, it says: “A passion to share”.

Did your say ‘passion’?

There it was again, that notion of a passionate message to share that comes out of a heart that is more and more deeply rooted in our passion for Christ and His passion and love for us.

Then I came across this YouTube video by a Christian young peoples’ musical group in our area.  That was sort of the proverbial ‘icing on the cake’.  You may not understand all the words, but one of the lines in the song talks about ‘voices overflowing with passion’; a passion that flows from who He is and what He has done for us.

Passion is not something I work up.  It grows, it deepens, it bubbles up from a heart that chooses to focus its interest, affections and time on Him.

Filed under: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Passion | Leave a comment »

That is not the way we learned

Posted on February 25, 2016 by wtdavid

“But that is not the way you learned Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.”  (Ephesians 4:20-21)

Our encounter with Jesus has not only taken away our shame and restored the honor God placed upon us, but it powerfully changes how we see others and how we treat them. We may have used our words to cause damage and hurt in others’ lives in the past. Now, in Christ, our motivation and desire is different. That is simply because we have learned a new way of living and loving.what-we-learned-rukkle-620X4002

However, what I find disheartening is that Christians are often among the least likely to demonstrate this kind of love toward one another, and particularly when they are called to work together in teams or towards a common vision. Terms like manipulation, rancor, or self-centeredness are sadly among some of the attitudes I have seen.

We who have been given the privilege of sharing the Gospel with others can be among those most needy for the Gospel. Could it be that our actions are a counter testimony to the ‘way we learned Christ’?

Commenting on this text, Jack Miller once said: “Putting on the new self means going to Jesus more and more to get a life of truth without secrets, and to abandon manipulating others. As you do this, you begin to see the people around you as individuals who are worth a great deal to God, and you are able to treat them with kindness, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, and love.”

How do others ‘experience’ you in day-to-day life and ministry? That’s a question to start with and which might provide greater self-awareness.

We need each other to lift up the mirror of God’s perfect law, that we might see how we fall short. We need each other to take us back again (and again) to Jesus where we receive mercy again (and again).

Filed under: Communication, Humility, Jesus Christ | 2 Comments »

Laying hold of it

Posted on May 19, 2015 by wtdavid

It seems self-evident that a movement such as ours would have to have the Gospel as a central driving value.  However, when we say that the Gospel is one of our guiding principles, what we actually mean can be less than clear and ‘interpreted’ differently by various workers.heart affection

The Gospel is certainly the message of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus which delivers us from the guilt, the power and the pollution of sin. When we say the Gospel is one of our central driving values, we mean more than just that definition.  We mean that we are ‘Gospel centred’.  We mean that more than anything else, Jesus is ‘the joy of our desiring’.  We mean that Jesus has displaced all other things that might capture our heart: our reputation, our ministry, or our success in ministry.

Thomas Chalmers in his message: “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” put it this way: “Its [our heart] desire for one particular object may be conquered; but as to its desire for having some one object or other, this is unconquerable.  Its adhesion to that on which it has fastened the preference of its regards, cannot willingly be overcome by the rending away of a simple separation.  It can be done only by the application of something else, to which it may feel the adhesion of a still stronger and more powerful preference.”  What Chalmers was trying to express was the difficulty we have in being ‘Gospel centred’.  Our hearts resist the shedding of one affection, one desire, or one focus if there is not something more powerful, more important that will push out of the way what currently captures our heart.

We often talk about the reality of spiritual warfare in the task of bringing the Gospel to those without Christ.  Perhaps that same reality exists in our hearts when we allow other ‘affectations’ to capture our hearts rather than Christ.

To be as concrete as I can, living as a ‘Gospel centred’ worker would mean asking another worker to pray with me for Jesus to become again the ‘joy of my desiring’ as something else may have become much more important to me at this point in my life and ministry.

It’s a fight, it’s a struggle to live as Gospel centred workers.

 

Filed under: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Prayer | Leave a comment »

Reading the Bible as a ‘missional worker’

Posted on February 27, 2014 by wtdavid

In his meeting with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, Jesus “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [he] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”  (Luke 24:27)

Any worker who has a missional mindset or a missions heart reads the Bible through these “glasses”: knowing that Jesus is the main theme.  From Genesis to Revelation, the biblical text points to or speaks of the One who would come to reconcile us to God and who would entrust us with this ministry of proclaiming reconciliation to others.  It’s all about Him.Google Glass video user guide

The focus on this unifying theme is at the base of much oral storytelling of the Bible or progressive Bible study working from the Old to the New.  However, is it really true for us as missional workers?  Are we as enraptured by this truth as we are passionate to share it with others?

The image of the Exodus originally drew attention to the need for deliverance from physical slavery (Exodus 7:16), but Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration talks of His “exodus” (Luke 9:31) being the means by which He would provide deliverance from the spiritual bondage of sin.  This is the message our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors need to hear.

Yet, we need to hear it as well.  Our hearts need to be caught up again with the wonder of His all out effort to redeem us, to buy us back for Himself from our rebellion and turning away from Him.  A missional worker must draw his/her resources from this well.

Here’s a thought: take the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) or the notion of the priesthood (Numbers 1:13) and write down how Christ and His work is exemplified as the truth of this event or idea is run through the entire Scriptures.  Then stop and give thanks to God for Christ’s work in this way and ask Him to apply it strongly to your life again today.

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Reflection | 1 Comment »

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