Viver um Cristianismo Contracultura

Compilação

Numa cultura que dá grande ênfase ao lazer, luxo, ganho financeiro, autoaprimoramento e posses materiais, os irmãos trabalharem diligentemente, viverem com simplicidade, doarem-se, ajudarem construtivamente, e investirem no eterno se torna cada vez mais contracultura...

Isso sim é contracultura! Num mundo em que tudo gira em torna da própria pessoa—proteja-se, promova-se, console-se, e cuide de si mesmo—Jesus diz: “Crucifique-se. Deixe de lado a autopreservação para viver para a glória de Deus não importa o que isso signifique para você na cultura ao seu redor.”—David 

Mudando a cultura

Jesus não veio para formar um exército insurgente de protestadores culturais. Mas ele mudou a cultura e também as normas culturais na cabeça deles, e continua fazendo isto hoje. Para as multidões que se formavam no primeiro século, a sabedoria do rabino de Nazaré era diferente da maioria. Ele ensinou com autoridade, mas também deixou seus possíveis alunos perplexos dizendo que o último será o primeiro, que prostitutas e coletores de impostos entrariam no Reino antes dos peritos religiosos.

Este mestre continua proclamando mensagens radicais para as multidões no século atual. Amar o seu próximo é um mandamento que vai contra a maioria das normas culturais, amar o seu inimigo ainda mais. Todo o Sermão da Montanha foi, e permanece sendo, o sermão mais contracultura que já foi pregado.—Jill Carattini

Relevância e convicção

Não me entenda mal, eu também quero que a igreja seja relevante, mas não quero que se espelhe na cultura para poder alcançar sua meta. Há duas maneiras de ser relevante. Uma é aceitar as prioridades do mundo ao nosso redor até nossas mensagens começarem a soar como todas as outras mensagens das quais a cultura desfruta. A outra é tomar uma posição de contracultura e então explicar por que a visão geral do cristão é superior.

Esta é a escolha que temos como líderes de igreja: fazer um esforço consistente para nos parecer mais com a cultura, ou um esforço consistente para guiar a cultura a algo melhor. Focar a igreja nos desejos dos indivíduos que a frequentam, ou repetidas vezes defender a vida entregue e altruísta cristã. Por isto que líderes relevantes da igreja têm que saber “vender o seu peixe”.

Pode com certeza usar linguagem, imaginário e música que são familiares à cultura, mas nossa mensagem não pode estar comprometida. Não podemos nos entregar ao hedonismo egoísta… Podemos tentar ser relevantes entretendo nossa natureza egoísta, ou podemos ser verdadeiramente relevantes ao defendermos aquilo em que acreditamos, apesar de ser a contracultura altruísta.—J. Warner Wallace

Expressões públicas de fé

A história de Daniel é de uma fé extraordinária em Deus durante o auge do poder executivo e diante de todos. Relata eventos cruciais nas vidas dos quatro amigos—Daniel, Hananias, Misael e Azarias—que nasceram no minúsculo estado de Judá no Oriente Médio há cerca de dois mil e quinhentos anos... O que torna notável a história de fé desses rapazes é que eles não apenas continuaram sua devoção privada a Deus a qual desenvolveram em sua terra natal, mas deram um testemunho público de grande alcance em uma sociedade pluralista crescentemente antagônica à sua fé. É por isso que a história deles tem uma mensagem tão poderosa para nós hoje.

Fortes correntes de pluralismo e secularismo na sociedade ocidental contemporânea, reforçadas por uma postura politicamente correta paralisante, marginalizam cada vez mais a expressão da fé em Deus, limitando-a, se possível, à esfera privada. Está se tornando cada vez menos aceito mencionar Deus em público, que dirá admitir sua fé em algo exclusivo e absoluto, como a singularidade de Jesus Cristo como Filho de Deus e Salvador. A sociedade tolera a prática da fé cristã nas devoções particulares e nos cultos da igreja, mas cada vez mais deprecia o testemunho público. Para o relativista e secularista, o testemunho público da fé em Deus cheira muito ao extremismo proselitista e fundamentalista. Por conseguinte, consideram-no uma ameaça potencial à estabilidade social e à liberdade humana.

A história de Daniel e seus amigos é um chamado para que nossa geração seja corajosa; para que não perca a coragem e permita que a expressão de nossa fé seja diluída e suprimida do espaço público e, assim, se torne fraca e ineficaz. A história deles também nos dirá que esse objetivo provavelmente não será alcançado sem um custo.—John Lennox

*

Devemos entender que nossa meta não é fazer com que seguir Jesus seja mais fácil. A mensagem do evangelho é necessariamente de contracultura e ofensiva para o coração humano.—Ed Stetzer

*

Como nossa cultura seria diferente se o cristão estivesse preparado para viver sua vida como seguidor de Jesus Cristo com verdadeira convicção? Se demonstrasse diariamente estar disposto a se posicionar em favor de Cristo, independentemente das consequências? ... A transformação cultural resulta de uma transformação pessoal, e isso só acontecerá quando as pessoas realmente virem um exemplo vivo do Evangelho. O que nosso país, nossa cultura, nosso mundo precisa é de cristãos dispostos a mostrar o caráter de suas convicções sem se importarem com o que vai lhes custar.—Andy Bannister

Defendendo a verdade

De acordo com a história do mundo, muitos profetas sofreram oposição e perseguição. Mas eles salvaram muitas almas, despertaram muita gente e preservaram a verdade, o evangelho e a salvação. E é por isso que você está aqui hoje, porque alguém lutou e defendeu a verdade! Desde os tempos dos antigos profetas até Martinho Lutero, Savonarola, John Knox e Tyndale, que deram suas vidas para que você pudesse ter a verdade. Mas, como resultado, você está aqui hoje ouvindo a verdade de Deus, e a Bíblia foi preservada. E porque estamos dispostos a dar nossas vidas pela verdade de Deus, alguém vai ouvir sobre isso e acreditar, aceitar e continuar depois que morrermos!

Para cada gota de sangue derramado, Deus levanta mais dez gotas para continuar pregando! Glória a Deus! Pois o sangue dos mártires é a semente da igreja, disse um grande mártir certa vez. Não foi apenas o que os cristãos disseram que levou Roma ao cristianismo, foi a maneira como eles viveram e o modo como morreram! Naquela época as pessoas sabiam que os cristãos tinham fé. Não se poderia lutar contra um sistema mais dominante do que aquele no qual eles viviam, e no caso deles o sistema foi finalmente conquistado.

Vamos orar e pedir a Deus que nos ajude a ter a coragem de pregar uma mensagem que pode não ser popular, que pode ser difícil de pregar, e que muitos talvez não aceitem.—D. Brandt 

Publicado no Âncora em fevereiro de 2019.anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/viver-um-cristianismo-contracultura/

Read More

The Heresy of White Christianity

"Every Sunday morning, we went to church to exorcize hate—of ourselves and of white racists.” (Photo: Mr. Fish / Truthdig) 

“Those who have lived in the cultures of the oppressed know something about freedom that the oppressors will never know.” 

by

Chris Hedges

 There are, as Cornel West has pointed out, only two African-Americans who rose from dirt-poor poverty to the highest levels of American intellectual life—the writer Richard Wright and the radical theologian James H. Cone.

Cone, who died in April, grew up in segregated Bearden, Ark., the impoverished son of a woodcutter who had only a sixth-grade education. With an almost superhuman will, Cone clawed his way up from the Arkansas cotton fields to implode theological studies in the United States with his withering critique of the white supremacy and racism inherent within the white, liberal Christian church. His brilliance—he was a Greek scholar and wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Swiss theologian Karl Barth—enabled him to “turn the white man’s theology against him and make it speak for the liberation of black people.” God’s revelation in America, he understood, “was found among poor black people.” Privileged white Christianity and its theology were “heresy.” He was, until the end of his life, possessed by what the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called “sublime madness.” His insights, he writes, “came to me as if revealed by the spirits of my ancestors long dead but now coming alive to haunt and torment the descendants of the whites who had killed them.”

“When it became clear to me that Jesus was not biologically white and that white scholars actually lied by not telling people who he really was, I stopped trusting anything they said,” he writes in his posthumous memoir, “Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian,” published in October.

“White supremacy is America’s original sin and liberation is the Bible’s central message,” he writes in his book. “Any theology in America that fails to engage white supremacy and God’s liberation of black people from that evil is not Christian theology but a theology of the Antichrist.”

White supremacy “is the Antichrist in America because it has killed and crippled tens of millions of black bodies and minds in the modern world,” he writes. “It has also committed genocide against the indigenous people of this land. If that isn’t demonic, I don’t know what is … [and] it is found in every aspect of American life, especially churches, seminaries, and theology.”

Cone, who spent most of his life teaching at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary, where the theological luminaries Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr preceded him, was acutely aware that “there are a lot of brilliant theologians and most are irrelevant and some are evil.”

Of the biblical story of Cain’s murder of Abel, Cone writes: “… [T]he Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I don’t know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen: your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!’ ” Cain, in Cone’s eyes, symbolizes white people, as Abel symbolizes black people.

“God is asking white Americans, especially Christians, ‘Where are your black brothers and sisters?’ ” Cone writes. “And whites respond, ‘We don’t know. Are we their keepers?’ And the Lord says, ‘What have you done to them for four centuries?’ ”

The stark truth he elucidated unsettled his critics and even some of his admirers, who were forced to face their own complicity in systems of oppression. “People cannot bear very much reality,” T.S. Eliot wrote. And the reality Cone relentlessly exposed was one most white Americans seek to deny.

“Christianity is essentially a religion of liberation,” Cone writes. “The function of theology is that of analyzing the meaning of that liberation for the oppressed community so they can know that their struggle for political, social, and economic justice is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor is not Christ’s message. Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology. In a society where [people] are oppressed because they are black, Christian theology must become Black Theology, a theology that is unreservedly identified with the goals of the oppressed community and seeking to interpret the divine character of their struggle for liberation.”

The Detroit rebellion of 1967 and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. a year later were turning points in Cone’s life. This was when he—at the time a professor at Adrian College, a largely white college in Adrian, Mich.—removed his mask, a mask that, as the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote, “grins and lies.”

“I felt that white liberals had killed King, helped by those Negroes who thought he was moving too fast,” he writes. “Even though they didn’t pull the trigger, they had refused to listen to King when he proclaimed God’s judgment on America for failing to deal with the three great evils of our time: poverty, racism, and war. The white liberal media demonized King, accusing him of meddling in America’s foreign affairs by opposing the Vietnam War and blaming him for provoking violence wherever he led a march. White liberals, however, accepted no responsibility for King’s murder, and they refused to understand why Negroes were rioting and burning down their communities.”

“I didn’t want to talk to white people about King’s assassination or about the uprisings in the cities,” he writes of that period in his life. “[I]t was too much of an emotional burden to explain racism to racists, and I had nothing to say to them. I decided to have my say in writing. I’d give them something to read and talk about.”

Cone is often described as the father of black liberation theology, although he was also, maybe more importantly, one of the very few contemporary theologians who understood and championed the radical message of the Gospel. Theological studies are divided into pre-Cone and post-Cone eras. Post-Cone theology has largely been an addendum or reaction to his work, begun with his first book, “Black Theology and Black Power,” published in 1969. He wrote the book, he says, “as an attack on racism in white churches and an attack on self-loathing in black churches. I was not interested in making an academic point about theology; rather, I was issuing a manifesto against whiteness and for blackness in an effort to liberate Christians from white supremacy.”

Cone never lost his fire. He never sold out to become a feted celebrity.

“I didn’t care what white theologians thought about black liberation theology,” he writes. “They didn’t give a damn about black people. We were invisible to their writings, not even worthy of mention. Why should I care about what they thought?”

“After more than fifty years of working with, writing about, talking to white theologians, I have to say that most are wasting their time and energy, as far as I am concerned,” he writes, an observation that I, having been forced as a seminary student to plow through the turgid, jargon-filled works of white theologians, can only second. Cone blasted churches, including black churches that emphasize personal piety and the prosperity gospel, as “the worst place to learn about Christianity.”

His body of work, including his masterpieces “Martin & Malcolm & America” and “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” is vital for understanding America and the moral failure of the white liberal church and white liberal power structure. Cone’s insight is an important means of recognizing and fighting systemic and institutionalized racism, especially in an age of Donald Trump.

“I write on behalf of all those whom the Salvadoran theologian and martyr Ignacio Ellacuría called ‘the crucified peoples of history,’ ” Cone writes in his memoir. “I write for the forgotten and the abused, the marginalized and the despised. I write for those who are penniless, jobless, landless, all those who have no political or social power. I write for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and those who are transgender. I write for immigrants stranded on the U.S. border and for undocumented farmworkers toiling in misery in the nation’s agricultural fields. I write for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, on the West Bank, and in East Jerusalem. I write for Muslims and refugees who live under the terror of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. And I write for all people who care about humanity. I believe that until Americans, especially Christians and theologians, can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with ‘recrucified’ black bodies hanging from lynching trees, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy.”

The cross, Cone reminded us, is not an abstraction; it is the instrument of death used by the oppressor to crucify the oppressed. And the cross is all around us. He writes in “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”:

The cross is a paradoxical religious symbol because it inverts the world’s value system, proclaiming that hope comes by way of defeat, that suffering and death do not have the last word, that the last shall be first and the first last. Secular intellectuals find this idea absurd, but it is profoundly real in the spiritual life of black folk. For many who were tortured and lynched, the crucified Christ often manifested God’s loving and liberating presence within the great contradictions of black life. The cross of Jesus is what empowered black Christians to believe, ultimately, that they would not be defeated by the “troubles of the world,” no matter how great and painful their suffering. Only people stripped of power could understand this absurd claim of faith. The cross was God’s critique of power—white power—with powerless love, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Present-day Christians misinterpret the cross when they make it a nonoffensive religious symbol, a decorative object in their homes and churches. The cross, therefore, needs the lynching tree to remind us what it means when we say that God is revealed in Jesus at Golgotha, the place of the skull, on the cross where criminals and rebels against the Roman state were executed. The lynching tree is America’s cross. What happened to Jesus in Jerusalem happened to blacks in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Lynched black bodies are symbols of Christ’s body. If we want to understand what the crucifixion means for Americans today, we must view it through the lens of mutilated black bodies whose lives are destroyed in the criminal justice system. Jesus continues to be lynched before our eyes. He is crucified wherever people are tormented. That is why I say Christ is black.

Every once in a while, when Cone expressed something he thought was particularly important, he would say, “That’s Charlie talking.” To know Cone was to know Charlie and Lucy, his parents, who wrapped him and his brothers in unconditional love that held at bay the dehumanizing fear, discrimination and humiliation that came with living in Jim and Jane Crow Arkansas. He, like poet and novelist Claude McKay, said that what he wrote was “urged out of my blood,” adding “in my case the blood of blacks in Bearden and elsewhere who saw what I saw, felt what I felt, and loved what I loved.”

