Category: Discipleship

Thursday, 12/23/21 – Going Away and Coming Back

Going Away and Coming Back

Heads up!

After tomorrow’s post (Christmas Eve day) thebrokenrunner.com is going away for “a little while.” I’ll be taking a two-week break. While I’m away I’ll be making changes… changes to this blog, or perhaps coming back with a whole new blog, new format, new style, new posts – for you! Don’t worry, if I decide on a whole new blogsite I’ll link to it from here. If you link to it via Facebook you’ll still find new links there.

I’m envisioning this as having a much less structured format. Where thebrokenrunner.com has followed the theme of the Lincoln Baptist Church Sunday message on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays, then discussed some aspect of Discipleship on Thursdays and responded to your questions on Fridays, the new blogsite will not. Topics will be random, from everyday life and as the Holy Spirit may lead.

Today’s Discipleship theme looks at the last in the cycle of recurring Discipleship themes, “The Soon Return of Christ.” Fitting really, because this too is all about a Going Away and Coming Back. This too is about a going away for “a little while” and about making changes for those who wait.

Jesus said…

“…I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:2b-3).
“Jesus went on to say, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’” (John 16:16).
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded… persevere… For, ‘In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.’” (Heb. 10:37 – see also Isa. 26:20; Hab. 2:3).

We see signs of His Soon coming all around us now: pandemic, panic, pandemonium in nature and in hearts. What shall we do? To those who believe He has told us…

“Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. …be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.” (Matt. 24:42, 44).
“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28).

So… Press on… and…

Heads up!

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 12/16/21 – What’s up with the Will of God?

What’s up with the Will of God?

“How could there be an all powerful, loving God when…”
“If God exists, then why is there so much…”
“I refuse to believe in a God Who allows…”

I’m sure you’ve heard or possibly even uttered sentiments like these. In a world filled with injustice, hatred, selfishness, and on and on… how can we understand the silence of an Almighty, Supremely Loving, Holy Entity? If such a One exists then surely this Being is able to enact its loving will upon its creation. What’s up with the Will of God?

I sometimes wonder if it doesn’t grieve the heart of our Lord and Maker that we are still asking this question and either passively or blatantly blaming Him?

You see, clearly there is something wrong somewhere. There is no denying that. But we must start the analysis of this “wrongness” from the correct basis: God IS Loving and Good and All-Powerful and much more besides. But there is indeed this disconnect. There IS evil in this world… sorrow… suffering… and gross injustices. We notice it, we feel it, and we dislike it much.

But might it be, in this world of wrongness, that we too are wrongly asking the wrong One, all the wrong questions? What if God, Lovingly, Powerfully, and out of His Holiness is asking us, “What’s up with the will of mankind?” What if God, like the parent of a wayward youth, looks down upon us after having made us well, sacrificed for us, and demonstrated His great power and deep love for us, is now weeping in heaven over the paths we have chosen, the evils and destructions our ways have wrought upon us, and our hatred and blame toward Him… after all He has done to enable our return?

Scripture tells us He has done and is doing all these things…

“As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known…'” and “…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Luke 19:41-42a; Matt. 23:37)
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13).
“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16).
“Now we [those trusting in Christ] are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2).

Perhaps the better and more urgent question is this: “What’s up with the stubborn will of mankind?”

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 12/9/21 – What is Evangelism?

What is Evangelism?

Pixabay

Today’s Discipleship topic is Evangelism. Dictionaries vary in their definition of Evangelism, such as “the zealous advocacy of a cause,” “the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ,” “a militant or crusading zeal,” “spreading the gospel,” or “telling the gospel message.”

I suppose these definitions depend largely on whether or not the one making them is a believer. Things most usually look different from their inside than they do from without. But perhaps the more important question is “What did Jesus mean by evangelism?” Or, even without the word altogether, “What does He tell us to do?”

We know He had in His heart the desire that through Himself His disciples, indeed all believers “…be brought to complete unity” in order that “…the world will know that You [the Father] sent Me [the Son] and have loved them [the believers] even as You [the Father] have loved Me [the Son].” (John 17:23). We know His parting command to all believers was “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). We know that the need is great, “The harvest is plentiful,” and “the workers are few,” and we know His command to “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matt. 9:37-38).

