“The heresy of individualism: thinking oneself a completely self-sufficient unit and asserting this imaginary ‘unity’ against all others. The affirmation of the self as simply ‘not the other.’ But when you seek to affirm your unity by denying that you have anything to do with anyone else, by negating everyone else in the universe until you come down to you: what is there left to affirm? Even if there were something to affirm, you would have no breath left with which to affirm it. The true way is just the opposite: the more I am able to affirm others, to say ‘yes’ to them in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in them, the more real I am. I am fully real if my own heart says yes to everyone.“ Thomas Merton

In my Air Force career I have been fortunate to visit more than 30 countries. I have played soccer with the Turkish, sung Karaoke with the Japanese, and drunk Maté with the Uruguayans. If there is one thing I have learned from interacting with people from all over the world, it is this: we are all the same. Each of us desires companionship, love, respect, and acceptance. Most importantly, each of us is a child of God.

After reading the above Merton quote I was reminded of how much alike we really are. Individualism, and even more so ethnocentrism, is something that tears at the heart until it is unable to love anything but what is close and familiar. It is what fuels racism and violence…and ignorance. In the religious sense, individualism is a blindfold to truth and understanding, and unless we take it off we can never see what God has intended for us to learn and understand: that we are all the same, and that we all came from the same place: the hands of God.

So what then should our response be? I do not think it can be anything but what God has commanded us to do from the beginning. Love. Love your neighbor; love your enemy. Love those who look different; love those who worship different. I truly believe that a response of true love towards God’s creation would alleviate much of the individualism and ethnocentrism in society. It does not need to happen in the next blink of my eyes, but it can happen over time.

I suppose the trick would be to start small. We begin by loving our neighbor, the atheist. We begin by loving our co-worker, the Jew, or our classmate, the Muslim. We love them not because we understand them, but because they are God’s creation.

And then we listen. We listen to their stories; we listen to their beliefs. We listen for what we share rather than what we do not understand. I think we would be surprised by what we would learn if we listened. If we listen and love, as God loves, we can see that we come from the same place, and need the same thing to survive.

People often argue that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, rather he was a great teacher – a man from whom we could all learn.

I never liked that argument, and a paragraph out of A Layman’s Guide to Protestant Theology does a good job of explaining why:

If Jesus was not and is not the Son of God, insists (John Gresham) Machen, then he is the very reverse of a reliable teacher of ethics. For Jesus claimed to be divine; he claimed to have authority over men; he claimed to do that which only God can do – forgive sins; he claimed to be the Messiah, foretelling that he would return on the clouds of heaven; he asserted that he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If Jesus were only a man and claimed these things, he cannot be our example, for he was either a madman or a charlatan.

Word.

Take a look in the gospels and you’ll see a miraculous story. No, not that one. The other one. The story of twelve men who gave up everything to follow Jesus into the unknown, who suffered alongside Him, and who carried on His message after He ascended into heaven.

The twelve, as we so call them, were the first. They followed, they suffered, they learned. And they did it all to be next to the one they called The Messiah. The story of their lives is remarkable, comforting, and encouraging, but it also leads me to ask a number of questions of myself.

They Followed
To become a disciple of Jesus Christ meant to put the nets and the tax books down and follow him. Jesus was the leader, the King of the Jews, and he was walking down a newly created path; all they had to do was follow, learn, and be wholly committed to him and his teaching. Following Jesus opened new doors for the disciples. It allowed them to “escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ.”¹ It allowed them to follow the path to redemption and to become a part of the family of God.² It also allowed them to show their remarkable strength and their desire to be one with God. They didn’t hold on to anything from their past. They didn’t yearn for this or wish for that, they didn’t need it. “They left everything and followed Jesus.” ³

What have I put down?

They Suffered
When the disciples chose to follow Jesus Christ, they chose to begin a life of suffering that would last until their own deaths many years later. They knew they would have to drink from the “bitter cup” and be baptized with the “baptism of suffering,”⁴ but they were prepared. They were prepared to leave their houses and family, to deny themselves, to take up their cross, and to even lose their lives for Christ’s sake.⁵ The cost of discipleship was and still is high. But what you earn in return is something money or comfort cannot buy. It is a treasure hidden in the field. “It is the Kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.” ⁶

Have I suffered? Am I willing to?

They Learned
In the three years spent with Jesus Christ the disciples spent much of their time learning. During the popular Sermon on the Mount – and throughout the entirety of the gospels – the disciples “gathered around him,” listening and memorizing his words.⁷ Why? Because soon they would be left alone to finish what had started. Jesus was preparing the disciples to “go and make disciples of all the nations.”⁸ They would personify the words of Paul before he had the chance to write them. “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.” ⁹

Am I prepared? Am I ready and willing to finish the job?

The disciples were. They were more than ready. They followed him, suffered with him, learned from him, and then watched as “the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly.”¹⁰

Can I follow in their footsteps?

Can you?

1. The Cost of Discipleship, Deitrich Bonhoeffer
2. Mk 3:34-35 “Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
3. Luke 5:11
4. Mk 10:39
5. Mt 10:37-38
6. The Cost of Discipleship, Deitrich Bonhoeffer
7. Mt 5:1
8. Mt 28:19
9. 2 Cor 5:18
10. Acts 6:7

Today I wrapped up a two month course on the life and teachings of the Apostle Paul and if I learned anything it’s this: the dude had a knack for teaching.

Paul taught the gospel to thousands – if not millions – of new believers in the Mediterranean world, then he taught others how to ensure that gospel grew and became stronger than the false gospels of false teachers. He taught many people many things, and because many of his letters are still with us, he’s continuing to teach today. That, my friends, is called success.

I personally learned a number of things over the last two months. There are so many theological themes in Paul’s letters; you can easily get lost trying to sort them all out and understand them. I did…get lost. There are also many simple themes that we too often forget, three of which that are perhaps more important than the rest: we are only justified by faith, false teachers are everywhere, and we are going to be persecuted so we better just learn to deal with it (or rejoice!).

1. We Are Only Justified by Faith
In my opinion, the most important theme in the Pauline epistles is that we are only justified by faith. Paul wrote often that we have no hope if we rely on our own power and that is oh so true. We are “under the power of sin”¹ and because so we stand alone, separated from God. We can be made right with God of course, but there is only one way, “by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.” ² Worrying about what clothes you wear, how you do your hair, how many times you pray a day, or how many hours you volunteer at church a week, none of it makes us right with God, only faith in Jesus Christ. Paul knew that. I hope you do.

I know that I don’t know everything (some would say I know nothing). I know that much of my understanding is faulty. But. I have faith. So I no longer have to worry about knowing everything, I just have to worry about my faith and then walk in that faith and grow in the Holy Spirit.

2. False Teachers Are Everywhere
There were many false teachers in Paul’s world, those who taught contrary to justification by faith, and those who taught contrary to any faith at all. In almost every letter, Paul spoke of the need to be weary of false teachers and to not let “a little yeast…spread through the whole batch of dough!”³

Today the false teachers are still abound. They are on MySpace. They are on Twitter. They are on Facebook. They have their own blogs. (Hi!) They talk about the need to do this and the need to do that. They talk about not needing to do this and not needing to do that. They are everywhere, unknowingly spreading a false message. And I’ll even admit it. I could be one. I don’t think anybody knowingly spreads false teachings. That is why it is so important for me – everyone – to continue to spend time with Christ and pray for wisdom and strength so that I will not become swayed by their teachings and miss out on “God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.” ⁴

3. We are Going to be Persecuted So We Better Just Learn to Deal With It (or rejoice!).
In his letter to Philippians, which is one of my favorites, Paul encourages the believers there to stay encouraged and not to “be intimidated in any way by your enemies.” ⁵ In Paul’s world, there was a lot of persecution, especially against new believers who claimed the Messiah had come. The same persecution exists today in that part of the world and believers there deal with the threat of losing their life every day, just because they believe.

Thankfully in the Western world you can’t get hung or burned or stoned for believing in Christ. But what you can get is even worse! You could get…made fun of. What’s worse than getting laughed at or joked about behind your back because you talk about Jesus every once in a while?

In my younger years I had trouble with this. When you are young you desire to be cool, hip, popular. Maybe it was because I failed at all three, but now I solely desire to be with God. I know that the ridicule means nothing in the grand scheme of things. “Things of the world that once seemed important have lost their attraction; nothing compares to the infinite value of knowing Christ.” I read that in my study bible. So, as Paul wrote, we must stay encouraged and “always be full of joy in the Lord.” ⁶

So there you have it. Three simple themes from Paul’s letters that allow me to stand confident and joyful in my faith. I hope they stick with me forever. I know that I am justified, not by my works or words, but by the faith that lies in my heart. I know that I must stand encouraged and must shake any persecution or ridicule off my back; it means nothing compared to the joy of Christ. And I know that there are false teachers everywhere, hoping to rob me and you of our salvation. I pray every day they don’t succeed.

1. Rom 3:9 NLT
2. Rom 3:22
3. Gal 5:9
4. Phil 4:7
5. Phil 1:28
6. Phil 4:4

I spent a number of hours in the book of Acts today, studying up on the life and journeys of Paul. The thing that stuck with me throughout the day was his courage, even in the face of constant persecution from Jewish leaders. When threatened with the broad side of stones, or when thrown out of town by the ring of his collar, he was able to stand back up, “shake the dust from his feet” ¹ and keep on keeping on, one time even turning around and heading back into town. ²

I suppose I admire this because I myself am afraid of a cat’s meow. The dust might clear from my feet, but only from running a mile in the opposite direction. Instead of the courage of Paul I have the fear of a mama’s boy. When it comes to spreading the good news, if I am threatened, laughed at, or even sense rejection, I will close my mouth and forget I ever said anything. Usually I never get that far. I have too much fear, even though I know and believe that I should “fear not, for the Lord is with me.” ³

I have other fears. I fear heights, or rather falling from said heights. I fear the dark of an empty house and the European Hornets nesting in my back yard. I am even beginning to fear the fans of the University of Tennessee.

I know I am not alone. We all have fears. Some of us fear heights, some of us fear opening the Bible and sharing it with a friend. Me, evidently I fear it all.

What do you fear?

1. Acts 13:51: “So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium.”
2. Acts 14:19-20: “Then some Jews…stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into town.”
3. Isaiah 41:10

I made a grave mistake the other day. Actually, if I’m being honest I make this mistake quite often, nearly every day, at least every week, every month. Every so often I start to believe that worship music is meant for me. It is supposed to benefit me, make me stronger and help me grow in Christ. I am supposed to get something out of it. If not, then it needs to change, or I need to go somewhere else on Sundays. Oh, the self importance.

I don’t know how many times I’ve turned to my wife after church and said, “Eh, I didn’t get a whole lot out of the worship.” If I’m not sharing my displeasure with her, I’m basking in it in my own head. On days worship works for me, if I feel lifted (as I think I should), I tend to voice the opposite opinion. I walk with a lighter step through the parking lot, singing as I go. “Worship was great today,” goes the lyric, “I really got a lot of out of it!” Oh, the self delusion.

I suppose I’d have room to complain if worship was truly meant for me, but it’s not. Even on my cloud of arrogance, I know this. Although, from up here, sometimes the truth is harder to put into focus. When I do succeed, the truth becomes glaringly clear. Worship is not an inward act. I should not be focused on myself, hoping my heart will lift along with my hands. My focus should be outwards, towards Him. Worship is my chance to praise Him, to thank Him, for everything He has done in my life. For His love, for His grace, for all the blessings I am so unworthy of enjoying. Oh, the self realization.

I hope I remember this on Sunday, and on every Sunday after that. I hope I can stand there, aching feet and all, during a song I don’t especially enjoy, and worship with all my might, as if it was my favorite song of all. When it’s over, I hope I don’t rush to sit down. I hope I don’t whisper a quiet “thank you” under my breath. Instead, I hope I ache for more. I hope I desire to stand there all day. Regardless of the music, whether it is my style or not, I hope I desire to just be there. To be in His presence. To Worship the Lord. Oh, the self denial.

“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” ¹

This text spoke to me today. It made me think of the world and how close we are as a people to the way it was in the beginning. All this time to grow and mature, to learn and to become true followers of the triune God and yet we still fail on so many levels.

Murder. Adultery. Drunkenness. It all still exists.

Hate. Pride. Envy. It all still exists too, perhaps more so than before.

And you know what the worst part is? I can point the finger at myself. I take part. Sure, I haven’t murdered. I haven’t committed adultery. But I’ve been pretty darn drunk. I’ve hated. I’ve been proud. God knows, I’ve envied. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Thinking about all this was sort of depressing.

Then I read the next verse.

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” ²

Noah found favor.

In a world of nothing but evil, Noah was able to separate himself and seek only the Lord. He wasn’t swayed by the desire to belong. He didn’t care about being cool. He didn’t care about how many friends or followers he had. He cared only about God and because so he found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Because so, he lived.

This gives me hope. It’s encouraging. It reminds me that I – like Noah – can be a light amongst the dark. More so, it reminds me to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” ³ If we do, we live. If we don’t, well…you know the rest of the story.

1. Genesis 6:5-7
2. Genesis 6:8
3. Matthew 6:33

Remember Korn? I do. When their first album dropped in 1994 they immediately became the voice for teen angst. By 1999 they were arguably the biggest rock band in the world. The members had everything. Money, Fame, Sex, Drug Addictions…. Then one of them found God.

Here is his story…

When I think of foundations, specifically in the sense of a relationship, I think of the number of things that work together to ensure the relationship stands on strong footing. What is it – or what do I do – to make sure that at the end of the day I can say the relationship is strong. In a marriage I think most people would agree that good communication is a foundation, so is trust, loyalty, and unselfishness. Most people strive for these things in their lives in hopes of developing a strong, lasting marriage. Foundations are important; if we ignore them we are “building our house on sand”.

