Cost of Discipleship

After examining experts from Dallas Willard’s “The spirit of the Disciplines”, I am reminded that discipleship is not an option like purchasing that IPod or going out to eat instead would be. The following are excerpts that portray his wisdom in such matters:

“…The New Testament is a book about disciples,…all of the assurances and the benefits offered to humankind in the gospel evidently presuppose such a life and do not make realistic sense apart from it. The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy duty model of the Christian…He stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the Kingdom of God.
For at least several decades the churches of the western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian…and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship. …Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ. …When Jesus observed that one must forsake the dearest things – family, ‘all that he hath,’ and ‘his own life also’ (Luke 14)- insofar as that was necessary to accompany him, he stated a simple fact: it was the only possible doorway to discipleship. …The disciple of Christ desires above all else to be like him. …The Disciple is one who, intent upon becoming Christ like and so dwelling in his ‘faith and practice,’ systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end. …. One cannot be a disciple of Christ without forfeiting things normally sought in human life, and that one who pays little in the world’s coinage to bear his name has reason to wonder where he or she stands with God. …The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity that it is, but as the fulfillment of the highest human possibilities and as life on the highest plane.”

Check out Matthew 28-16-20 to find more reading on this. This week I must meditate on the Lordship of Christ. I do not believe my life currently reflects being under the authority of Jesus. Instead of focusing on the cost of giving these area’s over to Christ, I need to focus on the high price I pay by keeping them under my control.

Wisdom from Lewis

“The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked- the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’” –C.S. Lewis

What are some of the reasons I fear giving my life completely to God? Perhaps because I want this life to be easy, and I know when I give it away to God it could become hard. I am lazy, and laziness means more work in the long run. Which areas of my life am I most reluctant to surrender to God? Currently it is my time and my eyes. I pour anything in that I want to, not contemplating on the consequences of such actions. In what ways have I experienced the heavy burden of trying to remain in control of my life? I don’t want to surrender to God every morning, and now I have come to the point where I feel I am faking Christianity. I need to return to the place where I diverged from my Heavenly Father, and ask for forgiveness and seek restoration.

Massacare at Virginia Tech

This was sent to me by a friend of Kim's, I think it really gives us a good idea of what to pray specifically, and helps to put more of a personal face on want may be tempted to be a impersonal tragedy. We need to not only feel deeply for those hurting, but aid in what ways we can. If anyone has any idea's, please don't hesitate to share. Already the Body of Believers on Campus are reaching out.

Hello all, Thank you for your continued prayers for the staff and students at Virginia Tech. Please keep praying. I imagine I might have more to update you on later tonight but I don't know that I'll get a chance to email so here is what I know so far. Jeff and Lisa Highfield (the directors of Cru here) with Sarah Gale (the regional director) have been at the Crusade office all day to provide comfort to the students and to brainstorm direction for the staff. They spent most of the day trying to confirm who was injured and killed by making contact with the students. So far, they have confirmed that 4 members of their ministry were killed, 2 women and 2 men. One of the women was a junior and was likely going to take over the international aspect of the campus ministry next year, the other was a freshman. One of the men was actually a student of another campus but was a part of the ROTC program at tech and was in a Crusade Bible Study. One of the big distractions is the amount of media and the invasiveness of their contact with the staff and students here. As I mentioned before, Jeff was on the 700 club this morning and has been consistently bombarded with requests for newspaper, magazine and television interviews. Everyone is trying to find that perfect story or interview and they aren't acting with much tact to get it. It has been an unnecessary distraction that has interrupted the mourning process of everyone here. Would you please pray that the Christians here would respond well to the requests, knowing which requests to answer and also for wisdom as they seek to represent the Lord well in media. In some cases it seems as if the media is asking the Christians to speak for God - explaining why God would allow something like this, or telling where He was. These questions really are impossible to answer and it's clear that no one will really be satisfied with the answers so please pray for wisdom and guidance while they're being interviewed. Continuing with the media prayer requests, there were several Cru students who were present at each stage of the shooting and therefore are being pursued heavily by the media. Molly, a freshman involved in Cru, was the first person to discover the bodies in the dorm room. She is in complete shock at this point, acting somewhat erratically and swaying from one emotion to the next. Please pray for her emotional, physical and spiritual health as she seeks to process through what she saw. CBS will be interviewing her this morning and airing her interview sometime in the next few days. Please pray for Molly this morning. Please also pray for Sarah Gale who will be accompanying her and Tony Arnold (a national staff member who advises on media relations). Molly's story is an incredible story of God's protection of her. Several things came together that morning to protect her - including the fact that she locked her door that morning for the first time and that she slept through her alarm (something she rarely does) and if she had not she likely would have encountered the shooter in the hallway. Molly believes that the shooter went down her hallway and checked the first room, then hers and found that it was locked and so entered the room where Emily and her RA was shot (the 3rd room). As they still have found no connection between the shooter and the people in the dorm room we believe that the Lord did supernaturally protected Molly. Jeff Highfield advertised a website when he was on TV called Gobbletalk.com and everystudent.com. Both are evangelistic websites. On gobbletalk.com there is a facebook ad that takes you to a link called "Where is God in the midst of tragedy?". In the last day there have been 3600 hits to this link, including 9 people who have indicated they made decisions for Christ after reading the article. To help explain the immensity of this, in February they did a media campaign where the sent out 120,000 flyers with the websites address on it. For the entire month of February there were 2600 hits. We're praising the Lord that in the midst of tragedy he is bringing people to himself. Today there will be a prayer meeting at 12:00 at the drill field (kind of like Old Main lawn for the Penn Staters). It is open to all and is being led by the Religious affairs department which encompasses all of the religions on campus. If you could, it would be great if you would pray with us then as well. Thursday evening they are still planning having their regular Crusade meeting. Would you please pray for Jeff as he prepares what to tell the students at that time? There were many students at the house last night and they are a mix of emotions and are all different stages in the mourning process. Jeff and Lisa are opening up their home today for students to come which means that their daughters will likely encounter many of them. We have tried to shelter the girls from thinking anything is wrong but the oldest is aware that something bad happened. Would you please pray for Katie (4) and Lauren (who turns 2 today). I am trying to organize an impromptu birthday party for Lauren today. Please pray that she would feel special. Also, it is Jeff's birthday on Thursday. It may seem silly to think of these things at a time like this but would you please pray for the normal things of life to be celebrated even in sadness. At this point Sarah is leaving on Thursday to go to Singapore and I'm thinking of leaving at the same time. Would you pray that staff would arrive when Sarah leaves and so would babysitting support? I think Tim Henderson will be replacing Sarah and if he does come they may ask him to speak at the weekly meeting. Tim leads the Penn State Cru movement. I suggested that Tim share something about Community 2:8 with a twist, about providing open spaces for their friends to mourn. I'm not sure if that's what will happen but if Tim does speak, please pray for his words as well. Well, I'm sure there's more but I hear the girls upstairs and I'm going to see if I can help. I'll try and update as I hear more. Oh and PS I bought a phone charger. Feel free to call me again.

