The third temptation finds Jesus being taken up on an ”exceedingly high mountain.” The devil’s subtle technique is to make us think that we can be on top of the world if we can find the highest place, the highest social position, the highest emotional binge, the highest educational achievement, the highest accomplishment, in short, being number one. I’ve always considered the mountains to be a kind of experience that carries you to the top of all you are in mind, body and spirit. You climb…

Remember again the first temptation in the Garden of Eden? Doubt God's Word. It happens here in the second temptation as well, Matt.4:5-7. You can almost hear the devil thinking, 'So Jesus chose to live in the flesh alone and let Himself be subject to the world's lures,--- hmmm,--- so He won't give into hunger? Human beings like to be in control. They want physical and material security. Well I'll get him another way. If I can't get Him to prove Himself with hunger, I'll get Him to get His…

Lent is all about seeing Jesus in His humanity coming to transform ours. A disciple of Jesus knows that transformation of self is an ongoing experience of letting Jesus reign within. Let's take a look briefly at the first temptation.

To really get a handle on the temptations of Jesus we have to consider the context. Jesus has submitted to His Father’s will to live in a human body. He is God the Son, a spiritual being having a human experience just like us. Unlike us Jesus never…

Our conscious spiritual life in Jesus began when we asked Him to be the One who controls our hearts. When Jesus was baptized, He didn’t do it to get rid of sin because He was sinless. What He did was to model what our response should be when we accept Him. Being right with God begins with accepting Jesus and then being baptized as a sign of obedience to Him (Jn.3:5) then living a lifestyle of the Cross, faith in Jesus and its place in us. Jesus’ first act of obedience to His Father’s will…

Now we come to Spiritstyle. A disciple must realize and hold firmly to the reality that being an image of God is first spiritual. Spiritstyle is letting faith in Jesus open your heart to live by the Spirit (Gal.5:16). We have toured mindstyle (belief---restoration of the mind), skirted the environs of heartstyle (trust---restoration of the heart). Now it’s time for spirit to come center stage (faith---restoration of the spirit).

The place to start is with Gen.1:1. “In the beginning…

“It’s absolutely beyond belief” is an expression we use to describe an extraordinary event we have witnessed. However it may mean something more when we talk about discipleship. A disciple of Jesus moves beyond belief to an openness in the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. We move from belief, which is a mind organizer, to the level of trust, trusting what we believe. Trust is the essence of heartstyle. Trust is stepping out of the comfort of belief to the invisible…

The Disciple’s Lifestyle

The disciple's lifestyle is the way a Christian lives life. It is the daily pattern, the daily intention and daily attention we pay to being a follower of Jesus. It is a moving reality of personally shifting from thinking like the world thinks to think the way Jesus thinks in order to live like He calls us to live, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. It is shifting from an unconscious self-centeredness to a conscious Jesus-centeredness,…

A Disciple’s ‘Need-to-Know’

(Biblical Context)

Disciple

Identity---an image and child of God, a follower of Jesus, a spiritually gifted brother or sister in the Body of Christ and a witness for Jesus in the world. Disciples are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Purpose---Be a witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, all nations, making disciples (Acts 1:8).  Living as a spiritual…

Discipleship---Introduction

Romans 12:1-2

"Therefore, I urge (beseech) you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

This is what transformation is all about.…

Discipleship 1

Walking in the Word

The Disciple’s Manual

As we go through Scripture we have to always keep in mind that Jesus the person, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus, God in the flesh, is the funnel, the tunnel, the narrowed middle of the hourglass, through which and through whom every word, phrase, paragraph and chapter is filtered. If we approach the Word with the need to grasp and understand it so that I can say ‘My mind has control of it’ you have missed its purpose. It…

Discipleship

For some time there has been a subtle shift in the meaning of being a Christian. It’s a shift from personal relationship to institutional identity. It is important to understand this shift because it determines what we mean and the approach we use when we say we are called to make disciples. After we look at the shift we will share the approach All Souls takes in its discipleship process.

First, being a disciple in early Christian communities.

Being a…

You’ve heard the expression, “Home is where the heart is.“ Well it means even more when you read John 14:2 where Jesus says, “In my Father’s house (Gk. monai) are many mansions (Gk. menai).” It is far more extensive in meaning than homes and rooms. There is an elegance in the phrase that leaps beyond the limited idea of how we use the words ‘house’ and ‘room.’ The very idea that Jesus is going to prepare a place in His Father’s House means an exceedingly elevated level above a ‘tent’ or…

Thought you might like the following movie review from Ted. ><>W

The movie Iron Lady begins with Meryl Streep portraying an elderly Margaret Thatcher buying a carton of milk at a convenience store. Nobody know hers. Young men of different ethnicities bustle around her without giving her a moment’s notice. She has escaped her caregivers and experienced the world that has moved on since her time of fame as Prime Minister of the United…

As we go through the Gospels we have to always keep in mind that Jesus the person, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus, God in the flesh, is the funnel, the tunnel, the narrowed middle of the hourglass, through which and through whom every word, phrase, paragraph and chapter is filtered. If we approach the Word with the need to grasp and understand it so that I can say ‘My mind has control of it’ you have missed its purpose. It was not amassed to give you control but to open you up to risk…

Shakespeare’s famous line for Hamlet, ”To be or not to be, that is the question” gives us an opening to look at the way we arrive at how we see the world. Some say that life is a big question mark. Well, there’s nothing wrong with questioning. But for what purpose and in what context? There are three inevitabilities.

First, if you are out to gain some kind of emotional satisfaction in your ability to reason you will inevitably come to the realization that you always end up in…

This is from an interview with Ravi Zacharias from The Bible Speaks Today.  He is one of the great intellectual evangelists of our day.  Let me know if this is helpful for your conversations with those sitting on the edge of faith. God bless, ><>Whitey

Is Jesus the Only Way? Today's reading: John 14:5-14 Anyone can claim to be the sole path to God. In fact, quite a few people have made this assertion throughout history. The real issue is why anybody should believe Jesus was…

This is from an interview with Ravi Zacharias from The Bible Speaks Today.  He is one of the great intellectual evangelists of our day.  Let me know if this is helpful for your conversations with those sitting on the edge of faith. God bless, ><>Whitey

Is Jesus the Only Way?

Today's reading: John 14:5-14

Anyone can claim to be the sole path to God. In fact, quite a few people have made this assertion throughout history. The real issue is why anybody should…

Have you ever wondered why people will stand outside computer stores in long lines for hours waiting for the latest operating system, the most recent application, the ‘4G’ phone or the promise of a new style appliance? Or what about the idea of having a new model car or the latest gadget for the home or watching a TV show that plays on an old theme in a new way? And when you get that new thing, whatever it is, have you noticed how quickly you yearn for another something new? That’s the lure…

Hidden treasure---the wish, the lure and the trap. Winning the lotto, finding a gold mine or getting the big inheritance. Is that what treasure really is? Seems like the same old wishing which is more of the 'nothing new under the sun.'

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven it is an experience of newness. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field…