Creative Discipleship for Sons
Friday, September 25, 2009 Posted by Pastor Fred Wolfe
My seven year old son bobbed down the isle at "The Largest Used Bookstore in Florida". They had books on everything from "Apples" to "Zebras", and from "A" to "Izzard". He didn't really care which book we bought. He was there to be with his dad.
Every once in a while my son comes up to me and asks, "Dad, can we do special time?" It has become a tradition to take one of my kids out for one on one time, where we do something out of the ordinary. One of their favorite things to do is to have a "theme night", which is what brought us to the used bookstore. They have a huge children's section, and a special section within that with award winning books. We choose a book, then come home, and based on the subject of the book, create a meal that reflects that subject.
Most of the time, the books are good for exposing my kids to great art, rich language, different cultures, or classical stories. The meals on the other hand are good for exposing them to some sugar or grease, and me to some heartburn. Oh well, it's only once in a while.
The real lessons, on the other hand, come on the journey leading up to the actual event. You see, through all of that, it is my goal to disciple my son. I want to enrich his relationship with Christ, and show him how men live out their faith in the real world. I do this because discipleship is by nature incarnational. It can only be done in-the-flesh. It cannot be done at a distance. It cannot be done taking your children to a Christian school, Sunday school, or youth program. It can only be done by you being physically with them. Quality time can only be purchased with quantity. A photographer once told me, “The secret to taking top-quality pictures is to take a lot of pictures.” Quality only comes from quantity. Discipleship is done when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Is there any doubt as to why Jesus came in the flesh and grew up among us? He could have come from the clouds as a man and died for our sins, and that would have been sufficient. On the contrary, Jesus was not trying to be sufficient, he was not trying to be pragmatic or utilitarian. He was creating disciples, which can only be done in real-life personal contact.
Before we ever enter the bookstore, I tell my son to watch the way I talk to the people, and try to do the same. When we enter the bookstore, I make it a point to start conversations with the employees behind the counter. I make eye contact with them. I stand up straight and confidently. I mention Jesus. Then we head back to the kids section.
While we are browsing, we get a chance to talk about all sorts of things. Think about all you could bring up as you stroll along in a bookstore! We talk about anything and everything from book binding, to the wonders of creation, to the religions of the world and why we choose Christ, to the morality of the Christian life. As we plan our meal, we talk about health, and respecting our bodies as temples, about cooking techniques, and providing for our family.
Here are some ideas for starting a discussion with your son:
What new thing would you like to learn to do? Why?
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you today?
What is the best thing that has happened to you in your life?
What is the worst thing that has happened to you in your life?
What is your dream and vision for your life?
What was the kindest thing that someone ever did for you?
What was the nicest thing someone ever said to you? How did it make you feel?
How do you think our words can affect other people?
How do men treat their wives?
What is your duty as a Godly man?
What makes a person a Christian?
I would suggest that any man with a son reading this ought to intentionally begin to disciple him. Your son is your legacy. What are you leaving behind in him? You have such an opportunity to effect multiple generations for Christ. You are beginning a dynasty with what your son will become, and good or bad, it rests on your shoulders. Your own relationship with God spills over and runs deep into the veins of your family tree. I implore you, do not open a vein and bleed it dry with your apathy. Malachi warns what will happen to the land where the Word of God will not bring fathers and sons together: "And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 4:6)
Be intentional. Be incarnational. Plan for it. Make it the priority. You can do it! "..Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)
Every once in a while my son comes up to me and asks, "Dad, can we do special time?" It has become a tradition to take one of my kids out for one on one time, where we do something out of the ordinary. One of their favorite things to do is to have a "theme night", which is what brought us to the used bookstore. They have a huge children's section, and a special section within that with award winning books. We choose a book, then come home, and based on the subject of the book, create a meal that reflects that subject.
Most of the time, the books are good for exposing my kids to great art, rich language, different cultures, or classical stories. The meals on the other hand are good for exposing them to some sugar or grease, and me to some heartburn. Oh well, it's only once in a while.
