What a servant does, a disciple does

Petra — Disciple

Let’s face it, we have all thought of ourselves more highly than we should at one point or another. How amazing to see John the Baptist today in a far different light. I am humbled as I slowly take in his intentional servanthood and his intention to glorify Jesus by lifting Him up.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. – Matthew 3:11 ESV

The idea of introducing the concept of his carrying the sandals of Jesus is straight out of the servant manual. It was a task that was usually beneath a scholar or a disciple to do. In fact, from what I understand, a non-Hebrew individual might be employed or obliged for such work. Yet, here is John, thinking of himself as unworthy, to go lower than low, seeing this as a great honour to serve Christ in this fashion. What humility, what high opinion of Jesus.

And look what Jesus does – He also humbles Himself and comes to John to be baptised. How this one moment in time challenges us to the importance of serving and being discipled. Today, we still practice baptism as something that is voluntary, intentional and public. For me, it is also an important step in making me a disciple of Jesus.

I love the opening line of this verse – repentance. Both John the Baptist and Jesus made it all about repentance – it was their opening message. If I want to be a disciple and if I want to make disciples, I have to understand this message and its priority. It may be safe to say that discipleship does not happen without repentance.

According to the NIV Bible Dictionary repentance is “the process of changing one’s mind…a conscious turning from evil or disobedience or sin or idolatry to the living God…a profound change of mind involving the changing of the direction of life.”

So today I am challenged to the model of John the Baptist and Jesus and to follow them.

Planning, building and designing

Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house. – 1 Kings 7:1 ESV

When I think of the time it took Solomon to plan and build and then design his home, am I amazed how long it takes for me to experience change or to walk alongside someone and see how long it takes them to change? Yes, I am, but I should not be. Growing takes all these three elements and puts them at our feet. With all of this growing one thing is for certain – God makes all things beautiful in His time.

So I need to keep on planning, building and designing until He has finished His work in me and in others. It is a lifetime commitment.

What is it that defeats me?

The questions like this one are laid out for me in Romans 7. There are so many things going on in life, giftings, and personalities that I see that I am unable to master at least one of my known impulses. I am finding myself these days going to those parts of myself and actually identifying what it is that is defeating me. One of those things is the desire for people to truly value me. As I walk with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God through this, I know that my moments of repentance will change me when see this for what it really is. I know that I may not have the victory but the grip will be loosened.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. – Romans 7:14-25 ESV

I believe I am not discipling perfect people myself, rather godly people – those who love God with all their heart and are making it their decision to follow Jesus.

There is no doubt that one of the most discouraging realisations for a new Christian is that they still sin. Too many of us are handcuffed to our past. There is the “tried and failed” look all over us – just look at the stats of life compared to those who do not follow Jesus, especially if we noted divorce, depression and just generally living a dysfunctional life. Unfortunately being stuck in a Romans 7 mindset of inevitable failure does not lead to hope, in fact, too many lose it.

Thankfully, as I look to what defeats me – I have Romans 8 still to read.

Retaining my dignity

In the kingdom of God, I am realising that I am set free to be abandoned to God. Here is a poem from one who sat in prison because of her religious views.

A little bird I am,

Shut from the fields of air;

And in my cage I sit and sing

To Him who place me there;

Well pleased a prisoner to be,

Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

My cage confines me round;

Abroad I cannot fly;

But though my wing is closely bound,

My heart’s at liberty.

My prison walls can not control

The flight, the freedom of my soul.

Oh, it is good to soar

These bolts and bars above,

To Him whose purpose I adore,

Whose providence I love:

And in thy mighty will to find

The joy, the freedom of the mind.

– Freedom in Prison by Madame Guyon

It would appear that she found contentment with the idea that God had placed her there. It would also appear that she retained her dignity there because she kept her connection to God.

Our will and the powers that are associated around it and yield to it, are exercised differently according to the different natures found in us. Our will governs what the outside world sees. It governs our senses and how we do our tasks and keep doing our tasks. It knows that it can disobey and others around it can disobey too. There is the governing of sensual appetite. All, in all, under the will’s control, there is no moral guilt as long as the will refuses to consent to or adopt wrong desires.

These affections or tendencies of the will have four classes in respect to the dignity of their objects. There is an understanding of the natural affections – the first and spontaneous affections. These include our affections for health, food, friends etc. Then there are reasonable affections. These come out of the spiritual part of reason and are expressed as the affections for moral virtues. Christian affections bear truth to revelations such as the affections for poverty, chastity, and even heaven glory. Then there are the divine or supernatural affections which God effects in us. There are three – love for the mysteries of faith, love for the promises of hope and love for the sovereign good which is God.

With that understanding, why do I attack or receive attack at the hands of others? I am evaluated and continue to be evaluated ceaselessly. Is it not a relief to be able to meet people without evaluating them, without sizing them up in some way? I think I can do that in the kingdom of God.

Evaluating

When He Saved Me by The Booth Brothers

One thing I do often is take a careful look at myself and make as many honest evaluations about how I am doing and what I can do to grow. I count on others around me to testify to that growth or to that character flaw.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! – 2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV