Back From Despair

A piece of a poem that I've been working on:


Step back from the edge of cavernous despair?
Look away from the depths of ruin? 

Find a path from the forlorn
To walk along the spires of the day's new light.

Be swept up into the bosom of Love
And forget the weight of the darkened day's past.

Follower or Disciple?

Sadly, the word disciple has become a cultural buzzword. As the Christian denomination "Disciples of Christ" moves further and further left in their ideology and more and more people want to be seen as "spiritual" rather than "religious," it has become far more acceptable to be a follower of Jesus rather than a disciple of Jesus. 

Here are my thoughts on this: 

1) Jesus had both followers and disciples. 
 -Some of Jesus' followers were likely just following along for the miracles and to see the cool stuff that Jesus would do. These followers fell away when Jesus' teaching got tough (John 6:60 - not all the translations make the distinction here between follower and disciple, but some of them do).
-Some of His followers became disciples: the 3,000 that listened to Peter at Pentecost who became the first Christians. 
-Some "followers" followed Jesus for nefarious purposes, i.e: the Pharisees who followed Jesus just to see if they could trip Him up, whom we're told Jesus could see their evil hearts. 

-The disciples were not perfect. How often did Jesus get upset with them for being knuckleheads? But they believed Jesus was who He said He was and they confessed it with their mouths. Even then, they are still not perfect; Peter still denies Jesus, Judas betrays Jesus, and they all are "sifted like wheat" by the enemy. But they stick with it; they surrender their lives to God's plans for their lives, even when it results in persecution and death for many of them. 

2) Jesus does not call us to make followers. He calls us to go and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Are you a follower of Jesus? Or are you a disciple of Jesus? 

Disciples do more than just pray a prayer of salvation and come to church once in a while to check out what Jesus is doing. 

Disciples live a life of intense intimacy with Jesus, living each moment and each encounter in the same way Jesus would, the way Jesus taught us how to. 

Disciples surrender to God's plan and purpose for their lives. They strive to accomplish the things God wants to do through them and to be prepared to move in the directions that God wants to move them. 

Disciple is not a bad thing. We are called to be disciples and make disciples. 

More than anything, I want to be faithful to that call. And I want people to know that I am more than just a follower. 

I am intimately engaged in God's work within my surrendered life and I am striving each day to be a disciple of Jesus: to absolutely be a reflection of who Jesus is. And I want to actively make others into the same.

Simple Instructions For These Trying Times

"Jesus declared, 'Love the Lord your God with all your hear, with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40)

Simple instructions for these trying times:

1. Love God with everything that you are.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.


     The amazing things about these instructions: they transcend all ethnic, political and socioeconomic boundaries. They are clear boundaries for our behaviors and attitudes.

     Followers of Jesus, if you're really taking these instructions to heart, you'll treat others in the same way that Jesus did; you'll value them the same way that God values them. 

     Here's what the world could look like if we all lived these instructions out well: 

-No racial injustice or ethnic inequality because we would all treat each other with the same value based on God's sense of worth, rather than our own prejudices. When you love God with everything you are, you treat the things that He loves with a value higher than your own self-worth.

-No looting or destruction of others' property. If you love your neighbor the same way that you love yourself, how can you treat their lives and livelihood with such disdain? 

-No excusing bad/ sinful/ destructive behavior because they "deserve it" or because you don't want to be the one to tell them no. Part of love is saying "That behavior is sinful and it needs to stop." Just like Jesus told those He healed to "go and sin no more."

     It's pretty simple. If we all really loved Jesus and followed these instructions, we wouldn't have any of this mess. Nobody throwing their lives away because of drug use. No cops treating others in a prejudiced way. No looting and destruction of property. No cops being killed by domestic terrorists; no domestic terrorists at all. 

    Love God. Love others. I am third in the grand scheme of things.