The Girl with a Broken Heart

Ministry, similar to life change, happens one story at a time. A story of relationship. A story about a long talk. A story with tragedy and tears. A story that happened this week.

One of the things I love about working with students is that almost every week there is at least one or two students that you get to have a real-life conversation with. Now every week I spend a lot of time building relationships with students and talking about their lives, but these conversations are different. These are the times when the real feelings, questions, or pains are brought into the open.

I talked recently in Impact about how every decision and action are like seeds that we are planting in the garden of our heart (I made sure it sounded less HGTV and Hallmark Channel when I explained it to them). When we make decisions we are slowly changing our heart for better our for worse. We have the choice to allow the Holy Spirit the open door to help our lives look more like Christ. I gave the students the opportunity to respond and decided whether or not they wanted to make the commitment to daily making decisions that would change their hearts to become a reflection of Christ.

After the talk, a student came up to me with tears in her eyes and began to tell me about her broken relationship with her mother. She feels ignored by her mother. She eats most dinners alone after her mom makes food for her and then heads into her bedroom. She was heart broken because she felt worthless to her mother.

I told her how sorry I was that she had to go through that. We talked about how we can't control other people's choices, but we can control how we respond. When we are hurt or attacked it's so easy to lash out. But, planting those seeds of encouragement and love will bring about healthy fruit, definitely in your own life and possibly in the lives of others.

It was a great reminder for me. I can't control what others do, but I can control my response. Do my responses plant seeds that will help me grow closer to Christ? Or will they lead to a cold and bitter heart?

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 

- Luke 6:43-45

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Take an honest look at your heart, what seeds have you been sowing with?

Are you happy with the way your heart looks?

What would you like to change? How could you sow some seeds to transform your heart to look more like Christ?

The Faith to Go Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Beth and I went and saw, Salmon Fishing in Yemen on Sunday night and we were both pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed this film. www.fishingintheyemen.com

It's the story of two people, Fred, a British government employee who specializes in fisheries, and Harriet, an associate at a finance firm that handles the assets a wealthy sheik, who are living average and predictable lives when they are presented with the opportunity to do something amazing and 'theoretically possible'. They are asked by a wealthy sheik to find a way to supply a river in Yemen with salmon due to the sheik's love for salmon fishing. 

Within the movie there is a great dialogue about faith. Fred's character is very logical and factual. Everything has a probability, a reason, and a scientific explanation. He very clearly states that he is not a religious man. The sheik is the opposite of Fred and asks him how he can not have faith and yet be a fisherman. The sheik reminds Fred that sometimes while fishing you spend hours and hours without a bite. Such a waste of time based on the amount of the return. It doesn't make sense factually or logically. But yet, the fisherman keeps fishing, stays in the water or the boat because he believes there is a reason and the promise of something worth waiting for. Fred concedes that it doesn't make perfect sense, but doesn't have a good reply and instead simply states that he disagrees with the sheik.

Hebrews 11:1 says, Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. 

Life rarely makes sense. Everyone is dealing with broken people, emotions, situations, and many other things that have been robbed of their original purpose by sin. We will never see the whole picture in this life. We won't always be able to logically explain why certain things happen. But faith, that's what separates Christians from the rest of the world. Faith in God. Faith that what He says is true. Faith that we can rely on Him and His authority, no matter what it costs us.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 

- 1 Corinthians 13:12

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What part of your life just doesn't make sense right now?

What role does faith play in how you react to that uncertainty? 

What role has faith played in your decision making in the past? What have been the results?

The Gift of Questions

What are you good at?

^{What do you love to do?}

^{What kinds of tasks and projects get you excited?}

^{These are questions that I have asked myself over and over again since high school. Which is evident by the fact that I changed my major four times in college.} 


Some people go through life without really asking themselves these questions. The majority of people on this planet don't have the luxury of shaping their lives based on their answers to these questions. For most Americans, we can. We have the ability to shape our careers, hobbies, or lifestyles around our answers.


Answering these questions helps reveal the gifts and unique personality traits that we have been given by our heavenly Father. Once we identify our gifts, we have the opportunity and responsibility to use them to be a blessing to others. 

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

- 1 Peter 4:10

When we are given anything by our heavenly Father, we are to use that to be a blessing to others. What a great way to bless others! Doing what you love. 

I love teaching. I love studying a topic and communicating to others what I learn. When I have the opportunity to teach, I need to do my best in order to be faithful to what God has called and gifted me to do. 

I also love the phrase, 'whatever gift'. Your answers to those three questions isn't what matters, what matters is that you use those abilities and passions to show God's grace and love to others. 

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How are you using what you love to do to serve others?

Have you thought about the lives that haven't been able to experience God's grace because you haven't served in your area of gifting? 

Immerse

Learning Method #3: Immerse

This is the last of three learning methods we have been looking at this week. We have been looking at these learning methods specifically within the context of discipleship, but they apply to so much more than that. If you missed the first two posts you can read number one, Inform, here and number two, Intertwine, here.