The essence of Cone was embodied in this radical love, a love that was not rooted in abstractions but the particular reality of his parents and his people. The ferocity of his anger at the injustice endured by the oppressed was matched only by the ferocity of his love. He cared. And because he cared, he carried the hurt and pain of the oppressed, the crucified of the earth, within him. As a boy, after dark, he waited by the window for his father to return home, knowing that to be a black man out on the roads in Arkansas at night meant you might never reach home. He spent his life, in a sense, at that window. He wrote and spoke not only for the forgotten, but also in a very tangible way for Charlie and Lucy. He instantly saw through hypocrisy and detested the pretentions of privilege. He never forgot who he was. He never forgot where he came from. His life was lived to honor his parents and all who were like his parents. He had unmatched courage, integrity and wisdom; indeed he was one of the wisest people I have ever known.

Cone was acutely aware, as Charles H. Long wrote, that “those who have lived in the cultures of the oppressed know something about freedom that the oppressors will never know.” He reminded us that our character is measured by what we have overcome. Despair, for him, was sin.

“What was beautiful about slavery?” Cone asks in his memoir. “Nothing, rationally! But the spirituals, folklore, slave religion, and slave narratives are beautiful, and they came out of slavery. How do we explain that miracle? What’s beautiful about lynching and Jim Crow segregation? Nothing! Yet the blues, jazz, great preaching, and gospel music are beautiful, and they came out of the post-slavery brutalities of white supremacy. In the 1960s we proclaimed ‘Black is beautiful!’ because it is. We raised our fists to “I’m Black and I’m Proud,’ and we showed ‘Black Pride’ in our walk and talk, our song and sermon.”

He goes on:

We were not destroyed by white supremacy. We resisted it, created a beautiful culture, the civil rights and Black Power movements, which are celebrated around the world. [James] Baldwin asked black people “to accept the past and to learn to live with it.” “I beg the black people of this country,” he said, shortly after “Fire” [“The Fire Next Time”] was published, “to do something which I know to be very difficult; to be proud of the auction block, and all that rope, and all that fire, and all that pain.”

To see beauty in tragedy is very difficult. One needs theological eyes to do that. We have to look beneath the surface and get to the source. Baldwin was not blind. He saw both the tragedy and the beauty in black suffering and its redeeming value. That was why he said that suffering can become a bridge that connects people with one another, blacks with whites and people of all cultures with one another. Suffering is sorrow and joy, tragedy and triumph. It connected blacks with one another and made us stronger. We know anguish and pain and have moved beyond it. The real question about suffering is how to use it. “If you can accept the pain that almost kills you,” says Vivaldo, Baldwin’s character in his novel Another Country, “you can use it, you can become better.” But “that’s hard to do,” Eric, another character, responds. “I know,” Vivaldo acknowledges. If you don’t accept the pain, “you get stopped with whatever it was that ruined you and you make it happen over and over again and your life has—ceased, really—because you can’t move or change or love anymore.” But if you accept it, “you realize that your suffering does not isolate you,” Baldwin says in his dialogue with Nikki Giovanni; “your suffering is your bridge.” Singing the blues and the spirituals is using suffering, letting it become your bridge moving forward. “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard,” Baldwin writes in his short story “Sonny’s Blues.” “There isn’t any other tale to tell, and it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”

“I would rather be a part of the culture that resisted lynching than the one that lynched,” Cone writes at the end of the book. “I would rather be the one who suffered wrong than the one who did wrong. The one who suffered wrong is stronger than the one who did wrong. Jesus was stronger than his crucifiers. Blacks are stronger than whites. Black religion is more creative and meaningful and true than white religion. That is why I love black religion, folklore, and the blues. Black culture keeps black people from hating white people. Every Sunday morning, we went to church to exorcize hate—of ourselves and of white racists.”

There will come difficult moments in our own lives, moments when we are faced with an impulse, driven by fear or self-interest or simple expediency, to turn away at the sight of suffering and injustice. We will hear the cries of the oppressed and want to shut them out. We will count the cost to our careers, our reputations and perhaps our security, for to truly stand with the oppressed is to be treated like the oppressed. But a force greater than our own will compel us to kneel down and pick up the cross. The weight will cut into our shoulders. Our step will slow. Our breathing will become labored. We will be condemned by the powerful and ignored or reviled by the indifferent. But we will demand justice. And when we do, we will say to ourselves, “That’s Cone talking.”

Originally Published at: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/10/heresy-white-christianity#

Read More

Is Health the Most Important Thing?

By Dennis Edwards

I’ve been thinking about this saying that people often say here in Portugal. It’s something like this. “How’ it going?” “Well, as long as I’m healthy, that’s the most important thing, health. So, as long as I’m healthy.”

One time while doing a public campaign I asked the people I was interviewing what was the most important thing to them, and the largest portion said it was health. But then I would tell them a little story to show them that maybe health wasn’t the most importante thing but that being in good relationship with those around us was even more important than health.

I’ll share that story in a moment. But that’s not where I am going with this article. What I’m asking is, “Is health the most important thing and as long as you’re healthy you’re fine?

Bible tells us the most important commandment is “To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And the second is like unto it, to love thy neighbor as thyself.”[Mark 12:30]

In the Proverbs we read, “Get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding,” and “Wisdom is the principal thing.”[Proverbs 4:7] In fact the Proverbs tell us that if we pursue wisdom it will bring us health and life.[Proverbs 4:13,22] The life it alludes to could very well be the eternal life we all inwardly hope for and desire.

Elsewhere, in the Psalms we read over and over again how David’s problems and afflictions brought him closer to God. In other words, they were good for him. We read, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I do keep thy law. [Psalm 119:67] It was good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.”[Psalm 119:71]

The Bible is a collection of some of the oldest books in the world. Moses edited the book of Genesis and wrote it down around 1,500 BC. The book of Job is said to be from the time of Abraham who lived around 2,000 BC. Do you remember the story of Job? He was a rich man with ten children, wealthy, well respected, a city father, righteous, kind to those in need, a really good man. But the story goes that Satan asks God permission to afflict Job to test his faith. Satan says, “He doesn’t really love you, let me test him, and I’ll show you.” God says, “Okay, test him, but don’t take his life.”[Job 2:5-6]

First the devil destroys his children killing them all in an earthquake that takes their lives. He has thieves come and steal all Job’s cattle, and sheep, and camels, etc which was where his riches lay. And finally, Satan afflicts Job’s health.

Job’s own wife tells him he should curse God who must be bringing all this bad luck upon him and die.[Job 3:9-10] But Job responds with one of his most poignant lines of faith, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”[Job 13:15]

Job’s best friends come to comfort him. But all they can conclude is that God is just and therefore Job must have some secret sin that God is dealing with. He needs to confess and repent and get right with God. Job responds that they would have been wiser to have just sat quietly with him and accompanied him in his suffering instead of self-righteously condemning him.[Job 13:5]

Job answers that he has not sinned, but that he has been righteous in all his ways. So his friends stop talking with him, “because Job was righteous in his own eyes, and justified himself rather than God.”[Job 32:1-2]

Then the youngest friend speaks and tries to explain to Job that God is righteous in what he does. He says, “God will not do wickedly, nor will he pervert judgment.”[Job 34:12] His friend exposes Job’s sin and says, “You think that you are more righteous than God and that you therefore don’t desserve this affliction.”[Job 34:5] His friend is trying to show Job that his real sin is that Job feels he is righteous and good and therefore assumes that God is unjust in what He is doing.

Finally God speaks to Job and asks him if he Job can instruct God?[Job 40:2] God asks Job question after question after question.[Job 38 & 39] Job finally gets the point and says, “Lord, I am vile:”[Job 40:4] And lays his hand upon his mouth. After God finishes reproving him and instructing him Job answers, “I know that Thou can do anything, and that no thought can be hidden from thee…..I have said things that I really didn’t have understanding in. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”[Job 42:2,3,6]

You see Job’s sin was his self-righteousness. That he trusted in his own righteousness to save him. He missed the point that none of us are really righteous though we may have an appearance of righteousness and may in deed think we are.

Job’s affliction led him to the realization that God is good and no matter what happens in our life God will bring good from it if we can continue to love and trust Him. Apostle Paul assures us in his writings that “All things work together for good to them that love God.”[Romas 8:28] That’s why the most famous line from the book of Job is Job’s declaration of faith where he says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”[Job 13:15]

King David, the psalmist, wrote, “In my affliction I cried unto the Lord and He answered me from His holy tabernacle.”[Psalm 18:6 ] If you take time to read the Psalms you’ll find David finding God in his afflictions. His afflictions and troubles drew him to the bosom of God where all his needs were met.

In the book of Jonah we see Jonah saying, “I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heard my voice.”[Jonah 2:2] The affliction, the predicament, the problem Jonah was encountering was what caused him to cry unto the Lord. God allows those problems so that we will in deed seek His face as we so often drift away from Him or refuse His call.

Therefore, affliction, sickness, troubles, pain, and heartache are good if they ultimately get us to draw nigh to God. The Apostle James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you… Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.”[James 4:8-10] Solomon wrote God is more in the house of morning than in the house of mirth.[Ecclesiastes 7:2] He said, “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”[Ecclesiastes 7:3]

So, we see that health is not the most important thing contrary to popular opinion. Our relationship with God is what is most important. If we lose everything else, but our faith, we have really lost nothing. But if we lose our faith in God, we have lost everything. Jesus even said it would be better for us to lose an eye or a hand if it brought us into relationship with God and kept us from eternal damnation.[Matthew 5:29-30]

Let your suffering and your pain and your sorrow draw you closer to God who loves you and wants to help you and comfort you and heal you and be your refuge in the time of trouble. Forsake your self righteous pride and call out to Him.

Solomon wrote, “Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man.” [Ecclesiastes 12:13] Paul tells us that God’s commandments are not grievous but are fulfilled in one word, even this, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”[Galatians 5:14] Therefore, friends, let us love God and one another for this is the whole duty of man. Let us take our suffering and afflictions bravely and let them draw us unto the bosom of God, Jesus Christ, His son [John 1:18] where we find healing, strength, victory, forgiveness, and provision for all our needs. Amen.

I forgot to tell you that story that I would use to show people that health was not the most important thing. Here goes.

Let’s say you are healthy but you are forced to live with a partner that is always putting you down, criticizing you, demeaning you. Is health then the most important thing? Wouldn’t being in good relationship with those around you be more important than your health? Or would our health mean much to us if our company was dreadful. Therefore, living in harmony with those around us is even more important than health. And bad health can be sustained and born if we are compassed about with loving companions. In fact bad health can be good for us if it brings us into harmony with the One who created us and loves us more than we can ever understand in this life and can ultimately bring us healing. It’s the same guy again, Jesus. We keep trying to leave that name out. But that’s the name we each really need to look into. “For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”[Acts 4:12]

My grandfather had a poem on the wall of his house. It went something like this.

There are only two things to worry about in life: health or sickness. If you are healthy, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about: you’ll get better, or you’ll get worse. If you get better, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if you get worse there are two things to worry about: you’ll either die or you’ll recover. If you recover, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if you die there are two things to worry about: you’ll either go to heaven or you’ll go to hell. If you go to heaven, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy meeting old friends, you won’t have time to worry.

The point here that this comic relief is trying to convince us of is the idea that even suffering in hell will be bearable if we are in good company, in good relationship with others around us. In other words, if we are in good relationship with others we can bear anything. War is made bearable by the unity of spirit the combat team gains through the troubles they face together. Relationship with others makes us sacrífice and bear the unbearable. That’s what husbands and wives do for one another. That’s what parents do for their children.

But the conclusion that good company will make hell bearable is not true. The richman in the story Jesus told about the poorman and richman who died the same day did not seem to think that hell was a fun place. He asked God to allow him to get a message through to his other brothers that they come not to the same place.[Luke 16:19-31] So don't take the poem above as a slogan for life. You might end up somewhere you don't want to be, in Hell. 

God wants relationship with us. He says, “Come and let us reason together.”[Isaiah 1:18ª] But because of the free will He has given us, He must allow sorrow and pain and death. Nevertheless, through these heartaches, He is there longing for us to seek relationship with Him. Relationship with God makes everything in life bearable and He promises to supply all our needs, be it health, provision, strength, comfort, light, love, etc. Please, call unto the Lord in your time of affliction and He will hear you. He will come to you and will give you peace and healing of heart, soul, mind, and body. That’s His promise and it’s true. Seek relationship with God. He’s waiting and He is only a prayer away.

Read More

Uma mensagem de esperança

Esta é uma mensagem de esperança para você que sofre, uma mensagem de que melhores dias virão. Não se desespere. Não desista. Esforce-se por ser amável e positivo apesar das circunstâncias. Se aceitar o amor dAquele que morreu para lhe proporcionar uma vida melhor, um dia você será recompensado e estará junto com Ele por toda a eternidade no Seu lindo lar. Será um membro da Sua família, e todo o sofrimento desaparecerá — para sempre.

A vida certamente é difícil. Mas existe um conselheiro que pode ajudá-lo diante de decisões que lhe parecem muito difíceis. Existe alguém a quem pode recorrer quando seu coração machuca e precisa de um amigo para segurar a sua mão. Existe alguém que estará ao seu lado nos bons e nos maus momentos. E não só isso, existe alguém que prometeu cuidar de tudo de ruim que lhe acontece e, no final, fazer tudo contribuir para o bem.

Esse é Aquele que a Bíblia descreve como “um homem de dores que sabe o que é padecer” (Isaías 53:3) — alguém que passou pelo maior sofrimento de todos e entende suas piores dores emocionais e físicas. Ele é tudo que você poderia desejar: amigo, conselheiro, guia, professor e pai. Ele é Jesus, o Filho de Deus.

O amor de Deus é ilimitado e infinito. É mais alto do que o maior pico, e mais profundo do que o mar. Está presente em todo lugar, é constante e incomparável! É total, fabuloso e magnificente, grandioso demais para podermos entender completamente.

Deus, nosso maravilhoso Criador, queria que vivenciássemos esse amor monumental, e tinha um plano para isso! Ele resumiu todo esse amor, compaixão e empatia no Seu Filho Jesus, e então O enviou à terra para viver como nós. Ele veio na forme de um bebê e, como nós, passou por toda a experiência humana. No entanto, ao contrário de nós, Jesus era Deus e homem.

A sua missão na terra foi concluída com o sofrimento de uma crucificação angustiante, quando então retornou para Seu lar celestial junto do Pai. Ele fez o sacrifício supremo para nos redimir, levando sobre Si os nossos pecados. Assim Ele morreu para que sejamos perdoados e possamos conhecer o Seu grande amor por cada um de nós.

“Porque Deus amou o mundo de tal maneira que deu o seu filho unigênito, para que todo aquele que nele crê não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna” (João 3:16).

