A disciple needs a teacher, but the teacher must teach process more than facts. If we are to keep all that He commanded, we must learn more than facts.
There is a place where He teaches us process.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
We learn from Him when we are shoulder to shoulder with Him, like two oxen yoked together to pull a plow. But it is His yoke alone that we must take. All that we think we have to do has to be set aside to learn from Him.
This is a place for two and two only. It is a time to walk quietly, to ask simply, and hear quickly. We come to Him, asking Him what He wants to do. Walking with Him, we can learn to work, at His pace, in His way. He is plowing a field; He wants us to join Him in it. It is simple work that requires steadfastness more that zeal; He will keep plowing in the same field until it is done.
Just as the oxen pull the plow in the hand of the farmer, we will be directed by the hand of God as we are yoked with Jesus. He is teaching us to be directed by God; He is teaching us to keep all that He commanded. He is teaching us process through shared work, not through the classroom.
We thought what we were struggling to do was necessary; we were exhausted trying to carry the burdens of life. We were doing the “right” thing; we thought we understood.
But He has a different way of teaching. What is hidden from the wise and intelligent He reveals to those who are simply yoked together with Him, learning to just work with Him in what He wants to do. The one in the yoke gets to hear Jesus explain what the theologian cannot figure out.
This is not an abstraction; this is a straightforward way to come to Jesus. Walk down a long path with Him, away from everything else. Ask Him what He wants to do working with you. Listen; ask simple real questions. This is the place to learn. He explained the whole Old Testament in a few miles on the road to Emmaus.
Then do what He says.
-Greg Whitten
July 01, 2009
A TASK FOR DISCIPLES
A disciple is a fellow-worker with Christ; he is a significant part of the work of God.
The imagery of plowing in Matthew 11 ties in with the parables of Matthew 13; the seed that fell on good soil fell on plowed ground. The field is the heart of man; the heart of man needs to be cultivated.
The cycle of harvest is rain, plowing, sowing, growth, and harvest. The ground cannot be plowed where the rain has not fallen. Christ will only be plowing where the rain has fallen on the ground. We cannot break up what is dry.
But where the rain has fallen, the heart can be cultivated. This is the work that we share with Jesus Christ; He wants to sow the gospel in their hearts, but the heart must be broken up by the plow first.
The good works that come from Jesus working in us are the tools that Jesus uses to turn over the hearts of men. We are the light of the world. But the world that does not believe in Christ is convinced that we are deceived; it is convinced that we have nothing but an empty faith. Their heart has become hard; the gospel will not be able even to begin to grow in it.
These hardened hearts need what will turn their thoughts over; their assumptions need to be broken up by what they see. What we do as we are yoked with Jesus will break up the fallow ground of their hearts.
But what is important is the way in which the light shines; we are to let it shine in such a way that men give glory to the Father. They need to see the good works as the work of sons, not members of an organization. What an organization does, no matter how good it is, is not seen as personal. But what a person does from the heart is personal. Good works are meant to break up hard hearts; good works need to seen as coming from love. Those we help need to see that we value them.
If good works are to prepare a heart for the gospel, they must do more than scratch the surface. The work must dig down into the heart; good works must be significant. What is superficial is of little use, even if many are touched by it. What we do must have a profound effect; even if only one person is touched by it. If we have done significant good for one, we have entered into the work of Jesus.
“Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.” Jeremiah 4:3
-Greg Whitten
The imagery of plowing in Matthew 11 ties in with the parables of Matthew 13; the seed that fell on good soil fell on plowed ground. The field is the heart of man; the heart of man needs to be cultivated.
The cycle of harvest is rain, plowing, sowing, growth, and harvest. The ground cannot be plowed where the rain has not fallen. Christ will only be plowing where the rain has fallen on the ground. We cannot break up what is dry.
But where the rain has fallen, the heart can be cultivated. This is the work that we share with Jesus Christ; He wants to sow the gospel in their hearts, but the heart must be broken up by the plow first.
The good works that come from Jesus working in us are the tools that Jesus uses to turn over the hearts of men. We are the light of the world. But the world that does not believe in Christ is convinced that we are deceived; it is convinced that we have nothing but an empty faith. Their heart has become hard; the gospel will not be able even to begin to grow in it.
These hardened hearts need what will turn their thoughts over; their assumptions need to be broken up by what they see. What we do as we are yoked with Jesus will break up the fallow ground of their hearts.
But what is important is the way in which the light shines; we are to let it shine in such a way that men give glory to the Father. They need to see the good works as the work of sons, not members of an organization. What an organization does, no matter how good it is, is not seen as personal. But what a person does from the heart is personal. Good works are meant to break up hard hearts; good works need to seen as coming from love. Those we help need to see that we value them.
If good works are to prepare a heart for the gospel, they must do more than scratch the surface. The work must dig down into the heart; good works must be significant. What is superficial is of little use, even if many are touched by it. What we do must have a profound effect; even if only one person is touched by it. If we have done significant good for one, we have entered into the work of Jesus.
“Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.” Jeremiah 4:3
-Greg Whitten
May 18, 2009
Discipleship
A disciple is a copy.
Discipleship requires a decision.
Discipleship requires training.
A disciple is a copy of another person. The copy is to be made of one who is himself fully a disciple, keeping all that Jesus commanded. Good fruit alone gives evidence of discipleship; the lawless can have sheepskins and gifts. Disciples are the good trees; good trees come from the word. The word is the genetics of discipleship.
Those who disciple must make the choice clear: the gate is small, and the way is narrow. The soul must be lost in order to follow Jesus Christ. The beginning in baptism pictures death, burial, and resurrection, not joining a club. A living community of disciples can be built with disciples; but those who will not listen to Him cannot contribute to the life of this community.
Those who disciple must teach process not just facts. A disciple must learn how to keep all that Jesus commanded. He must be taught how to do what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. The foundation of discipleship is in what is done in secret; the word of the kingdom stands or falls by what is in secret. Those who have learned to keep all that Jesus commanded will then themselves make disciples, for that is part of what He commanded.
To be discipled we must listen, to God and to others. We need to build a connection between what is said to us and what we do. What may be a still, small voice in our thoughts or in our interactions with others may be the most significant next step that we need to take. We need to trust Him that He is working to disciple us; it should not take years to do what we are being told to do.
To be discipled we must make a place in our life at the cost of everything else. We must clear some ground in the midst of this world. This is the great struggle, keeping the darkness from swallowing up our one place of light.
To be discipled we must be a good place for the word to take root in. There is life in the word; disciples are gardeners of the word, each one in his heart. Christ must be formed in each disciple; there is no equivalent mechanism that will work.
-Greg Whitten-
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