Blog.

Well, I think it’s about time I restart this feeble attempt at blogging. 

Many of you are aware that I have been the recording/mixing engineer for our church worship band’s debut album, “Give Me A New Song”, which is finally done and somewhere in the process of being sent to the publishers.  This project officially started early last December, with Paul and I laying down some scratch tracks for each of the songs so we would have some reference to record to.  We originally thought we could get all the tracks recorded in 2-3 months, but with the difficulty of aligning volunteer schedules and summer vacations, working around special events, and sometimes just life in general getting in the way, it drastically elongated our timeline.  About 3-4 weeks ago, we set a deadline for when we wanted to release the CD, and decided to book a date with the mastering studio, knowing how long it was going to take to get the finished product in hand.  With the pressure on, we made a final push to finish all recording and accomplished that goal about 2.5 weeks ago.  That left a week for mixing, a day or two for critiquing the mix, then off to the mastering studio last Tuesday.  13 songs to mix in a week.  That’s pretty much insane.  Paul and I pretty much abandoned our lives as we knew them that week, and worked 16-18 hour days from Monday through Friday, and an 8hr day on Saturday, which we were thankful for because we actually slept Saturday night and were somewhat refreshed for Sunday morning worship.  We critiqued our mixes, made all tweaks on Monday throughout the day and were on the last song when my computer crashed (about 11:45pm).  Long story short, I lost an entire mix for the song that originally took the longest to mix the first time around.  My backup file was corrupted as well, but I happened to have an earlier file that I could work from, but had to redo the whole mix.  We remixed the song that night (or morning, as it was) in 5 hours, (which was better than the 8 that it took in the first place) got about 2.5-3 hours of sleep, then went to the mastering studio, where we spent almost 11 hours working with Charlie, a Grammy winning engineer, who works here.

Needless to say, I haven’t really felt like coming home to a computer and writing lately!  Yes, the work for this album was exhausting, and at times frustrating, but I feel very strongly that God has anointed and blessed this recording, and we’re already starting to see just a glimpse of what I think God has allowed us to capture on “tape”.  It’s not about the fame or glory of having recorded and produced a quality album, it’s not about the small amount of money the worship department will make (and it will be small, lol), it’s all about giving our members something they can take home with them to help them worship and connect with God on a more regular basis than once a week.  We have prayed that this album would be a tool to reach into the souls of those who hear it and that in some way it would bless their lives and bring them closer into a relationship with their Creator.  We have prayed that CD’s would be given to people who don’t know Jesus, and that the messages of these songs would start the journey that so many of us are already on.  We have prayed that God would inhabit our praise as we recorded it, and that somehow it would be preserved in the recording only to be unleashed time and time again in the cars, homes, workplaces and Ipods of His people.  We have prayed, and although it isn’t the most amazing recording technically or musically, I believe that God is already answering those prayers, even though the album hasn’t “officially” been released. 

I have more to say about all this, including some sound nerd stuff about how we recorded it and what gear we used, which will make a lot of professionals laugh and cringe at the same time, but it also goes to prove that God had a hand in this because we shouldn’t have been able to come anywhere near the quality that I think we reached considering the level of gear we had available, and the fact that Paul nor I had ever done anything like this.  We give all credit and glory to Him.  I’ll see if I can’t get some samples up here soon, provided my boss allows, which I think she will. 

A quote from a friend of mine in a recent email regarding this project: “This is the Divine Gift of music: it goes directly to the soul; it does not wait for permission.”  I believe this with all my heart.  Many times music can allow us to express emotions and feelings that can’t often be captured with words, to engage in a form of worship that not only captivates the mind, but envelopes the soul.  I believe that is what God has intended all along with this project, as well as many of the other worship albums being recorded and released across the world.  Find some of this music, whether it be our CD or someone else’s.  Find it, listen to it, sing with it, worship to it, let it lead you unto the throne of God in such a way to where your soul yearns for Him.  It is in that place where God will heal your brokenness, cure your loneliness, comfort your sadness, and dance with you in your joy.  Just let go and see what God will do in your life.  Prepare to be amazed!

This will probably be a long post, but bear with me, I think these thoughts are extremely important to those with a passion to know God. In light of my previous post, I have tried several times to sit down and start the discussions on my forum about all the things Kenneth and I are learning, but I can’t ever seem to quantify it in a simple post without going into an exhaustive history of the events leading up to whatever Bible passage I want to talk about. It just so happens that Kenneth is teaching his small group tonight and wanted to impress upon them the importance of spending quality time in the Word and studying it in context, which has forced him to summarize a lot of our study down to one lesson. The following is based on his notes for his lesson, with edits, comments, and references inserted by me.

Intro: God’s Consistency

God is consistent and does not change. Malachi 3:6-7 (“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you”, says the Lord Almighty) lets us know that he does not change in respect to his relationship with us in that he wants the same from us at all times. He wants our devotion and he will accept us if we turn to him in repentance and try to follow his ways. He is not out to trick those who earnestly seek him.

The idea behind this line of thinking is to take advantage of God’s consistency by familiarizing ourselves with how he works. Take the time to compare and contrast how God worked in situations in the past to find out what things are wrong and what things are right in the present.

The stories of how God worked before Christ came can reveal much to us about the nature of God and what he wants on a practical level. The main question we want to answer is “What are the keys to having God’s blessing?”

Flesh it out: Building Context

Building context cannot be easily taught (if at all) in a lesson or a series of lessons. It can only be attained by dedication to the semi-exhaustive study of God’s word on a personal level. Anyone truly dedicated to their faith must answer this question: “How much will I give to know God’s word?”

Due to generations of separation from the Jewish respect for the word of God, we (as Gentiles and Westerners) have lost the in-depth study that lends itself to the memorization of the word in a contextual setting. Therefore, it is necessary for those of us that do not have the bible memorized to use the tools we have available, such as an exhaustive concordance to help us tie up loose ends as we study.

3 Keys to Building Context:

1. Comparative stories: (Reference: 1 Samuel 13:8-14, 2 Samuel 6:12 through all Ch 7))

Question: Both David and Saul offered sacrifices before God. Neither of them was authorized to do so by the Levitical covenant. Why did Saul get rebuked and David did not?

The answer to this question takes more time then this entire lesson allows. The point to be made is the answer is found in studying the interaction of the two parties with their God while examining the rules and context of each sacrifice.

2. Locations/Places: (Reference: 2 Kings 8:1-6, Joshua 19:17-23, 1 Kings 12)

Question: What king did the Shunammite woman make her request to? This matters later in study when looking at the influence of Elisha and context surrounding his influence between the kings of 2 Kings.

In looking up the land of Shunem, it is found to be in the allotment for the tribe of Issachar which rebelled against Rehoboam with Israel after Solomon’s death. Therefore, it can be deduced that She is speaking to the king of Israel and not the King of Judah.

3. Names: (Reference: 1 Kings 19:16-18, 2 Kings Ch 9-10, Hosea 1:4-5)

Question: Jehu played a prominent role in fulfilling the word of God. He also was anointed king over Israel by Elisha’s servant. What did he do wrong that caused God to punish him?

Answer: After he was anointed king over Israel, Jehu went through and methodically executed anyone who had to do with either Ahab’s family (deceased at this point) or Ahaziah’s family. The question deepens when we find that both Ahab and Ahaziah had been prophesied to by God that their entire family would be wiped out for their sin. Upon further study of the name Ahaziah, we find that there are two Ahaziahs that are close in proximity to one another. The earlier one was the son of Ahab and the king of Israel, but the one Jehu completely destroyed the seemingly innocent family of was the son of Jehoram, the King of Judah. This leads me to believe that the massacre at Jezreel that is referred to in Hosea was of those who God had not prophesied against. (the prophecy was against Ahab’s family, not Jehoram’s) Seeing this, Jehu was obviously executing for his own political purposes and not necessarily for the purposes of God.

