Obedience that saves lives.. (the warning of an undiscipled generation)

I've been enjoying doing some basic obedience training with my neighbour’s puppy this week. She’s six months old, which is slightly older than my usual puppy pupils, but she’s learning fast. It brought back memories of my Rusty in Scotland and my Kylie in South Africa who, by eight or ten weeks old could sit, lie down, stay and come on command. Why did I intentionally teach them these things at such a young age? Quite simply because it could save their lives! No one wants their puppy to dash into the path of a coming car because it wasn’t trained to stop and lie down when instructed to. 

Here in my town, I know a couple of people whose dogs are about a year old and yet still don’t consistently respond to these basic commands. I feel nervous when I see those dogs bounding around near traffic, because I know they haven’t yet learned the kind of obedience that could save their lives.

What’s true of dogs in the physical realm is true of people in the spiritual realm. This morning I was reading what I consider to be one of the saddest verses in the whole Bible: in Judges 2:10, it says that Joshua’s generation followed the Lord wholeheartedly, but then a generation grew up that didn’t know God or the things He had done for them. And the result, in verse 11, is that this "undiscipled" generation served false gods and did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

How could this be possible? How could the generation that saw God’s miracles in the desert, and experienced God’s victories in conquering the Promised Land, have children who didn’t know God and weren’t obedient to His commands? The answer is very simple: they failed to understand that discipleship needs to be intentional. It’s not enough to get people into the Promised Land and assume that they can work the rest out for themselves. We need to have a clear plan for helping people become disciples who love and obey God with all of their hearts.

This is the particular responsibility of parents. As the psalmist said, a few generations later, “What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from the children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done.” Psalm 78: 3 - 4. Surely no one would be crazy enough to “hide” the ways of God from their children. But that is exactly what we are doing if we are not intentional in discipling our kids, teaching them to read and obey the written Word, and to hear and obey God’s voice.

The same is true in our churches. Sometimes we make great plans for evangelism... but then we forget to be equally intentional in our plans for discipleship. And so a generation of believers grows up who have experienced salvation in the true sense of the word, but who live lives shaped by the values and customs of the world around them, instead of learning to love and honour God in all things. They’ve entered the Promised Land, but they’ve never learned to enjoy its blessings or to conquer the cities and the giants that live there. Let’s remember that it’s not enough to get people saved; we need to be intentional in teaching them the kind of obedience that could save their lives. 

What is a disciple?

In my personal Bible reading this week, I’ve been reflecting on what is means to be a “disciple” of Jesus. That’s a lot different from simply being a regular church goer, or being someone who believes in God. A disciple is a lifelong learner; someone who is always able to tell you what they’ve been learning and how they’ve been growing in God this year.

This morning I read a short Bible passage, Hebrews 10 verses 24 - 26, that really sums up two of the main things involved in being a disciple of Jesus. Being a disciple means:
vs 26 abandoning sin, and
vs 24 - 25 embracing community.

The command for Christians to turn away from sin is clear, but sometimes we don’t fully understand what that means, and we discover that it’s not so easy to do it without the support and encouragement of others.

In a football team, basketball team, or any other sports team, each player is responsible for his own training and physical fitness... but they probably won’t win any games unless they all help each other and learn to work as a team. Likewise, in the church, we’re all responsible for our own relationship with God, but we also need to encourage, help and disciple each other in becoming more like Jesus and obeying His instructions for our day to day lives.

What about you? Are you still wearing your L-plate and learning new things from the Lord every week? 
And what about your church community? Are you helping each other to grow stronger as disciples of Jesus?
How can you be more intentional in growing personally and discipling one another this week?

Drawing breath...

Whew! The leadership development course was such a busy season, that I haven't had a chance to do any blogging since my last post at the end of April. LDC was not only busy with teaching and leading process groups, but also with life's little "emergencies" like having to drive delegates to hospital at midnight. However, it was easily one of our most encouraging and fruitful seasons of the year, and we are thrilled at God's faithfulness when we hear the testimonies of transformation in the lives of those who were with us for those six intense and impacting weeks.