Esse amor se manifesta não apenas por meio do lar celestial que Ele preparou para nós, mas também por Ele nos acompanhar em todas as dificuldades, desafios, problemas, perdas e tragédias.

Uma coisa impressionante é que Jesus conhece você pessoalmente. Ele sabe o seu nome; sabe tudo que lhe acontece; sabe dos seus problemas e sofrimentos, e quer ajudá-lo em cada situação.

Ele está com você todo o tempo, e se abrir seu coração, conseguirá ouvi-lO. Ele deseja ser o seu melhor amigo e manter um diálogo com você. Ele é tudo que existe de lindo e bom, e pode ajudá-lo a encontrar essa bondade e beleza.

É possível vivenciar o contentamento que Ele nos dá, mesmo vivendo em uma tenda, ou em um barraco ou casa de pau-a-pique com goteiras. Ele pode ajudar você mesmo que o seu trabalho seja limpar esgotos ou caçambas de lixo, ou ainda pior, mesmo que você esteja desempregado. Não importam as circunstâncias, você pode ter alegria e esperança.

Ele prometeu que, se você pedir com fé, Ele responderá. Por mais fraco e pequeno que se sinta, pode contar com Jesus. Além disso, também tem pessoas que o amam e que já foram para junto de Jesus, com os santos, e intercedem por você. Deus promete que tudo é possível ao que crê.

Se abrir o coração para Ele e O tiver como parte integral da sua vida, Ele o atenderá, falará com você e o orientará. Encontrará a paz, fé e força resultantes da confiança em Jesus que é o seu melhor amigo.

Não importam as dificuldades, você saberá que Ele está ao seu lado e o ajudará a suportar. Deus nem sempre retira as coisas desagradáveis, mas pode torná-las mais fáceis para você e o ajudar a enfrentar cada dificuldade.

Depois de conviver com Ele nesta vida, continuará caminhando com Ele na próxima vida no Céu! Entrará no lugar mais lindo que existe, onde viverá eternamente com alegria e paz. O amor e a justiça reinarão, e você nunca mais sofrerá nem será prejudicado, lesado ou oprimido. Dor e penúria serão coisas do passado.

Quando chegar a hora dos anjos o acompanharem ao Céu, você ouvirá Jesus lhe dizendo: “Meu querido, você se saiu muito bem! Entre! Vamos comemorar! — Por toda a eternidade!”

Que você conheça o amor total de Jesus e entenda como você é importante para Ele. Que você tenha fé de que Ele está sempre ao seu lado, e conheça a alegria sobrenatural que Ele lhe oferece em toda e qualquer situação.

Se quiser receber Jesus, basta fazer uma simples oração como esta:

Querido Jesus, preciso de Você. Você sabe tudo pelo que estou passando e entende as minhas lutas. Mesmo quando não vejo o caminho, Você está comigo. Preciso da Sua presença na minha vida. Por favor, entre no meu coração, perdoe os meus erros e preencha-me com o Seu Espírito Santo. Amém.

Jesus lhe diz: “Eu tenho permanecido à porta e estou batendo constantemente. Se alguém me ouvir chamá-lo e abrir a porta, eu entrarei e farei companhia a ele, e ele a mim.” (Veja Apocalipse 3:20.) Ele prometeu entrar na sua vida e lhe dar plena alegria, paz, consolo e a salvação eterna.

"Porque a Escritura diz: Todo aquele que Nele crer não será confundido. Porque todo aquele que invocar o nome do Senhor Jesus Cristo será salvo." (Romanos 10: 11&13)
"Pois se vós, sendo maus, sabeis dar boas dádivas aos vossos filhos, quanto mais dará o Pai celestial o Espírito Santo aqueles que lho pedirem?" (S.Lucas 11:13)

https://directors.tfionline.com/pt/post/esperanca-na-escuridao/

Read More

A Message of Hope

This is a message of hope for you if you are suffering, a message that a better time is coming. So don’t despair, don’t give up. Try to be kind and loving and positive in spite of your circumstances. Someday you will be rewarded if you accept the love of the One who died for you to bring you a better life where you can live with Him in His beautiful home forever, as one of the members of His family, not having to suffer anymore—ever.

Life is hard; there’s no question about it. But there is someone you can counsel with when decisions seem too hard to make. There is someone you can run to when your heart is breaking and you need a friend to just sit beside you and hold your hand. There is someone who will be there for you in the good times as well as the bad. Not only that, there is someone who has promised to take all the bad things that happen to you and eventually bring good from them.

This is the One who the Bible describes as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3)—someone who suffered the greatest of all suffering and who understands your worst emotional and physical pain. He is everything that you could ever want in a friend, a counselor, a guide, a teacher, and a father. He is Jesus, the Son of God.

God’s love is unending, it’s without limits. It’s higher than the highest mountain, deeper than the deepest sea. It’s everywhere, and it’s always, and there’s nothing like it anywhere! It’s all-encompassing, awesome, and magnificent! It’s far too big for us to fully comprehend.

Yet God wanted us to experience this monumental love. So our amazing Creator had a plan! He packed all that love and all that compassion and all that understanding into His Son, Jesus. Then He sent Him to earth to live like us. He came as a baby to live on earth and experience the things we go through. However, unlike us, Jesus was both God and man.

His mission on earth was finished when He died an excruciating death on the cross, rose from the dead, and went back to His Father and His heavenly home. He was willing to make that supreme sacrifice for us in order to take our sins upon Himself and redeem us. He did this so that we could be forgiven and know how great a love He has for us.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

This love is manifested not only in the heavenly home that He has prepared for you, but also in His walking with you through all the difficulties, challenges, problems, losses, and tragedies of this life.

An amazing thing is that Jesus knows you personally. He knows your name. He knows all the things you go through. He knows all your problems and heartaches, and He wants to help you through each one.

He’s with you all the time, and when you open your heart to Him, you can hear Him speak to you. He wants to be your best friend and to carry on a conversation with you. He is everything good and beautiful, and He can help you to find that goodness and beauty.

It’s possible for you to experience the contentment He gives even if you live in a tent, a broken-down shed, or a mud hut where water pours in when it rains. He can help you even if you work in a sewer or in a garbage dump, or even worse, if you don’t have any job. No matter what your circumstances, you can experience joy and you can hold on to hope.

He’s promised that if you ask Him, and you have faith, He will answer you. As small and weak as you may feel, you can count on Him. You also have loved ones praying for you who are now in heaven with Jesus, along with the saints. God promises that all things are possible to those who believe.

If you open your heart to Him and make Him an important part of your life, He will answer you, He will speak to you, He will help you navigate this life. You can find the peace and faith and strength that comes as you trust in Jesus as your best friend.

No matter how difficult things are, you can know that He is right there to help you cope. God doesn’t always take the bad things away, but He can make it easier for you and help you through each difficulty you face.

After you’ve walked with Him through this life, you will be able to keep walking with Him right into the next life in heaven! You will enter the most beautiful place where you will live forever in joy and peace. Love and justice will reign, and you will never be hurt or cheated or oppressed or taken advantage of again. You will never know pain or poverty again.

When it’s time for the angels to accompany you to heaven, you will hear Jesus say, “You did well, My dear one! My home is your home! Come right in! We’ll celebrate together!—Forever!”

May you know His all-encompassing love. May you understand how important you are to Him. May you have faith that He is always beside you, and may you have His supernatural joy, no matter what your circumstances.