We know also that He blessed His Church with persons especially gifted in this: “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11) and that these ought not shirk their duties. “Do the work of an evangelist,” Paul adjured Timothy (2 Tim. 4:5). Yet we know we are all “Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Cor. 5:20), salt and light to a dark and tasteless world. And we know too that we must “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Pet. 3:15).

Our job is to testify (tell), to witness (what we know and have experienced ourselves), along with the many other testimonies which enter the courtroom of each individuals heart, to add our bit to sway them to faith, away from the sentence of death which otherwise bears down upon them. We need not be lawyers for their defense. The Holy Spirit will do that.

What is the definition of evangelism? Perhaps the best I know is the one I learned in Bible College many years ago: “Evangelism is simply sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with God.” It is “One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 12/2/21 – Discipleship: Fellowships of Fantasy and of the Family of God

Fellowships of Fantasy and of the Family of God

Moviedom of Hollywood and Television has marketed many spins on fellowship since the turn of this century as the following title movie bills reveal:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Fellowship of the Dice (2005), Rise of the Fellowship (2013), Artifice: Loose Fellowship and Partners (2015), The Fellowship Of The Shamolyn (2017), and The Fellowship of the Farmers (2017).

I’ve seen none of these flicks nor is it my desire. Christendom knows fellowships far superior and has known them since the very first of centuries.

One of the earliest was the “fellowship of the apostles” enjoyed by them and soon after by the 3,000 souls saved at Pentecost (Act 2:42). Included and binding to this fellowship is the reality that all believers are “called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:9). This fellowship is the church of God amongst whom obedient believers enjoy the “fellowship of the ministering to the saints.” (2 Cor. 8:4). We minister to one another with our giftedness, our physical and practical help in times of need, our emotional and prayer support, and at times our prudent financial aid.

James, Cephas, and John, “pillars” in the Jerusalem church, extended to Paul snd Barnabas “the right hands of fellowship” in affirmation of their unique calls to ministry (Gal. 2:9). Shared among us is our understanding, if not intellectual certainly existential “the fellowship of the mystery”—the living Christ within (Eph. 3:9), a “fellowship in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5) made possible by the “fellowship of the Spirit” (Phil. 1:5).

In time, as we walk with our Lord, we experience surprisingly, then learn reluctantly, then value profoundly “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Phil. 3:10) which bonds us deeper in true “fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:3).

Such superior fellowships require our diligence to retain, to keep pure from other so-called “fellowships” in this damaged and dirty world (1 Cor. 10:20, Ps. 94:20, 2 Cor. 6:14, Eph. 5:11, 1 Jn. 1:6-7).

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 11/25/21 – Prayer: Is it Real?

Prayer: Is it Real?

As it turns out today’s discipleship blog is also on the topic of Prayer — our speaker’s message this past Sunday and the focus of every post this week. Perhaps the Lord is trying to tell us something? What do you think it might be? Do you believe in prayer? Do you believe that prayer can actually accomplish something? Do you truly believe there is Someone out there listening? Or do you think prayer is just an exercise religious people do to make themselves feel better?

These questions are extremely important. In fact, they have a lot to do with whether or not one’s prayers are answered at all! Scripture is very clear on this. In Hebrews we read: “…anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him..” (Heb. 11:6b). In other words if we don’t believe that God is out there and listening there’s no point in pretending we are talking to Him. If we don’t believe that God can answer our prayers there’s no point in making them.

This is only reasonable. Who among us would pick a random number from a telephone directory, call it, and ask for someone whom we know full well not to be there? Or who would call a lumber yard and order a pizza knowing full well they cannot provide it? And so it is with God. As the verse cited above actually begins, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6a).

Ah yes, this stuff called “faith” — this intangible ‘something’ the definition of which opens this chapter: “…faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1). Confidence… assurance… but how do we get such confidence and assurance in such a silent, unseen a Being as God?

Truth is, most of us already know quite well! We grow in confidence and assurance in God just as we grow in confidence and assurance in people. We spend time with them. We learn over time whether they do or do not keep their word. We ask them for help and they give it. They ask a thing of us, and we do it! A mutual trust grows.

It is the same with God. We trust Him, put Faith in Him, just as we do other silent and unseen things. Things like love, convictions, To Thomas, who doubted then saw, Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29). That’s you and I. Do you believe?

The Apostle John wrote,

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:13-15)

Be assured in that belief… and pray.

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 11/11/21 – Priorities: of Socrates and of Saviour

Priorities: of Socrates and of Saviour

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (470 BC–399 BC) is credited with the comment, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Enduring wisdom to which many present day scholars and philosophers agree. Even actor Dwayne Johnson, double negatives aside, notes, “The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.”

