Author: Ryan Hale

Categories
Mission of God

Immigrants, Refugees, and the Gospel

In this moment, according to the UN, there are more than 20 million refugees who have been displaced from their home and who find themselves in another country looking for refuge. Beyond this, there are another 48 million people that have been displaced from their homes, but are still living inside of their own home country.

That is a lot of people traversing into other countries around the world! Through terrible circumstances including war and religious or ethnic persecution, not to mention significant poverty, the people of the earth are on the move.

God’s Heart

God has a heart for the immigrant and the refugee. The displaced people of the earth have a special place in God’s heart and God routinely commanded his people, the Jews, to welcome the foreigner, showing love to the foreigner, even if they weren’t of Jewish background and religion. Here is an example of God’s command to his people:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19

We also have the story of Ruth, who was herself an immigrant as a Moabite woman returning back to the homeland of her husband’s family. She was welcomed, along with her mother-in-law Naomi, and protected by Boaz, ultimately becoming part of the Jewish community, even though she herself was from another nation.

And we can see that Jesus himself was a refugee. Joseph, his human father, at the direction of the angel who told Joseph to flee from Bethlehem when Herod gave the order to kill all of the baby boys two years and younger, took Jesus and Mary to Egypt where they remained until after Herod died and the danger to Jesus’s life had ended, they returned back to Israel where Jesus grew up in Nazareth.

The Boundary Lines are Moving

As the Apostle Paul was preaching in Athens, he said something very interesting to those in attendance at the Areopagus that day, something that I believe we can connect to this discussion about reaching immigrants and refugees. Here is what he said:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

Acts 17:24-27

I want to focus on the second half of what Paul says here. He explains that God marked out the appointed times in history for each of the nations and that he also marked out the boundaries of their lands. And there was a specific reason for this: Through these times in history and through these boundaries, the people would seek God and find him.

But what does this mean? How is it possible that appointed times and boundary lines could be a means through which the people of the nations could find God?

God has always worked through his people on the earth. The scriptures talk about the fact that the people of Israel were God’s chosen people. They also had boundary lines to their land, the land of Canaan that God promised to Abraham and was finally fulfilled when Joshua took the people of Israel into the land. The boundary lines that were set up for God’s people to be connected to those around them, and ultimately to the rest of the world, allowing the people access to know God through his people.

So what about the immigrants and refugees? How does what Paul says connect to the situation that we find ourselves in today? Paul explained that there are appointed times and boundary lines for the nations. Is it possible that this is an “appointed time” for the nations? Or that God is using newly drawn boundary lines for the people to reach out to God and perhaps find him?

I believe that the answer to that question is Yes. Why? Because today, as noted above, there are millions and millions of people leaving their home countries to find refuge and a better life in other places. They believe that these are places that they can go to find safety or to create a better financial situation for themselves, but I believe that God has something else in mind. Paul says that these appointed times and boundary lines are intended for a purpose: That the people would reach out to him, and perhaps find him.

Now, I cannot say that God is causing the wars, nor the persecution, famine, or poverty. I don’t believe that. But I do believe that God is using these terrible circumstances such that, as people move, their “boundary lines” are moving as well. Because of the difficult situations that they find themselves in, the “appointed time” for these people is now. Many of these people are moving from places in the world where the Gospel has not been allowed to be spoken into other parts of the world where there is freedom of speech, and where there is religious freedom to choose to follow Jesus – a choice that many of these people have never had before.

A Kingdom Perspective

I understand that this isn’t always an easy conversation, especially from a political perspective. In Italy, Greece, and Spain, there are boats that are routinely arriving from north Africa bringing people from across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. In America, people coming from Mexico and all across Latin America. In Turkey, people from Syria and other parts of the world. And we could go on and on, so I understand that the politics of immigration are difficult with people angry on many sides of the argument that the governments allow the immigration to even take place. There are financial issues, cultural issues, religious issues, and much more…

However, I want to suggest that we consider a different perspective. For those that call themselves Christians and follow Jesus, I believe that we must take a perspective from God. From the perspective of the Kingdom of God, how should we approach the people that are entering into these countries that are receiving the immigrants and refugees?

To answer this question, let’s imagine that Paul is right. Let’s immagine the possibility that God has decided that this is the appointed time for the Syrians to hear the Gospel and come to faith in Christ. Or that this is the time for the people from Afghanistan who have moved into other parts of the world. This is the time when God wants to change the course of history for these people, so as thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of these people move into other locations, into countries where they have the opportunity to hear the Gospel and become a disciple of Jesus Christ, even repeating it to their friends in family members around them, or possibly to people even back in their home countries through telephone or internet networks… Could we imagine that, for those of us who are living in these receiving countries, that God wants to use us to expand his Kingdom amongst the people that haven’t heard the Good News before?