If you would like to ask Jesus into your heart, you can do so by praying a simple prayer, such as:

Dear Jesus, I need You. You know all that I’m going through, and You understand my struggles. Even when I can’t see the way to go, You are there with me. I need Your presence in my life. Please come into my heart, forgive me my wrongdoings, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus says to you, “I’m standing at the door of your heart and knocking. If you hear my voice and open your door, I’ll come in and we’ll have a wonderful meal together.” (See Revelation 3:20.) He has promised to come into your life and to fill it with His joy, peace, comfort, and eternal salvation.

https://directors.tfionline.com/post/hope-darkness/

Read More

Do All Paths Lead to God?

A compilation

There is a common belief today that “all roads lead to God.” While it is noble to respect each other’s religious faith, the Bible teaches that the only way a person can be reconciled to God is on God’s terms...

Jesus Christ claims to be the only way to eternal salvation. In his own words Jesus declared: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”1

Logically, if there really is a God, then we must come to him by his own prescribed way! That prescribed road, according to the God of the Bible, is by faith in Jesus Christ. Religions are based on various systems of works, whereas Christianity is based on Jesus and what he has already done for us.

Therefore ... [i]t cannot be true that “all roads lead to God.” The various teachings about God from different religions contradict each other in critical ways. God cannot at the same time be both impersonal and personal, both singular and triune, both finite and infinite, both knowable and unknowable.

There is no way to reconcile the various worldviews, such as pantheism, monotheism, and polytheism. Therefore, logically, either none of them—or only one—is true! The real issue is Truth, an issue of infinite importance.—From crossway.org2

Religious pluralismo

The religious pluralism that gives me pause is not merely the reality of diversity of religious beliefs in a culture—a pluralism of views—and our obligation to live in peace with those who do not share our own convictions. That strikes me as self-evident.

The pluralism that concerns me [are the following views]: That, generally speaking, all religions are each, on their own terms, legitimate roads to God. God has somehow ordained various paths for various people and diverse cultures. Therefore, no one is within his rights saying that his religion is better than anyone else’s. God is bigger than our limited theological categories, some would say (or, according to bumper-sticker logic, “God is too big to fit into one religion.”). Christ is the path for Christians, but others have legitimate paths of their own…

Christians reject pluralism, in part, because defining elements of different religions contradict each other. Judaism teaches Jesus is not the Messiah. Christianity teaches He is. Jesus either is the Messiah or He is not. Both groups can’t be right.

The notion that Christianity and Judaism are somehow equally true is contradictory, like square circles. Other examples abound. What happens when we die? Some religions promote Heaven and Hell. Others teach reincarnation. Still others say there is no conscious afterlife at all, only the grave.

When we shuffle off this mortal coil, we may go to Heaven or Hell, or we might be reincarnated, or we could disappear altogether. But we can’t do them all at the same time. Someone is mistaken. It’s possible all of these options are false, but they cannot all be true.

No possible future discovery is going to repair the core contradictions between religions. Rather, exploration complicates the issue. The more we discover about basic beliefs of various faiths, the more complex the problem of harmonizing becomes.

Appealing to the ubiquity of something like the “golden rule” is no help. It is a moral action guide that says almost nothing about any religion’s fundamental understanding of the shape of the world. Profound contradictions between foundational beliefs are not removed by pointing out shared moral proverbs. Contradictory claims cannot be simultaneously true. Religious pluralism self-destructs.

I guess someone could respond that from God’s perspective, the details don’t matter. He is satisfied with any sincere religious effort. But how would anyone know this? This claim is an article of faith, a leap of hope that turns out to be contrary to the teachings of many religions, especially Christianity.

Any informed Christian can immediately see the challenge religious pluralism presents for the Great Commission, the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, etc. Clearly, those who follow Jesus and understand the New Testament teaching on the work of the cross—and also for those who take the first of the Ten Commandments in its plain and obvious sense—cannot make peace with pluralism no matter how politically incorrect it is to oppose it.—Greg Koukl3

Why the name of Jesus?

The Bible not only tells us that “God is a spirit” but also that “God is love.”4 God is the Spirit of love, the Great Spirit, the Creator. What is God like? He’s love. And what did God do to prove that He is love, that He loves us? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”5 God gave “His only begotten Son,” Jesus. He was separated from Him and let Him suffer a cruel, horrible death for us, for our sakes. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”6 Jesus is the manifestation of the love of God.

“Why can’t you just leave Jesus out of it?” some people ask. “Why do you have to use that name? Why does He always have to be the symbol? Why can’t you just say God and speak of God only? We could accept it much easier if you wouldn’t insist on using the name of Jesus.”

If He really was God’s Son, and God had chosen Jesus to reveal Himself to the world and to show His love, then God Himself has insisted on it. “Love Me, love My Son.” These are God’s conditions, not ours. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”7 God has insisted that we recognize and love His Son, and Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”8

Jesus made the way. He is the way! “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”9 There is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”10 And, “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”11

No man can approach God directly. We have to go through Jesus, who said, “I and My Father are one.”12 Prior to His incarnation here on earth, He and the Father were together in personal heavenly fellowship, which He had to forsake while He was down here with us. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”13 We’re also told that “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”14

Jesus actually renounced the rights of His citizenship in heaven, and “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”15 He adapted Himself to our bodily form and conformed to our human ways of life, so that He might understand and love us better, and communicate with us on the lowly level of our own human understanding. In a sense He became a citizen of this world, a member of humanity, a man of flesh, in all points like as we are, in order that He might reach us with His love, prove to us His compassion and concern, and help us understand His message in simple terms that we could understand.

“Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”16

Published on Anchor January 2019. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky. https://anchor.tfionline.com/post/do-all-paths-lead-god/

Notes:

1 John 14:6.
2 https://www.crossway.org/tracts/do-all-roads-lead-to-god-ats-4399.
3 Greg Koukl, The Ambassador’s Guide to Pluralism (Stand to Reason, 2010).
4 1 John 4:8.
5 John 3:16.
6 1 John 4:9.
7 1 John 2:23.
8 John 14:6.
9 Acts 4:12.
10 1 Timothy 2:5.
11 John 1:18.
12 John 10:30.
13 John 17:5.
14 John 1:1,14.
15 2 Corinthians 8:9.
16 Philippians 2:5–10.

Read More

Why People Don't Make Disciples?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZzhwbfcjK4

Read More

Four Marks of a True Disciple

By David Platt

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 

(Matthew 4:18-22 ESV) 

A disciple is someone who follows Jesus. 

But what does that word "follow" mean? 

Draw your attention to four implications that spring from this word "follow" for these fishermen, and then by extension for us. So what does it mean to "follow Jesus"? I think this text answers that question in at least four ways. 

1. A true disciple lives with radical abandonment for His glory 

First, to follow Jesus means to live with radical abandonment for his glory. So, you go back to Matthew, chapter 4, verse 17. 

Jesus says, right before this, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That word "repent" literally means to renounce, to acknowledge, to confess your sin, to express sorrow over your sin, to turn from your sin, to renounce your sin and yourself. 

Jesus later says, in Luke chapter 14 verse 33, "Any of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple." This kind of renouncing is all over this passage. If you think about these disciples and what they were renouncing, what they were abandoning, what they were leaving behind as they followed Jesus. Just think about them for a minute. They were leaving behind their comfort, leaving behind everything that was familiar for them, all that was natural for them, leaving comfort for uncertainty. 

Jesus didn't tell them where they were going. He just told them who they'd be with. There's a whole sermon right there. Followers of Jesus don't always know where they're going, but they always know who they're with. We don't have time for that sermon. So, they were leaving behind their comfort. 

Second, they were leaving behind their careers. This was an abandonment of profession for these guys, at least temporarily. We'll come back to how this applies to us. Just think through the lens of their lives. They were leaving behind comfort, careers. They were leaving behind possessions. They dropped their nets. 

Now, these guys were obviously not the most economically elite in their society, but the fact that they had a boat, a successful trade as fisherman, shows that these men had much to lose in following Christ. We find out later that they still had a boat, still had some various other things, but the reality is at this moment they followed Jesus with nothing in their hands. Nothing in their hands. Their possessions, their position... This is huge. It was common in that day for people to attach themselves to teachers in order to promote themselves. That's why you'd follow a rabbi in that day. 

The problem here with these disciples is that this is not a step up the ladder for them, this is a step down the ladder. The rabbi they were following would eventually find himself crucified as a criminal on a cross. They were leaving behind their families. James and John leave their father. 

They're not the only ones to do this. Remember Luke, chapter 9, where Jesus says to a man who just wants to just go back and say goodbye to his family. He says, "Don't look back. Put your hand to the plow. Look forward." Their families, their friends, their safety. This is a rabbi, a teacher, who would soon say to them, "I'm going send you out like sheep among wolves." Not good news. "All men will hate you because of me. They will persecute you." They were abandoning their safety. 

Following Jesus obviously meant leaving behind their sin. That's the core of what it means to repent, to turn from our sin. And all of this pointing ultimately to how they were abandoning themselves. 

This is the message that Jesus would say to them over, and over, and over again. "If you're going to follow after me, you must deny yourself." In a world where everything revolves around protecting yourself, promoting yourself, preserving yourself, entertaining yourself, comforting yourself, taking care of yourself, Jesus says, "Slay yourself." 

So don't buy it. And if you’re a church leader then don't sell it. So many Christians have bought it, and so many church leaders have sold it, this idea that all you need to do is make a decision, pray a prayer, sign a card, become a Christian, and you keep your life as you know it. It's not true. You become a follower of Jesus and you lose your life as you know it. I want to be careful here. 

I'm not saying, nor could I say based on the whole of the New Testament, every follower of Jesus must lose their career, sell, give away all their possessions, leave their family behind, physically die for the gospel. But the New Testament is absolutely clear on these things. For all who follow Jesus, comfort and certainty in this world are no longer our concerns. Our career now revolves around whatever Jesus calls us to do and however he wants to use us in our careers to spread the good news of his kingdom. Our possessions are not our own. 

We no longer live for material pleasure in this world. We forsake material pleasure in this world in order to live for eternal treasure in a world to come. And this could mean any one of us selling everything we have. Position, no longer our priority. When it comes to family, absolutely. 

Based on the whole of the New Testament, we are commanded to honor our parents, to love wife or husband, provide for children. So you can't use passages like this to justify being a lousy son, or daughter, or spouse, or parents, or whatever. Our love for Jesus, according to Matthew, chapter 10, should make love for our closest family members look like hate in comparison. Wherever he says to go, we go, knowing that because self is no longer our god, safety is no longer our priority. 

I think about two families that we just sent out last month. One moving to the heart of the Middle East, the other to the heart of Central Asia, both among extremely difficult, dangerous to reach people groups. One of these husbands tells our church, "Some of you think that we are being reckless." He's sitting there with his wife and his two young kids, going into the heart of Muslim Middle East. He says, "Some of you think we are being reckless." And he looked at our church and he said, "I think we're in far greater danger of being safe then we are reckless in contemporary Christianity." 

And I agree wholeheartedly. Followers of Christ, we do not bow at the altar of safety in this world. We die to self. We die to sin. We risk our lives in obedience to Him. This is what it means to follow Him. To follow Jesus is to hold loosely to the things of this world, comfort, careers, possessions, position, family, friends, safety, ourselves, to cling tightly to the person of Christ and the mission of His kingdom. 

Now that's... It may sound extreme to some, but don't forget who the "me" is here. To leave behind, lay down and abandon everything in your life doesn't make sense until you realize who Jesus is. When you realize who He is, when you realize who Christ the King is, leaving behind, laying down, abandoning everything in our lives is the only thing that makes sense. 

Look at Matthew 13:44. Jesus tells a story of a man walking in a field who stumbles upon a treasure. Nobody else knows it's there. This guy knows that, "This treasure hidden in a field is worth more that everything I've got put together." So what does he do? He goes, covers it back up, goes, he sells everything he has. The text says with gladness he sells everything he has. People come up to him and say, "You're crazy. What are you doing? Sell everything you have?" 

He says, "I'm going to buy that field over there." They say, "You're going to buy that field? You're nuts." He smiles and says, "I've got a hunch." He smiles. He's doing this with gladness. He's abandoning everything with gladness. Why? Why is he smiling? Because he knows he's found something that's worth losing everything for. Brothers and sisters, we have found in this King someone who is worth losing everything for. 

To follow Christ, to live with abandonment for His glory. Now, some might say to that, "Are you saying that Christianity then is based on what we must do, what we must let go of, extreme things we need to do in order to become a follower of Jesus?" No. So follow with me. 

2. A true disciple lives with joyful dependence on His grace 

Here’s the second reality. In Matthew 4, to follow Jesus, yes, is to live with abandonment for His Glory. But right along side that, to follow Jesus is to live with joyful dependence on His grace, to live with joyful dependence on His grace. So, behold the beauty of God's grace. And these words follow me. Feel this, the wonder of this. 

Jesus taking the initiative to choose his disciples. This is huge. I mentioned it was common in first century Judaism for disciples to attach themselves to a rabbi to study under. But the beauty of what we're seeing here is that these men don't come to Jesus. Jesus comes to them. Jesus initiates the relationship. 

He does here, at the beginning of the New Testament, what God the Father has done all throughout the Old Testament. God choosing Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, choosing the prophets, choosing Israel to be His people. And just as the Father chose in the Old Testament, we've got Jesus saying to His disciples in John 15, "You did not choose me. I chose you." And he didn't choose these guys because of any merit in them. He chose these guys solely because of mercy in Him. 

So, it's this point in commentaries or sermons on Matthew 4 that I sometimes hear people start to describe all the reasons why Jesus would choose fisherman to be his disciples. Because they have this or that skill. They have this perspective or that perspective. If that's the direction we go, we'll miss the point from the start. Jesus did not call these guys because of what they brought to the table. These four guys and the other guys that followed after them, did not have many things at all in their favor. 

Lower class, rural, uneducated Galileans, commoners, nobodies, not well-respected, hardly the cultural elite, not the most spiritually qualified for the task, exceedingly narrow-minded, ignorant, superstitious, full of Jewish prejudices, misconceptions, animosities. This is who Jesus chose. You say, "Well, you're being kind of hard on them." The reality is it's not just them, it's us. It's you and I, in this room, that have nothing to draw Him to us. Sinners, rebels to the core, running from God and the stunning reality of the gospel is that Jesus comes running after us. Jesus, this Jesus, takes the initiative to call us to Himself. 

My wife and I struggled for years to have children. The Lord led us on a journey of adoption. We put a map on the table and said, "Lord, where are you leading us to adopt." And he led us, internationally, to the country of Kazakhstan. I don't think I knew Kazakhstan existed before that process. But after months of praying, we put in an application to adopt a Kazakh child. I remember somebody we ran across, when we told them we were adopting a child, their first response was, "A real one?" No, a plastic one. We're going to put it on our mantle and look at it. Of course we're adopting a real child. 

