This report was the more challenging and yet more
rewarding that my previous two. Unlike Chris, a man in his twenties or Sarah, a
woman in her forties, this report was centered on Benoni Moghadam. Benoni is my
soon to be ten year old boy and he has heard the gospel message many times and
is quite proficient in Bible memorization. On paper this may appear to be a
much easier task but in reality the factors of age and relationship made this
report a challenge. Choosing an approach that is best suited for the needs of
the individual is not legalism, it is a practice of wisdom.
Some may suggest or even strongly believe that if a child
is both proficient in bible verses and understands that Jesus is the Messiah
why not just allow them make their good confession and be baptized? Whether or
not Benoni has already accepted Jesus as his Lord is between him and the Father
not his father. This disturbs many but my hermeneutic of scripture leaves my
conscience clear albeit perhaps not innocent. This being said it has always
been my goal to train Benoni so that he lives his Christian life in love and
not a parent’s expectation.
The Apostle Peter put into words what has become a key
theme in our home concerning the children and their pursuit of Christ.
“In it only a few people, eight in all, were
saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you
also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience
toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who
has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities
and powers in submission to him” (1 Peter 3:20b-22, NIV).
The pledge of a good
conscience before God is highly regarded in the home. After personal reflection
this week it was my decision to take a different approach with Benoni while
teaching him the gospel message. The pursuit of holiness out of love for Christ
became a reoccurring theme in my reading and because of this Benoni was led in
this way as well.
We began by discussing the disciplines required to pursue
holiness effectively. More importantly, we discussed the reasons why we would
pursue holiness and why the need for discipline in order to accomplish the
goal. “The gold of Godliness isn’t found on the surface of Christianity. It has
to be dug from the depths with the tools of the Disciplines” (Whitney
1992, 19) [1]. This
idea grabbed Benoni’s attention as we often speak of finding our gold nugget in
our Bible readings. Gold must be mined and sought after but the rewards go well
beyond riches.
Following our conversation of discipline Benoni was
immediately ready to read every day, pray every day, share every day and sing
every day with incredible enthusiasm. This is not a bad thing by any stretch however;
we must caution all whom we share the message with that doing the right things
will not free us from sin. “At the same time, however, the pursuit of holiness
must be anchored in the grace of God; otherwise it is doomed to failure” (Bridges 1994, 12) [2].
With this opportunity in front of us we further discussed one of our favorite
topics as we spoke about the miracle of grace.
For even in grace we find discipline as these two
seemingly opposite functions find perfect balance in Christ. “For Christ’s love
compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all
died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2
Corinthians 5:15, NIV). It is our love for Christ and gratitude for the grace
we have received by His love and mercy that compels us to live for Him and deny
ourselves. This is the foundation for understanding what it means to love God
with all your heart, mind and strength.
Staying on track with this new methodology we began to
look at the existential outcome of loving God because He first loved us.
Disciples are adherents to the Word of God and not just learners of it. This is
a vital truth that cannot be removed from the message and we should be able to
show this truth by the relationships we have with one another. This is how God’s
people show themselves to be a light in this world. “They learn God's truth
together (head level). They embrace God's truth together (heart level), and
they live God's truth together (hand level)” (Lecture 5 2014) [3].
Benoni mentioned a friend of mine that came to visit recently as an example and
a wave of encouragement washed over me.
Preaching the gospel through the lens of pursuing
holiness is challenging as we cannot leave the individual with just the good
news. The bad news is we need discipline in order to pursue holiness because
our very nature will take away from the cross before we humbly bow to it. There
is no sugar coating the truth about sin and this is true even for an almost ten
year old. Sin separates and removes us
from that same grace we celebrated earlier. “That’s how the Bible talks about
the depth and darkness of our sin—it is in us and of us, not just on us” (Gilbert 2010, 54) [4].
We
pursue holiness in desperation as we are compelled by the love given to those
who deserved only death. It is inside us all and all have sinned. We then
examined Benoni’s favorite Old Testament figure, King David in a new light.
Benoni read the report given to David by the prophet Nathaniel and it was
confusing. Even King David was a sinner as we all are and his sin was no
different than our own in that it is unacceptable in the presence of God. “So
when we sin we are in effect treating God and His Word with disdain or
contempt; we are despising Him” (Bridges 1994, 36) [5]. This
was sobering to say the least.
This is
a great example of just how much we need each other as followers of Jesus. If
David could be moved to act in such a way how could any of us imagine we would
not be led astray? Benoni remarked, “But that’s why we have Jesus?” This is why
we need Jesus. My final encouragement to Benoni was that while we are so
special in the eyes of our God we must not become consumed with ourselves. “Contemporary
Christians are to be faithful disciples who invest in others who also invest in
others and so on. They are not the last link in the discipleship chain −
just the next one” (Lecture 5 2014) [6]. Choosing
an approach that is best suited for the needs of the individual is not legalism,
it is a practice of wisdom.
[1]
Whitney, Donald S. Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life.
Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1992.
[2]
Bridges, Jerry. The Disciple of Grace God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit
of Holiness. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1994.
[3]
Lecture 5. "MIN-525: Evangelism and Discipleship." Grand Canyon
University. Phoenix, AZ, 2014.
[4]
Gilbert, Greg. What Is the Gospel? Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010.
[5]
Bridges, Jerry. The Disciple of Grace God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit
of Holiness. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1994.
[6]
Lecture 5. "MIN-525: Evangelism and Discipleship." Grand Canyon
University. Phoenix, AZ, 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment