“The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Jesus (Matthew 23:11,12 NIV) We usually draw a line between the meanings of the words humbled and humiliated. Humbled leans more toward being taken down a notch in honor, but humiliated leans more to the idea of being completely […]
Category Archives: Discipleship
Making New
Take some courage from the fact that if you are in the earth to innovate (bring something new), you will not get to enjoy the benefit of the American proverb related to receiving justice – you will not be innocent until proven guilty. Take courage from that, by preparing for the fact that in most cases, especially among the religious, your new idea will be resisted, or scoffed at, or […]
Right, Wrong, or Righteous
One effect of Adam and Eve eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was that they were deceived into believing that they could know good from evil, and right from wrong, apart from God revealing these things to them. Just as all people were cursed with death by being children of Adam, we all have received this curse of trying to be independent of God […]
On Learning
It makes me marvel and meditate when I again notice the teaching habits Jesus seemed to have and compare them to the teaching systems we employ to produce servants of God. His style included living with the teacher. Frequently, He seemed to send His apprentices out to accomplish things they didn’t yet understand, and taught them about their mistakes when they returned with genuine, encounter-based questions. When their tours looked […]
Be Blessed
Praying for you: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. (Hebrews 13:20,21) May the grace of the Lord […]
Pleasure, Sorrow & Value
I walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow And ne’er a word said she; But the things I learned from her But oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me. “Along the Road” by Robert Browning Hamilton 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you […]
Kingdom Gifts
You enjoy membership in at least one tribe. Some people have several memberships. One of your tribes may sit at your dinner table. Another may sit around your board room table. Soccer moms can get tribal over their sons’ & daughters’ teams. Tribes have something in common that makes working together and identifying with each other increase their safety or income or some other rewards. What kind of car do […]
A New Thought
I was trained by Campus Crusade and Navigators (two highly respected evangelical campus ministries that are both effectively teaching and equipping believers to serve) that “repent” means “a 180° change in behavior.” Today this astonishes me. Partly because they have so much of what they each do so very correct, but partly because this misinformation is so off target. The word that is being translated as “repent,” though, (metanoeo) means “a […]
Preparation and What’s Next
I haven’t seen in Scripture that David, at the campfire on the end of the day on which he survived fighting a bear with no weapon in hand, thanked Yahweh for preparing him for a future fight against an asinine giant. I don’t think he recognized the value of the fight beyond that of the lives of the sheep who also lived through it. In Acts 16, Paul encountered a […]
Getting Engaged
Engagement levels for your work include physical, mental, and emotional. Physical labor doesn’t have to be taxing. It could be simply typing or talking. Mental levels of labor require having to think about what you’re doing, making decisions instead of simply pulling a lever or pressing a button on cue with a prompt. Emotional labor is what it costs to care. If my work isn’t done with excellence, does that […]