I believe that this is precisely what is happening, that this is an historic time where God intends to bless those who are hurting. It may be that they will be blessed with a new country, a new home, and a new place to live, but most of all, I believe that God intends to bless these people with his presence, bless them with the knowledge of his love for them, a love that he has already demonstrated through Jesus Christ. This is the time that God wants to use this movement of peoples to bless them. As God’s people, those that have been adopted into his family through the grace and mercy that has already been extended to us, let’s not miss this important time in history when God is working and is calling all of us to work alongside of him!

Categories
Stories from the Field

It Was Her Chance

Last week, we met to read and discuss the scriptures with a group of friends made of multiple countries including Africans, Americans, and South Asians, all of whom are seeking to follow Jesus, although each in different stages. Some were believers, others coming from Muslim backgrounds who have not yet fully decided to follow Christ.

In this particular meeting, we were reading about the sinful woman who entered into Simon the Pharisee’s house. She had been crying, wetting Jesus’s feet with her tears, wiping them clean with her hair, and pouring alabaster perfume upon him. It is clear from the story that this woman felt the weight of what she had done, the sins that she had committed, and needed forgiveness. She came to Jesus because she knew that he could give that forgiveness to her. If you want to read the story, you can find it in Luke 7:36-50 or watch it in this video:

In the course of these groups, we ask simple questions to start conversation amongst the people in the group. Questions such as…

What do we learn about God?

What do we learn about people?

How can we put what we have learned here into practice in our own lives?

As we got to these last couple of questions, there was a lot of conversation around the room, bouncing from one person to the next, but then suddenly, out of nowhere, and having said almost nothing in the conversation previously, one of my Muslim friends says…

It was her chance…

I turned to him quickly and asked him to repeat what he said, and he said it again. It was clear that he wasn’t sure what to say next so I didn’t press him further at that point, but he clearly understood. He knew that this woman knew how sinful she was and that now was her time to come to Jesus, bowing at his feet in repentance, yet also in a worshipful way. He recognized that this was her time, and we are praying that he also recognizes this same time has come for him.

All of us have points in our lives where we need to make decisions. This woman was making decisions based on the holiness of God and the holiness of the life that Jesus was calling her to live. Do we also understand the holiness of God and consider our lives in that light?

This woman came before Jesus in repentance and worship. Do we also bow our knees and come before him in tears asking for forgiveness for what we have done?

We are praying that our Muslim friend will find Jesus in this same way. We pray that he will come to him in recognition of Jesus as both his lord, whom our friend must follow and do as Jesus says, as well as savior, who offers complete forgiveness for his sins, making him clean.

Thank you God for this amazing gift! We pray that many will follow the example of this woman, bowing their knees in repentance and worship of Jesus.

Categories
Making Disciples

A Strange Type of Evangelism

In Luke 10, we see Jesus send out his disciples. Very often, we find that Jesus does his ministry work in a way that is different from how we might think to do it, but this story is a strange one indeed.

Reading through the story initially, it appears that Jesus is sending his disciples out to evangelize within the towns where he is about to go, putting into practice many of the things that he has been teaching and showing his disciples as they have been following him. But is that truly what is going on? Let’s take a look at the story and see if we can determine what Jesus is doing here.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

Luke 10:1-11

If you would like, you can also see the story (although all of the way to verse 24, not just verse 11) in this video:

OK, so let’s take a look at what is happening in this story and see if we can ask a few questions that will help us to understand what is happening.

What is the first commandment?

Jesus is sending the disciples out to all of the places where is about to go. But after they get into groups of 2, what is the first thing that he tells them to do? He tells them to pray. They are supposed to pray for workers to go into the harvest field.

But wait a minute… Where are these workers supposed to come from? Remember, there are no other workers at this time. There are no pastors. There are no evangelists. There are no missionaries. And yet Jesus tells them that they are supposed to ask the Lord of the harvest for workers.

Obviously, Jesus isn’t speaking of a harvest of plants or grains. He is talking about a harvest of souls, of people who will believe in him. But workers are needed to collect and bring in the harvest, so this is the first thing that Jesus wants them to do – ask for workers!

What should they take with them?

At this point, the disciples are completely dependent upon the words of Jesus, and for their physical needs, the provision that they may receive from the people that they will stay with when they arrive. They don’t have a specific place that they are expecting to go yet. Instead, they are supposed to take nothing – no purse, no bag, and no sandals. They will just go and everything that they need will be provided for them.

Who should they speak to?

OK, here is where I think that the story takes a turn and becomes a little difficult to understand, especially if we aren’t sure what Jesus is doing. Who should they speak to on the way? No one. Jesus tells them that they shouldn’t even greet anyone on the road.

When they arrive in the town where they are going, how many houses should they go into? One! Jesus says that they shouldn’t move around from house to house.

So we at least have to ask the question… What kind of evangelism is this? If you are evangelizing and telling people about the Kingdom of God, aren’t you supposed to tell everyone? Shouldn’t they be stopping everyone on the road? Shouldn’t they be going from one house to the next, telling every house the message?

Jesus decides to have his disciples do evangelism differently. He says that they should offer peace to the owner of the house and then stay there, if the owner will accept them. But why? Why just stay there?