If foundations are important in a marriage, how much more important should they be in a relationship with God? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately; looking at my own foundations and wondering if my house is built on rock, or sand. I think it’s somewhere in the middle, clay maybe? I don’t know; I do know I need to strengthen the foundation, and I’ve been looking to Jesus Christ as a “how to”.

Excuse me while I make the biggest understatement ever: We can learn a lot from Jesus’ life here on Earth. There is so much to learn, and how to build a strong foundation with God is just one of them. A question I’ve been asking myself is what were some of the foundations of Jesus’ own relationship with His father? I think I’ve found a few.

1. He was of God
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”¹ How much closer can you get with God than being from God? Jesus Christ was the word of God made flesh here on Earth. He was God. I’m not, obviously, so maybe I can’t just take that and run with it. But Jesus was also human; He did other things us humans need to do to build that strong foundation.

2. He knew Scripture
Jesus Christ was the word of God, and He knew the word of God like no other. In the beginning of his ministry on Earth, Jesus went into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil.² But each temptation was meant with scripture, which separated Him from that temptation. Scripture is powerful, and if we know it we can use it. We just have to learn it, and that means reading, and studying.

3. He prayed/spent time alone with God
Jesus always made time for prayer. After feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, he didn’t spend time celebrating his accomplishment. He went away to pray. With so many people following Him and wanting to learn from Him, He still found time to separate Himself from it all and pray.³ The night before His crucifixion, what did he do? He prayed, alone in the Garden of Gethsemane.⁴ More importantly, He was alone. He was alone to sit in silence and listen to God. Prayer is communication, and without communication a relationship fails, I think we can all agree on that.

4. He trusted in God
Jesus knew what His destiny would be. He knew He was to be beaten, whipped, and then led to the cross to die. It was what God required of Him, and He trusted it to be so. He did not fight or argue. He didn’t like it,⁵ but He trusted in the Lord. When his disciples wanted to fight to keep him safe He called them off.⁶ He knew what He had to do, and He wasn’t afraid to do it, even if it meant death.

I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as things Jesus did to build that strong foundation. With my limited Bible knowledge, it’s as much as I can do for now. But to me it’s quite a bit. It’s a start. I want a house built on rock. I strive for it in my marriage; I should strive even more in my relationship with God. After all, it is the only relationship that truly lasts forever.

1. John 1:1-4
2. Matthew 4:1-11
3. Mark 6:46 – “After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.”
4. Mark 14:32 – They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
5. Matthew 27:46 – About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
6. John 18:11 – “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

A lot to think about this week; a lot of reflecting on things I do and those I don’t do enough. I’ve been reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, a little required reading for school that has led me to think about my own spiritual discipline – or lack there of – perhaps more than I’d like. In the book Foster explains the only way to truly experience spiritual growth is to adopt and apply spiritual disciplines; things like prayer, study, fasting, meditation, service, submission etc. These all sound great, and I hope to adopt a few, if not all of them by the time I finish the book; but I have to be honest with myself. These are all things I know I’ve needed for quite some time. Why do I believe a book will suddenly lead me to turn off the TV? Why do I believe a book will lift me off the couch for a time of prayer or study? It’s not the not knowing that has kept me from these things. It’s not the not caring either, I know I care. Perhaps it’s the not understanding, not understanding how much God loves us and wants from us.

Then again, maybe I’m just selfish.

It all makes me think about the Ten Commandments. I often overlook the ten commandments because – for the most part – they seem so simple to follow. Don’t murder. Ok, yeah…I got that one. Remember the Sabbath. Got that. Don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t make idols. Check, Check, Check. Don’t have any other gods before Me. Ch…eck? Maybe not. Shall I assume what the Lord feels is a god? I suppose anything that takes precedence over time spent with Him would qualify. So if I fail to spend time in prayer tonight because I decided to watch American Idol, I mean Lost – definitely Lost, does that mean TV has become a god above God? I hate to admit it, but probably so.


I don’t believe God feels TV shows are the devil, but if I place it above time spent with the Lord it must be considered a god above Him. Same with the gym, sports, anything else I decide to do instead of spending time in prayer or study. And the funny thing is, it’s not like taking ten to twenty minutes to pray and seek the Lord is going to take up my whole night and leave me with no time for anything else. But alas, sometimes it’s the thing I never get to. The thing I think about before I go to bed and wish I had more time in the day to do…the thing I need to re-prioritize, so I can maybe – just maybe – check that one off the list as well.