What’s Missing in Discipleship Today

Please listen to this excellent discussion by Tim Keller, Don Carson, and Stephen Um on What’s Missing in Discipleship Today 

Keller talks of the importance of lay a good God-centered foundation. “There was so much background we assumed the culture did for us that discipleship was almost like a finishing school. Now you can’t assume that kids coming up have any of the basic intellectual furniture of even believing in an absolute right and wrong.”

Every person and aspect of the church needs to be involved in discipleship. “I don’t think you can just have a class anymore. You actually have to think of every single thing you do in the church as formative, everything—your worship service, the preaching—it’s going to take everything.”

Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...."

How Porn Is Sidelining Missionaries

"Porn deconditions us for missions. It sidelines us when the nations need us."

Please read How Porn Is Sidelining Missionaries

Titus 2:11-12, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age."

Here are some quotes.

A newly married couple was "excited to finally have that coveted green light from God to engage in physical intimacy. Three months into marriage, however, the man became disinterested. He couldn’t engage in real intimacy because he’d trained his body to enjoy its fake substitute. His soul and body had been conditioned to prefer the screen over the real thing."

But grace is stronger. Jesus frees the captive soul and expands narrow borders of self-love. Grace instructs us to “deny godlessness and worldly lusts” and reshapes us into a people “eager to do good works” (Titus 2:12, 14).

These unharvested fields need good laborers who may labor long and never see the fruit of their labors.

Porn uniquely undermines patient endurance in gospel endeavors.

It’s hard for someone confessing porn consumption to look you in the eye.

The Son of God became a man so you would find a sympathetic high priest who never turns a cold shoulder to struggling saints who plead for help (Heb. 2:17–18, 4:14–16).

Why do the innocent suffer?

Jesus might have said, "Look at me. I am the ultimate sufferer. I'm going to go to the cross, even though I don't deserve it, even though I've lived a good life, and on the cross, I'm going to experience ultimate derision. I'm going to experience insecurity unto death. I'm going to experience the absolute rejection of my friends. I'm going to experience government-supported violence. I'm going to experience utter hopelessness, the wrath of the universe, the wrath of God. It's all going to come down on me, and I'm going to do it so that someday I can end evil and suffering in this world without destroying you. I'm going to do it to pay for your sins." Tim Keller

1 Peter 2:22-23, "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly."

Nobeyama

For our 20th wedding anniversary Naho and I went to Nobeyama.

Near Yatsugatake (and Kiyosato)

Time of reflection and reading.

Steak at "ROCK"

Visiting a photo gallery

The area is known for it's farming.

"Naho, thanks for the 20 years!"

Churches Are Growing on the Arabian Peninsula

“It’s not like anyone engineered it. I think the Lord honored the regular means of grace of evangelism and discipleship and preaching.”

Read more: The Arabian Peninsula has never been an easy place to live.

Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Generosity in Scarcity

Listen to Generosity in Scarcity, Tim Keller

Here is some of it.

You should give sacrificially, you should give joyfully, and you should give graciously. You must give and connect that giving to the gospel. I only have what I have because of the unstinting generosity of God, the grace of God, and therefore, I give, radically, this gift to him. If you’ve actually experienced his grace, if you know his love, if you dote on him, if your heart rests in his grace, you will love to give. On the cross, Jesus Christ had everything taken away from him to pay for our sins, to save us. Jesus Christ gave to the point where he lost this life! He lost his life for you. Whenever I see somebody who grasps the grace of God, the costly grace of God in Jesus Christ, it changes your heart so you can give sacrificially and joyfully. See, anything you really, really love, you always have to stop yourself from spending. If you are shaped by the grace of Christ so much that you give radically and joyfully, then your money becomes a form of grace because your money keeps ministries going, which liberates people spiritually. Your money helps the poor and the aliens and the widows, which liberates people physically. Look at what Jesus Christ did by giving himself away. Father, make us a generous congregation. Make us generous people.

Habbakuk 3:17-18, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation."

Prayer in the Book of Acts

”Kingdom-focused prayer is the Spirit-enabled reverent cry of God's adopted sons and daughters, seeking their Father's glory by persistently asking him for other nations, their promised inheritance."

Please listen to Prayer in the Book of Acts by Steven Childers.

"They continued steadfast in prayers." Acts 2:42