This morning I had a great time sharing Psalm 119:57-64 with a group of students at the middle school located next to our church.  When I was done, they began asking me questions about the Bible and I am not just talking about the easy ones, either.  They wanted to understand some hard things.

I love to read.  I love to think.  I love it when those two things collide in God's revelation to us in the written word. Yet I sense in myself and in others a reluctance to wrestle with things that are difficult, unnerving, or challenging in the text.  When I have been tempted to gloss over these things in the past, I have been reminded of the story of Jacob and his midnight wrestling match with God.

Jacob didn't stand a chance. The wrestling match wasn't so that God could show His power or superiority.  No, the wrestling match was for Jacob, and in some ways, more importantly for us.  We and Jacob both learn from the struggle.

I am not suggesting that this passage, Genesis 32:22-32, is telling us that we have to struggle with Scripture. However, I believe that the experience Jacob had is in a small way our experience as we wrestle with difficult and challenging texts of Scripture.  We must be diligent to grab hold and not let go until God reveals Himself through the word.

We are finite beings seeking to know, love, and understand an infinite being. The very reality of the situation should cause us to expect some difficulty.  Yet it is when the match is over and our eyes have been opened that we find our faith strengthened, our joy bolstered, and our perseverance enhanced.

So I ask, do you wrestle with the word?

I came across an article by Richard Ross about students and missions. Here is my favorite line:

"For the life of me I do not know why some theologically confused people in Utah would be the only ones to prepare and send out all their sons and daughters on an adventure that will shape their lives."

I almost jumped out of my seat screaming! YES, YES,YES! Oh that parents would pray that their children would love Jesus more than life. I pray that for my boys. It scares me beyond compare that they might go to one of the really hard places. It scares me to pray knowing that God might lead them there. Yet, who gives them life? Who saves them for His glory? Who is the wonderous King of the Ages who is sovereign over all?

To read the rest of the article, click here.

This morning I finished a book that at first I was not sure I was going to complete. It is said that A.W. Pink was one of the deep thinkers of his day, and The Doctrine of Sanctification proved to support that claim. However, the more I read, the more I was able to see his commitment to Scripture and depth of knowledge. It was a powerful and challenging book on a subject with which I find even greater interest.

The closing chapter of the book was focused on the role of faith in sanctification. Two paragraphs stood out as extremely powerful, especially for those who struggle with assurance of salvation. I wanted to share them here

O my Christian reader, what a difference it would make were you to steadily realize the truth that, every temptation you encounter, every defeat you suffer, ever distressing experience you pass through, is a call and a challenge for the exercise of faith. You complain that you are still the subject of sin, that it cleaves to you as the flesh does to your bones, that it mixes with your duties and defiles every act you perform. You often feel that you are nothing but sin. When you attempt to walk with God, inward evil rises up and stops you. When you read His Word or endeavour to pray,unbelieving thoughts, carnal imaginations, worldly lusts, seek to possess your soul. You strive against them; but in vain. Instead of improvement, things grow worse. YOu beg of God for humility, and pride rises higher; you cry to Him for more patience, but apparently His ear is closed. Ah, you are no learning the painful truth that in your flesh there dwelleth 'no good thing'....Nothing but faith in the sure Word of God can keep him from sinking into abject despair. This is the very time for him to maintain his trust in the sufficiency of Christ's blood and the excellency of his imputed righteousness.

This part of the chapter spoke volumes to me. I cannot count the number of times that I have felt this way or counseled people who were feeling the same. And yet as we grow in holiness, sin becomes much more horrible and evident in our sight. And we must not run headlong into despair but deeper into the arms of a holy Savior who "cleanses us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death - we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 89)

To abandon the attachments of this world is a tough order. However, those attachments are often more valuable to us than Christ. If we are to be His disciples, we must treasure Him above all else. The amazing thing is that in dying to ourselves we find life in Christ (Galatians 2:20). What joy to be a disciple!

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

I have always been a Southern Baptist. It seems that there are two passages from the Bible that most Southern Baptists either know or know they should know. One is John 3:16. The other is Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission. These passages have driven an evangelism and missions for years.

Discipleship has been heavy on my heart as of late. By discipleship, I don't mean classes or programs, but the act of sharing life with others that they may follow Jesus with you. The scary thing is that from my vantage point, there are not many who are committed to this idea. So many will give the religious portion of there life to Jesus, but don't willingly surrender it all.

Please understand that this is not a desire to bring condemnation down upon a church or denomination. I simply began to ask myself, "Why are there not more disciples?" I have a few ideas:

1. Making disciples is hard work. To truly invest in someone's life to see them forsake all to follow Jesus and stick with them through the process takes time, effort, and energy. It takes grace to forgive and correct. Jesus spent three years with His disciples and they still had much more to learn. What does that say about us?
2. Many of us have not been discipled. By this I do not mean that we haven't grown in our faith but rather that no one took the effort to pour into our lives so that we would be better disciples. As a result, we may not really think that we are supposed to do it.
3. We often confuse "disciple" with "convert". When someone accepts Christ, they have taken the first step in discipleship. They still have to be taught all that Christ commanded. If we simply say that our job is done when someone accepts Christ we show that we have a deficient understanding of the meaning of what it means to be a disciple.
4. We are absorbed in our own sanctification. Following Christ is a difficult life. In fact, without the Holy Spirit it is impossible. Because of this we can become so focused on growing in Christlikeness that we feel we have no time or resources to allocated towards discipling someone else. In this we miss the amazing fact that God uses our obedience in making disciples as part of the sanctification process in our lives!
5. We feel inadequate. The thought of directing someone's spiritual life is too much for many of us. What if we teach them wrong? What if we don't do it right? What if they ask a question to which we don't have an answer? These are honest concerns. However they are not legitimate reasons to disobey Christ's command. God did not command a specific few to be discipliers while the rest sit around and think about heaven. We are all to be about the business of making disciples.

I hope to respond to these in a few days with some Scriptural direction for anyone who might struggle in these areas. Until then...