Return to the beginning of the story

Let’s not forget what Jesus told his disciples to do in the beginning. The first commandment is that they are to ask the Lord of the harvest – God – for workers for his harvest field. We also said that there are no other workers at this time, so if there are going to be new workers, the workers must come from the harvest field.

In this situation, the harvest fields are the towns where Jesus is sending his disciples. And the workers that Jesus tells his disciples to ask for are those with whom the disciples will be staying.

Our lesson

So often, as we think about evangelism, we might get a picture in our minds of famous evangelists such as Billy Graham, Charles Spurgeon, or Jonathan Edwards. In these scenarios, though, we see one person preaching the Gospel to hundreds or thousands of people at one time. We see people repenting and coming to Christ to be saved. And this is good!

But we can also lose sight of one of the most important parts of evangelism. We aren’t just supposed to be looking for new believers. We are supposed to be praying and looking for new workers. The work of the ministry isn’t supposed to just be formed around us. It is supposed continue to spread as one disciple makes a disciple of another.

Let’s think again about the situation with the disciples that Jesus sends out. If they were to go from one house to the next, how easy would it be for them to talk to all of the people in that town? It wouldn’t be easy! Why? Because they don’t know all of those people.

But what if the disciples stay there in the one house and speak about the Kingdom of God, healing the sick as they do to help the people and confirm the message of the Kingdom? If they do this and the people in that house then tell others what they had heard while the disciples were there, how much greater would the effect of their work be?

I believe, therefore, that the lesson for us is that we must also pray for workers to be sent out into the harvest fields. As we look around us for new disciples, sharing the Gospel with others, we must remember that Jesus is calling us to not only find new believers, but to find new workers.

Categories
General

What is My Role in the End Times?

Over the last several months, especially during the time of the pandemic starting in early 2020, and even more as governments around the world have issued “Green Passes” for vaccinations, a common topic of conversation amongst Christians that we have met has been the End Times, the time of the end of the world as we know it and when Jesus will return to fully establish his Kingdom.

This conversation comes up on a weekly basis, if not even daily. Typically, my goal in these conversations, as well as in this post, is not to try to determine whether or not these are specifically the end times. It may be, and it may not be. Honestly, I don’t know. But either way, whether Jesus is returning very soon or it will still be yet some time, I think that there is a question that is more important for us to consider:

What is my role? What should I be doing?

Why should I consider my role?

There are many people who seem to believe that their role is to point out all of the ways that the Bible aligns with various “signs” that they see around them. Facebook posts are frequent in these days:

Another earthquake today… Jesus is returning!

A tsunami… The end is near!

There is evil in the world today… The people’s love is growing cold – just as predicted!

The UN placed a statue in front of their building… Have you seen a picture of this statue? It’s from Daniel 7!

And beyond this, some of the first questions that I hear from Christians to others is whether they are vaccinated, some even going as far as to proclaim that they won’t be vaccinated because it is most certainly… the mark of the beast!

But are these really the things that we should be spending our time talking about? Is this what Jesus told us to do?

I would like to suggest that, if we are spending our time sounding the alarm as I have given in the examples above, we have probably lost our focus on the things that Jesus has told us to do.

What did Jesus say?

Jesus’s disciples asked him about the signs of the end times, and you can find Jesus’s response, which includes his thoughts on what the disciples should do, throughout Matthew, chapters 24 and 25. But if we focus on the first few verses of chapter 24, I think that we can get an accurate summary of what Jesus expects his people to do:

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:3-14

So based on this passage, what do we see Jesus saying that he expects his disciples to do?

First, let’s look in verse 4. Jesus says, “Watch out that no one deceives you…” In this particular place, he speaks of false messiahs, although later he also speaks of false prophets. In any case, it seems that the first thing that Jesus wants his disciples to do is to not be deceived. They should know their messiah’s voice, that of their King, and know the difference between it and someone else’s false promises.

Next, let’s look in verses 9 through 13. Jesus says that his disciples will be hated, betrayed, persecuted, and even put to death, but he says that despite the wickedness around us, we must stand firm, and if we do this, we will be saved. Jesus is saying that we must remain firm in our faith, grounded in what he has said, remaining faithful to who he is, continuing to glorify him even in the face of evil.

And finally, in verse 14, Jesus says that the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. At this point, Jesus doesn’t directly say that the disciples must go and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, but who is he speaking of when he says that it will happen? He is speaking of us, his disciples! So, since that is the case, Jesus is telling his disciples that we should be preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to all nations. Do we know what that is, and how to preach that Gospel? Are we crossing national, racial, linguistic, and cultural boundaries and sharing it people from other places as well?

