Disciples In Deed
Our dear friend and worship leader Sam Parsons who served faithfully with Pete for over 22 years passed from this earthly life and into eternal life with his Lord yesterday. Even though we grieve with his family, we grieve not as others who have no hope for Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life…. Though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Sam was an inspiration to all of us who knew him. His life reminded us of Jehoshaphat, a godly king of Judah. When Judah’s army was surrounded and outnumbered by their enemies, Jehoshaphat prayed to God. God’s answer was to put the choir on the front lines to sing praises to God and God would fight the battle for them.
Sam was a “living epistle,” God’s love letter known and read of all men. Sam showed us how to tune our hearts to God’s resonant frequency….that we could be to the praise of the glory of His grace. His life was an example of the line from the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing: “Tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise.” The praises that Sam led will resonate into eternity. His life was an example of a life well lived. He showed us what it means to finish well for God’s glory.
Quotes about men in our times remind us that reaching biblical manhood is an odyssey that cannot be completed without pain and strife. What a man does with that pain will determine what kind of man he proves to be. According to Romans 5, tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
All men the world over have relationship challenges. As sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, and grandfathers we cannot love until we love from the heart of Christ in us. The challenge is to keep on the narrow way…for Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father except by me.” We’re all on a journey to intimacy with Christ. It’s not an exaggeration that the mess that this world is in is because of the scarcity of godly men who follow in the footsteps of their Lord Jesus Christ.
Many men who profess Christianity are ashamed of the gospel of Christ. When you call a man “man of God,” most men will look away. When you ask him why, he’ll say, “because I feel unworthy. I haven’t done enough, loved enough, served enough or given enough.” A man with a works based understanding of Christianity will always feel unworthy. However, as Ephesians 2:8 says, “for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”
Men who lack confidence in who they are in Christ have proliferated in churches. This type of man doesn’t find his identity in Christ because he knows that he doesn’t perform to the standard of the high calling of God in Christ. He’s given up because he knows that he’s unworthy in his own power to follow Christ.
The challenge is to fight a war worth winning. For we are in a spiritual battle, not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places. Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” Jesus said, “You Pharisees cannot know my Father’s will because you don’t know my Father. Your father is the devil…he is the father of lies and you believe the lies and not the truth.” Then Jesus said to his followers, “if you continue (remain without interruption) in my word, then are you my disciples indeed (in deed: in the doing of the word.) And ye shall know the truth (for I am the way, the truth, and the life) and the truth shall make you free.
It’s easy to say we’ll follow him. However, according to Matthew 20:22, But Jesus answered and said, … “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Only Jesus could drink the cup of God’s righteous judgement for sin and death on our behalf. We were unworthy of everlasting life because of our sin nature. Only Jesus could become the perfect sinless sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
We have no control over the things we experience in this life. God is Sovreign overall and we’re not. Our responsibility is our response to his ability. Through the trials of life, can we purpose in our hearts that no matter the outcome of this situation, we’ll praise, honor and serve him. Either you’re in our your’re out. To believe and trust in Him regardless of the situation may our prayer be, “Come thou fount of every blessing; tune my heart to sing thy praise.”
Each man is called to a unique journey. Pete recalls that as a young Christian, one of his mentors invited him to join the Navigators ministry for Christian training. Pete thought to himself, “I don’t have the discipline to memorize bible verses” and lasted about three weeks in the program. After a year, Pete saw how men who had stuck with the program had grown in their Christian walk with Christ. He admired that in their morning exercise routine, they quoted scripture as they jogged. He could see the change in their lives and decided to dedicate himself to the Navigators training program.
Men look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. Like David we should pray, “create in me a new heart O Lord and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.”
According to 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” You’ll be just like the people you associate with. Psalm 1 says, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he dedicate day and night. And he shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of waters that’s bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
A man of God marinates his heart in the word of God. According to 1 Timothy 4:15, “Meditate on these things, commit thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all.” The blessed man meditates in the law of God day and night. The prophet Jeremiah said, “I found thy words and I did eat them and they were unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name O Lord God of hosts.” Our encouragement is to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” According to Psalm 19, The judgements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honey comb.”
James says, “be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” A disciple is a disciplined follower. To do the word is to follow in his steps for Jesus said, “I always do my Father’s will.”
When we fall short, 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and forgive us from all unrighteousness.” Lust is “over desire.” It is anything that we desire over God and His word. According to 1 John 2:16-17, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
An excerpt from “Truth in Jesus” from the Puritan prayer book The Valley of Vision says:
My guilty fears discourage an approach to thee,
But I praise thee for the blessed news that Jesus reconciles thee to me.
…Uphold my steps by thy Word. Let no iniquity dominate me.
Teach me that Christ cannot be the way if I am the end,
That he cannot be Redeemer if I am my own Saviour,
That there can be no true Union with him while the creature has my heart,
That faith accepts him as Redeemer and Lord or not at all.
And as we reconcile our heart with God’s heart according to the Word of the Lord,
May we ever be to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael