dar334

Easter morning I sat at the kitchen table with my coffee in hand and opened Embracing the Uncertain: 40 Devotions for Unsteady Times on my Kindle.  Our 40 days of Lent had ended and it was now Easter Sunday.  It had me start with Matthew 28:1-20, Jesus Rises From the Dead.  After reading the scripture, I was not ready to close the Instruction Book quite yet, I felt as if there were more to glean.  I glanced down at the study notes and it was there I found the fuel to ponder.

“We are to go – whether it is next door or to another country – and make disciples. It is not an option but a command to all who call Jesus “Lord.” We are not all evangelists in the formal sense, but we have all received gifts that we can use to help fulfill the great commission. As we obey, we have comfort in the knowledge that Jesus is always with us.”

As I sat there watching the cardinals at the birdfeeder, I started thinking about making disciples.  Webster defines disciple as “one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another.”  Ok, so what’s a doctrine? you ask, it’s something that is taught.

Throughout the Instruction Book we are told to spread the good news.  In a day when we are bombarded with bad news over and over again, it is my opinion that there has never been a better time than now to spread the good news.

Then my mind went to different instances where I have attempted to spread the good news only to be “slapped on the snout” as Mike Fabarez would say, by someone who obviously has never been a disciple and the mere fact that I am now a disciple offends or irritates them, or so that’s what they’ve led me to believe.  As I pondered this, I decided it was because they hadn’t read the instructions.

In Part 3 of Dealing With Objections, Mike Fabarez brings up Proverbs 23:9 which says “Don’t waste your time on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice.”  He also brings up Matthew 7:6 where he says “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  Again, not my words but His.  Mr. Fabarez then goes on to say that when we get slapped on the snout it may be time to move on,  but it is never time to stop.  We are to “move on to the ripe fruit”.

How many times have you been involved in or in the presence of an argument where neither person is going to budge? Mr. Fabarez explains it this way:  When you feel your blood pressure rising and voices are being raised, it’s time to move on.  Pray for them and move on. When it comes to the black and white and red in the Instruction Book, and people slap you on the snout for doing what you are instructed to do, instead of arguing ….. move on. They aren’t ripe. It’s a waste of time.  Seek out those who are ready to hear His word.  Hopefully when it’s time for the harvest, those that slapped you will have opened the door to the Son that ripens and takes you with Him to Paradise.

I was one of those snout slapping people once. I was very uncomfortable around the “Bible thumpers”, those that carry the Word on their sleeve, those that find a way to return to scripture no matter what the topic is.  Those that walk and talk God wherever they go.  Those that think they are better than me.  It used to make me uncomfortable too.  But after a couple years of studying the Instruction Book, I’ve learned that’s what we are supposed to do.  We are to commit ourselves to His words, Deuteronomy 11:19 tells us “teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”   If we stop talking about them, they will get farther and farther away from us.  God does not evolve with the secular world like so many believe, the secular world is merely justifying their actions by saying that God alters his instructions to fit what the people want, to satisfy their own selfish needs.   Those people have gotten farther and father away from the Truth.  Even God’s perfect son asked “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  God didn’t change his mind, he didn’t “evolve” to the wishes of Jesus, and he’s not “evolving” to our wants either.

We all sin. We all fall short. God knows that, he expects that.  But it doesn’t mean we should quit trying to be better, it simply means we should try harder.

James 1:27  says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  The study note explains it this way:  “To keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, we need to commit ourselves to Christ’s ethical and moral system, not the world’s. We are not to adapt to the world’s value system, which is based on money, power, and pleasure. True faith means nothing if we are contaminated with such values.”

It is my opinion that we need to stop worrying about offending somebody, some group, some culture, some life style, and start worrying about offending God.

Perhaps it’s time to go to Webster and glean the definition of “ethical” and “moral”.

-dar