With LDC behind us now (and all the admin work submitted to the University), I have a couple of weeks in June where I can draw breath and enjoy a more flexible schedule. It's not exactly a holiday yet, as I have coaching appointments, computer work and various ministry planning meetings this month, but it will be very different from the pace of LDC.

My mysterious knee injury, which made the start of LDC rather challenging (see previous post) was well prayed for, and recovered slowly throughout the several weeks of the course. It seems almost back to normal again now, and this has allowed me to get a bit more exercise again. I'm back to using the new open air gym equipment in my street, I'm trying to swim a little whenever possible, and twice a week I'm making time to walk my neighbour's puppy and do some basic obedience training with her. (The cats are not very impressed to have this exuberant stranger visiting the house now and then, but I'm thoroughly enjoying having the opportunity to train a dog again.)

My short term housemate, Sue, has returned to the UK, we're also saying goodbye to Trudie who has served in the retreat centre kitchen this year, and tonight we're having a meal to welcome two new volunteers who are coming to help us over the summer months. New people and new adventures lie ahead…. but for now, we're enjoying drawing breath.

Dealing with Disappointment

In my Bible reading this week, I was reflecting on different tests and trials that we could face in our Christian walk. One of these is the test of disappointment. What do we do when our prayers seem to go unanswered (like Daniel’s, in Daniel chapter 10: 12 - 14) or when promises are taking a long time to be fulfilled (like Abraham’s situation in Genesis chapter 16: 1 - 3) ? Daniel waited patiently and continued to pray. Abraham took things into his own hands and tried to work out his own solution to the disappointment. Another person might simply have got angry or wallowed in their disappointment with God.

In fact, Daniel’s delay was due to spiritual warfare; God had actually answered his prayer immediately. And Abraham’s delay was presumably because it wasn’t yet God’s perfect timing to fulfill the promise of giving him a son. Other people’s disappointment might even be because what they’re desiring or hoping for isn’t the best or isn’t actually God’s will for them. The test is whether we will keep trusting God despite disappointment or delay.

I was reflecting on that this week because of my struggle with a painful knee injury. It’s been two weeks and there’s been lots of prayer. While it’s no longer swollen and is definitely much better than it was a week ago, it’s still not competely healed - which means that it’s a cause of discomfort and inconvenience during this season of the leadership development course, where we frequently need to go up the three flights of stairs in Villa Rehoboth. People comment that it looks suspiciously “arthriticky” and tell me stories about their own knee surgery or hip replacement.

Yes, it’s disappointing that it has been kind of a handicap at the start of LDC. It’s probably getting better every day, but it's been slightly disappointing that the healing is happening slowly rather than quickly or even instantaneously. But Father, I choose to keep trusting You. I will continue to pray and to receive prayer. I will never doubt your love or your goodness. And I will continue to proclaim that You are a God who heals.

There are different kinds of disappointments in life, some greater than others. Big or small, the real test is whether we’ll continue to love and trust God anyway… because He deserves our love and worship for who He is, and not only for the things He does for us. I want to pass that test; I want to bring joy to God’s heart by trusting Him, even amidst life’s challenges.

Films with friends...

Well, even though our Spanish weather can't quite decide it's it's summer, winter or spring (it's warm and sunny one day, cold and pouring rain the next), the awareness that the leadership development course is just around the corner reminds me that we're already in mid-April and this is supposed to be spring. Time for a less wintery background to this blog.
Even so, yesterday evening was a little chilly and I found myself digging out the firewood again as we settled down to watch a movie together. I thoroughly recommend, "End of the Spear" - a story about how the gospel came to the Waoudani tribe (the Auca Indians) in Ecuador. You may already be familiar with the story of the missionaries who were killed by the Auca in 1956, and this is a very well produced film telling the whole story of that time, and up to the present day.

