Quick Conversations on Making Disciples

Jenny: a 22 year old woman working in a Japanese company. She has made her co-worker a disciple and her 3 brothers and her mother.

One Sunday we’ve baptized 5 college girls and we’re having dinner together as our Lord’s Supper. “So, have you made any disciples yet?” I asked.

“Two.” She replied.

“Did you baptized them yet?”

“Yes. This week.”

“How did you made them? Can you tell us your story?”

“We are sharing each other’s experience about our boy friends,” she started, “and she realized something different inside me so I told her that I am a disciples of Jesus.”

“What is a disciple?” My friend ask.

“‘Well, this is my life before,…’ I shared to er my old life story.” ‘And this is my life now…”

“I work time shifting, so there are several breaks for taking our meals and snacks, so every day we have 30 minute talk. Next day I was surprise when she ask me: “Jenny, can you make me a disciple?”

“I did and that night at her boarding house, in their comfort room, we fill up something with water and dunk her.”

She shares this story in front of about 20 saints in the table while having our dinner.

 

Gather, Kill, CAST

Jesus said, “Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He will send laborers into His field.”

In an Apostolic Hub, there are three things that is happening: gather, kill and cast. Basically it’s the spirit of God initiating it. Whenever people wants to follow Jesus He basically do these three things to them. He would ‘gather’ them to Himself, then He will ‘kill’ them. “In our churches we gather them,” says Wolfgang Simson, “but who kills them?” Means, making them a disciple. Denying one self to follow Christ. Then after killing them He ‘cast’ them out to the world to make more disciples.

Jesus didn’t use the word ‘send,’ He will be too kind to His disciples then. Instead in Greek He uses the word ‘cast’ as in literally like casting out a demon out of person.

Having thought of it, I found it interestingly challenging. “Sending” would basically means, they are prepared, that is you train them enough to send them out in the field. But “Casting” it isn’t. You are just prepared yourself to be surprise by what God can do through His own ability in you and other disciples. Obedience is crucial when it comes to literally obeying His commands. Many Christians wanted to safely that they need to figure out things before they actually do it. That’s not only make ‘God’s surprises’ absence in the situation but also it’s an unhealthy way of trusting God. The Bible says ‘not to lean on our own understanding’ when it comes to ‘trusting God.’ Again, we don’t trust Christ ‘alone’ but a ‘lot.’

So, not wanting to delay your excitement, here is a story of Albert and other 7 other ‘new’ disciples being ‘cast’ out to the other island of Cebu. Click the link below to get into Albert’s site.

http://albertpacquiao.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/weather-is-not/

Enjoy,

molong

 

A talk over coffee this morning…

She said to the three of them: “Be baptize so that you will be saved.”

“We wanna see him so that we will be baptized too.” They said.

A conversation between the four of them: Albert’s mom Auling, and her three grand nieces who visited at her house.

They were talking about Albert as he is their ‘favorite boy’ when he was young. “Even his grand mother ‘liked’ him, it’s the reason also that she willing to be a disciple of Jesus” Auling said, when Albert shares the Good News. “How did it started, why are you’re talking about baptism?” I ask Auling. “Why are they interested about baptism?” It was 8:42 in the morning as I penned this down, December 4. Just a couple minutes before we had coffee under the tree sitting at my children’s table.

“Their interest started when I said that I don’t go to church anymore.” She said. “We had also talk with my mom about it [Albert’s grand mother who was just baptized by Albert]. She don’t go to church [Catholic Church] anymore because Albert told him that we can worship God at home.” Her mom suffered with arthritis, constant coughing, and some pains she’s 81 years old.

Whenever we visited the family in the mountain I always found Albert and Jomie praying for people there [without asking my permission] either in the kitchen or in the balcony. Albert’s grand mother is always one of them to get prayed for until she was made into a disciple of Jesus one day, after Albert’s mom was made that midnight! “My mom said,” she continued, “the pain was no more, my toes are great, I am healed.” Auling is just talking with me without hesitation. Just that.”