To both Socrates and Johnson the “one thing” that was primary was this intellectual humility. Others hold other “one things” in top spot as the following quotations demonstrate.

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision…” – Neil Gaiman
“…the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education.” – Michelle Obama
“To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.” – Jerry Seinfeld
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” – Albert Schweitzer
“Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” – Zig Ziglar
“One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” – Barbara Jordan
“Truth-telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: Every single one was a liar.” – J. Edgar Hoover
“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney“
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s a cruel, cruel world.” – Danny DeVito
“I think one thing I’ve learned over the years is just that you’re not going to ever please everyone, and the most important person to please is yourself.” – Jeremy Scott
“Sometimes I think that the one thing I love most about being an adult is the right to buy candy whenever and wherever I want.” – Ryan Gosling

Well OK, some of these may have been spoken with tongue in cheek, but they do reveal something about the individual. Jesus also recommended “one thing” as primary above all others. He demonstrated it in His lifestyle, habits, and ministry, and it reveals very much about His character and the kind of people He longs for each of us to become.

He shared this priority with Martha: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about.” He told her, adding “Mary has discovered it” (Luke 10:42, NLT). What was it? It was what Mary was doing… what she had set as her Number One focus: “Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught” (v. 39).

Elsewhere in scripture Jesus urged “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38). Even prior to this He commanded “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

Socrates was condemned to death for his method of questioning. Jesus became “the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.” (Rev. 13:8) so that we could once again know Him as we ought. The Apostle Paul made “to know Him” his one great quest (see Phil. 3:13), and so may you.

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 11/4/21 – Today’s Discipleship Post: Freedom!

Freedom!

I remember as a child growing up in a Christian home, struggling with my Bible memory verses and puzzling over Psalm 23 verse 1. The only translation I knew back then was the King James version and the way it read was “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

In my young mind I reasoned: Okay, the Lord… that’s God. He made me and everything, and He is my “shepherd.” That’s good too, isn’t it? I mean He guides me and looks after me and stuff like a man looking after his sheep. But “I shall not want”–? Why wouldn’t I want Him?

As I looked at the possibilities from all angles I eventually came to the conclusion that the verse must mean that because the Lord is my shepherd I probably shouldn’t want anything else. I mean, I should just be satisfied with Him… right? I quietly scolded David for not completing his sentences. He should have written “I shall not want anything else!”

Then one day I came across the passage in a more recent translation. It rendered the verse “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not lack any good thing.” Aha! The dusty old light in the back corner of my attic brain clicked ‘on’! “Want” meant lack, to fall short of having enough of something. Because the Lord is my shepherd and looks after me He will see that I will always have enough of what I really need!

Almost immediately another Old Testament passage also clicked clear — the one about King Belshazzar* reading the handwriting on the wall of his Palace informing him he had been weighed in God’s balances and found “wanting.” I got it! It meant his life had fallen short… his kingship had not pleased the Lord, and now God was about to take it from him. (In fact, Belshazzar was killed that very evening.)

But no such worries for me! “The Lord is my Shepherd!” He will see that I always have all that I need. Sometimes He gives His Sheep green pastures, quiet waters, and refreshed souls. Other times He gives guidance in which path to take, or courage when we must walk through dark valleys.

What Freedom indeed it is to have the Lord as one’s Shepherd!

Is He yours?

Press on…

* Daniel 5:27

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 10/28/21 – Assurance: the day after

Assurance: the day after

The day after you decide to do as we discussed yesterday, the day on which you call on Christ Who has been calling on you, the day on which you see you are not holy, not worthy, less than not worthy of standing in His Presence, the day you realize you are indeed worthy of His wrath, eternal removal from His Presence and that there is nothing, nothing, nothing that you can now do to rectify this apart from His amazing rescue… His willful stepping up in your place to take that wrath for you, on the day after that day you will immediately awake to doubts.

You see, not only have you gained that “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:45), received that “deposit” (Eph. 1:14) of the Spirit and become heir to that “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade…. kept in heaven for you (1 Pet. 1:4), but you also gained, for a time, an enemy. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8).

But within you now resides the far greater power of the recently indwelling Spirit of God – “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4). You must learn to do battle with him lest he pollute your mind with his lies: “for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44). “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

As soon as new seed (the gospel) is planted, the devil seeks to snatch it away. Jesus once told a parable to illustrate this (see Matthew 13:1-23). But we can defeat him by speaking Truth to his lies. The Truth of your acceptance by God by the sacrifice of Christ, the Truth of your salvation by reliance upon Christ:

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. … ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Rom. 10:9-10, 13).

Jesus too was tempted, tempted right at the beginning like you. He too spoke Truth to the devil’s lies and the devil had to flee. (Read about it in Matt. 4:1-11).

Bury the Truth in your heart and mind. Read the gospel of John and the 1st Epistle of John. Jesus said also this: “…you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:32), and “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). Finally, Christ Himself gives us these fine words of assurance…

“I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24).

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.

Thursday, 10/21/21 – Today’s Discipleship Blog… Don’t be a Dinosaur!

Don’t be a Dinosaur!

A cartoon I once saw depicted two dinosaurs looking up from their munching and seeing in the distance an ark as pairs of all sorts of wild animals filed into it. One long-necked Brontosaurus says to his companion, “Crap! Was that today?”

The joke of course is that this ancient species very literally had “missed the boat” at the time of the great flood which destroyed the then known world: hence, the dinosaurs’ extinction.

As a cartoon the implication prompts a chuckle, but as a reality extinction is quite a bummer! To miss one’s only avenue of escape as annihilation rolls in must above all things be the most terrifying! But annihilation at least brings oblivion. Far worse would be if that moment of terror were to continue forever. Yet, for the unprepared, this is unfortunately and precisely the fate against which the gospel of God warns.

Sleeping housemasters will be plundered (Matt. 24:43). Wicked servants will be exposed (Matt. 24:50). Unprepared virgins find the door shut. (Matt. 25:10). Worthless servants will be thrown outside (Matt. 25:30). Goats and sheep will be separated (Matt. 25:32).

These are all parallels, images Christ used — like the cartoon above. But they all speak to a terror-filled truth: Jesus is coming again and when He does it will be too late! There will be no last few seconds in which to repent. Scripture says it will flash like lightning (Matt. 24:27; Luke 17:24), as quick as a twinkle (1 Cor. 15:52). One-third second they say. No time at all to change one’s heart.

You must make that surrender now. You must realize your doom and that the only solution is in a Power and a Grace beyond your reach! You can sense it in your gut now. You know this world is coming to a close, and even if you do not, you know by the screaming testimony of all lives before you that you too are mortal. Your day will come.

Look up from what occupies you. See the Saviour. There is yet time.

Press on…

Got a question? Use the Contact page and send It to me. We’ll search the Word for God’s answer.

Thursday, 10/14/21 – Knowing God’s Will

Knowing God’s Will

God expects us to pray that His Will is done and to understand what His Will is. On these two points scripture is explicit: “…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10); “…do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Eph.5:17).

Understanding the Will of God is not something mystical, or hidden. It begins with relationship – in knowing thoroughly that God is God and you are not! “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). God is Supreme. He is not a magical genie to have in one’s back pocket! He is to be obeyed, and not questioned.

“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” (Eccl. 5:2).

Micah states the broad strokes of a man’s obligations before his Creator: “What does the LORD require of you?” He asks.“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8).

To train us in the standards of righteousness God gave us the Law. Then, in Christ, He gave us the means of righteousness through confession, repentance, surrender and the workings of His indwelling Holy Spirit. He gives us also His Word in which much of His Will is made clear to us.

But God is not only a God of justice, rules and punishment! God is also a God of great Love… so much so that He paid a great price to restore us…

“The Lord is… not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9) “[He] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4)

But that’s not all! God wants you to work with Him to become like Him. In fact, it is God’s Will for us to become set apart… sanctified… holy! “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…” (1 Thess. 4:3). “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Pet. 1:14-16). And it is God’s Will that our lives be a testimony to others in this world. “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.” (1 Pet. 2:15).

Finally, (for now), it is God’s Will that we love Him and one another, that we put to death all sinful pleasures, unashamedly accepting reproach for His Name, and persevere in following Him. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23); “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Heb. 10:36).

Oh! And in keeping with our theme these past few days it is also God’s Will that we be thankful! “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:18)

Press on…

Are you interested in being discipled one-on-one in the fundamentals of life in Christ? Or, would you like to begin this journey by turning from your current path and committing your path to Christ? — Use the Contact page and we’ll get you started.