My Role

So if we believe that these are the end times, then more than anything else, and certainly more than propagating alarmism to those around us, we must:

  1. Stay vigilant and ready for the times that are coming.
  2. Remain connected to Jesus – our one and true Messiah – in prayer and reading God’s Word.
  3. Remain firm in our faith.
  4. Have a new urgency in telling others from all nations the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Categories
Quarterly Goal Setting

Goal Setting in Q1 2022

Home and Family

Prayer and Bible Reading

Generally speaking, I start each day with a time of personal prayer and reading the Bible. Then, during the week, Monday through Friday, our family will typically read the Bible, and pray for about 30 minutes while we are in the process of eating our breakfast. Then finally, also during the weekdays, we meet as a team for about 1 hour of prayer time, whether it is a time to meet at our team’s Center or through a prayer walk that we typically do on Friday afternoon.

I think that the primary wildcard in my time with God is in my personal reading and prayer. I am generally consistent in having the time, but the amount of time can fluctuate. In this first quarter, I want to develop a practice of reading and praying for approximately 45 minutes prior to starting my day.

Exercise

I need to find consistency in taking time to exercise. At this point, I am 47 years old, and while I am generally “fit”, I can feel in my body that I have less room for being nonchalant about even a relatively moderate amount of exercise. My goal for this quarter is to develop a routine that I can do at least 3 times each week.

Sell First Bike

In the latter part of 2021, I proposed to Evan that he learn how to have a business. He has shown an interest in having a business in the past and I have wanted to teach him some of the basics.

At the same time, Evan is also good with his hands and likes to learn how things work. He has shown some interest in helping at the bike shop in the Help Center, so we bought a used, but nice, mountain bike and then bought an electric bike conversion kit and have mounted the kit on the bike, creating a very nice e-bike that we are hoping to sell for about €2,000, which would give us about €500 profit to split and then put back into the business for the next build. My goal is to help Evan to sell this first bike in this first quarter of 2022.

Date with My Daughters

I want to continue to develop my relationship with my daughters. It isn’t always easy to do so as we have differing interests, but I want to continue to pursue them. My goal is to have a date with each of them in Q1.

Rough sketch the calendar for the year

As usual, there is already a lot being planned for the year, and I can feel the pressure of the mounting requests coming, so I need to soon start “calendaring” the year, looking at those things that I already know are priorities for the year and placing them on the calendar early in Q1 so that I know how each of the priorities will be assigned time and will take priority in my life.

Below are some of the items that I already know need to go on the calendar. I’m sure that there will be additional items!

  • Northern Italy church planting network retreat
  • Search Party Italia retreat – early Q4
  • Fundraising trip to USA
  • Trip to Rome

Take test for patente

I have been working on my patente – “driver’s license” in Italian – over the last year using an online app. It has been a challenge to learn both the terminology and the laws in Italian, but I need to finish my theory test and move on to the practical driving exam. I want to complete the theory test in Q1.

Making Disciples

In addition to regularly scheduled meetings with individuals, both believers and non-believers, as well as scheduled training and coaching meetings, here are my goals for Q1:

Complete Italian translation of Four Fields training course

Last year, in conjunction with my teammates, I was able to develop an online Four Fields disciple-making training course in English. We now need to translate the course to offer it in Italian. It is underway already after having finished the previous course. My goal is to complete the translation and post the course on the Italian training site in Q1.

Search Party website Italian translation

Similar to the above goal, my desire is to begin writing in both English and Italian, posting the articles on the Search Party website. To start, though, I need to translate the existing site into Italian so it can be more easily accessible to Italians who don’t read English. I want to complete the translation of the English-based website into Italian in Q1, setting myself up to continue writing in both languages afterward.

Meet with each of the pastors in Missione Agape churches

Missione Agape is an Italian non-profit organization based here in Catania. As a team, we have become a part of the organization, allowing us to be in relationship with multiple churches in the area. Our desire is to mobilize more people within the church to share the Gospel, make disciples, and even plant new churches. We have already shared the overall vision for making disciples and planting churches in a recent board meeting, so now my goal is to meet with each of the pastors and leaders in each of the churches to share the vision individually, offer the Finding Your Purpose in God’s Plan course, and ask them to consider starting a new group to go through the Four Fields Training course.

Start new regular rhythms for Tuesday evening training group

We have had a Tuesday evening training group over the last 6-8 months that we have been meeting with on a regular basis. There seemed to be interest among the group when we last met in mid-December to continue to meet, although with those in the group either bringing along others or taking what they have learned each week to another group.

My goal is to start a weekly rhythm of meeting once per week on Tuesday as a 3/3rds Group and then have a separate time during the week to go out for Gospel sharing and disciple-making work.

Start first mission in residence group

I have been working with some members of a church in Tremestieri Etneo who have expressed an interest in starting their own group like the one above. My goal is to start this first group in Q1.

Categories
General

The Birth of Our King

Each morning, our family reads the Bible together for about 30 minutes while we drink our coffee and eat breakfast. This week, leading up to our Christmas celebration, we have been reading a few selections from the Old Testament, working to understand together how God planned to bring the Messiah to the earth.

This morning, we took some time to think about the situation in Israel as Jesus arrived into the world.

First, we saw that Herod was the king in Israel, although underneath the authority and power of the Roman empire.

The emperor of Rome at this time was Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar. He infamously and routinely referred to himself as the son of a god, as Julius Caesar, his adopted father, referred to himself as “divine”, meaning that he was not just human but a god.

I wanted to note this with my kids primarily to help them understand that the world, not altogether unlike aspects of our world today today, claimed a sovereign status, if not also going so far as to consider themselves a deity, a god.

So with this in mind this morning, one of the scriptures that we read was Psalm 110. For reference, here is that Psalm:

The LORD says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”

The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning’s womb.

The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek. ”

The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
He will drink from a brook along the way,
and so he will lift his head high.

Psalm 110

This was a Psalm written by David, but what does this have to do with Christmas?

In this Psalm, we can see that David says, “the Lord says to my lord”. By this, he is saying that the Lord, meaning God, makes a declaration to “my lord”, meaning someone who is greater than David, the king of Israel.

The most interesting part is what the Lord says. He says that this person is to sit at God’s right hand until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet. God is putting this person in charge as the King over all things, over all of heaven and earth! God will even put all things in order such that the enemies of this person underneath him and he will rule them.

If we skip forward, we then see that the book of Matthew shows how Jesus fulfills this prophecy as being a royal son of David from a human perspective. Here are the first 6 verses of Matthew 1:

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of King David.

Matthew 1:1-6

We can see that Matthew is placing an emphasis on the fact that Jesus comes from the lineage of King David. This is important because of the promise that God made to David:

Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

2 Samuel 7:16

Obviously, God isn’t saying that David will live forever. Instead, he is saying that his kingdom will endure. His line will live on and on, ruling and reigning over all.

This is why, therefore, it is important that it is understood that Jesus came from David’s line. First, Jesus is established as King from Israel in the line of David, having come from the genealogical bloodline of David. And second, Matthew establishes that Jesus comes directly from God as well:

and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

Matthew 1:16

But then shortly after, we see that Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, but instead Jesus was conceived within Mary by the Holy Spirit:

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 1:24-25

If we look back at the Psalm that we originally started with above, we can see that the prophecy of the King and his Kingdom are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is a King in both an earthly sense in that he comes from the bloodline of David as well as a King in a heavenly sense in that he comes also from the “bloodline” of God.

This year, as we celebrate Christmas, we want to remember that we aren’t just celebrating the birth of a baby. We aren’t just celebrating one that would one day save us. We are celebrating the birth of our King. Jesus came to establish his Kingdom, re-establishing God’s reign here on the earth. This is what the birth of Christ means: the birth of our King.

Categories
Making Disciples

Am I Good Soil?

I have frequently heard people speak about the parable that Jesus told, recorded in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, about the four different types of soil. Here is what Jesus said, as Matthew recorded it in chapter 13:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Matthew 13:3-9

Among those that I have heard speak about this parable, the “good soil” is typically referred to as those who believe in Jesus and follow him. But I think it is important to examine this a little further to see if this actually is what Jesus is saying.

Four Different Types of Soil

In this parable, the seed is the Word of God, or the good news of the Gospel, which is being scattered by a farmer so that he can produce a crop.

Meanwhile, the four different types of soil are the people to whom the message of the Word of God is coming.

The first type of soil is the hard path. This type of soil is pretty obvious. These people simply do not believe and the seed never enters into the soil. The seed never even germinates but instead is left outside, sitting on top of the soil because of the hardness of the ground. Jesus says that the birds come to eat it up, which he later says is the evil one, or Satan, coming to take away the seed that has been sown.

The second type of soil is the rocky soil. This type of soil actually receives the seed, the seed germinates, and the plant begins to grow. However, at a certain point, the plant stops growing because of the rocks within the soil, preventing the roots from growing deeply into the ground. Jesus says that when the sun comes out, the plant withers, meaning that this type of person will fall away from their new faith because of troubles or persecution that have arisen as a result of their new faith.

The third type of soil has weeds and thorns. Again, the seed actually does germinate and takes root. The plant even begins to grow but because of the weeds and the thorns crowding the plant, the plant eventually dies. Jesus says that, in the life of this person, the cares of the world take over their life of faith. The weeds and thorns are things like money or success, or even commitments that crowd out the person’s time and opportunity to spend with God.

Finally, the fourth type of soil is the good soil. This soil is characterized by growth of the seed into a plant. But not just one plant, but instead a crop. One seed produces thirty plants, or sixty plants, or even one hundred. Jesus is referring to a spiritual process of growth and reproduction because this person has truly understood the seed of the Word of God that has grown within them.

What Does This Mean For Us?

I think that there are at least three things that we can take away and learn from this parable.

First, as I mentioned in my last post, we must sow seed broadly. As we do this, though, we must expect that there will be several different types of responses, both initially as these individuals receive the Word of God, but also differences in responses over time.

Some people will not believe at all. Some will believe but will fall away because of trouble or persecution. Others will shrivel and die in their faith as a result of the cares of this world crowding out their faith. And still other people will both believe and go on to be fruitful and produce a crop.