Question: Why does the bible tell us that Ahaziah king of Judah was Omri’s great-grandson?

Answer: Omri “did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” Omri was the king of Israel during a period away from God. Israel is historically known (worse than Judah) to turn their backs on God and not walk in his ways. This announcement of genealogy is to give background on what kind of person Ahaziah is and to let the reader know why he is prone to not follow God.

Summary

I can tell you details and all day long. To that extent, I can teach you these facts, but understanding more about how God works leads to understanding the motives and reasoning behind why God does what He does. Knowing God is not about digesting facts, but about spending enough time watching how God works to understand some of the “Why’s” on what he does. The reason that elders are to be older men is merely because they should have had a relationship with God (theoretically) longer and have witnessed him work enough to be familiar with how he works. This relationship is what enables them to recognize the handiwork of God, and provides the insight to lead the flock that God has placed them over.

In order to be better servants of God, it is imperative that we invest as much time as possible in his word and in prayer. If we are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, we need the insight of how God works in order to lessen the mistakes we make.

The following is the explanation of what I hope will become an excellent discussion board for anyone who is seeking to dig deeper into the Word of God. Ken and I are planning on posting our discussions and fleshing out our questions and what we are learning as we study through the text. These discussions will be posted here. I hope these thoughts will cause you to give some thought to how you approach the Bible and will inspire you to deepen your relationship with God.

In order to understand the questions and discussions contained here, you must know a few things that brought us to this point in our study. Kenneth Starr (longtime friend) and I have recently embarked on a “new” way to study the Word Of God. A couple years ago, I was handed a set of talks given at the Focus On The Family Institute in Colorado by Ray Vander Laan. Ray is a long time pupil of the Word and spent a significant portion of his life in Israel learning everything he could about the Jewish lifestyle, culture, and language (Hebrew, Greek, etc?). When he returned to the United States, he brought back with him a fire and a passion to teach and share his insights and the lessons God taught him while he was over in the Middle East.

In the talks I was given, Ray lays the foundation of how Ken and I approach the Text. First, you must understand the difference in the thought process between “Westerners” (the USA) and “Easterners” (The middle East, much of Asia and Africa). In general, Western thought is very logic based. They want facts, they possess a need to UNDERSTAND the things around them. If a Westerner fails to understand something, there is a good chance they will refuse to believe it, and will question it until it makes sense. Easterners, on the other hand, base their understanding on their experiences. Something doesn’t have to make logical sense for them to believe it, it just has to fit their experience. For example, an Easterner might believe that a car has an engine even though he’s never looked under the hood based on his experience of driving the car, where a Westerner would need to physically see the engine to truly believe it’s there. As silly as that sounds, the implications of this idea are far reaching. A Jew doesn’t have to understand God to believe in Him, where many Westerners today reject God based on the fact that He doesn’t make “sense” to them. Moses encountered God in a burning bush that didn’t burn up (Exodus 3). I don’t think he came down from the mountain trying to figure out how the bush was on fire but not burning up, he came down knowing that he had an encounter with Almighty God and although not everything made logical sense, He trusted God and proceeded to do what was asked of him.

Second, Ray points out that Westerners are very abstract thinkers, while Easterners are very concrete thinkers. For example, ask a Westerner who or what they think God is, and they will likely answer with words like “God is love”, “Joy”, “Almighty”, “Holy”, etc. It will be very hard to see anything if you close your eyes and try to picture those answers, but ask an Easterner the same question, and they will answer with “God is my Rock”, “my shield”, “my fortress”, “my shepherd”, “my living water”, etc. Those things are concrete. You can see them, they’re “pictures”.

Third, Ray points out the absolute necessity of our Jewish roots as Christians. We, as Americans (Gentiles), are essentially adopted Jews and cannot exist without our roots. Without our Jewish heritage we wouldn’t have Jesus, as the Bible says (using the picture of an Olive tree) He was a “shoot” from the “stump” of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), and that we (Gentiles) are branches from wild “fruitless” olive trees that have been grafted in “among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root…” (Romans 11:11-24) Verse 18 of that same chapter says this: “You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Our root that gives us the “nourishing sap” is not Jesus, but the “stump of Jesse”, or our Jewish heritage. Don’t hear me wrong, Jesus is the source of our salvation and our savior from sin, but Jesus was, as we are, a branch from the stump, not the stump itself. Sadly, Westerners and Western translations have done everything they can to strip the text of it’s Jewish “roots” and make it, for lack of a better word, “Western”.

With these three points in mind, Kenneth and I have begun to reexamine the text and experience for ourselves the power of God’s word when it is put in the context of which, and to whom it was written. In addition to just reading the text, we study with an exhaustive concordance, which is nothing more than an alphabetical listing of every word in the bible and where it is used. When we come to a new name, we look it up in the concordance and see if and where else that person is mentioned. We then read that passage and the surrounding context to try to get a picture of who that person was and how they fit in (what tribe were they from, who are they related to, etc). Same procedure for places, strange objects that we might not be familiar with (ex. a Goad), tribes, laws, and anything else that might be mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. Yes, it takes a lot longer to get through a passage of scripture, but as you begin to put the whole picture together and see the Bible as one continuous interwoven message instead of a collection of short stories, God truly begins to open your eyes to things you’ve never before seen.

Finally, but most importantly, I leave you with an exert from an email Ken sent me recently:

“…I think it is imperative that we stress the reading of the text, but more importantly stress that the text itself will not get you there. A person must first be concerned with pleasing God and coming to know Him. No formula, including the text or not will get you to God. Only His grace and following him as you strive to be in his “will” (that continual relationship with Him) can cause you to grow and do the things you should…”

There are few things in life that really get “under my skin”, but one of those things happens to be something that a large majority of people seem to do. I see it everywhere: in politics, in church, in families, at school, in the movies, sports teams, bible studies, etc. Basically any organization or gathering that involves people. Not everyone exhibits this behavior, but the longer I live and the more I look around, the more my eyes are opened to it. I am even guilty of this at times, but I’m trying to change that.

Wondering where I’m going with this? Ok, here it is. I’m tired of people not knowing who they are and what they believe. I’m tired of people “riding the fence” with issues, sliding back and forth between viewpoints depending on who they’re talking to. I’m tired of people who profess to believe one thing then turn around and act as if they believe the opposite. I’m sick of watching people commit to things and not follow through with them. I’m tired of wondering whether I’m being lied to, brown nosed, put off, ignored, or being talked down to as if I don’t know anything. I’m tired of people not willing to admit that they don’t know the answer to a problem or question. I’m sick of people that aren’t willing to admit that they were wrong.

There’s an epidemic in this country and most likely around the world that has infected the human race, and that epidemic is caused by an insecurity in oneself. As people go through life, they form their individual identities that encompasses everything they believe in. That identity is what drives people to behave the way they do. It is central to the way they think and process information, who they trust, who they talk to and spend time with, who they marry, how they do their job, and basically their whole outlook on life.

I could take this and run with it in many directions, but what bothers me most are people that claim to be followers of Christ, but don’t live as if they are followers of Christ. I’m not just talking about the people that wear a cross around their neck, aren’t a part of the body of Christ and only claim their belief in Christ when it’s convenient, I’m talking about a lot of “religious” people that are in church every time the doors are open, who attend bible studies and classes, who “DO” a lot of things, and yet don’t KNOW CHRIST, or the word of God! They talk the big talk, but when it comes down to it, they don’t know anything about what the Bible really says, they just regurgitate what they’ve heard, and believe everything that “sounds good” or “feels right”. These are people that have been “in church” their whole lives and yet still are missing the big picture.

If a person truly wants to be a follower of Jesus and finds his/her identity in Christ, there will be a hunger and thirst for anything that fosters and enriches their relationship with God and His son Jesus. One of the primary ways to develop that relationship involves personal study with the Word, not just hearing a sermon every week, or reading Christian books, or even going to a bible study. There is a general sense that the Bible is hard to read and understand and that it takes a degree in bible to really “get it”. The only ones who believe that are those who haven’t personally invested the time in the word. It’s not nearly as hard as it’s made out to be. I’ve met a lot of people who have been through “seminary” and still missed the point. I’m not saying these things are bad, or not to read other books, partake in bible studies, or pursue a degree in ministry, I’m just trying to make the point that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in the bible and the life Christ lived on this earth was/is the divine plea of a God who wants a relationship with his children. It’s about the relationship, not a bunch of facts, or a history lesson.

Those people who understand the relationship and are actively engaged with God are the ones who truly find their identity. Those people are the ones who strive to be more Christ-like in every aspect of their life. Those people are the ones that change the way they live when God convicts them of something, instead of ignoring the prodding of the Holy Spirit. They are the people who place a high importance on honesty, truth, and trust. The Spirit of God is apparent in their lives through their “fruit”. (See Galatians 5) Their “yes” is their “yes” and their “no” is their “no”. Their love for others radiates in everything they do.

My desire is that if you claim to be a believer in Christ, actively seek out your own personal relationship with God. Get in the word and let what you read and learn change the way you live. Don’t let the Bible just become a collection of stories and facts stuffed away in your brain. Take pride in your relationship, nurture it like a mother nurtures her baby, and solidify your identity as a child of God.  You don’t have to be perfect, but if you’re not willing to let it interfere with the way you live, please, please, please don’t call yourself a Christian.

Don’t ride the fence.

I lost my uncle to a car accident today. As hard as that is, I am rejoicing in the fact that he was a believer. He leaves behind a wife and two kids under the age of 10. There really are no words that can be said, only prayers to be offered. My family covets your prayers…

As I grieve, I find comfort in a song by Brad Reynolds called “There is A Friend”. You can listen to it here. Click on “music” at the top of the page and skip to the 5th song.

There is a hope
There is a promise
There is a peace beyond compare
There is a calm amid confusion
There is a friend who’s always there

Prince of Peace, Lamb of God
Take my heart and Draw me Close to where you are
With your spirit fill the corners of my soul
As I offer up my praise unto your throne

If you need hope
If you need comfort
If you want peace beyond compare
Come to the place you’ll find in Jesus
Receive his Grace, and sing this prayer

Prince of Peace, Lamb of God
Take my heart and Draw me Close to where you are
With your spirit fill the corners of my soul
As I offer up my praise unto your throne

I ran across this post and the follow-up post and was deeply moved by her story. Here is a young woman (mid 20’s, I think, with a young child) that lost her husband in a tragic accident when his boat capsized in frigid waters in Oregon.  Looking back on the day when they were still searching for his body, she wrote these words:

my main prayer was, “Lord, help me to be okay with whatever you are giving me right now. Whether he is alive or with You, You are still good.” People were calling me all day long for updated information, and they would say things like, “Nate’s so strong. Strong men like him don’t just drown. He probably swam to shore and passed out or something…” And they would wait for me to agree with them, like I was going to give them the hope that the worst was not true. But instead, God completely flipped my heart to where I was just telling them, “Whether Nate is alive or dead right now, God is still good. God is still good.”

That, my friends, is what a genuine relationship with Christ looks like.

My previous post seems to be generating traffic, so I thought I would post the outlines of his talks and a few notes that I have taken when listening to his lessons. All of the following comes straight from part 1 from his series at the Focus on The Family Institute. I will list these in bulleted notes form, please do not take what is listed here out of context, listen to the actual talk and study the Word before you start making conclusions for yourself.

-Strong evidence suggests that Jesus’ disciples were all younger than 15, with John possibly being as young as 7-9.

-The olive tree is the picture of God’s people. It “never dies” in that the Farmer cuts it down to a stump approximately every 400 years, and new shoots grow the next year. In this context, Jesus was a shoot from the ’stump’ of Jesse. Israel is God’s olive tree, who is cut down several times due to failures, the last time being the Babylon captivity. The Jews grew from Jesse’s stump, and the Gentiles, shoots from wild olive trees that never produced any fruit, were grafted onto the stump of Jesse. Note: Non-Jews can’t exist without their Jewish roots! The Christian world has forgotten this, and obscured their Jewish roots, and in the process, it’s not that western translations are wrong, they have just lost a significant part of what it “says and demands”.

-There are 2 ways of explaining truth: the Eastern way, and the Western way. Western thought is akin to the Greek philosophy, where the mind and logical thought was elevated to high importance. They were abstract thinkers and they valued definition, proposition, and organization. Eastern thought is very different. Seemingly unorganized (try to outline Jesus’ teachings) and very concrete. If you ask a westerner “who or what is God?”, they will mainly reply with abstract words like “almighty, holy, just, love, truth, honesty, and eternity”. On the contrary, an Easterner (Jew) will answer concretely, with ‘picture words’ such as “my shepherd, my rock, my bread, my living water, my father, my brother…” and it’s always my.  The devil knows and can say God is almighty, holy, just, etc, but he can’t say God is his shepherd, rock, bread, etc.  What difference is there in the devil’s knowledge of God and ours?  It’s true that God is love, truth and holy.  It is good information, but we don’t have to believe anything!  It’s all head knowledge!

-The book of Mark contains many Hebrew expressions, and is written with very poor grammar in Greek.  Evidence suggests it was at least passed down orally in Hebrew and later translated to Greek.

-Mark 4:24 “Consider carefully what you hear”.  The Greek = “look at carefully what you hear”.  How do you look at what you hear?  You can if it’s a picture! (you can see a shepherd)

-The Hebrew word for bread is lahem.  The Hebrew word for a place or a house is beth.  Where was Jesus born? Beth-lahem, or Bethlehem.  What is a house of bread? A bakery!  The Bread of Life (Jesus) was born in a bakery!  It’s very probable that the Light of the world was conceived on the Feast of Lights.  The Living Water was laid in a manger, which traditionally for Jews was carved from stone and was for water, not hay.  It’s all about the picture, you can see this stuff!

-Learn to think Hebrew, or in pictures.  Jesus used pictures and stories to teach… The Bible in Jewish context will grab the heart, not only the head.

more to come…

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about purpose, specifically, my purpose. I have wrestled with it, trying to figure out what really matters in life, what I am living for. I’m 26, have a great job, am married to the most wonderful woman anyone could ever ask for, have an incredible family and an awesome set of in-laws, but I keep asking myself: what is it that drives me to get up in the morning? What are my short term goals? What are my long term goals? Does any of it really matter?

I look around me at the culture that I live in here in Northern Virginia and see a variety of people with varying purposes. Unfortunately, there are an overwhelming number of people that are living for “stuff”. That “stuff” takes many different forms: bigger houses, new cars, bigger TV’s, promotions so they can afford all the aforementioned…

There is a second group that stands out, but only a few people fit in this category comparatively to the “stuff” group. These people are those that live to help other people. This can be manifested in several ways: non-profit organizations, charities, volunteer’s at charity events, etc. The people in this group go out of their way to meet the needs of those around them: to feed the homeless, counsel and befriend the battered and abused, or provide families for orphaned or homeless children, etc. This second group of “givers” tend to find fulfillment in alleviating the pain and suffering of others, instead of attempting to find happiness in material possessions. While this group has a much nobler purpose than the first group, there is still a lack of eternal purpose.

The last group consists of Christ followers. These people are really a subset of group two, as they truly love their fellow man and do everything they can to help others, but the driving force behind their actions has eternal purpose. These “followers of The Way” actively seek to lavish love on the world in an effort to ensure everyone they come in contact with has a relationship with Jesus Christ. This last group understands Christ’s mission, and in striving to be like Christ they share the heart-aching desire for everyone around them to know the all-encompassing, unconditional love of almighty God.

I want to be in the third group. In fact, I believe I am in the third group, although I don’t always act like it. I still exhibit characteristics of the “stuff” group. I am at a point in my life where I know the importance of purpose, and I know that my purpose is to love those around me like Jesus loves me, but how does that affect me on a smaller scale? What needs to change in my life to help me look less and less like the “stuff” group, and more like a true Christ follower?

These questions continually haunt me, and I believe the Holy Spirit is knocking on my heart, attempting to get my attention, though I stubbornly don’t listen. Honestly, I’m scared of what God could do through me. My faith is big enough to know what He’s capable of, but not large enough to want to unleash that kind of power in my life. It is an odd kind of fear, because one would think the idea of wielding the power of the Holy Spirit would be very desirable, but that’s how I feel. I want to take that next step, jump off the cliff and dive deep, to let go and wholly trust in God to allow Him to do whatever it is He wants to do with me.

“The righteous will live by faith…” (Rom 1:17) Lord, increase my faith…

This is another article linked by Jeff that truly saddened me. The Washington Post set up a 40 min “concert” by world renown violinist Joshua Bell (and his 3.5 million dollar violin) disguised as a street performer at a subway stop in downtown DC. Over 1,000 people rushed by on their way to whatever they were doing with only a small handful ever acknowledging his presence. Read it here.

How often do we rush through life without stopping to soak up the beauty that God has placed around us? Whether it be music, mountains, art, or the simple laughter of a child, most of us are too caught up in our lives to notice the things in life that connect with our soul, those God given moments that inspire awe and wonder. Unlike a promotion, a good grade on a test, or that new car/plasma TV we all work for, it is those moments that make a lasting impression on us, an impression that will linger in the memory long after all the other things fade away. May we all learn to stop and hear the whispers of God…

Last weekend, I attended a men’s retreat with the guys from my church, where I had the opportunity to play in the worship band, and to get to know many people that I had only briefly met before. The weekend was wholesome, relaxed, and a lot of fun. It was held at a resort in northwestern Maryland, if you’re wondering where the pictures are from…

The theme for the weekend was Discipleship. Real Discipleship. A term that the Western church has tamed, watered down, and a concept that is mostly ignored in practice. We talk about it, but we have lost the passion and devotion to carry out perhaps one of the most important commandments Jesus ever gave. The typical church today tends to “bring in” people, make sure they are saved, Baptize them, and then forget about them. Most new Christ followers are left eating baby food, hungering for substance, with no one to feed them.

To grasp the magnitude of the Great Commission, there must be some understanding of what a disciple is. A disciple is so much more than a student. A student just wants to know what the teacher knows. A Talmid, or disciple, wants to be “what the teacher IS“. If a believer in Christ just wants to know what God knows, or just wants to know what Jesus says about certain subjects, he / she is just a student. If that believer says “I want more than anything in the world to be JUST LIKE JESUS“, then he / she is a disciple. (see Ray Vander Laan Downloads for more on this) It is so much more than church on Sunday or a Bible study on Tuesday night; Being a disciple demands a passionate seeking to know everything possible about the life of Jesus, and a radical change of lifestyle where every breath taken is an effort to emulate the Savior.

So where do you stand? Are you a believer? A student? Or a disciple? Are you actively pouring your life into someone else, teaching them what it means to be a disciple of Christ? Do you have someone that’s pouring their life into you?