I have a new housemate for the two month season of the LDC. Or perhaps I should say an old housemate. Sue and I lived together for a year when I first moved to Spain in 2008; we adopted a street cat and raised a litter of kittens together.  Although she then moved back to live in the UK again, she stayed in our home during the 2010 LDC and now is back with me again for the 2015 LDC. The cats seemed to have got used to having her around again, and took turns to sit on our laps while we were watching the film last night. 

The rest of the LDC staff will be arriving in Spain over the next couple of days, and we'll be having a week of prayer and preparation before the delegates arrive the following weekend. Not pictured here are Trudie and Ana, the two wonderful staff who will be cooking for us during the LDC; that is truly an encouraging answer to prayer.

Living with a Russian…. or a Norwegian?

Today in the library, I happened to meet the English woman who, a few years ago, told me that she thought Teddi and Tobi's father might be her neighbour's Siberian Cat, Caballero Oscuro (The Dark Knight, on the left.) She herself now has a Norwegian Forest Cat called Sooty (on the right.) And I continue to have a Malaga Street Cat called Teddi (middle)…. but couldn't resist photoshopping him in with the two pure-bred boys. He looks so similar. Actually if you google images of black Siberian cat or black Norwegian Forest cat, they do look really like Teddi and Tobi. The photos of black Siberian kittens look really like Tobi did as a kitten.
Meanwhile, after Teddi's little brush with fame in mid-March, I continue to get the occasional email from someone who has spotted him on a website in New Zealand or Texas or Hong Kong!!

Living water or cistern water ?

This morning, reading in Jeremiah, I came across a little verse that evoked a lot of memories for me. In this Old Testament prophecy, God was reproaching His people for forsaking Him, the source of living water. They had also “dug their own cisterns” and replaced God with other sources of refreshing, other objects of devotion, other things that they thirsted after and filled their lives with. But God was warning them, through the prophet Jeremiah, that these were cracked and broken cisterns that wouldn’t hold water and ultimately wouldn’t satisfy.

It’s easy for us to judge the Israelites for their idolatry, but I’ve been around church folks and missionaries long enough to know that there are lots of modern ways for believers to do exactly the same thing. Church friends tell me about the many hours they spend watching TV, playing computer games or hanging out with friends, and lament the fact that it’s so difficult to have a regular quiet time.

In the missionary community, it’s sometimes a little more subtle. There the idol is often work. People spend countless hours doing things for God: reaching the lost, going to Christian meetings, working with the poor and needy... They may even spend time in the Bible, but that too is “work” - preparing to lead the next group Bible study or preach the next message. Somewhere along the line, private prayer and personal time with God have got squeezed out. Spritually speaking, they are “running on empty” and in danger of burning out.

I remember one of the first times I was studying Jeremiah, back in the 1980s, being struck by the thought that cistern water was probably fresh and living water in the beginning. No one deliberately fills their cistern with old, stagnant water; it only becomes stale when it lies for a long time without being constantly refreshed. And if the cistern also happens to be cracked, it won’t be very long before it ends up empty. I remember realising that living water is a bit like the story of manna in the desert: it has to be replenished every day, because old manna won’t sustain us.

I’ve always had a passion for the Word of God and have probably filled more than fifty journals over the years, with insights and application from my quiet times alone with God. I guess I’ll never completely be able to explain why I let that journalling slip for a few years near the beginning of this millennium. Maybe because I did know and love the scriptures so much that they felt part of who I am. It was easy to be conscious of God’s presence and to reflect on a scripture while I was walking the dog or doing the ironing.

But I remember my shock, that day in 2005, when God challenged me that I was “grazing,” rather than eating solid meals. “You’re living off cistern water,” He said. I was horrified. How could someone who loved the Lord and loved the Word so much settle for cistern water? But I realised it was true. So often, in my times of reading the Bible, I was meditating on insights that God had spoken in the past, instead of discovering and writing down new words for today.

Ten years later, I look back with such thankfulness that I bought myself a new notebook and got back to my habit of drinking and writing down "fresh water" every day. It has made all the difference. My dozens of journals are an encouraging testimony to the things God has taught me over the past thirty or forty years.... but what keeps those fresh is the fact that they are daily being mixed with new and living water.