The real lessons, on the other hand, come on the journey leading up to the actual event. You see, through all of that, it is my goal to disciple my son. I want to enrich his relationship with Christ, and show him how men live out their faith in the real world. I do this because discipleship is by nature incarnational. It can only be done in-the-flesh. It cannot be done at a distance. It cannot be done taking your children to a Christian school, Sunday school, or youth program. It can only be done by you being physically with them. Quality time can only be purchased with quantity. A photographer once told me, “The secret to taking top-quality pictures is to take a lot of pictures.” Quality only comes from quantity. Discipleship is done when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Is there any doubt as to why Jesus came in the flesh and grew up among us? He could have come from the clouds as a man and died for our sins, and that would have been sufficient. On the contrary, Jesus was not trying to be sufficient, he was not trying to be pragmatic or utilitarian. He was creating disciples, which can only be done in real-life personal contact.
Before we ever enter the bookstore, I tell my son to watch the way I talk to the people, and try to do the same. When we enter the bookstore, I make it a point to start conversations with the employees behind the counter. I make eye contact with them. I stand up straight and confidently. I mention Jesus. Then we head back to the kids section.
While we are browsing, we get a chance to talk about all sorts of things. Think about all you could bring up as you stroll along in a bookstore! We talk about anything and everything from book binding, to the wonders of creation, to the religions of the world and why we choose Christ, to the morality of the Christian life. As we plan our meal, we talk about health, and respecting our bodies as temples, about cooking techniques, and providing for our family.
Here are some ideas for starting a discussion with your son:
What new thing would you like to learn to do? Why?
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you today?
What is the best thing that has happened to you in your life?
What is the worst thing that has happened to you in your life?
What is your dream and vision for your life?
What was the kindest thing that someone ever did for you?
What was the nicest thing someone ever said to you? How did it make you feel?
How do you think our words can affect other people?
How do men treat their wives?
What is your duty as a Godly man?
What makes a person a Christian?
I would suggest that any man with a son reading this ought to intentionally begin to disciple him. Your son is your legacy. What are you leaving behind in him? You have such an opportunity to effect multiple generations for Christ. You are beginning a dynasty with what your son will become, and good or bad, it rests on your shoulders. Your own relationship with God spills over and runs deep into the veins of your family tree. I implore you, do not open a vein and bleed it dry with your apathy. Malachi warns what will happen to the land where the Word of God will not bring fathers and sons together: "And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 4:6)
Be intentional. Be incarnational. Plan for it. Make it the priority. You can do it! "..Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)
Was the Early Christian Church "Socialist"?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Posted by Pastor Fred Wolfe
Often, this argument will be pointed to as a means of "discrediting" Christianity, through the claim that Christians either are supportive of violent revolutionaries themselves, or else are inconsistent for NOT doing so. Thus, it's a lose-lose situation for Christians in the eyes of those who accept or acknowledge as legitimately Christian the false paradigm of this style of "liberation theology". I have also had many Christian friends who have used this argument to support the governments theft of decent taxpayers income in order to support the crack habits of others.
What we must understand is that the arguments made by those who carry the "Christian communist" mantle are both anachronistic and display a lack of comprehension about what the Bible itself says about the conditions in the early church. These radicals attempt to apply 19th-20th century ideas of communism back onto the 1st century churches which lived in a completely different culture and had a completely different economic organization and ways of interpreting the world around them. To assume, when these early Christians shared their possessions in common and gave of themselves to aid their less fortunate brethren, that this implies a conscious desire to institute or carry out a Marxist system of organized wealth redistribution, is an anachronism that does not hold.
Let us look at what modern-day Communism really is all about, and see if this is what is really depicted in the book of Acts. Political science authorities have defined Communism as:
"An ideology that calls for the elimination of capitalist institutions and the establishment of the collectivist society in which land and capital are socially owned and in which class conflict and the coercive power of the state no longer exist.....According to communist doctrine, these [editor's note: the "internal contradictions" of the capitalist system] will produce intensifying class warfare and imperial and colonial rivalry culminating in the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by a proletarian revolution. A socialist program carried out under a "dictatorship of the proletariat" will then end class warfare, eliminate the need for the state, and move society into the final, classless, stateless stage of pure communism.” (The International Relations Dictionary, eds. J.C. Plano and R. Olton, "Communism", pp. 45-46)
Now, is this what we see depicted in Acts? Let's examine the major tenets.