“‘It was after I was baptized.’ My mom said.” Auling continued. Stories are amazing you know, especially when it’s about life that was change by the Holy Spirit. As we don’t do meetings, but we do meet a lot because we’re a family. Without any “Bible Study Meetings” nor “Prayer Meetings” but Bible discussions and prayers happen as we do things together – it’s playing life together.

One of the hardest thing for me to do nothing is when I said to God, “Lord, I am tired of follow-up and visitations and having schedules. I have been doing that almost every day before, it is what I love doing. But I know I cannot schedule you, you are life itself. So what should I do?” I know one thing to do is to stop doing what I have been doing, I am just so tired of it. I even hated it at times. I said to myself, “What is a ‘follow up’ and a ‘visitation for’ if a person is my brother or sister? How can I ‘maintain through meetings[?]’ with my brother when he is already my brother?”

A ‘follow’ up of what?

A ‘visitation’ of what? What for?

You are already my brother. You are already my sister. Should I maintain of ‘something that would stick as together’ you as my brother/sister? Churches are good at this, they are using their ‘endless weekly meetings’ either in buildings or houses, it does really where is the location. Church is not where we meet but where He lives. Instead of using their ‘relationships’ in which God designs….

[Ophs, for awhile...my 22 months son just came up crying calling my name, “Papa, papa,....brom brom, brom brom.” Taking him for a ride on my bike with my other two daughters.]

Alright, I’m back and back is important.

So, instead of using their relationship in which God designs to build up His Family, they are using other life-less means machines to create programs to maintain people. Jesus defines His ekklesia as ‘hundreds of mothers, brothers and sisters and houses,’ not ‘hundreds of cousins and relatives and hundreds of ‘Christian neighbors.’

As my Dad in the Lord, Mike Peters would say, “Church is not a building, but it’s people. It is not only the people but their relationships.” See, many house churches today have people with their endless meetings, but no relationships. They have not become a family to each other. They cannot even name four people to watch their kids on a weekend when they the needed to get out. They have become a ‘meeting-based’ church rather than a ‘family-based.’ Another Dad of mine Gary Goodell says, “If you want to be family then you’ve got to stop doing meetings. If you keep on doing meetings, you cannot be family. Families don’t do meetings, but they do meet a lot.”

Saying this means, shallow Christianity replaces ‘family relationships’ with having ‘meetings.’ I am not ‘against’ meetings by saying so, I am ‘for’ something by doing it. ‘Meetings’ and ‘gatherings’ have their place but until we are ‘assemble’ together [Heb.10:24-25] no one would the real picture of a church on earth. A puzzle may be gathered but not assembled. To expand the Kingdom of God is to extend your family. That’s the picture.

Trusting God means obedience to what He has called us to do. “Molong, if you want to taste the fullness of the Holy Spirit then you’ve got to trust Me fully.” For my sake, I didn’t have most of the cell numbers of the disciples to ‘follow up’ of their lives. All I am anticipating is God’s surprises simply because you cannot plan God. That means stories like these.

Well, let’s see where’s this stories going on…but I am excited. There might be some ‘burials’ today or tomorrow. Who knows?

When a 17 yo makes 5 disciples!!!

It was our break time, when my friends Rhea, Joanna,  Jana and I were talking, and discussing about our project. Afterwards, when everyone was silent and we had nothing to say, Rhea opened up a topic, she shared to us about her family, their ties, and how her mother and father met, and many more. After hearing her stories, the silent mode was back. Her story gave me an opportunity to make them disciples of Jesus, since I knew them, and  I was pretty sure that they trust me. Why I was so sure about it? Simply because they listened to me every time I gave them some advises, and not just they listened, they also did what I told them.Before the three of them were fun of drinking liquors outside the school premises during class hours, and not thinking that what they did is not good to them as a student. They even don’t care what others might say every time they were caught doing such thing. But that bad habit was gone when we became classmates and became good friends. I told them, what they did was not good, and it was just a waste of money to their parents, sending them in school , expecting them to learned more and attended the class attentively but on what they did, their parents wont be pleased to hear about it. They must change their habits because if that bad habit will continue, it might destroy their futures, and at the same time, the trust and the expectation of their parents to them. They listened carefully to what i said, they were like a small children nodding their heads while saying, “You are right!  We will swear we will not do it again” they said. While I was like an old grandma, scolding them and giving them advices. they thanked me for what I did, their eyes was opened and realized that what they did is wrong. And that’s how our closeness has started. We ate together at lunch, we shared each others secrets, and we built trust to each other. That is why i have no doubt in making them a disciple of Christ.

