Brad,
A wonderful breakdown and dissection of Matthew 5. Thank you.
Brad
Thanks..Does your church have a discipleship method that leads people into a new way of life? If so, please share your experience.
thank you
i found this piece through Brother Maynard, which I linked from Robby...actually I found this through the moving of the Holy Spirit.
As a self indulgent and very angry person I found this to be challanging and encouraging.
I will read it a few times, pray through it, and hopefully it will make a difference in this futile life i've been living.
maryellen,
I will post a few tools to help at our church web page tonight. Drop by and look for them. If I can help feel free to e-mail. Also, maybe go through the process with a mentor or a friend and keep me posted. I can tell you: if you work it rightly, it will work. God will give you a new perspective on life and you will find much more peace.
God Bless,
I will keep visiting, reading, praying...but I must "confess" reformed theology makes me nervous, being an ex-Catholic who does not think Catholosim is all that bad, a graduate from a Free Methodist College, currently going to an AOG church on the Navajo Indian Reservation and married to an Open Bible Standard Churches pastor...
(sigh)
LOL - Do not worry. This is not an intellectual process with lots of theological nuance. This process is just one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread.
God Bless,
I'm back, went to a womens' "Bible Study" tonight. the only pale face at a table of lovely Navajo Women...
our leader is actually a new comer to the church that we attend and I'm not sure she is all that accepting of this "Billigonna" The Navajo word for white guy, which is literally translated as Enemy or Thief. But that's ok, the other ladies and i are "sisters" in the LORD...any why the leader led us to Matthew 5 and we had a discussion on "poor in spirit" which reminded me of this post. If I had ink in my printer, I'd make a copy so i could highlight and make notes.
At the very beginning you make a comment about disicpleship...
Discipleship is the path to abibe in that power...I'm not sure what that means. Currently, I am thinking that Discipleship is teaching believers how to live the life that Christ put before them. Saved by faith, but faith without works is dead, can dead faith save? and what works does Jesus expect...Matt. 25 comes to mind. Widow and Orphan stuff. Somewhere, on some blog, I think it was on the Apostle John's, there was a discussion about praying for your enemies and wrestling with God until he blesses you. I admit to living a fear based life for some time, and also for being a demanding, self piting, self preserving spiritaul brat. So one of my reasons for being at a stand still is that I have concluded, if predestination is true, divine election and all that, that God is mean and I deserve more...aint that evil of me. But if, as I always believed, people truly have a free will, that God interacts and reacts to our choices, even influences our choices when we let him, that he knows every possible out come of every possible choice, but does not know until the choice is made, what we are going to choose. If that were true, then I would be willing to wrestle with God, reason with God, trust Him to help through the storms caused by the free will of others as well as by my own bad choices...
does that make sense? Well, it's getting late...I'll be back.
Maryellen,
1. Don't get lost in theory. We are after results and the result we are after is solving our problem. Our problem is a lack of power to live as God would have us and in a way that pleases Him. I hear in your writting that you want that. So the path is to take some actions and believe some simle things.
2. Being poor in spirit is a deep acceptance of our lack of ability and power to overcome this problem. For example, controlling the tongue might be someone's problem and we say, "If I could change this I would be a better witness". or (anger etc). But we find 10 years later that the problem is only worse. Why?? Powerlessness. We can;t change without God.
This acceptance of powerlessness leads to discipleship. "Ok Lord I will follow you and you spiritual direction so that I can find a truly happy and heavenly quality of life (the kingdom).
Discipleship is indeed follwoing Jesus, but think of it as following Jesus' spiritual direction that you might participate in His power and victory.
God Bless,
Amazing, it really works! I've been using the Lord's Prayer as an outline for my daily prayers, using the LP to "go through my steps" each day. And I really am so much further along than I was just 2 weeks ago. I didn't believe that I could live without resentments and anger, but I CAN, and I AM! I'm finding that if my inner life is calm and at peace with God, my outer life is also calm and at peace. I'm able to be tolerant and forgiving, not take everything so personally.
That makes me smile. EXACTLY.
i went to an event this weekend and one of the speakers was speaking on
the Gospel of the Kingdom, and he had a lot of similar things to say on the LORD's prayer. When He got to the thy will be done on earth as it is, he said that done is not like doing, but rather like it is accomplished, all done. In other words, he was saying finish your work here like it is already finished in heaven...i'm thinking about that one.
New visitors..please feel free to ask questions. I will continue to respond to comments for this post.
Brad,
It's been several months since you wrote this post, but I just read it this morning. Very helpful, thanks. Two questions...
1. You imply that the power of the Spirit is at work during and after this process. You even refer to the "Spirit of Jesus", which I like. I have struggled with Paul's exhortation to "Walk in the Spirit and you will not sin..." I'm assuming that your article is intended to answer the inevitable question of "How do I 'walk in the Spirit'"?
2. Your process sounds very similar to one I've heard about by Neil Anderson called Freedom in Christ. I think his goes even a little further into renouncing possible family curses, demonic influences, etc. Are you familiar with "Freedom Appointments" and do you have any thoughts on this?
Thanks again. Your writing was a blessing for me.
Brian
I will rely simply with maybe not quite enough detal:
1. I think Paul is comparing that we can walk in the Law and have a heart void of love BUT if we walk in love we are fulfilling the law. If we live by a simpler principle of LOVE we will tend to have more joy than walking in a legal obligation. Our hearts understand love and the reality of LOVE as the true way. This is one way that the spirit is far superior. Love is a transcendant path that transcends cultural differences. Like the idol meat question. What do we do? We wlk in love and you will not sin one way or the other. Paul is a disciples in the Jesus teachings.
2. Neil Anderson has my respect but I think he is dealing with abnormal psyche issues so unless you have a serious neurosis or pathology I do not think his additions are helpful.
God Bless,
Great article! I will be linking to it as I do several blog articles on Discipleship.
Wayne
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