Ride the Lion
But making Jesus my King removes me from the human power struggle. Men of power fear this more than anything. Authoritarian leaders know their power will erode if people no longer grasp for it. The Kingdom of God is the greatest fear of the kings of men.
Further, if I am obedient to Jesus as King, I will obey human rulers only to the extend that doing so will not compromise obedience to Jesus. No tyrant likes a citizen who is allegiant to the True King.
Let me tell you what a tragedy is. Every day, millions of Christians spend all of their waking ours giving no thought to spiritual death their neighbors live. Every week, those same Christians show up to a building where they have an experience and do nothing of significance to advance the Kingdom. Every year, millions of dollars are spent on making that experience as comfortable and as entertaining as possible for those very same Christians who are doing nothing to fulfill the Great Commission.
Prayer is essential to disciple-making. God is the one who is sending laborers, empowering us to witness, and drawing people to Jesus. However, we are all called to witness when the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so (Acts 1:8). A witness tells about their experience. You don't have to be an expert; you just have to have met Jesus. In preparation for the power of the Spirit, I encourage you to know your Jesus story and know the gospel. This video teaches you how to prepare your Jesus story with three parts.
Disciple-making, especially as it relates to evangelism causes anxiety for some Christians. They think that it involves awkward conversations with strangers. However, disciple-making becomes freeing when we realize that God is the one doing it all. In this video, I talk about prayer as a catalyst for God's work in disciple-making. Look for some practical direction on what to pray for and how to go about making it a part of your life.
There are some issues that I seldom discuss, especially in the context of social media. I find our current culture at large intolerant of nuanced opinions. Anything less than unilateral agreement is labeled rather than understood. Forgive my disgruntled comments. I've grown weary of watching fruitless battles result in deeper encampments.
I love truth, and I love people. Understanding is a bridge between the two, and I can't build that bridge with labels. Perhaps most disheartening is the knowledge that the greatest offenders in these wars of controversy are the least aware and most prideful.
It is a frustrating thing to have an opinion that exists neither within nor between prominent camps. This is the lesser of two reasons why I haven't posted anything about recent SCOTUS rulings or battle colors associated with confederate states (save for comedic statements meant to lighten the mood at a very serious time). I've avoided commenting, because there is no room anyone that doesn't fit in a "camp." And, Jesus doesn't fit into a camp, because He is King.
Following Jesus should never involve a blind leap of faith.
The idea that faith should be blind is false. Due to an array of causes, some have falsely promoted an idea that religious belief somehow requires the suspension of logic. The indication seems to be that religious matters are outside the scope of rational and scientific thought and are therefore false.
First of all, the idea that matters of faith do not intersect science and rationality is a false premise leading to a false conclusion. However, the idea that something is false simply because it cannot be tested scientifically is itself a false assumption. It is akin to saying, “Since I have never seen a virus it doesn't exist.” The limitation of knowledge is not an indication of existence beyond knowledge's limits.
Without giving you the whole back story, much of this thinking came as a result of an array of philosophers who subscribed to Isaac Newton's view that the universe was a vast machine of cause and effect that could not be influenced by anything outside of itself. This erroneously ruled out the miraculous work of God and led to a few of theology that puts the human subject at the center of knowledge, rather than viewing God as the source of knowledge about Himself. This view led to many arguments against God's existence, as well as to a vast array of liberal theology that denies the essentials of faith listed in the last chapter.
Newton's mechanistic view of the universe has since been supplanted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which aligns quite well with the Christ-centered worldview that sees God as the revealer of truth. While the truth of God stands regardless of trends in the sciences, it is nice to see the realm of physics start to catch up a bit with what God has shown us in His Word.
When we planted our first house church our planting coach, Todd Sovine said that we needed to establish three things from the beginning:
Before anything else happened, we started praying, building relationships, and intentionally discipling one another. That was all we did at first. We didn't have services. We didn't advertise. We didn't plan events. We focussed on prayer, relationships, and discipleship.
