Archive for May, 2005
REST May 31, 2005
I have always had a problem sitting still—always. In fact, I used to actually lay on my stomach at night and bump my head on my pillow until I went to sleep. (When I got married Lucretia insisted that this needed to stop.) Resting, slowing down, whatever you want to call it has always been a major issue for me.
Needless to say yesterday was tough. For those who may not know the office at New Spring was closed yesterday in observance of Memorial Day. People have asked me, “Hey, what did you do.” Here is the answer—I rested, which is, once again, tough for me to do.
I came to the realization about two years ago that I needed to get more rest in my life. I had been “wheels off” for about three years—when you plant a church with a lot of passion but very few people and even fewer resources you are sort of obligated to do everything. I was so proud of myself—working seven days a week—many times 10-12 hours a day—I just knew God was proud of me.
And then I realized how ungodly I was because I did not rest.
A couple of things hit me pretty hard.
#1 – I was teaching as series through the 10 commandments and I discovered something. Most of the commandments are pretty cut and dry and need very little explanation, for example, most of us get, “Do not kill.” But if you will pay careful attention to the 10 commandments you will notice that the one God gives the most attention to, the one He goes into the most detail explaining is the one on rest—He’s pretty serious about this.
I used to argue that the devil never took a day off—neither should I…until someone pointed out to me that the devil was not to be my example. If I was going to try to be more like Jesus then I needed to follow His commands and follow His lead—which leads me to my second point.
#2 – Jesus rested! This fact was made clear to me in reading a book by Max Lucado entitled, And The Angels Were Silent. He has a chapter in this book that challenges the reader to go to Scripture and look at the last week that Jesus spend on the planet. He points out that you can find that Jesus did something every single day of the week…except for Sunday—there is nothing anywhere in Scripture saying that Jesus did work on the Sabbath. If the Son of God could find time to rest on the last week of Him being physically present on the planet—then shouldn’t we find the time as well?
There is a very familiar story in Scripture about Jesus getting on a boat & going to sleep. All of a sudden a storm develops and the disciples freak out—but Jesus is still sleeping. I have heard many explanations as to why—and to be frank I think most of them are ridiculous. Seriously, people try to over spiritualize this passage. I have heard, “Jesus slept because He knew God was in control.” True, He did know God was in control. But please go to the Scriptures before the storm passage and you will discover something amazing—Jesus had been working hard, ministering to people, casting out demons, putting up with religious idiots. So He withdrew and slept. Why? BECAUSE HE WAS TIRED! And what did He do when He got tired? He rested—just like God Himself did on the 7th day of creation. God modeled it—Jesus modeled it…and we are to follow it.
I know rest is difficult—especially for me; however, I believe if we are going to strive to be like Jesus then we must strive to rest & refresh ourselves often.
Thoughts On Discipleship May 27, 2005
One of the last things that Jesus said before He went back to heaven was for us to go and make disciples. Easy enough, right? But what does making a disciple look like?
I feel that many have fallen into the trap that I fell into early on in my walk with God. I thought that making a disciple was to take someone under my wing and teach them how to think and act just…like…me!
I experienced a very rude awakening about two and a half years ago—Jesus showed me that the world didn’t need more people to be like me—it needs more people to be like Him. I had to finally realze that I was wrong from time to time. I experienced problems with selfishness. I said hurtful things to people. I experienced road rage and became angry standing in line at Wal Mart where they have 25 lanes and ONLY TWO REGISTERS OPEN!!! (You get the picture?) Why would anyone want to be like me–I have never actually changed anyone’s life.
The fact is we have a commission from God to go and make disciples—and making a disciple is NOT teaching someone how to be like us, but rather teaching them who Jesus is and challenging them to fall radically in love with Him.
I ask people all of the time, “What is it that causes you to fall in love with Jesus—is it reading your Bible, singing, prayer, dancing before the Lord—whatever it is, do it a lot!” That has caused me to get some weird looks from some people who feel that making a disciple is teaching them to follow all of the rules of being a Christian (“Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t chew—don’t go with girls that do!”) and then giving them sort of a spiritual to do list—you know, read this, memorize this, go here, say this…get the picture? And we think after people obtain a certain amount of knowledge and say the right things at the right times THEN (and only then) are they considered a disciple.
If those are the rules of being a disciple then, well, not many of the original disciples would have qualified. Peter was usually saying the wrong things at the wrong times and was sometimes violent. Matthew was a tax collector—the scum of the earth in those days. James and John were self centered. Thomas actually doubted the resurrection. Yet all of these men had one thing in common—it wasn’t that they all looked or acted the same, but rather they had a passionate love for Jesus—that is what a disciple is.
Once again I think our efforts would be a lot more effective if we would quit trying to teach people how to do what we do and actually teach them who the person of Jesus Christ is and then challenge them to fall madly and passionately in love with Him—that, in my opinion is how we are supposed to make a disciple.
So Here I Am May 26, 2005
Welcome to my world! Some might argue that it is warped–on some days I would have to agree!
I must admit that I never thought I would actually BLOG. When I first heard about blogging I thought it sounded like some rare skin rash. “Hey man, have you seen my BLOG?” But now I have discovered it is an incredible way to communicate thoughts and feelings to a group of people who might actually be interested in some of my ramblings.
So thanks for visiting here–and please feel free to drop in at any time. I will be writing on things such as vision, leadership, creativity, and anything else that comes to mind (probably something to do with food!) I can’t wait to see what happens on this site!
Be Radical!
PerryNoble.com is Online May 23, 2005
Today, May 23, 2005, Perrynoble.com is ready to be released to the world wide web.