When was the last time you were a stranger some place? Or perhaps you were a date at a wedding and you knew no one else beside the person you came with. When was the last time you were in a culture you had never experienced before? 

I remember when I was in college I went to a local college group at a church and I remember feeling like such an outsider and it seemed like I was such an inconvenience to everybody else there because they had to include me in their conversation. I will never forget that feeling. I have tried my best from that point on to make sure that anybody who comes into a new environment or community that I'm a part of, I will make sure they know they are welcomed and wanted. 

That's the core of this learning method. You encounter new things, go into new places or cultures and you learn from those experiences. It's ideal when someone else can walk you through what you learned and help your process the feelings, thoughts, information that went through your mind. Basically a debriefing time.  

Here are some creative ways you can immerse yourself for the sake of learning. 

Community:

• Serve a meal at the local mission
• Kalamazoo Gospel Mission - www.kzoogospel.org
• Volunteer at a community organization
• Kalamazoo Deacons Conference - www.kzoodc.org
• Kalamazoo Youth for Christ - www.kalamazooyfc.org
• Kalamazoo Juvenile Detention Center
• Merge Mentoring
• Big Brothers Big Sisters - www.bbbs.org
• Alternatives of Kalamazoo - www.alternativesofkzoo.org
• gracespring Volunteer Central Page - gracespringchurch.org/serve
• Incredible new resource put together by Pastor Jeremy and his team at gracespring

Global:

• Go on a short term missions trip
• Be proactive about a global cause
• Active Water - www.activewater.org
• Passion Conference's fight to end global slavery - www.ijm.org
• Support a child
• Compassion International - www.compassion.com
• Vision Trust - www.visiontrust.org

Family:

• Volunteer at a nursing home (some great places listed at gracespringchurch.org/serve)
• Make crafts
• Sing worship songs or Christmas Carols
• Play Bingo!
• Rake some leaves\shovel snow for shut-ins\elderly
• Bake cookies for public safety officers

Jesus sent the disciples out on their own in Luke 9, they came back and reported what happened. They debriefed. Jesus immersed the disciples in something they had never experienced before. 

How are you immersing yourself as a disciple of Christ? 

How are you and your wife immersing as a couple seeking to honor Christ? 

How are you leading your family into situations where they are getting immersed? 

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Luke 9:1-2

I have many more thoughts about immersion, and if you would like to know more, shoot me an email at petebehindthetweet@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

Intertwine

Learning Method #2: Intertwine

As we strive to be lifelong learners of Jesus we need to be informed (read that post here), and also intertwined with other learners.

"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding." 

- John 2:1-2

Being intertwined with other learners means that every one involved must be willing to open up their lives to someone else. You're allowing someone to come in to the house of your life and look around. You are living life together for the purpose of learning from and encouraging each other.

Below are ideas for how to intentionally intertwine your life with someone else's as an individual and as a family. 

Word of Caution: As a discipler (this is not a word…but let’s pretend it is) and as a disciple, you need to establish boundaries. Each idea below is merely a suggestion. If you are uncomfortable with people coming over to your house or traveling with you, that's totally fine.  You need to establish those boundaries early on so people understand. Some boundary areas to address are, house visits, hours spent together in a given week or month, times of day it's ok to call just to say hey, length of time together (we all have other things that need to get done). 

With that being said, I'm excited for you to live out the ideas below with others. Intertwining my life with other people has been the most enriching experience of my life. Beth and I love being part of a community of believers who are striving to honor God with their lives. 

·          Ideas for disciplers to do with disciples (man-to-man, woman-to-woman, parent-to-child):

• Take them to get groceries with you and make their life the focus. Ask questions.
• Have them help you with your kids.
• Invite them to go to sports games or band concerts with you.
• Ask them to help you out with home improvement projects - yes, they are being asked to do work, but you are intentionally taking an interest in their life and if they want to be discipled, this is part of it!
• Do a service project in the community together. Serving together is a powerful time of bonding.
• Go Christmas shopping together.
• If you need to clean the house when they are over, ask them to help you. Better yet, if you are being discipled ask your discipler if there's anything you can do to help around their house if you're there.
• Invite them to birthday parties - and throw them one!
• Watch major sports events or favorite TV shows together.
• Attend a local theater production together.
• What other things are a part of your daily life that you could invite someone to do alongside of you?
• FOR PARENTS: 
• Establish a rotation of date nights with your kids.
• Play video games with your kids.
• Look at the list above and choose which ones would be best to do with each of your kids.
• Unashamedly intertwine your life with theirs - they will thank you later.

·          Communication Ideas:

• Make sure to send an email or text before a big test, presentation, or meeting.
• Phone call to check in every once in a while. 
• Hand written notes of encouragement - incredibly powerful!

·          Things to do at gracepsring:

• Join a community group together.
• Serve in the same ministry and have a debriefing time afterwards.
• Serve in different ministries and have a debriefing time afterwards.
• Sit together in service.
• Go out for lunch after service.

How are you intentionally intertwining your life  with a discipler and a disciple?

"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."