The second thing that I want to note here is that there are three different soils – or three different types of people – that believe. The second, third, and fourth soils all believe. They all receive the Word of God, they all germinate, and they all begin to take root. For us, in a practical way, this might mean that these people have all believed in Jesus, have possibly been baptized, and could also be a regular part of our church services.

We can easily understand from this parable that Jesus is only referring to the good soil as the correct example, the example that is doing what he wants and what is right in the Kingdom of God. And so this leads me to the final thing that we can learn:

Being good soil does not just mean believing in Jesus. Instead, it means that we produce a crop. Jesus is saying that one seed is sown, but from that one seed, a crop is produced: thirty times, sixty times, or one hundred times what was sown. Jesus is saying that the good soil is the one that does what the plant should do. It should reproduce. As the plant matures, it sows its own seed. It produces a crop. It produces a harvest for the kingdom of God.

Practically Speaking

Given this, we must go back to the title of this post, and each of us ask ourselves:

Am I the good soil?

Am I being the good soil now?

Am I sowing seed broadly?

Am I working to find those who are this fourth type of soil, helping them and teaching them to follow Jesus so that they can reproduce and become the most fruitful that they can be?

Categories
Making Disciples

Sowing Seed Broadly

Jesus’s disciples asked him why he taught the people in parables instead of speaking to them directly and in a way that would be more plain to them. Jesus explained that the secrets of the kingdom of God were meant to be given to the disciples, but not to the rest of the people.

As believers in Jesus, we are called to make disciples. And as those who make disciples, we should pay very close attention to these parables because many of them speak to how Jesus thinks about the way that the kingdom of God grows. If Jesus is speaking about the way that the kingdom grows, and making a disciple is the growth of the kingdom, then these parables should have a direct impact on how we are making disciples.

Today, I want to look at one of my favorite parables from Matthew 13, which you could call the parable of the sower or possibly also the parable of the four soils, and make a simple observation that I think that we can use in our disciple-making work.

Let’s start with the parable itself:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Matthew 13:3-9
(Read the whole chapter)

Observations

Let’s break this story down quickly into a few observations:

First, there is a farmer and he is sowing seed in an effort to produce a harvest.

We see that the farmer sows a lot of seed, but he does so pretty indiscriminately. He doesn’t seem to care too much, upon sowing the seed, where the seed lands. He doesn’t create rows or try to place the seed in precise locations as you might think a farmer would do.

The seed, in fact, lands on hard paths, on rocky soil, and even in the midst of thorns.

Only some of the seed lands on the good soil where it can produce a crop.

What is this farmer doing?

OK, so there are several things that we could say about this story, many of which we will cover in future posts. But for now, I want to make one simple point: The farmer is sowing the seed very broadly.

Jesus told his disciples that this is how the kingdom of God works. He spoke of a farmer who sowed seed that lands on hard paths, in rocky soil, and amongst thorns. He isn’t being careful to put the seed in specific areas. He isn’t even trying to prepare the soil in advance of sowing the seed.

I’ve heard stories in the past and retelling of work for the kingdom of God where people have said that they were working in hard soil, or soil that was so rocky that they had to go in and remove the rocks before the seed could be sown. Some people even said that they were “tilling” the soil.

But in Jesus’s description of the sower, you don’t see any tilling of the soil, nor removing of the rocks, nor uprooting of the thorns, nor and weeding of the ground prior to sowing the seed. This farmer just sows the seed.

How do we apply this parable to making disciples?

While this may not be a great plan for agricultural efforts, Jesus really isn’t talking about growing plants. These are the secrets of the kingdom of God. Jesus is talking about how God’s Word and the Gospel must be sown among all different types of people without regard for whether or not we believe the seed will grow in that particular person.

God is the only one who can germinate the seed of the Gospel within the person that has received the seed. God is the only one who can make this seed take root and come alive as a new plant. We must not predetermine whether or not a person is ready for the Gospel. That isn’t our job. Our job is to be the farmer and sow the seed.

The farmer in the story didn’t wait until he thought the time was right to sow the seed. He simply sowed it. He didn’t try to figure out if the ground was ready to receive it to grow and produce a crop. He simply sowed the seed. If the time was right and the ground was ready, the seed grew and produced a crop. If the ground was not ready to receive the seed, then it didn’t grow.

In this story, we are the farmer. We must sow the seed of the Gospel broadly, doing our part as sowers of the seed and allowing God to do his part to grow the seed into a crop of plants.

So here are some questions that we can use and ask ourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us in our answers:

  • How broadly have you been sowing the seed of the Gospel?
  • How much seed have you sown recently?
  • Have you been trying to find the right soil in which to sow the seed? Why is that?

Now that you have considered these questions, consider what God may be asking of you. Is there anything that needs to change? What specific actions does God want you to take at this time? When will you put those changes into practice?

Categories
Prosperity Gospel

The Prosperity Gospel and Joshua

One of the scriptures that our Nigerian friend suggested was proof to God’s desire to make us rich is in the beginning of the book of Joshua. Here is what it says:

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Joshua 1:8

Specifically, of course, he was focusing on the idea that God tells Joshua that he, or they, would be prosperous and successful.

