How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?
This post is dedicated to my niece, Ashley, the only person I know who ever actually played Carnegie Hall.They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
We are using this passage to guide us through our current study on Discipleship. As the representatives of Jesus on earth, there are some tasks he left for us to do that will make us more effective and bring us joy in our roles as disciples. We are (I'm happy to say) past the point where we think that the performing of these tasks is what saves us. Yet we neglect them sometimes and forget that we are called to do them by our Lord. He left us his example and teachings. And we have the further examples and teachings of those who served him while he was incarnate. For this reason, we turn to the Acts passage, to give us a glimpse of life as a disciple in the first century.
The disciples were devoted to the apostle's teaching...to fellowship...to breaking bread together (eating, not communion)...to praying...and to giving. They were devoted to these things, their lives revolved around them. They weren't fitting them in as time allowed. And miraculous things were happening. They were looked on favorably by those around them...sadly unlike the culture I live in...and souls were being saved every day.
This week, our focus is on study. Of all of the spiritual disciplines, this one may see more turned-up noses than any other. But God calls us to turn our minds towards Him.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4: 8,9)
Paul gave us the example. He was even brave enough to ask others to imitate him.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (II Corinthians 10:5)
There are many others, of course..."set your minds on things above"...but you get the gist. Rarely do these disciplines come easy to us. We become better pray-ers the more we pray. Giving gets easier as we mature and let go of our selfishness. Study goes from struggle to second nature when we reap the benefits of living our lives with God-bent minds. Too often we see the examples of Jesus, the disciples, and the spiritually mature around us and think that we should be that far along from the very start. We are impatient with ourselves and our own spiritual development. We are reluctant to give these disciplines the time they need to develop. But when we look back at where we began and see how far we've come, we realize that there is hope. Maybe we used to have a hard time remembering to pray once a day and now we find ourselves talking to God all the time. It might have been hard in the early stages of our walk to share any of our income, talents, or time with others but now we find ourselves looking for ways to give and to serve. As disciples we must focus on our progress and realize that God Himself is involved in our development.
Jesus and Paul both called for perfection. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Tough gig until you realize that the perfection they were referring to was really just spiritual maturity. Grow up, they said. Don't worry about being Jesus, just concentrate on becoming like him.
Practice makes perfect.
posted by Thurman8er @ 10:27 AM
5 Comments:
O.K my math brother, I'm going to sneak in some golf into the discussion. Your comments reminded me of a round of golf I played with a long time friend of mine. Bob played full-back in college and can still hit 300 yard drives.
We were on the first tee, a par 5, and Bob hit one of his patented "grip it and rip it" shots that went about 300 yards. I got up next and did my best imitation of him and hit the ball also 300 yards. Actually it went about 200 yards straight and then made a 90 degree turn for the final 100 yards somewhere in the woods.
My buddy Bob looked at me and asked me what I was doing? I didn't know what he meant by the question so I asked for further information. I'll never forget his words. He said, "Cecil, don't try to be me. Just be you."
Translation that day was to not let my mechanics break down in an effort to drive the ball as far as he could.
The spiritual application I'm trying to make is to follow Bob's advice - Don't try to be somebody else in their spiritual walk - Just be you as you try to live out your life for the Lord.
As you said, perhaps we would have far more patience for each other if we allowed folks to "just be themeselves" as they try to live out a grace-filled life.
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Amen Greg.
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Thank you, gentlemen. That means a lot to me.
I'm treated very well at College. I grew up there and love the people beyond measure. My constant prayer is that the divorce issue fades by the time I'm 50. That may seem an arbitrary number, but I have my reasons. I remain confident that God can change others as he continues to change me.
Good stuff Steve. Here's another verse for your musing:
Hebrews 5:14 (NASB)But solid food is for those who are grown up. They have practiced in order to know the difference between good and evil.
Interesting idea that practice allows us to tell the difference between good and evil.
I'm Adam and Eve would have like to have heard "ok, that was just practice - let's reboot the simulator and try it again."
Steve- You might consider suggesting to your elders to meet with Olan Hicks or at least read one of his books on divorce and remarriage. Olan usually makes a west coast swing around the time of the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. If a door opens and you would like his email address or phone number I'll be glad to give it to you.
Take care my math brother.
I'm sitting at school awaiting my next parent conference.
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