- King Solomon

(Proverbs 27:17)

           

Learning Method #1: Inform

If you are reading this and you were not at gracespring Bible Church this past Sunday to hear me speak, you will want to read this post to help you make sense of it all.

Learning Method #1: Inform

·                                    Resources:

o   Websites

§ Biblegateway.com – Great way to read the Bible while on a break at work or home.

§  thegospelcoalition.com – Great catalog of blogs, sermons, and articles.

§  gotquestions.org – Awesome website that has an app as well. I agree with 95% of their conclusions, as always, read with discernment.

§  gracespringchurch.org – The parents section of each of the student ministries pages have   awesome resources. 

§  gotandem.com – One of the coolest Bible reading options  EVER developed!

o   iPhone and Android Apps

§  YouVersion – Bible available on                           your phone. Includes reading plans, audio Bible, and personal profiles to track your progress.

§  GoBible – dramatized reading of the Bible

§  Glo Bible – Yes it’s different than GoBible, this one will cost a pretty penny, but great for more in depth study.

§  iDisciple – I actually don’t know if this exists, but it’d be sweet if it did!

o   Books

§  Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden – I read this with Scott McCloughan and used it with a few of my disciples.

§  Crazy Love – Great book about learning how to love others by Francis Chan

§  Building a Culture of Discipleship by Mike Breen – This is written for church leaders, but the first part of the book is phenomenal for anybody and it’s what a lot of my lesson was based on.

§  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller – Life changing book about writing a better story for God’s glory.

§  Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller – Must read for anybody under 35.

§  The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller – Beth and I are reading this together right now and it has been a tool we have used to grow closer to Christ as a couple.

§  What book has really challenged you? Comment below to share with others.

·                                      Ideas: 

o   Individuals

§  Increase your Bible reading by 1 day a week or by 5 minutes a day for the next month and then double it after that.

§  Buy a journal and write out what you learn from reading the Bible, reading a blog, or listening to a sermon online.

§  Pray for 5 minutes right when you wake up.

o Married Couples

§  Start reading the Bible together 10 minutes a day.

§  Read a chapter of a book on your own and then discuss it together afterwards. I wrote about that experience here.

§  Take turns praying at meal times – simple yet effective.

§  Pray with passion and purpose for your spouse – when you pray with them! (Powerfully intimate experience…which sometimes leads to other powerfully intimate experiences!)

o   Parents

§  Create a personal devotions time for your family – find a day or two a week when you as a family can go off individually and do devotions. 10, 15, 30 minutes…doesn’t matter. That part’s up to you!

§  Pray with your children every night before bed.

§  What else do you do with your family? Comment below to share with others.

These are just a few of the resources I love and have learned a lot from as a disciple. Most of these ideas are things that Beth and I have done or are things that I have stolen from somewhere else.

My prayer for you this week is that you get to know God more this week by getting more informed about Him through. 

GO! - It's not an option.

This past Sunday at my church, gracespring, where I am the Assistant Pastor to Students, I had the honor of teaching about Jesus’ commissioning of His disciples in Matthew 28:16-20, before He left this earth. Over the next week, I will be making three different posts that are based on that message. I wanted to give my readers who weren’t there, the backstory of my lesson to help them understand the other posts.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. …”

Jesus commands us to GO and make disciples. This is not an option for Christians. This is a command. We need to get off the sidelines of life and get in the game. This world needs the life-changing message of Jesus Christ and we have it to give!

 

“…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,…”

In order to be out there making disciples, we need to be disciples ourselves. In the Greek, disciple is the word mathetes, which means learner. Simply put, being a disciple of Jesus means that we are to be lifelong learners of His. We should be learning about God so that we can get to know Him better.

“…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. …”

So we are called to go make disciples, we can’t make disciples without being one, so how do we become lifelong learners? Well, I believe that if we combine three learning methods that Jesus used with His disciples,  we will be learning more about God on a daily basis if we make that choice.

Learning Method #1: Inform

This method includes lecture-style learning, reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts, etc.

Jesus Modeled This When: Matthew 5 – Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount.

How are you getting informed as a disciple?

Learning Method #2: Intertwine

This method is very hands-on. It is like having an apprentice, or an intern, or a padawan for my Star Wars friends! I like to define it as intentionally involving someone else in some of your daily life for the purpose of teaching them how to respond to situations.

Jesus Modeled This When: John 2 – Jesus and the disciples go to a wedding together. They are living life together.

Learning Method #3: Immerse

We learn this way by putting ourselves in situations or environments that are new, unusual,  or uncomfortable for us. We learn things we would have never thought about when we purposefully place ourselves in unfamiliar situations. For instance, going on a missions trip to a foreign country, visiting a homeless shelter, etc.

Jesus Modeled This When: Luke 9 – He sent the disciples out to experience preaching the gospel without Him by their side.

Within each one of these learning methods there are a lifetime of examples and resources. I want to narrow it down to a few resources, ideas, and suggestions over the next week. So each learning method, Inform (Monday), Intertwine (Wednesday), and Immerse (Friday) will have a post dedicated to it with a consolidated and creative list of ways to help you be a more effective “discipler" and equipped disciple.

 “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”