I like this little snippet that follows immediately after Jesus asked the disciples to forgive people indefinitely. “Every time…” That sounds hard, so the disciples had a simple response:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17.5 – 6, ESV)

It’s not the size of our faith, it’s the size of the object of our faith, and…we have to use it (suggested by a note in The Passion Translation). The best illustration of this concept is thick ice on a lake versus thin ice. This author captures it well:

One year, our family lived on a small lake in northern Indiana right below the Snowbelt. Coming from southern California, my jaw dropped the first time I saw heavy trucks travel across frozen water. When we moved to Raleigh, my kindergarten-aged son remembered the trucks on the lake. He tried to scoot across a North Carolina pond after only a few days of freezing weather. Thankfully, he fell through at the shallow edge. Great faith in thin ice won’t hold up a child. The thickness of the ice, not the driver’s faith, held up the truck in Indiana. – Debbie Wilson

Another simple metaphor is airline travel. Given that the equipment is working properly and the crew is competent, how much faith does it take to fly from, say, Denver to Chicago? Answer: just enough faith to get on the plane!

Tomorrow I’ll apply that to our mission. Please stay tuned!

We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. (Hebrews 4.2, MSG)

We’ve asked from time to time in this blog, what happened to the “massive crowds” that followed Jesus? There were only 120 in the Upper Room in Acts 1. Here’s one answer:

As massive crowds followed Jesus, he turned to them and said, “When you follow me as my disciple, you must put aside your father, your mother, your wife, your sisters, your brothers—yes, you will even seem as though you hate your own life. This is the price you’ll pay to be considered one of my followers. And anyone who comes to me must be willing to share my cross and experience it as his own, or he cannot be considered to be my disciple. So don’t follow me without considering what it will cost you. For who would construct a house before first sitting down to estimate the cost to complete it? Otherwise he may lay the foundation and not be able to finish. The neighbors will ridicule him, saying,  Look at him! He started to build but was unable to finish. (Luke 14.25 – 29, Passion Translation NT)

The answer? “Don’t follow me without considering what it will cost you.” Compare my career in the Air Force. My life certainly was not my own. I did put aside father, mother, wife (of only two years!)…and went to Turkey for a year by myself back in 1970. You can’t join the Air Force casually. Or the Clemson football team. Or Microsoft, for that matter.  Jesus can’t be an add-on.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9.23, NIV)

Luke 15, which ends with the parable of the two lost sons (“Prodigal Son”), opens this way:

Many dishonest tax collectors and other notorious sinners often gathered around to listen as Jesus taught the people. This raised concerns with the Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law. Indignant, they grumbled and complained, saying, “Look at how this man associates with all these notorious sinners and welcomes them all to come to him!” (Luke 15.1, 2, (Passion Translation)

“Welcomes them all to come to him!” Intended as an indictment, I’m sure Jesus heard it as a compliment. This, of course, is the introduction to the three stories:

• The lost sheep: lost outside the house and knew it was lost
• The lost coin: lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost
• The two lost sons
  • One lost outside the house
  • One lost inside the house

Jesus welcomes all and tries to redeem all, including the misguided religious leaders.

Study the law of the Lord, do it, teach it…if someone doesn’t know the teaching, teach them! (See Ezra 7.10 and 25) But how can you teach them if you’re not around them? I have a weekly meeting with a kid who doesn’t do mathematics well! Do I surround myself only with fellow mathematicians? Then how does math get taught?

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” (Luke 19.5 – 7, NIV)

It’s not hard to find articles in some Christian circles advocating for a more “inclusive” faith. I get the concern. Rob Bell in his controversial book Love Wins was advocating for not setting ourselves up as on the inside with others on the outside. There’s something perversely appealing about being able to say, “I’m in, you’re out.” On the other hand, the gospel message has to be more than “Everyone is a child of God; some just don’t know it yet,” doesn’t it?

This passage contains both exclusivity AND inclusivity. Jesus is speaking:

There is a great cost for anyone to enter through the narrow doorway to God’s kingdom realm. I tell you, there will be many who will want to enter but won’t be able to. For once the head of the house has shut and locked the door, it will be too late. Even if you stand outside knocking, begging to enter, and saying, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us,” he will say to you, “I don’t know who you are. You are not a part of my family.” Then you will reply, “But Lord, we dined with you and walked with you as you taught us.” And he will reply, “Don’t you understand? I don’t know who you are, for you are not a part of my family. You cannot enter in. Now, go away from me! For you are all disloyal to me and do evil.” You will experience great weeping and great anguish when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with all the prophets of Israel, enjoying God’s kingdom realm while you yourselves are barred from entering. And you will see people streaming from the four corners of the earth, accepting the invitation to feast in God’s kingdom, while you are kept outside looking in. (Luke 13.24 – 29, Passion Translation)

Doesn’t that passage contain both exclusivity (truth) and inclusivity (grace)?

• One enters the Kingdom through the narrow doorway
• Some will want to enter but can’t
• Some are part of the family and some not
• Being around Jesus and hearing his teaching is not enough
• People will come from all over, all kinds of people, and be part of God’s Kingdom
• Others are outside looking in

Maybe the next paragraph in Luke is the key:

O city of Jerusalem, you are the city that murders your prophets! You are the city that pelts to death with stones the very messengers who were sent to deliver you! So many times I have longed to gather your wayward children together around me, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings—but you were too stubborn to let me. And now it is too late, since your house will be left in ruins. You will not see me again until you are able to say, “We welcome the one who comes to us in the name of the Lord.” (Luke 13.34 – 35, Passion Translation)

Some (insiders!) are on the outside, and Jesus is sad about it.

I don’t take any pleasure in the fact that I can do math and the young man I have been tutoring for 18 months can’t (even though he makes A’s in school!). Often I see little progress, and that makes me sad. I’m doing what I can to change his inability to ability, while maintaining the truth of mathematics. The solution to “innumeracy” is not to declare that everyone is numerate, but to teach the innumerate with compassion.

The solution to not everyone being part of the Kingdom is not to declare that they are, but to help them enter the Kingdom and participate in its life.

Anyone who does not know the Teaching, you teach them. (Ezra 7.25, MSG)

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1.17, NIV, emphasis)

There’s an intriguing story in Luke 13 contrasting release and religion.

When Jesus saw her condition, he called her over and gently laid his hands on her. Then he said, “Dear woman, you are free. I release you forever from this crippling spirit.” Instantly she stood straight and tall and overflowed with glorious praise to God! The Jewish leader who was in charge of the synagogue was infuriated over Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath day. “Six days you are to work,” he shouted angrily to the crowd. “Those are the days you should come here for healing, but not on the seventh day!” (Luke 13.12 – 14 (Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

Something is terribly wrong when something that should result, as it says, in glorious praise to God is instead cause for anger: “Infuriated…he shouted angrily…” So what are the people to do? The ordinary people to whom Jesus came? Whose side are they on?

When they heard this [Jesus putting the religious leaders down as frauds], his critics were completely humiliated. But the crowds shouted with joy over the glorious things Jesus was doing among them. (Luke 13.17, Passion Translation)

Again, Jesus is paying attention, not only to his teaching but also to the people around him. We don’t know that she came for healing. She might have just been coming to the synagogue as usual. She didn’t come to him. He saw her. And cared. And “released” her.

The synagogue ruler was operating from a perspective of religion. Keeping the Sabbath was way more important to him than anyone’s needs. Becky Manly Pippert who wrote Out of the Salt Shaker and other books said in an interview:

…if it really is God incarnate and he comes to planet earth, what is the chief criticism about Jesus? He just didn’t seem religious enough. Now that’s a pretty funny thing to say about God. –Becky Manley Pippert, emphasis mine

Religion with its rules doesn’t change from Jesus’ day until ours. I wrote earlier about a pastor putting down Calvary Chapel for reaching hippies, in part by not requiring coats and ties and by singing more upbeat songs. We all have our rules, and shame on us if they take precedence.

The morning I read this, I had taken a mid-week (very unusual) call from my son in Atlanta. A few days before I, resolved to have prayer time first thing in the morning. Do I stand on that new resolve? Or do I make time for people?

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2.27, ESV)

So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality…Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 2.16, 17, 3.12, NLT)

Sometimes we have to take a break in life and on this blog! Here’s a photo from a recent hike (the new Sandstone Ranch Open Space off of 105 near Larkspur, Colorado). Looks like it came from a western movie…

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work… (Exodus 20.9, 10, NIV)

Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble. (Isaiah 63.13, NIV)

We are looking at my friend Ray Bandi’s pattern for disciple-making through intentional relationships.

• Love
• Pray
• Model
• Teach
• Repeat

Today, we’re thinking about Repeat. Ray writes:

Disciple-Makers Love, Pray, Model, Teach, and Repeat as necessary because we know that most of the time, it is necessary to repeat if we want to make disciples. – Ray Bandi, emphasis his

Repetition is definitely the key to learning!

By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one… (Hebrews 5.12, MSG)

Because the stakes are so high, even though you’re up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I’m not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I’ve been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I’m sticking to it as long as I live. (2 Peter 1.12, 13, MSG)

And as we close out this series (thanks again, Ray!), I’d like us to consider one more aspect of “repeat.” We want the whole process to repeat as our disciples love, pray, model, and teach their disciples!

If I have repeating the process in mind, that will affect the way I disciple someone. I do it in a way that makes them feel that they can do it, too. This is critically important. That’s one of the reasons we advocate for accessible tools – accessible to the trainee AND the trainer–the disciple-maker!

Jesus did that. He taught in such a way that when he gave them the Great Commission in Acts 1.8, by the end of chapter 1, they are making plans to actually carry it out. A friend of mine calls this “The Great Conclusion.” Yes, with God’s help, we can do this.

[Jesus said, ] “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”… [Peter said, ] “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” (Acts 1.8, 21, 22, ESV)

So this brings us full circle to where we started. I hope you feel more empowered to do the work to which we are all called.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Remember:

2 Timothy 2.2:  It’s so easy, anyone can do it, even lay people.
It’s so important, everyone must do it, even pastors.

We are looking at my friend Ray Bandi’s pattern for disciple-making through intentional relationships.

• Love
• Pray
• Model
• Teach
• Repeat

Today, we’re thinking about Teach. Ray writes:

So, disciple-makers also teach our disciples. Let’s picture that. As you know, there are lots of ways to teach the Bible.  But, ultimately all teaching for discipleship has one goal.  And that goal is to help people to become more and more like Jesus. A few years ago, a friend sent me this question:

“If someone asks you what is the objective for meeting one-on-one, what verse would you pick to help them get the life-change vision?”

After thinking about that question for a few days, I chose Colossians 1:28:

“We proclaim Him, admonishing every person and teaching every person with all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Christ.”

I chose that verse because Paul’s goal was to provide the personal accountability and the application-focused teaching that every person needs to become more like Jesus, and that’s what disciple-makers do. – Ray Bandi, emphases his

Ray is right: there are lots of ways to teach the Bible, but I’m convinced that not all are equally helpful. Teachers can teach just to satisfy their need to show off their knowledge and the student’s curiosity. Or one can provide, as Ray wrote, application-focused teaching to help people become more like Jesus.

I used to teach mathematics to adult college students. My goal, of course, was for them to do mathematics, not just watch me do mathematics – which they loved to do! Everything always went fine until we got to the part of, “OK, take out your books, turn to page 132, and work problem 12.”

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7.10, ESV)

Anyone who does not know the Teaching, you teach them. (Ezra 7.25, MSG)

You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified. (1 Corinthians 2.1, 2, MSG, emphasis mine)

We are continuing to look at my friend Ray Bandi’s pattern for disciple-making through intentional relationships.

• Love
• Pray
• Model
• Teach
• Repeat

Today, we’re thinking about Model. Ray writes:

Disciple-makers also model our Christian lives for our disciples. Let’s picture that. 2 Timothy 3.10 – 11 is a great example of what that looks like.  Paul told Timothy, “…you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings…” I like this because it reminds us that disciple-making is not just about giving someone our teaching. Instead, it’s about giving someone our whole life.  You see, in addition to Paul’s teaching, Paul modeled eight other things for Timothy: Conduct, Purpose, Faith, Patience, Love, Perseverance, Persecution, Suffering. When Timothy read those words from Paul, each of those words created a picture of an experience that Timothy had with Paul. At one time or another, Paul lived those words with Timothy. Basically, that’s what modeling is.  It’s spending time with our disciples in lots of ways, so that our disciples can see our words in action. – Ray Bandi, emphases his

When I read 2 Timothy 3.10, 11, I see an order:

• Teaching, conduct (some translations say, “manner of life“), purpose: these would be the foundations of Paul’s life.
• Faith, patience, love, perseverance: these are some of the fruit of the spirit (compare Galatians 5.22, 23), and if someone doesn’t know my foundational values, they may not understand how the fruit of the Spirit or other behaviors work out in my life.
• Persecution, suffering: when Timothy experienced those with Paul, they were out in the world doing ministry together.

As Ray says, we’re modeling life in the midst of many different circumstances.

He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. (Mark 3.14, NIV, emphasis mine)

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. (Philippians 4.9, NIV)

But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. (2 Timothy 3.10, 11, NLT)

Today is Veteran’s Day: thanks to all those who served, especially those who served in far more difficult circumstances than I did. It’s also my son Matthew’s birthday, and as I write this, we are planning to spend the day with him and his son Emerson in Breckenridge, Colorado.

We are looking at my friend Ray Bandi’s pattern for disciple-making through intentional relationships.

• Love
• Pray
• Model
• Teach
• Repeat

Today, we’re thinking about Pray. Ray writes:

Disciple-makers also pray for our disciples. Let’s picture that. Years ago, when I was single, I had the privilege of living with a godly couple so they could disciple me. One day while I was living with this couple, one of the men who had previously lived in their home stopped by for a visit. While he was there, he said this to me: “Ray, do you know the greatest benefit of living with LeRoy and Virginia?” Well, I could think of lots of benefits, but he said this: “When you live with LeRoy and Virginia, Virginia puts your name in her prayer notebook, and she prays for you … for life.” I lived with them in 1980.  Virginia went home to the Lord in 2014. Now, I have no idea how many things God built into my life through her prayers over those 34 years.  But I’m pretty sure that those things were many because that’s what disciple-makers do.  We pray Christ-like character into the lives of our disciples. -Ray Bandi, emphases his

Virginia Eims was Ray’s role model for prayer. The Apostle Paul was all of our role model and shows us exactly how to pray for those we are discipling.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3.14 – 19, ESV)

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy…I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God. (Philippians 1.3, 4, 9 – 11, NLT)

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. (Colossians 1.3, 9 – 11, NLT)