So, there's a variety of things you don't say to parents that are adopting. That would be, I think, at the top of the list. So, we're walking through this adoption process, which is long and grueling in so many ways. Some of you have been there. Forms, fingerprints, home studies, background checks, physicals. We were trying to meet a particular deadline and had a physical, at one point, that we had to get checked off on. 

So we went to the doctor together and everything was going smooth, my wife and I were there, until we got to the eye chart deal. And I still maintain that the light in this hallway was dim. I went up first. She said, "Cover one eye and start reading." I got, maybe, two rows down and I start struggling and I start thinking, "I can't do this. I can't miss this. We're going to miss our deadline. It will set us back." And so I'm stressed out, and she can tell that I'm getting stressed out, a little flustered. So she says, "Why don't you try the other eye." I said, "Okay, I'll do that." 

But, in my nervousness, I've been pressing down so much on this eye, that when I took it off everything was blurry. I couldn't see the top letter. I went, "Oh, no." And she said, "Sir, why don't you step aside and let your wife come up and do it, and then you can try again." So, all right, I'll do that. So, I'm over here trying to get my eyes right and then finally I get my eyes right. My wife is still going, so I look down and I memorize the letters. 

So, I step back up and just start acing the thing. I'm like, "Ma'am, I can do this with two eyes closed if you want." So, checked that off. We went through this whole process over a year. And then one day, sitting at a computer, I receive this email with a picture of a 10-month old little boy. 

And six years ago this last month, the day after Valentine's day, we walked into an orphanage in this small, obscure city in Kazakhstan and we held this baby boy in our arms. Not long thereafter, he became our son, Caleb. I share that with you. So, picture here, see a parallel with adoption here. Adoption begins with the parents initiative, not with a child's invitation. 

Before Caleb was even born, before he was ever abandoned in that children's hospital in Kazakhstan, he had a mom and dad who were planning to adopt him. And while he was lying alone at night in an orphanage in Kazakhstan, he had a mom and dad who were working to adopt him. One day, when Caleb was placed in the arms of mom and dad, he had no idea of all that had been done completely apart from him to bring him to that point. This orphan boy became our cherished son, not because he pursued us, but because we pursued him before he was ever born. 

So, in light of that picture, I remind you of Ephesians, chapter 1. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace.” Oh, Christian, just feel this. Right there. Some people are saying, "I don't know about this predestination stuff." I'm not saying I can explain this, but I am saying that I don't want to take Ephesians 1 out of the Bible. Just feel this, feel this right where you're sitting. 

Before the sun was ever formed, before a star was ever put in the sky, before mountains were put on the land and oceans poured out between them. Before any of that, God Almighty on high set his sights on your soul. And he purposed to save you from your sin. Gracious initiative. So nothing in the Christian life is born out of our merit, everything is born out of His mercy. He takes initiative to choose us. 

Then he provides us with the power to use us. "Follow me," he says, "And I will make you fishers of men." Not, go make fishers of men. "I'm going to do this in you. My grace in you is going to transform you." There's no way these disciples could carry out the commands that Jesus would give them. 

He would have to do this in them. Why does He design it that way? So that He gets the glory through them, through us. You think about these guys. You've got Peter, the disciple with the foot-shaped mouth, who would one day preach the first Christian sermon. And just like that 3,000 plus people are saved. 

All throughout, you can go and all these other guys, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, all these guys... In our lives, God do a work in our lives and the churches we lead for which You alone can get the glory, for which You alone can get the glory. I told the story recently... Just been deeply impacted by some time in India a few months ago. Two guys, Oneal and Hari, chicken farmer and a school superintendent, who three years ago on one of the most unreached, darkest places on the planet, began to share the gospel in one village. Three years later, there are 350 different churches in 350 different villages that have come about from a school superintendent and a chicken farmer. I asked them, "What'd you do?" They said, "Only the hand of God could have done this." 

And my heart leapt inside, and thought, "I want to be a part of something in my life, in this country, for which only God can get the glory for." Disciples being made, churches being multiplied. 

3. A true disciple lives with faithful adherence to Jesus Third thing to follow Jesus is to live with faithful adherence to His person. Jesus is not saying, "Follow this path, follow these rules." He's saying, "I'm the path. I'm the life. I'm the way. Follow Me." He's inviting us into a relationship with him where He is our life. For followers of Christ, Jesus is not part of our life. He is our life. Period. Which then leads into the last truth. 

4. A true disciple lives with urgent obedience to His mission 

Fourth, to follow Jesus is to live with urgent obedience to His mission. "Follow me," Jesus says, "and I will make you fishers of men." So, see it, see it, see it. A proper understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus inevitably leads to making disciples of Jesus. I wrote a book that came out a couple of weeks ago called "Follow Me", and I don't mention that because I'm trying to sell books. I don't make any money off those books. 

The reason I want to even mention that is because I set out to write on disciple-making. I was writing chapters about, “Here is what we need to make disciples. Let's go and make disciples." But as I was writing it, I felt like I was trying to cajole people to go out and make disciples, which seems foreign to the New Testament. 

When Jesus stood with these disciples on the mountain in Matthew 28, at the end of this book, he didn't have to cajole these guys to go and make disciples. He had to tell them to stop and wait, that they'd blow if they didn't have the Holy Spirit. So, what had happened in their understanding of what it means to be a disciple? They'd seen Jesus. They'd lived with Him. They'd seen Him die on a cross, rise from the grave. 

They were ready to go. Their understanding of what it meant to be a disciple was leading them to go and make disciples. So, then I began to think, "What if, what if one of the primary reasons, if not the primary reason, why we have this spectator mentality in the church, and why so many people are sitting passively by when people are on their way to hell around us, and we're just soaking it in the church as spectators on the sidelines, why is this? Could it be because we've misunderstood what it means to be a disciple in the first place? Could it be that we, even as church leaders, have so minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow Him? 

And as a result, we try to cajole people into going and making disciples. When if they understood what it means to be a disciple, we wouldn't have to do any kind of superficial cajoling. They'd be supernaturally compelled to give their lives to this. It's impossible to believe this gospel and to know this Christ and be silent. A privatized faith and a resurrected Christ is practically impossible. So, yes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has taught us well, that the cost of discipleship is great. 

To live with radical abandonment for His glory, faithful adherence to His person, urgent obedience. This is costly. This could cost us and the people we lead our lives. But I submit to you this morning that the cost of nondiscipleship is far, far, far greater. The cost of nondiscipleship is great for scores of people in the church who are sitting comfortably right now under the banner of Christianity, but have never counted the cost of following Christ. Many eternally deceived. 

There is great cost for all who settle for casual association with Jesus and miss out on the abundance, and satisfaction, and joy that He's designed for us. There's a cost that comes to monotonous routine religious Christianity. So, don't do it and don't lead churches like that. We'll waste our lives away like that, and the cost will be great for us in the church, in our lives. The cost of nominal Christianity will be great for those who are lost in this world, for people in our communities, in our cities, for people groups around the world who will go on without the gospel, because we are content with not making disciples of all the nations. 

Because in our casual approach to Christianity, we are leaving them on a road that leads to an eternal hell. The consequences of casual, cultural Christianity in the world are tragic, eternally tragic. So I urge us, from the beginning of this conference, in view of the majesty of the King who's called us, let's follow Him with abandonment for His glory, with dependence on His grace, with adherence to His person, and with urgent obedience to His mission.

Please join Verge Network. http://my.vergenetwork.org/the-4-marks-of-a-true-disciple-david-platt/

Read More