“I am going to make you a disciple of God.” I said to them.

“What is a disciple of God?” Rhea ask.

“Being a disciple is following HIS footsteps, and commandments,” I said. “Do you believe that you were already saved, even before the day you were born He already died for your sin?”

“No! I don’t believe God has saved me already, because I know from the start that I am a sinner, everyone is a sinner,” Rhea honestly admitted her condition and certainly was right about her observation, “and every seconds I know I can commit a sin. and how could you see that I was or we were already saved?”

“As we know that the wages of sin is death, but because of God’s great love to us, instead we all gonna die because of our sins, HE never let that happened, He sent His only son Jesus Christ to be crucified just to saved us. And this all happened two thousand years ago, now that’s even before your grand mother was born! “And all we gonna do is to believed that He already did pay the penalty of our wrongdoings. God has saved us already from death! Death is dealt with on the cross. We have to believe this and so can follow the commandments of God.”

Every one’s thinking was on the air, it sounds so interesting for them and wondering where’s this conversation going to? Jana finally have her thoughts put on the table, “How are we going to do that? Are we going to church every Sunday?”

“Going to the church-building every Sunday is not needed, because we are already the church. The church is where the Holy Spirit of God lives, and he lives in us. The church referred to us – the disciples of God, and not the building that every one had to go every Sunday. Why not we just pray at home, spending time with our family and discussing together the words of God that has written in the bible, sounds great?

“That sounds better than going to church every Sunday and go to the confession box for the forgiveness to our sins, in that very building we can also commit sin afterwards, right?’’ Rhea agreed.

“Yeah right! I experiece the same thing! Joana speaks out, “Every time I went to church and saw someone wearing seductive dress I think very badly. So, by not going to church anymore is all we gonna do to follow Jesus?”

“No, that’s only a part of it, you also have to repent of your sins and renew yourselves by baptism.”

“What do you mean baptism? Jana ask, “like what the priest did when we were a child?”

“Sort of, but now you are going to be baptize because you believe that you are a sinner and you are willing to leave your sins behind and make a new life with Jesus. When we were a child we don’t even understand why we were baptize right? We do not even know that we were a sinner. It was just a tradition then. Biblical baptism that God requires occurs when a person is willing to die and rose again and follow the commandments of God. And if you are willing to be buried with your sins and rose to a new life you will begin a new life-journey with God, you need to be baptize.”

“We are willing to be baptize and when should we do that?” they inquire.

That very day, they are willing to change their life-style, so a few days after they were baptize at the ocean not far from our house.

We’re all school-mates, friends that have become family of God, my extended family in school. We meet together as a family spontaneously.

Death, Faith and The Kingdom – p2

Death is the prerequisite to acquire faith. Death is man’s choice, it’s voluntary. Anyone who wants to be a part of The King’s Kingdom must deny himself, align his life values to the King’s uncontested rule. Faith does nothing to dead people except to raise him from the dead, but has something to do when he will be raised – dying ‘daily.’ Faith let’s you do something what you do not like to do, not what you want to do nor what you want to get. Most of the time we impress people by our faith by the wrong things – how we got our house or car by our faith, mostly not to encourage them by our faith but to make them jealous of the things we now have, using ‘faith to acquire.’ I mostly hear people talking about: “God blesses me with a new car.”

Mostly I replied directly, “Really? How about those who don’t have it? Are they cursed if we are defining ‘faith as a license to get?” We even measure our faith by the things we receive or not receive. It’s faith by ‘calculation’: Faith plus our way of doing it equals blessings. We live in an age of consumerism – even our Christian brothers acquiring things they do not need to impress people they do not like. And they call it having faith – to acquire. Where is this in the Bible?

Faith does not give you permission to do what you like to do but to do what you should. This is not manipulation by faith, but power!

Jesus, the Son of God, clothed with human dirt, suffered, died, to the ‘point of death!’ “Let this cup pass from me,” He cried with sweat blood in the garden, “but not my will be done but yours.” Let God’s will be done on earth – Jesus fulfilled it in His life here on earth even to ‘the point of death.’ He voluntarily ‘gave’ his life. No one ‘takes’ His life, not even God because He ‘gave’ Himself up. He lays down His life for His sheep [Jn.10]. It’s how he got His Kingship. There will be a time when King Jesus will return in His body on earth then those who didn’t give their lives voluntarily, those who didn’t align themselves in the King’s rule – their lives shall be taken by force! Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

For now, while it is still called ‘today’ it’s your choice to recognize that you’re dead because of your sin – no Kingdom faith at all. Faith in God is given you know – only to dead people. When you realize this what sort of faith that you’ve got is maybe not faith at all.

Baptism is called Burial of self. A unsaved person needed to realize this if not then any kind of baptism does not make sense to him. Our sin does not only killed Jesus, it has also killed us first, right from the beginning we are all dead in our sin. Eph. 2:1: you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That’s why to enter into The King’s domain baptism is a sort of ‘initiation’ to one-self, but unlike any initiation of any group or fraternity, it is not force, but voluntarily. Jesus warned any violent people who ‘take the kingdom by force’ He never endorses it.  Being born a second time is prerequisite to enter into The Kingdom of God [Jn. 3] but before you will be born again you need not to enter into your mother’s womb but into God’s womb – born not of human will but God’s – through death to yourself, your old man, your old ways. Just as Jesus died you also died with Him in baptism, just as He was raised from the dead, by God, you also raised to new life. See, Jesus Himself gave up His life to death, not force, but voluntarily gave it, none takes it. It is God who raised Him from the dead, He became the Author of Life – he who looses his life shall find it!

Back to faith that it does nothing to kill you, to kill yourself is voluntarily aligning your values in the King’s command, but it does something to raise you from the dead, not ‘repair’ your life, sorry, God has no human shop – sadly, our churches is like a ‘machine shop’ – keeping the machine going through their programs by their money in their own ways to maintain the status quo of their product. When you rise up in that water of baptism, you are born a ‘second-time, alive in Christ, then it is where you can truly ‘live by faith.’

 

Death, Faith and The Kingdom

“It is when our struggles stops that we lost the battle.”

“It is when we lost trust to ourselves that God can start trusting us.”

Here are the quotes that I got this morning while a pastor friend of mine shares his journey from a multi-million peso, 4 big companies, built the biggest power plant in china, lighted the whole Vietnam after war, building a couple of power plants in Hong Kong,consultant and engineer by profession, imagine a 70,000 peso [$1,500] he spent a day, a father of two, their weekly groceries alone cost 30,000 peso [$800], and guess how old is he that time? 32. He is 53 now and in the service of the community around his church.

‘Dying’ is certainly costly, death to the identity that the world gives you. Death to the destiny that your profession dictate to. For all this man has in the world started on his 20′s, at age 32 as he was sitting on his office staring that heaps of paper works – God speaks to him. He was just a plain member of a church in Manila then.

“Are you happy with all these things that I am allowing you to handle?” God said.

“Lord, you have given me so much but deep inside my heart you know that you know that I am not happy at all.” He replied, “what do you want me to do.”

“Leave…everything.” God said in his mind.

He obeyed the voice, close down his 4 companies, paid all 4 presidents, staffs, lock up the office, and leave the next decision what to do about his office facilities to the building owner. “I could have sell it of up to 700,000″ he said. [$18,000]. Paid all bank debts, even leaving his own house, and live in the slum area in Manila, serving the people in 5 communities for 5 years – trusting God ‘alone,’ not a lot for his family and two kids to provide every need.

“God is cleansing us” he said. Their daily food in every meals has to come from God – “we depend on God to knock on our door and hand us some food like sardines, corn, etc through His people in the community” he said. God did.

What interest me as I and another two woman heard his story was that how one of the woman exclaimed in awe, “You have such great faith!”  in which I was totally not in tune with what she gets. I was focusing on his ‘dying’ side of his story rather than his ‘faith.’ Yes, he has indeed have great faith in which most Christians around can just have it but live totally ‘living on their own turfs.’

Yes, one’s faith in God pleases God, [without faith it is impossible to please God] but if we look at Hebrews 11, you will see these ‘hero’s of faith’ died without receiving anything to what they had faith for. Moses did not get into the promise land, the prophets were persecuted and killed, Jesus Himself in spite of being a son suffered, even what He want to happen in the Garden of Gethsemane – let this cup pass from me – He didn’t get it! So, what kind of ‘faith’ are we talking about in most Christian circles today?

Most Christians want something to happen but refuses to change. Church leaders want revival to happen in their neighborhoods but refuses to align themselves with the King. And so trying to make that revival happen in their own ways in their own terms.

I believe ‘death to self’ is a prerequisite to ‘ true faith.’ Change is costly. Change requires leaving something old behind and press to something new. The Bible says that we have to ‘put off the old man’ and ‘put on the new man.’  As Wolfgang says, “Cleaving requires leaving.”

To get into a church membership might need just someone who believes in God, makes God one’s savior. But to enter into His Kingdom, His domain takes death to one’s self. Death to one’s ambition, death to his own secured identity, as The King in His Kingdom puts it plainly – “a disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily.” Paul, an apostle died ‘daily.’  It is interesting when Jesus and the apostles when talking about ‘death to self’ it didn’t say, “It can be repaired!” The old man has to die to give way to the new man to live. The cost of ‘being’ a disciple is not about ‘doing’ what a disciple does. What can a dead man do? Christianity today thought about serving God more by doing more as if God needed anything. It remains a fact that our Maker made us human ‘beings’ not human ‘doings.’ When we are dead to ourselves, not only God can use us. But only then God will give us our divine, [life destined by God] to us.

Gabriel, this friend’s name is, says, “Only then I realized that I cannot trust myself anymore.” We seek God’s work to fulfill His work instead seeking His ways and watch Him work. His intent for man to enter into His Kingdom is to die once so that He will be born twice [John 3]. A man who is alive to his own ways, uses his logic and intellect – no wonder God uses the fool to shame the wise – to do God’s work, such a mindset cannot be discipled – it must be killed!

Faith is not useful for those who are alive. What is faith for, is it not to raise the dead? Look at the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 37, he raised the whole army of bones and enlist them for battle. Simply a believer of Jesus does not make you a disciple. Being a disciple requires death. A believer ask for ‘discounts’ – get the lowest fee to get God’s blessings – but being a disciple is no choice. Either you lose your life to get it, or live life selfishly and lose that life ultimately.

“You have a choice.” A friend’s advice in the Wolverine movie, as he is planning to take revenge. His reply is a stunning statement: “Mine is taken.”

What is the option of a dead person? Dependent to the One who has the power to give life. Except the Author of life, King Jesus must raise him first, put on God’s faith in him and cast him off to go make more disciples for His Kingdom, he remains dead meat, stinky. That’s why Paul says, “I no longer live but Christ’s lives in me.” One who live lives for his own, simply exist. But one who is dead cannot live on his own, does not live on his own, lives for nothing – he was raised from the dead, has given new life not for his own but for the one who gives it.

A disciple who knows that he’s not living for himself but for His King, when encountered by persecutions, trials and struggles does not care anymore [- as my friend Gary Goodell says, "if it still hurts then you're not dead yet" -]  it doesn’t matter. Why? It is not about me, I, myself, nor you, you know, it’s about The Kingdom!