OK, so with that in mind, let’s take a look at the context of what is happening here in the first part of this book of Joshua.

We need to start back with the blessing of Abraham. God sent Abraham from the land of Ur – roughly just inland from Basrah, Iraq today – to the west, ultimately to the land of Canaan. God promises this land to Abraham, but we see that there are several steps that the people will go through before they will fully, as a nation, come to rest in the land of Canaan.

Abraham will be the father of Isaac. And Isaac will be the father of Jacob. God gives Jacob the name Israel and through an amazing series of events with his son Joseph, Israel and all of his sons end up in Egypt, fleeing from famine.

Over time, the Israelites grow in numbers while they are still there in Egypt and the Egyptians become afraid of these people. As a result, the Pharaoh of Egypt enslaves the Israelites and they remain there for 400 years, just as God had told Abraham would happen at the end of Genesis chapter 15.

God then calls Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, which he does. In this process, Pharaoh is also destroyed as he chases the Israelites into the Red Sea as they are leaving and God releases the water of the Red Sea, wiping out the Egyptians and his armies.

God is now ready to take the Israelites directly into the promised land of Canaan, but as he leads them up to the border, the Israelites hesitate. They are afraid and aren’t sure that this is the right move. They think that they might be killed by the “giants” that are in the land, the people that are inhabiting the land at this point. Moses hesitates and doesn’t enter the land as God told him to do, so this leads to God sending them back into the wilderness for 40 years until Moses and an entire generation dies.

And so with this background, we now come to the time of Joshua. The book of Joshua begins by saying that Moses has now died and God begins to speak to Joshua telling him to be strong and courageous and prepare to enter the land of Canaan, to finally carry out the commandment that God gave long ago but Moses hadn’t fulfilled. And what’s more, to finally fulfill the promise that God had given to Abraham centuries ago.

But they wouldn’t just be walking into the land, having obeyed God by crossing the river. There was still a lot of work to do. And when we say “work”, we’re actually talking about war. Joshua would lead the Israelites into battle against one city or group of people after another. For years, they would be at war, taking the land and destroying the various groups of people that are in the land.

With this context, let’s now think about Joshua 1:8 and its promise of success and prosperity in a better light:

The Long Journey

First, we can see that this is no easy path to riches. The people cannot simply say, “Yes, I believe in God” or “Yes, I am reading his word” and expect to be rich, as many seem to think after they read this verse. Instead, we see a significant process that lasted centuries that even led them through slavery and punishment that brought them to this place, again on the precipice of entering the land.

After that, the Israelites must go to war to be able to take the land. They are going to lose their men, their brothers, their loved ones. It will be bloody and hard-fought, and it will take years.

So, do you think that God is setting you up for an easy life of riches and success? Hmm… tell that to all of the ancestors that went before you in slavery and war! God has been promising blessing for centuries from the time he first spoke to Abraham. He will fulfill his promise, but he hasn’t ever been talking about just making them rich, and he definitely didn’t leave this verse in the scripture so that we can “claim” it and believe that, by doing so, we would become rich ourselves.

Success and Prosperity

From the time that I write this, we have been in Sicily for about five years. We certainly have more money than some, but also quite a lot less money than others. But I don’t think that is really the point as we talk about the words success and prosperity.

I would look instead to my family as an example. When we initially moved to Sicily, we all found that living here was very difficult. We were consistently frustrated because we didn’t know the language or the culture. We had a hard time finding someone to help us with things that are very simple.

But over time, we learned. Our kids went to school and learned the language. They began to learn how to interpret gestures and ways of saying things. Some things that previously offended us, we began to have an appreciation for as we understood more of the background and the reason why the Sicilians were doing what they did.

Now, if you look at my family, my hope is that you would say that they are “prospering”. Not in the sense that they are becoming increasingly wealthy but instead in the sense that they have made a life in Sicily. They know how to live here, how to communicate, how to interact. They can move within the society and within the communities that they flow in and out of. We have friends amongst the Sicilians. We have friends amongst the Africans and other nations. In that sense, I believe that my children and my family as a whole is prospering and is successful.

Is it possible, then, that this is another way to consider and define the word “prosper” as it is used in Joshua 1:8? Given the context of what it is saying, I would suggest that my way of defining prosperity is much closer to the intent of that passage. God tells Joshua to keep the Book of the Law on his lips – or among those in the Israelite community, I think we could say – and meditate and do what it says. And then, if they do that, then they will have success and will prosper.

What are we talking about when we talk about the Book of the Law? We’re talking about the laws that God gave to Moses. This is not a book of commerce. It is not a book about investments. These commandments in this book of the law is about loving God and loving other people. If God’s intent was that they should be rich, I would imagine that he would, instead, give them a book that talks about how to get into business and make a lot of money. That’s not what he speaks to them about…because that is not God’s intent when he says that you will have “success” and will “prosper”.

