Bill shares thoughts, ideas and inspiration as we explore a faith that embraces discipleship - as we Choose The Life of following Christ.
“Come die with us”
“Come die with us.” What a thing to put on a big digital church sign by the freeway. Not exactly what church consultants would recommend to entice the seeker. Most followers of Jesus would have an idea of what the statement means, but they would dare not make it part of their public persona. It sounds out of touch, too frontal, too costly, too everything. Wouldn’t it be better to say, “Come live with us?” or “Come have an adventure with us?” People don’t like to think morbid thoughts, especially when it’s about them. But then again it would depend on what one thinks is at the heart of the Christian experience. “Come and die with us” is the most apt way of calling upon anyone to join in following Jesus, for the dying comes before the living. A church with such a slogan requires the right pastor. Ah, I know who that pastor should be. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who knows a little bit about dying. He was born in
In 1939, Bonhoeffer moved to
For a person who has answered the call to die to self and follow Christ, “what is the will of God?” is the only important question. A disciple lives for others. In this case the Holy Other is God. When one lives for God, then God’s will is what will advance the Kingdom and give him the greatest glory. It is not about our lives and our ministries and our careers. Bonhoeffer lived only 39 years. It was a short life, but it was God’s will for him. Therefore, Bonhoeffer’s life got maximum impact; it was a life that we still benefit from today. It is probable that if Bonhoeffer had stayed in
[1] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich The Cost of Discipleship page 7 , Macmillan Publishing, NY 1937
Gene Ring is Dead
A few days ago I learned that my High School basketball coach Gene Ring had died four years ago. I was so disappointed that I was not able to attend his funeral to pay tribute to his impact on my life. The first time I laid eyes on Gene Ring, it was a meeting in the
A few weeks later we were playing one of our most fierce rivals. My legs were cramping. They reeked of liniment, the only known treatment for cramps in those days of canvas converse sneakers and short basketball shorts. At half time I had four points. Ring was fuming. I heard him rumbling down the hall way to the locker room. He burst into the room, took one look at me and lunged for me. I think that time I did wet my pants. The assistant coach pulled him into another room. The second half I scored twenty-five points. Now, that’s coaching. That’s discipleship. I had a great year, we lost more games than we had planned, but we were playing very well going into the Indiana State Tournament. Ring had a special speech he would give at tournament time. “Listen up boys. It’s tournament time. It’s tournament time.” “We know that coach,” we would think to our selves having heard it before. He continued, “I want your complete focus. First, throw those books out the window. I don’t want you distracted by books. Second, no skirts. I don’t want you thinking about skirts, talking to them, and if I see you walking down the hall holding hands with one of them, it’s Katie barred the door boys, Katie barred the door.” We never new what Katie barred the door meant, but we didn’t want to find out.
Our first game in the State Tournament was against the other best team in the sectional. In those days there was no seeding of teams, it was catcher’s catch can. I don’t know that that means either, but I know you know just like I know. The other team gets way ahead, and then in the middle of the second half, we pull even and then go slightly ahead. Ring is going crazy, “Don’t let this be your last game, Hoss. Do you want this to be your last game?” I think it was a rhetorical question. The game went down to the wire. We got a couple of controversial calls that went against us, and we lost. Ring chased some of the officials to their locker room. I don’t know what happened, but they ran for their lives. I sat in front of my locker in tears because we lost. We lost in our last chance, and it was my fault. Ring comes into the locker room, walks over, and sits down beside me. “ Hoss, you played great tonight. That wasn’t your fault.” It was amazing how affirmed I felt at that moment. He had used the pressure to get my best. When it no longer was needed; he let me off the hook.
Gene Ring loved me, and I loved him. I still love him. Jesus said, “When a disciple is fully taught, he will be like his teacher.”[1] I did become somewhat like him: focused, passionate, an over achiever. He taught me that determination and discipline pays off, and as a leader, pastor and writer, I have benefited from his influence.
I don’t advocate being as wild and wooly as Gene Ring, but I do recommend you being as passionate and caring. Remember, what you do with others makes a difference for a lifetime. I never met my father. He died, and I found out for years. Coach Ring rescued me from a droll life. I was headed for a life of disappointment, but I have lived a life of joy and achievement. Thousands of people have heard about Gene Ring. They know what an impact he had on me. His impact has been multiplied and used for the advancement of the kingdom. God used Coach Ring. I am not sure if he was a man of faith. I do know that he had faith in me, and for that I am thankful.
[1] Luke 6:40
Grace Is Not a Blue-Eyed Blonde was one of the first Christian books I read. The title claims that there is some confusion about grace. Almost everyone admires the gracious. A gracious person is kind, classy; they know when to speak and how to say something uplifting. A gracious person also knows when to be quiet, when a hand on the shoulder or smile is just right. At Christmas our family stenciled the word “Grace” on the sidewalk in front of our house. There it was to see for the many people who walk by everyday. Children try to sound it out; they ask their parents what it means. One mother said, “It means to be nice.” Others have said, “It’s about forgiveness.” The newest definition is tolerance; grace is when anything goes, when you don’t interfere in other people’s business. Christians are the ones who should know what grace means, but there seems to be some fuzzy thinking even among the biblically astute.
Grace Is About Forgiveness Only
God’s grace certainly applies to the forgiveness of sin. Paul put it plainly, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.”[1] Eternal life is a gift; no one in his or her right theological mind would question this. People tell others, “Back in 1984 I was saved by God’s grace.” There is a tendency to think of grace as a big shot of God’s mercy at the point of salvation. I would liken it to an artist taking a big dap of blue paint on the end of a huge stick and slapping it onto a white canvas. Some paint would dot the edges; the residue would slide down the canvass, but it would be periphery to (or a side-effect of) the big splat. At salvation we get the big splat of grace; the rest of our life we get little residual doses. This thinking blocks God’s grace from my everyday experience. Spiritual birth is the starting line; God’s grace is his continual gift of himself to us everyday we are on this earth.
Grace Is Passive
Since salvation is a gift and we can’t do anything to earn it, we must simply pray and wait for God to give us more. Dallas Willard put it best, “Not only have we been saved by grace, we have been paralyzed by it.” [2] There is a tendency to think of grace as the opposite of works. This is a mistake, though it is understandable. The phrase in Ephesians, “saved by grace, not by works” has given works a bad name. The word “work” has suffered from guilt by association. We understand that “works” in Ephesians 2:8 means we cannot earn favor with God through effort. There is no effort or work that can be good enough or effective enough to purchase our lives and satisfy God’s requirements. If we read on, however, Paul weds works to grace in a way that is vital to living for Christ. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things [works] he planned for us long ago.”[3] I put works in brackets because most translations use it. God’s grace is the gift of being able to perform the works that He has planned for us. Grace is active; it empowers us. Grace is that quality that comes from the Holy Spirit that teaches, convicts, reminds, discerns, and gives us the gifts needed to work for God.
Passive Grace Is Cheap Grace
When you think that grace is something that is done to you and you can’t do anything to activate it, you cheapen God’s grace because being passive leads to either a tepid response or no response. God’s grace, his empowerment, his ability to work in us lays dormant. Jesus held nothing back, he was active, and he did something. He gave us his all; his gift of grace had sweat on it, tears on it, blood running from it. So what is our answer, our response? It is to unleash all his grace as we give back to him our lives. God’s grace cost God everything, His life. Now it costs us everything, our lives. Let’s drive a stake through the heart of passive grace, cheap grace. Effort is good, effort is of God, effort is of the Holy Spirit, and effort is full of grace.
The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to the world is Jesus. After that, the most wonderful thing is His presence in a community of people called the Church. Many have been critical of the Church, many more have given up on it, and still others stand against it. The Church will always vacillate between the glorious and the grotesque. Grotesque, Webster says is “characterized by distortions or striking incongruities in appearance, shape, manner, fantastic or bizarre…strange, eccentric, ridiculous and absurd.”[1] I think I use grotesque quite accurately; it would take less than a hundred readers of this statement to thoroughly document each part of the above definition. But then there is the glory, and there is the stunning fact that there is nothing else. As Elton Trueblood put is, “however poor it is, life without it is worse.” Let me steer you away from the notion that Church exclusively means a group of people who gather on Sundays in order to go through a religious routine. Instead think of millions of people who are called by Jesus to follow Him. Part of answering the call and claim of God on their lives is to gather regularly in homes, rented buildings, restaurants and parks, in groups no smaller than two or three. Where they are gathered Christ is present and they stimulate one another to love God and the people around them.[2] What makes a Church is a group of followers of Jesus who form a community. A community exists where they are committed to a common pattern of life together. They will submit to one another under the authority of Christ, they will be dedicated to form relationships built on trust. They will create an environment of grace rather than judgment or critique. They are devoted to helping each other keep their commitments to God. And the primary commitment is to follow Jesus and to live the life He lived.
The Church Exists for Others
This is true because the Church is composed of disciples, followers of Jesus. Jesus came for others and his life was a gift to the world. Therefore, followers of Jesus have no other calling than to give their lives as living sacrifices.[3] Therefore, followers of Jesus are called to live the life He lived and to make other disciples.[4] This is done through love and an extended hand.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”[5] There are far too many people who have agreed to a set of religious facts about Jesus who have not committed themselves to Christ. A non-discipleship Christianity is now accepted and preached in too many churches. When we begin to think that discipleship or following Jesus is optional and not necessary to salvation, we have entered into a Christ-less Christianity. Because discipleship or following Jesus is the evidence that we have committed to Christ, it is more than signing off on the idea. Non-discipleship, Christ-less Christianity is the reason that the Church has lost its power and attraction to so many.
So Why Should You Become a Part of a Church?
There is only one reason: to answer the call of Jesus on your life to follow Him. “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for me will save them. What good is it for you to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit your very self?”[6] These words return us to the original idea that since Christ’s life exists for others, his follower’s lives exist for others; therefore, their community or the Church exists for others. The beauty of it is that a life devoted to others is also a life that meets the deepest need of a person. You get everything you desire by giving up the tyranny of the immediate. Joy and fulfillment then are by products of living for others. I can’t imagine a better deal. Give your life to Christ and live the life for which you were created.
Think of the Church this way: The Church is a group of devoted disciples who are intentionally living life as a response to the love of God and learning from Jesus to:
Can you imagine a group of people who actually lived that way? I close with the words of the once stimulating Quaker Scholar Elton Trueblood who now resides in the presence of Christ:
“What we need is not intellectual theorizing or even preaching, but a demonstration. One of the most powerful ways of turning people’s loyalty to Christ is by loving others with the great love of God. We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be forced to respect it. If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without artificiality and free from the dead hand of the past, it would be an exciting event of momentous importance. A society of genuine loving friends, set free from the self-seeking struggle for personal prestige and from all unreality, would be something unutterably priceless and powerful. A wise person would travel any distance to join it.”[7]
[1] Webster’s New World Dictionary, 2nd college edition, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1984), p. 617.
[2] Hebrews 10:24, 25; Mt. 18:20
[3] Mt. 20:28; Romans 12:1, 2; Luke 9:23-25
[4] Mt. 28:18-20
[5] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1984), p. 67
[6] Luke 9:23-25,
[7] Elton Trueblood, Alternative to Futility, (New York, NY Harper & Brothers Publisher 1948).
There are some who believe and I would count myself among them that Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky saved the Gospel for Russia. They were contemporaries, Tolstoy’s War and Peace was serialized in the same periodical at the same time as Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. They both lived and wrote during the late 19th century. When the Revolution came in 1917, the bible was banned, but the themes of justice, personal freedom, redemption and forgiveness lived on in their work. It was Tolstoy who detected and responded to the Russian people. Like Augustine who confronted the fall of Rome, Tolstoy set himself to defend the Christian faith in order that it might survive the troubled years that lay ahead. Tolstoy turned to the Gospels and into his own words and stories beautifully expounded their message.
In November of 1910, Tolstoy lay dying in a tiny village of Astapova in eastern Russia. He was in his eighties and according to his wishes he would be buried on his family estate on the edge of a ravine. A ravine where his brother Nicholas used to say a little green stick was hidden with the secret of the universe engraved on it. Tolstoy never found the green stick, but he died believing in it. He was a brilliant man, a tragic man, at times he desired the celibate life of a Monk, at others, he was a womanizing drunk. In War and Peace he explored power and the appetite of the will. In Anna Karenina, he considered carnality, the appetite of the flesh, the two passions whose destructive consequences he had experienced, especially the latter.
He weighed only 126 pounds, some say his books weighed more. He didn’t find the green stick, but he did find the secret to universal love in the Gospels. That secret was and is that a certain kind of person will love, that person would not persecute, commit murder or seek revenge. That person would seek happiness in doing good for others, thereby realizing their own good.
In the upper room, another man of sorrows was saying good bye to his disciples. He was telling them the secret of the universe, how to live in union with God himself. It was not a green stick, it was however, the secret that unlocks the meaning of life. Jesus gave his disciples the characteristics of a person who could change the world, that person is called a disciple.
The first characteristic is that a follower of Christ will develop intimacy with God through communication. “ ….if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted you.” [1] It has been my experience and training to teach the bible for explanation, to discover authorial intent. The Evangelical camp has focused on exegesis for the purpose of understanding the text. Of course this is important, without it we would be lost at sea, drowning in a multiplicity of possible interpretations. But this has also led to an academic content driven relationship to God, that the key to maturity is getting the right answer. Relating to the “word of God,” also has a reflective dimension. I have found a simple four step method very helpful. Read it, think it, pray it, live it. To read it means simply to take in the initial meaning of the text. To think it is akin to meditation, to mull it over, putting yourself into the event, understanding the history and context. Next is pray it, seek God’s application in your life. How does God want to use this story and concept in my life. Finally, live it; how does this apply to my 10:00 AM appointment? As I enter this day, who are the people who irate me and how will I love them in concrete action? Karl Barth said, “ I have read many books, but the bible reads me.” Another way of saying it is that the primary reason to read the scriptures is in order to submit their teaching. Jesus invites us to enter into the community of the faithful through submission, confession and obedience. That is why Jesus tells us who interact with him via reading scripture can ask for anything and get it. When we read the scriptures in order to submit, with a contrite confession, it strips us of so much fluff and frivolity that plagues consumer based prayer. The words of the late Henri Nouwen come to mind.
“ I call to you, O Lord, from my quiet darkness. Show me your mercy and love. Let me see you face, hear your voice, touch the hem of your cloak. I want to love you, be with you, speak to you and simply stand in your presence. But I cannot make it happen. Pressing my eyes against my hand is not praying, and reading about your presence is not living in it. But there is that moment in which you will come to me, as you did to your fearful disciples, and say, “ Do not be afraid; it is I.” Let that moment come soon, O Lord. And if you want to delay it, then make me patient.” [2]
[1] John 15:7 New Living Translation
[2] From a Cry for Mercy by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Tolstoy’s “green stick” had the secret to the universe written on it. It may have been a childish creation of his brother Nicholas, but it was serious subject, what life is about. In the previous column, I posited that Jesus provided the answer to how people could find the secret. That secret is to live for others, to live as his disciple. Jesus explained to his followers in the upper room the characteristics of such a person who would change the world. But first they would be transformed. It began with establishing a habit of communication with God through taking in his word and praying. That hardly seems new or dramatic. Granted, it’s not new, but it is rarely practiced. Too many evangelicals like me have commoditized the scripture by making it another product to be consumed. We want it in the most attractive package possible, usually a winsome and eloquent teacher.
The second characteristic Jesus presented was that disciples are fruitful, their actions define them.
Jesus told his disciples, “When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”[1] This is consistent with two other statements Jesus made. “Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”[2] Jesus was clear that there is always evidence of the internal person through the external person.
The second statement was, “Go and make disciples of all the nations [peoples].”[3]
You can tell a true disciple by a consistent bearing of fruit. This brings great glory to God, because it gives people a peek at who God is through his followers. How does the watching world determine what our God is like? Yeah, you guessed it, not by doctrine, not by our aping the practices of the culture, but by our actions. Do they see us taking actions to benefit others, what we call love? Do they like to be around us because we have a deep contented spirit, or joy? Do they see us patiently standing in line at the airport? Do we treat irritating people with gentleness? When people see us walking their way, does their mouth turn up into a smile? Do they look at us and say, “Ah, here come good news?”
I know this doesn’t sound philosophical, but if you bear much fruit, then there is evidence you are a follower of Jesus and heir to eternal life. If there were no evidence in your actions, it would be time to review the bidding. Go back and check. “Did I repent of my sin, did I exercise faith in that I stepped out in obedience?” Agreement with religious ideas and facts is not faith. Faith is only real in obedience. If no obedience, then there is no faith. I like what the Scottish Writer George MacDonald says, “Instead of asking whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether this day you have done one thing because he said, ‘Do it’ or once abstained because he said, ‘Do not do it.’ It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you.”[4]
I am baffled by two extremes when it comes to the definition of fruitfulness. The first extreme is to refer to it as only character and countenance. This position does not connect or require actions toward others. It is held by default by those who think character is an internal possession that does not need to be acted on for validity. The other extreme is the belief that fruit bearing is only evangelism, that unless you are making another disciple, then you are not bearing fruit. This is driven by a lopsided view of the Great Commission. The power of the Gospel is the melding of character and action. Character is revealed by action. We all seem to know this, but our minds get twisted around the theological axle, and no progress is made.
A person in touch with God through submitting to his word and relating through prayer will have great power. That power is revealed in actions that Jesus metaphorically called fruit. That is the kind of person he has called us to be, and he has provided the means. Don’t you wonder what the church would be like if we heard his voice and did it?
(If you have jumped into this series at this point, you will need to read parts one and two and then return here. Go ahead, I will wait here for you.)
My good friend Dallas Willard wrote, “Obedience is the only sound objective of a Christian spirituality.”[1] Whatever one believes about God and the spiritual life, if it doesn’t lead to obedience, then it is useless. Jesus explains this to his followers the night of his arrest.
Jesus and his followers were having dinner together in the upper room. He employed the metaphor from the vineyard, the relationship of the main vine to its branches. He told them that their future relationship would be something like they saw in the vineyard. That they would remain close and intimate through the help of the Holy Spirit. He had already told them that the first characteristic of a disciple was interaction with God through his revealed word and the vehicle of prayer. The second characteristic of a disciple was that the bearing of much fruit. It would be part of their common life.
The third characteristic of a disciple, according to Christ’s command, is obedience. He wants this for everyone. But he linked obedience to its motive.
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”[2]
People have the propensity to go to extremes. A guy likes ties, so he owns 300. A woman loves dolls, so her house is stuffed with them. I know a man who revels in his minimalist approach to life. He doesn’t want a TV, mobile phone, car, or more than one set of clothes. I’ve encouraged him to acquire more clothes. Extremists can be entertaining, but when it comes to following Christ, extremists can do great damage to themselves and those they influence. There are some who say, you only obey God when you are inspired by his love. Then there are those who think of obedience as mechanical, just do it, you don’t have to feel it. The first group is just as dangerous as the last.
Those who must be inspired, “Just feel it”
Something strange happens to normal thinking people when they go spiritual. A switch is thrown in the brain and a different set of rules takes over that everyone in the regular world knows do not work. It goes something like this: “If I were to act loving to a person I dislike, that would make me a phony, a schizophrenic. For my obedience to God to be authentic, the desire of the heart and the act of the will must be a match. That is how you know the Holy Spirit is working.”
My answer to such nonsense is one word, Gethsemane. Jesus didn’t desire death, you might remember he asked three times to get out of it and only relented under great duress. What overpowered his resistance to obey was love, the love the father had for him and he for his father. He didn’t feel that love; it wasn’t that kind of experience. It was love at its most powerful. It was love as an act to benefit others; it was love as sacrifice, as submission. Jesus was a man for others. Jesus didn’t feel like it, but his commitment to his father caused him to submit. We celebrate this as the greatest act of love in human history. We sing about it, preach it, talk it, write it, paint it, sculpt it. It is the centerpiece of human history. Obedience is based on love, loving as Christ loved, even when we don’t feel like. In that moment the Holy Spirit is fully flowing, and we are expressing our love for out Lord, every step of obedience a chorus of, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
The mechanics, “Don’t feel, just do”
If you didn’t notice in the previous paragraph, Jesus was emotional in Gethsemane. He didn’t feel like dying, but he did feel. In fact, he was at the breaking point emotionally and physically. There has been a school of spirituality that has advocated not getting too emotional about one’s sin, to deal with it in a detached manner. It goes something like this: “When you sin, don’t wallow in the regret, or the agony of disappointing your God, just confess it and move on.” Some have even gone on to say that the enemy wins when we allow our emotions to enter into the process. The thought behind this is that valuable time is lost in the service of Christ because one might want to linger with God on a deep level.
Jesus seemed emotionally invested in his sacrifice. It would make sense then that we who are intimate with Christ would lament and feel shame and regret when we sin. When a man cheats on his wife and confesses, there is deep emotion and it takes time together to rebuild trust. Whenever there is a breach of trust or mistakes made, our emotions are very strong and sometimes over powering. God is different than any human; therefore, God is not going to throw a lamp across the room at us or lose control of himself. He can be trusted to forgive when true repentance is present. He may discipline us because he cares about our character. But there is a precedent for taking some time with God and to feel our sin and also his forgiveness deeply. Otherwise, why call it a personal relationship? King David’s confession in Psalm 51 expresses this balance.
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
For I recognize my rebellion; It haunts me day and night
Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
He runs the gamut: honest confession, acknowledgement of his rebellious heart, the shame of sin, his willingness to change and a desire to have joy again. That looks very emotional to me, but at the same time it doesn’t wait for just the right emotion to obey. David’s emotions are damaged and powerfully negative when he prayed this prayer.
That night Jesus taught his disciples that they were to follow him, to obey on the same basis that he obeyed his father. It is a tough persistent obedience wrapped in love. It is deeply felt and is reinforced with the rebar of commitment, humility, and inner strength. This is the kind of loving obedience that Jesus commands us to practice and is characteristic of his followers.