UPDATE 9-11

Hi, this letter was intentionally sent to you. You have subscribe to my site.I felt to do it this way: letting you know our ‘update’ – what’s going on with us here with confidentiality, except whoever you feel God would lead you to share our faith to.

What’s going on here is so fragile, that honestly, we are very cautious now to receive friends around the globe and nationally. Many have heard about what’s going on here and express to see it. Unfortunately, others are wanting to become a part of it by ‘adding’ something, in all honesty, they took advantage of us. It makes us grieve since even us could not even find one hint to be a part of the glory.

One thing for sure before I elaborate the things that takes place here in Cebu, as you receive this ‘update’ – though with ‘confidentiality,’ you are of course very welcome to be a part of us as me and my wife and the family here knows you. Either we have meet once or more or the way we correspond each other have built such enough relationships and trust over the years.

I trust you and want to affirm, that as you receive this, we receive you as our family in Christ, a part of our extended family.

“You are interrupting me Molong.”

Amazing how we can do something without God’s Spirit leading us!

In the process of making disciples the way God does He has already challenged me right from the beginning. I am so tired of following a pattern, a model, whatever. Although, I want to see something new but still I thought that this ‘new’ would still came from other people’s thoughts and ideas. So much a human could do without God – not only that we’ll miss the point [that's it's all about Him] but also in danger of loosing lives just because we interrupted Him!

To my surprise He said, “Molong, if you want to taste the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you have to trust me fully.”

Weakly Meetings v/s house-to-house

We do things together, being church as a family, live from house to house. No buying and selling but giving and receiving – shared everything in common. At most, that’s whats going on as we keep going on…

It’s about the Kingdom of God my friend, not so-called ‘house church’ stuff, new style of doing endless meetings. Even if that kind of style who won a Grammy Award Winning type of church could not compare how the early church meet from house to house – they do not live in community – there is only one kind of church – a hundred fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. It’s how Jesus defines it!

It’s not about having meetings with people but their relationships – look how they love one another! I always say this: there’s a big difference between ‘talking about life’ together in meetings once a week and ‘doing life’ together in a daily basis from house to house. My goodness, how can you have a schedule having Bible Study when you can just sit down with me having coffee every morning and discuss the Bible? Simply because you live next door to me.

A brother who says, “How was your wife? How was your kids? blah blah blah…?” Simply because he’s not seeing you and your family in a daily basis. Let’s say, about teaching and correction and rebuking? One guy trying to teach me and correct me – my reply? “Hey brother, where were you yesterday hey? And where will you be living tomorrow?”

Living house to house like in the NT way, is not a principle to follow – sorry, that’s just the result of who they are and what they are made of! – new creations born from above, loving and caring for one another. 58 one anothering in the Bible, how is it possible to do that? Simple, change your priority – live next door to each other.

Living together doesn’t make you love one another as quick as you can- as iron sharpens iron- the crook of the matter is their relationships. It is when we disagree and still together [forgive one another], it is when people around us will trust us. “Look, how they love one another deeply!”

As the Wolf says, “They may hate one another yet still love another.”

Or take heed what Gary Goodell’s advice: “If you want to be family then stop meeting. You cannot be family by having them.”

Recently, one of the new disciples here comment, “If there is a meeting then, it is not family.” I look at her in the eye and thought, something that has captured her being – family.

Or as Mike Peters says, “The Great Commandment is really just helping one another how to love Jesus more and how to love one another more.”

If there is a kind of ‘ministry’ that you need to be focusing, specialize on this!

 

 

 

A Story from the Field

“Helen, there are people who you can be with, people who you can work with, and people who you can build with. You must learn this or else you be wasting most of your precious time to nothing.”“Really, hmnn…..” she nodded her head. “And who are those people who I can build with?” She eagerly wants to do something with my statement.

“Look for people who believe in you, trust you and loyal to you. When I started this, I jot down all the friends I have including those that are in my family circle. At first I got around 30 names, on this lists I found 8 people who believe in me, trust me and loyal to me. The second thing I realize is that these 8 people that I pick out are younger than me. And this is very important, because there is fathering and mothering your next generation.”

“Do you mean, my child?”