The Hardest Lesson of All – Giving Up Control

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Discipletips, Luke

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being in control, christianity, disciple, do His work through me, doorpost, doorpost of heaven, Exodus 21:5-7, God's slaves, Hudson Taylor Quote, humility, Luke 14:31-33, no longer in control, outmatched, outnumbered, outsourced, pierce my ear, slave set free, weaker king surrenders, who is in control

I don’t know many people who don’t like being in control of their life. Lets face it… even when circumstances are bad, we like to think we are still in control of everything. It offers a certain veil of comfort, even if it is not entirely true.

Jesus reminds us that real disciples are no longer in control of their lives. This is what this three verse parable reveals. The weaker king surrenders to the stronger king. Listen to Jesus’ words.

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Luke 14:31-33

In order to understand this parable you and I must realize we are the weaker king. The Lord is the stronger King. We are outsourced, outmatched, and outnumbered. The best course of action is to make terms of peace and surrender.

Like all of Jesus’ demands of discipleship, I have struggled with this issue. I have totally submitted all of my life to the Lord, only to pick certain issues back up again. The cycle is difficult to break until we come to the end of ourselves.

Surrender requires humility on our part. It requires we come under the reign of a new king and kingdom. We are in essence… God’s slaves. The point is none of us can really be a disciple of Christ unless we are willing to give total control over to the Lord. It is easy to determine if Jesus is Lord of all by asking ourselves… “Who is in control?”

In the Old Testament, when a slave was set free after his service was completed, he was free to go and live as he pleased. Sometimes a slave didn’t want to leave his master. If this was the case, his master was to bring the slave before God, take an awl and pierce the slave’s ear on the doorpost of his home. In this way everyone, including the slave, knew he was a slave for life…permanently. (see Exodus 21:5-7)

Sometimes we need to ask the Lord to pierce our ear on the doorpost of heaven. Somewhere in the process of real discipleship we come to the end of ourselves. This must happen. It may get ugly before we get to this point… but is must happen.

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

From a Fan, to Follower, to Believer, to Disciple

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Discipletips, Luke

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Christian, disciple, discipleship, discipleship is hard, doing Christian things, genuine believers, Korean house church, Oswald Chambers quote, Paul Estabrooks, suffering, suffering through obedience, the cost of discipleship, western church temptations

All genuine believers of Christ are on a journey… a journey to be closer to the Lord. None of us started out having already arrived. Hopefully by now you have grown closer to the Lord by some degree.

Have you learned discipleship is hard?
Have you learned there are no shortcuts?
Have you learned suffering through obedience?

A western Christian co-worker was visiting the Chinese city of Dandong which borders North Korea. He shares his challenging experience at a local house church meeting:

“It was the first time I had ever been called ‘Satan!’ But no one could fault the careful exegesis as this fiery Korean preacher bellowed to the 200-member house church.

‘The third temptation of Jesus,’ he declared, ‘was when the devil offered him the kingdom without the cross. The devil was basically saying, Don’t go off and make all those sacrifices, touch all those lepers, spend nights in agony praying, and end up being tortured by soldiers and dying a horrible death. Just take it all now…from my hand!’ He went on, ‘The church often has the same temptation. The devil offers us power without suffering. And… I’ve got to say this even though our western friend is here…this is a temptation one part of the church tempts another part of the church with. We have to call that part of the church ‘Satan,’ just as Jesus had to call Peter ‘Satan’ when he made the same suggestion later in his ministry.’

Good rip-roaring stuff, and thoroughly biblical. But I was intrigued as to why this pastor had singled out the western church as the tempter. He was happy to explain over a meal.

‘I hosted five pastors from North America last year. All Koreans. They came with reading material. Good stuff as far as it went, and they were supplying a sort of formula for church growth. But could one of them even bring himself to mention suffering? No! And when I heard those Korean pastors preach, it was also absent.’

He leaned forward and whispered, ‘When these pastors preach to the persecuted church, and mention everything but suffering, they are taking away the cross from the Christian life. That’s why I have to say that they are bringing a satanic suggestion. Anyone who says you can follow Christ but not carry your cross is no better than the old deceiver himself. Jesus said so. He said it to Satan, and he said it to Peter. And I’m going to say it to anyone else who dares to think they can be a witness for Christ from anywhere else but on a cross.'”

(Standing Strong Through The Storm – by author Paul Estabrooks)

This Korean pastor understood what Jesus understood about the process of discipleship. It is extremely difficult and the devil tempts us everyday to take the easy road. Jesus always referred to His followers as disciples. In fact, the term “disciples” occurs 269 times in the New Testament, while the term “Christian” only occurs three times. We are who Jesus says we are.

This is why Jesus turned around to speak to the large masses of people following Him. They were following for many reasons but He knew the reality of the situation. Some were only wanting to see more miracles. Others wanted to gain another free meal. Still others were tantalized by Jesus’ radical ways.

So Jesus began to cull this crowd by laying out five marks or descriptions of what it meant to be a real disciple. From all outward appearances these crowds were willing and even anxious to follow Jesus, providing the cost was not too high or the demands too great.

They were not unlike many people today who do “Christian things” like go to church, pray, sing Christian songs, etc., but are not really committed to real growth in Jesus. In a sense, they were “along for the ride” but were unwilling to give up everything in their lives which conflicted with following the Lord in a committed way.

They also are not unlike many today who look to Jesus to solve their money problems, relational problems, health problems, etc., but quickly grow disillusioned and unwilling to obey. When following Jesus doesn’t readily solve these issues or when following Jesus requires real sacrifice… they fall away until they need something from Jesus again.

As Jesus’ time on earth drew to an end and His own personal cross loomed on the horizon… the process of discipleship was on His mind. In the next few blogs I will examine Jesus’ five demands of a real disciple.

Blessings,

Pastor

The Process of Spiritual Growth

08 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by eisakouo in Our Spiritual Process

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disciple, feeding, John 6:1-14, life is a process, mature, Spiritual Process, stage, strengthing, superficial follower, tested, testing

Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. John 6:5-6

On many occasions Jesus sat down in front of His followers and taught them like many of the other rabbi’s who preceeded Him. But for those who were called His disciples, Jesus did far more than teach. They willingly entered into a process which Jesus used to grow believers. There is a difference between a superficial follower of Christ and a disciple. Which camp do you consider yourself to be in today? Notice that only those closest to Jesus were tested!

All of life is a process. A plant cannot grow unless it is first placed in good soil, watered, and given ample sunlight. A child will not mature correctly unless he/she is nurtured, fed, and loved. Are Christians any different?

Why do Christian’s believe that being a follower of Christ is different? Most do not really believe God has them in a process. If they do believe in a process, they cannot describe the steps and stages of growth. Unfortunately, most simply believe spiritual growth happens automatically through osmosis. This is precisely the reason they do not grow and mature.

The truth is the Lord uses a process to grow us into the image of Jesus Christ. When we understand His process, we can cooperate with Him. In John 6:1-14, we can see the three-fold process the Lord uses over and over again to create growth in our lives. The Lord is always testing us, strengthening us, and feeding us. This cycle is endless as we (disciples) constantly move from one stage to the next and eventually back to start over again in the next process. The question is whether we are cooperating or resisting His efforts. Join me in the next few days as we examine this process.