Meditation and Obedience

There is one more thing that I think is worth mentioning about this scripture. It is extremely important in the context of being quoted as a “recipe” for success and prosperity. God tells Joshua that he must speak about, meditate upon, and obey the Book of the Law. The commandments that God gave to Moses, the people must teach and do. Knowing the commandments, or knowing that they exist, or even just reading them…these are not the things that God says that Joshua must do.

Instead, God wants his word to become an integral part of the community. These things should define who the people are. God tells Joshua that, if they want to prosper and succeed, then obedience to his word is essential. Only through this meditation and obedience can the Israelite community love God and love one another, creating a community that will truly prosper.

Categories
Making Disciples

Remain in Me

A few years ago, we met together as a team on a retreat outside of our city. A friend came to help guide the team through a series of discussions, several of which were challenging because they were touching on some of the points where we hadn’t yet agreed and confirmed together how we would work together as a team, something I had hoped we would be able to dig into during our time at this retreat.

I don’t precisely remember how we ended up in the topic, but toward the end of the meeting, our friend who was leading the meeting asked how we were doing in prayer as a team. We sort of all looked at each other and described how we found it to be challenging to find a specific time to meet together and to coordinate schedules amongst all of us, but we definitely wanted to do this more. But we knew we weren’t doing very well in this area of our lives and our friend who was leading said something simple along the lines of, “Well, I think we found our next steps for the group.”

He was right, but it was difficult to hear. For myself in particular at that time, I was supposedly leading the team, but in addition, this was supposed to be the core to who we were as a team, people who led others to follow Christ, but we didn’t have a great practice in how we were doing it corporately ourselves. There could be a lot that we could say about why that was, but after removing all of the excuses, the truth was that we weren’t really doing what we would have hoped that the people we were working with would do.

I’m thankful to say that has changed. A small group of us have decided to meet daily during the week for prayer and encouragement, whether in our regular meeting location or out on a prayer walk in public, praying for others on the streets.

I don’t know very many other situations nor other teams very well, but I have a sense that this is a common need amongst many groups. Whether they be ministry teams or just families and friends, we have a need, before all other solutions, to remain connected to Jesus. Not in a flippant, “Yes, of course that is important…” kind of way, but in a “Yes, this is what we are doing to remain in him…” kind of way.

In John 15, we see Jesus having an intimate discussion with his disciples shortly after the Passover dinner. The time was short as Jesus will from this point, within the next few hours, be arrested, beaten, and hung on the cross.

Yet Jesus teaches them that they must remain in him. Here is what he says:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15:1-8

As we think about our lives in Christ as individuals and our role in our work as a ministry team, it is very important that we remember that all things begin with Jesus as the lifeblood in all that we do. There is no replacement for our time and connection with Jesus.

Jesus essentially begins by saying that God the Father desires that we bear fruit. But if we as the branches do not bear fruit, he will cut us off from the vine. Even if we do bear fruit, he desires that we become even more fruitful, so he will prune us, guiding us so that we will become more fruitful.

Next, Jesus says that he has made his disciples clean but as his disciples, we are to remain in him and he will remain in us. If we do this, then we will bear fruit. But if we don’t, we will not be able to bear any fruit at all!

Jesus knew that his disciples would soon no longer be able to see him face-to-face, so how would they remain in him? The answer is that they must do it the same way that we must also do it today. We must spend time with Jesus in prayer, take time to worship him, read the Word of God, and otherwise find ways to spend time with him, asking him what he wants in each situation and listening to what he has to say.

However, experientially, I can say that this doesn’t “just happen”. We get caught up in daily life. We have things that need to be done. Family time, work and all of its pressures, errands, activities, and even time to rest…and before you know it, all of the time is taken and gone, leaving you hoping to do better tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.

So, both for us as individuals as well as for us as ministry teams who are making disciples, I believe that we must schedule our time to spend with Jesus, remaining in him through scheduled and intentionally set times. Apart from our times with those we are ministering to and working with, we must read the scriptures, pray, listen, and align ourselves with the will of the Father, using this as a base from which we continue throughout the rest of the day, remaining connected to Jesus as branches connected to the vine, bearing fruit because the life of Jesus flows into us and through us.

So the question I want to ask is this: When is your scheduled time to spend with Jesus? Which days? What time? Individually? As a team?

Jesus explains that, if we remain in him, we can bear fruit. In fact, he says that we can ask anything in his name and it will be done. This happens because we have remained connected to him. His lifeblood runs through us. His words abide within us. We are connected to him so we understand his will and what he wants to happen, and this allows us to ask him to move and work and change things amongst us.

But if we are not connected to him, we can’t do anything. It was true of his disciples at that time, and it is true of us also today.

I know that all of us desire to bear fruit. It is the reason that we are doing what we are doing. It is the reason that we have rearranged and reconfigured our lives to do what we are doing today. Our desire is to bring glory to God and Jesus says that we will bring glory to God when we bear fruit. But the only way to bear fruit is to remain connected to the life that Jesus gives to us. Just as a vine gives life to a branch and allows it to bear fruit, Jesus gives life to us and allows us also to bear fruit in our lives.