Love! Thank you! Kim

When the Devil Steals From you..

This Sunday a group of guys met to share what was going on in there life. We do it every Sunday. I initiate the conversation, and they take it from there. Yesterday God took the conversation deep; people confessed there sins to each other, and we prayed for each other and for those who could not attend. The experience strengthened my faith, and encouraged my spirit. Yesterday, in a matter of less than a day I feel like Satan stole that from me. Through just the small decisions that I made through the day, felt a loss of that attentiveness to God the Father.

Thomas Kelly writes of the spirit-empowered life that "Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the Divine Touch, lies at the base of religious living." It seems simple, but I see now why it is imperative that we continually have fresh experiences of God at each moment of each day. If we subsist on memories of previous experiences with our Creator, we will find that the light in us will fade, the will begins to weaken, and the humdrum of normality will be at our door before we know it. How easy it is to understand that living in Christ is a continual thing...not from memory to memory, but from continual experience of the Creator from every second of every day. Lapses may be at first frequent, but I believe if we pursue this continual renewal, we will be habitually refreshed in our Fathers presence.

Am I neglecting the crusaid for Christ and setteling for a cruise?

I got back from Virginia beach the other day, I had a interview with Regent University for their Psy D clinical psychology program. On the way back to Detroit on the airplane, I talked to a couple who had just been on a cruise. A retired couple, who had been retired for more than fifteen years. The older man was mentioning the many things his wife bought, including a gold necklace for 3,000 and a gold piece from a sunken Spanish ship dated back to 1640 that cost 2,500 dollars.

Today my mom suggested that it would be fun to go on to a Cruise with K-Love (a "Christian" radio station), where audio adrenaline and more would be playing. We have been on one Cruise before, it was perhaps the most fun I have ever had on a vacation.

I am currently aware that there are millions of children who have no access to running water, food, or medicine. There are many more children who are forced into horrible sex trafficking, and forced labor. If Jesus were here today, would he be on the Cruise with K-Love, or in the brothels with Iresha who was sold there at 12 years old. Perhaps there is a better use of our time and money than exploring exotic islands and stuffing our face. Arn't Christians called to live diffretly the couple I mentioned above? We are called to help the helpless. With that said, I realize that I am not a good steward of my blessings. Things will need to change... that change starts with me.

Today is Global Fast 07'...another great reminder that those that have much have a responsibility to those who have few. We were not given such luxury to lavish on our selves. Jesus would not be riding in expensive cars, going on cruises, or eating $20 meals while children were starving. Check out the link below to see what you can do....

$3,135 Provides a water well and pump for a needy community.

$2,600 Provides a house for a destitute family.

$750 Provides 5,000 pounds of rice and beans.

$150 Provides 1,000 pounds of rice and beans.

$135 Provides a water pump to a thirsty village.

$75 Provides 500 pounds of rice and beans

$54 Provides food for two children for one year.

$27 Provides food for a child for one year.

$15 Provides 100 pounds of rice and beans.

$10 Fast for a day and donate what you would've spent on food.

https://www.kintera.org/site/c.dnJGKNNsFmG/b.2507311/k.3C01/Global_Fast__A_Lenten_Sacrifice/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=dnJGKNNsFmG&b=2507311&en=fgJFLPMyHbLELQOCKbKEKXOIKpIZJ7MAIaKMJZNILjKQL6MQE

Thanks be to the Lord that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, we are forgiven of our apathy, so let us no longer be apathetic to the needs of humanity.

bad boys.... bad boys....what ya gona do?

Call it a comeback, I have decided to again pursue the art known as writing. We had class groups tonight with the Guys. What that is for those who aren't in the loop, class groups are a chance for the different high school grades from Westgate to get together and be the Body of Christ. Tonight I started the non-Jerk-A-Thon. The guys were put into groups of two, and each paid $10 for each other to join. If one is out, they both are out. It is the best way to reflect accountability. This is how it works in the real world to. If I backslide into sexual sin, you know I am hindering my prayer life, and that in turn means less protection/intercession for those I regularly pray for. On a side note, I got another ticket tonight. That's the second one in just two weeks. I also just bought a radar detector tonight. I figure, if I had one all along than I could have saved at least the more than $600 I have paid in tickets and fines. Perhaps this is just putting a band aid on a deep wound, the healing solution prob is to pay absolute attention to my speed.