Sunrise

Bright evidence to untrained eye
Perceived in sunrise mountain sky
And known in dimly knowing way
By senses waked to breaking day.

Long has this one with fresh delight
Displayed himself at shattered night.
And yet still wrapped in mystery
With treasured beauty none can see.

Save those of joyful choosing grace,
With wakened heart to seek his face.
He promises those hopeful spies
That they will see with earthstained eyes.

See dimly O bright treasure brief!
Seek with deep longing and belief.
He makes all other pleasures fade.
For such a glory I was made.

Response to post

Anonymous said...

Tod, so what if the problem is fear of being pulled back into a life that you have struggled with before. How do you ensure you are doing the influencing and not being influenced?

Great question. I am assuming you are responding to the teaching on how Jesus was a friend of sinners. Here are a couple of thoughts:

First, if you are susceptible to a certain temptation then you should take every precaution to avoid it. I would think there are certain places or groups of people that I should avoid if I know that they are likely to lead me into sin. (Matthew 5:29-30)

However, if Jesus has transformed my heart and I am captured by a sense of mission to go back into the world that held me captive in order to announce the freedom and deliverance of Jesus, then I would go. I have known and known of some amazing missionaries who returned to the scenes of their former sin and witnessed about the power of Jesus to transform them.

I wouldn't do that without the prayerful, honest support of some close brothers. In that situation, I would go by two (Luke 10) and be very sensitive to the state of my heart. If I am drawn to renounce my allegiance to Jesus then I have to run away. I think the key is my motivation. If I am on a mission then I can to into enemy territory. If I am trying to fit in so that I don't appear to be a follower, then I must be very careful.

The main point of the teaching is that Jesus was a friend to sinful people. He loved and accepted and welcomed them into his life. The Pharisees shunned, looked down on and were disgusted by sinners. The question is which attitude most nearly resembles yours? It is the attitude toward the people around you not the activity you engage in that is at question.

Thanks for the note.

Eternal CPR - part 2

Colossians 4:3-6 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Cultivating is pursuing Christ-like or Christ-filled relationships with unbelievers. It involves intentionally pursuing relationships with people who don’t follow Jesus. My life should be intentionally open to those that God puts in my path who are lost.

Who is lost? Anybody who doesn’t give evidence with their life of the Lordship of Jesus gives me opportunity to help someone become a disciple. Some are “Lost Lost”. These are people who are obviously living in rebellion. They are proud of their non-religious life. They make no pretense of faith or Christian commitment. They will readily admit their lost condition. Jesus loved and engaged with “Lost Lost” all the time. He was a great friend of sinners.

Others are “Religious Lost”. They appear to have religious commitment. They might come to church or claim to be Christian, but there is not real evidence that their life goal is to imitate the life of Jesus. They have probably been baptized and may even be active in church programs, but they aren’t disciples of Jesus. They are “Religious Lost”. Though they have the appearance of being religious, as to Jesus they are lost.

One of the often overlooked keys is focusing on Christ-like and Christ-filled relationships. A disciplemaker looks for opportunities to be Jesus in the life of his friends—especially his lost friends—whether they are “Religious Lost” or “Lost Lost.” She is sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He points out needs that she can meet or pray for. A disciplemaker will love and listen and serve his lost friend just like Jesus would. A disciplemaker will watch and listen with great sensitivity and selflessness, looking for ways to demonstrate who Jesus is. To be an effective disciplemaker requires a clear understanding of the ways of Jesus and a commitment to live that out before my friends.

Who are the lost that God has brought into your life? When you listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, what do they need right now? How would Jesus respond to them? Ask your LifeGroup to pray with you about this.

Eternal CPR - part 1

Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."

To help other people become followers of Jesus is one of the most important priorities for any believer. It is a priority that can get swept aside. Sometimes it is because I am afraid that I don’t know what to do or say. Sometimes it’s because I don’t know who to look for. Sometimes it is because Jesus isn’t enough of a reality in my life to be able to share him with anyone else. I was reminded recently of a way of thinking about this mission as a process called CPR—Cultivating, Planting, and Reaping.

Cultivating is very simple but often underestimated. Cultivating is pursuing Christ-like relationships with unbelievers. Jesus was a friend of sinners. The religious people of his day thought it was important that they not be friends with irreligious people. Was it because they wanted to express disapproval for an ungodly lifestyle? Was it so they didn’t want to be tempted to engage in immorality themselves? Maybe they were so busy with people like themselves they didn’t have any time to build genuine friendships with outsiders. Jesus wasn’t that way. He regularly spent time with ungodly people. He wasn’t like them but he loved them. He loved to be with them. He jumped in the middle of their lives and invited them into his circle of friendships. Many of them (not all!) became followers.

Several years ago, Rick and Cindy Bartholomee’s LifeGroup led a whole family to Jesus. Rick and Cindy are great about looking for someone who needs God. It’s not a church thing for them, it’s an everyday, everywhere thing. They met and befriended their realtor, Lesa Henson, and invited her into their life and their LifeGroup. She wasn’t an “evangelism target” she was a friend. As she got to know the group she fell in love with them and with the Jesus they loved. One recent study says that the average person has to know 5.3 Christians before they are willing to commit to Jesus. But they didn’t stop there. They started making friends with her husband Jeff. He wasn’t religious and didn’t participate in their prayer or bible study. But he did like to hang out with them when they did (in his words) “Barbeques and stuff”. Sometimes they would have LifeGroup at his house and he would sit in another room and just listen to what was going on.

Eventually Jeff gave his life to follow Jesus. It was a deep and radical change that lasted the rest of his life. A couple of years later Jeff died from cancer. Before he did, he and Lesa wanted to thank their LifeGroup. Because of their willingness to cultivate Jeff lived a rich Christ-following life and died with peace and the hope of seeing Jesus face to face.

Would you be willing to wrestle with this question in your LifeGroup: Are you a friend of sinners?