Discipleship

A pastor at my church and I were talking about discipleship today.  He and I agree that this is one of the deepest needs in the church today.  He had been to fantasy football the night before and these guys there could name the top 12 quarterbacks in the NFL and give you every stat on their lives but they cannot name the 12 disciples of Jesus.  There is something broken in that.  We talked for a while about what the church should do to change that but we didn’t really come to a conclusion in the end. 

 

I think most pastoral teams would try to find human answers to this problem.  I don’t blame them.  This is their job and they feel responsible so they want to DO something to fix it.  Practical minds devise practical solutions.  “If we have a study plan available for them” or “we teach them how to study the word” or “we need more classes” are the suggestions that come out.  I’ve been right there with them time and again suggesting things myself and getting excited about what we were going to accomplish, and without fail, I have been disappointed.  Yes there are some success stories this program will touch this person and that one that, but the change in the culture of the group cannot come that way. Programs or classes or challenges from the pulpit can do very little to change this reality in the church. 

 

The problem is not ability or even time although I promise both of these will be thrown up as excuses.  No, the problem is very simple and very powerful it is a lack of desire.  When the masks are dropped away and the truth is revealed the normal everyday guy does not want to study the Bible or pray.  They have no desire to really run after God.  They may say that they do, they may even work themselves up into doing it for a while but the truth is they do not.  I hear the Lord in Jeremiah 2:13 calling the Heavens and Earth to bare witness, they have been given the opportunity to drink from the fountain of living water and they have chosen the broken cisterns!!!!

 

I am indicting myself here!  I am guilty!  I choose brokenness over the water of life everyday in little and large ways. 

The problem is desire.  So what do we do about it?

Make it known that HE is the most desirable reality in the universe!  He is the most enjoyable reality, the most satisfying reality, the most soul thirst quenching reality in the universe!  In truth he is the only desirable, enjoyable, satisfying, soul thirst quenching reality and when our hearts know that, FOR REAL everything will change. 

 

Oh God! I repent of my cold heart!  Let me taste and see that you are GOOD!  Teach my heart that you are the only air for my asphyxiating soul!  Let all the other lovers fade away before the fire of your Eternal beauty and Glory.  Satisfy me in you forever.

Amen