Did the early church call for the elimination of capitalist institutions? This is somewhat inapplicable, as "capitalist institutions" as we know them and as the liberation theologists envision them, were nascent at best, and most did not even exist in the Roman Empire as of the 1st century AD (or indeed, anywhere else until after the 17th century). There were very few large factories, with most manufacturing being carried out on a small scale and with little of the specialization of labor which characterizes the modern industrial scheme. Further, most workers were either highly-skilled and highly-compensated slaves (whose lives were actually often better than small landowning freemen), members of the family which owned the workshops, or occasional day-laborers who sought hire to overcome difficult financial circumstances. There was very little in the way of day-to-day, year-to-year factory labor. The idea of overthrowing these or of changing this economic order is completely unsupported by any statement in the New Testament, in Acts or otherwise. In fact, Paul and other early Christians such as Aquila and Priscilla themselves participated in this sort of economic system, in this case as tentmakers likely involved in this sort of small workshop scale production.
Did the early Christians seek to the "establishment of the collectivist society in which land and capital are socially owned and in which class conflict and the coercive power of the state no longer exist"? Again, this idea is completely unsupported from the statements found in Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament. The testimony of Acts states that while the early Christians in Jerusalem did hold all things in common (4:32), this was a communalism based upon collective need (as a small, despised minority surrounded by a richer and more powerful religious establishment) rather than upon a sense of replacing the established social and economic orders. It also did not exclude possessions for individual families. Further, even though these early Christians were choosing to consider their property as belonging to all, they were yet free to dispose of it entirely as they saw fit, and were still legally and even morally in control of their individual private property. The communalism of their fellowship was one based upon potential need, and was therefore predicated on potential distribution as the need arose. Thus, when they said that "ought of the things which he possessed was his own" (4:32), this was a statement of unselfish heart attitude, ready to give to those in need, but was not a statement of the present actual holding of all things in a common pot. We see this demonstrated in Peter's words to Ananias, when he lied to God and kept back part of the price of the land he had sold,
"But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
Peter clearly acknowledges Ananias' right to have kept his land privately, or to have kept the money made from selling the land. Ananias' sin was not holding back part of the price of the land, but was in his attempt to bolster his own reputation through deceit, pretending to be giving the full price when he really was not, thus appearing to be more self-sacrificing than was true. This is completely contrary to the idea that the early Christians were in practice pooling everything and redistributing the wealth equally among all the members, especially in the coercive top-down sense in which Communism seeks to carry out this end.
Further, the early churches and their leaders certainly were not seeking to overthrow the government and establish a system where the power of the state was eliminated. This ought to be sufficiently shown below:
"...Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” ." (Matthew 22:21)
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment." (Romans 13:1-2)
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, " (Titus 3:1)
"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. " (1 Peter 2:13-14)
It certainly was not a Christian teaching at any point in the apostolic period to seek the elimination of the government and the establishment of a classless, stateless society.
Did the early Christian church institute or encourage class warfare, for any reason? Again, the answer is no. The example given in Acts is that those who had wealth voluntarily gave of their money to aid those who had little. The element of force or coercion, the idea that the "proletariat" was appropriating the property of the rich, is completely foreign to the text here, as well as anywhere else in the New Testament. While the idea of the poor rising up against the rich is hardly a new idea invented by Communist theory, it was an idea which was eschewed by the early Christians. In fact, the New Testament teaches for people of whatever station they are in to be content with their station, which obviously runs contrary to the revolutionary notions of Communism. This is because the emphasis of the New Testament in this general arena is ultimate reliance upon God, not upon government or a revolutionary group or anything else, to provide for our daily wants and needs (Matthew 6:25-34, 1 Timothy 6:6-10, etc.). In fact, the doctrine of the New Testament teaches for servants and slaves to be content in their positions (Ephesians 6:5-8, etc.).
So, seeing that the principles of modern Communism (as espoused often by "religious" radicals in so-called Christian denominations) is completely foreign to the early church and how it was depicted in Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament, what what can we say are the lessons taught by the voluntary communalism of the early church in Jerusalem? Far from a coercive, governmental Communist system, or a system of oppressive taxation for the purpose of involuntary wealth redistribution, we see that the purpose of provision from the altruism of the rich was motivated by true Christian love for the brethren. Distribution among the brethren was made voluntarily, and was motivated by love, not government intervention. And indeed, God does value a heart in Christians which is open and willing to give to the brethren in need (1 Timothy 6:17-18, James 2:15-17, 1 John 3:17-18). Further, it is the duty of the Christian to seek, when we have the opportunity, to do good to all men (Galatians 6:10, Luke 10:25-37). In truth, the mercenary style of capitalism which does so often prevail, which does seek profit above all else and which threatens to undo mercy, is as unbiblical as Communism. While the Bible nowhere condemns having wealth (some of the most godly men in the Bible - Abraham, Job, David, etc. - were also some of the wealthiest), and teaches that a man should work to earn his own living and to be prosperous (2 Thessalonians 3:10), the Bible also on numerous occasions condemns wealth that is earned through deceitfulness or greed. Coveting is idolatry, Paul says (Colossians 3:5), and the Bible warns that those who lust after wealth and spend their lives seeking it, will only draw shame and harm to themselves for their placing of that pursuit over the pursuit of a right relationship with God (2 Timothy 6:9-10).
On a final note, however, I must again emphasize that this doing good to all men is not to take the place of plainly and forcefully preaching the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to the lost world around us. While enjoining agape love for the Church and all men, this notion which has infected Evangelicalism, is unbiblical and a blight upon the true work of God's churches. The job of the Church is to keep God's Word, to edify the saints, and to preach salvation to the lost. Notice the activity that was going on in the midst of all this sharing and caring,
"And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. " (Acts 4:33)
They were preaching the Gospel! They were spreading the word of the resurrected Savior of mankind! The job of the churches is not to run soup kitchens or second-hand stores. Giving physical necessities to those in need is not a replacement for giving them the Words of Life (Mark 8:36). Charitable giving throughout the Bible is depicted as an activity done by churches or individual Christians to those in need, not as some sort of replacement for the true Gospel. The focus of Christians should be in meeting the spiritual necessities first, then the physical necessities after all else is said and done.
Think about it.
Who I Am In Christ, A Daily Devotion.
Monday, September 07, 2009 Posted by Pastor Fred Wolfe
Welcome! If you are a follower of Christ, and He has drawn you and you have accepted Him, this devotional is for you. I would suggest making an electronic journal, or a paper journal on which you can record your thoughts. Or, this would also be a fine opportunity to start your own blog. Every day, come visit this blog to get your assigned thought and verse, along with a worship song.
I suggest you bookmark this page, so you can easily reference it as you make it a daily devotion.
WHO I AM IN CHRIST
I Am Accepted
Day 1 I am God’s child. John 1:12
Day 2 I am Christ’s friend. John 15:15
Day 3 I have been justified. Romans 5:1
Day 4 I am united with the Lord, and am one Spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17
Day 5 I have been bought with a price. I belong to God. 1 Corinthians6:19-20
Day 6 I am am a member of Christ’s body. 1 Corinthians 12:27
Day 7 I am a saint. Ephesians 1:1
Day 8 I have been adopted as God’s child. Ephesians 1:5
Day 9 I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2:18
Day 10 I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. Colossians 1:14
Day 11 I am complete in Christ. Colossians 2:10
I Am Secure
Day 12 I am free forever from condemnation. Romans 8:1-2
Day 13 I am assured that all things work together for good. Romans 8:28
Day 14 I am free from any condemning charges against me. Romans 8:31-34
Day 15 Nothing in this world is more powerful than God’s Love for me. Romans 8:35-39
Day 16 I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. 2 Corinthians1:21-22
Day 17 I am hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Day 18 I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected. Philippians 1:6
Day 19 I am a citizen of Heaven. Philippians 3:20
Day 20 I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:17
Day 21 I can find grace and mercy in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
Day 22 I am born of God; the evil one cannot touch me. 1 John 5:18
I Am Significant
Day 23 I am the salt and light of the earth. Matthew 5:13-14
Day 24 I am a branch of the true vine, a channel of His life. John 15:1,5
Day 25 I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. John 15:16
Day 26 I am a personal witness of Christ. Acts 1:8
Day 27 I am God’s temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16
Day 28 I am a minister of reconciliation for God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Day 29 I am God’s co-worker. 2 Corinthians 6:1
Day 30 I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. Ephesians 2:6
Day 31 I am God’s workmanship. Ephesians 2:10
Day 32 I may approach God with freedom and confidence. Ephesians 3:12
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