What we can learn from a wee little man . . .

Now before I end up with every vertically challenged person in the Blog-o-sphere mad at me – this post is about Zacchaeus. I taught this story this past Sunday evening in LIFE Group. Funny thing about it – this may be the first time I have ever taught this story. As I studied I ran across some really great lessons that I thought that I would pass along.

Who was Zacchaeus?

He is called the chief tax collector. This would have set him up as both a thief and a traitor to his own people. Not exactly the person that you would probably seek out as someone to have supper with.

He is referred to as a son of Abraham. Even though he was a Jew – one of God’s chosen people – heritage and genealogy made no difference. He was still separate from a relationship with God until Jesus changed his life.

Being a little undignified is ok if it leads to a meeting with Jesus. Zacchaeus ran and climbed a tree – something very undignified for a grown man of his place in society.

Although Zacchaeus was seeking a look at Jesus – he was the one that was found. He was the host who became the guest. The party was to be at Zacchaeus’ house but it was Jesus that invited Zacchaeus to join Him. Jesus not only met Zacchaeus but He changed him forever. Zacchaeus demonstrated a change within through an outward action.

Zacchaeus’ name means “righteous one”. He may not have been living up to what his name meant in the beginning, but in the end he is right on the mark.

A lot of great lessons for ten verses about a man that most people did not want around them. Maybe these are the people that we should seek out in our society. These are the ones that Jesus says that He came to seek and to save. Until next time – end your eyes on Jesus and let’s climb a tree.

Nuggets of wisdom . . .

Have you ever stumbled upon something that you were reading in the Bible, maybe in a different translation, and suddenly a light seems to go on? Well, that’s what happened to me this morning. I was reading in the 4th chapter of Mark in the Message this morning and suddenly a light went on. I know that I have read this same scripture lots of time and for some reason never had it hit me the way it did this morning.

This scripture talks about the way that Jesus was teaching the people. It says that He taught in stories to those who did not have the insight to the kingdom of God. By doing so the stories were “creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight.” I have been thinking a lot about the way I teach and those around me teach and whether we sometimes over complicate things, especially for those who may not have a relationship with our Lord. The conclusion that I have come to is that we should basically use the model that Jesus used.

Our teaching never should be overly complicated. Teach in stories that apply to the people that we are teaching allowing the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. What do you think? How do you teach? Let me know.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and keep it simple.

D – Develop spiritually

OK, finally I can start trying to explain the acrostic of disciple that a friend gave me. Understanding the foundation that I have laid in the previous posts about the personal responsibility discipleship, today we will look at how a disciple should develop spiritually. Discipleship is a continual walk with Christ. It was always meant to be a growth process that never stops. The same as a child continues to develop until adulthood, our discipleship should be a process of continual spiritual development until we arrive in the presence of Jesus.

Moses called the nation of Israel, in Deuteronomy 5:1, to three distinctive development stages – to hear, to learn and to follow. Let me take a minute to briefly look at each of these. We’ll start with hearing. We need to understand how we hear from God today. He has given us His word and we must spend pointed, focused time in His word each day. When we spend time in His word, He will begin to speak to our hearts things that we need to influence our lives. Hearing is absorbing and accepting information about God.

Once we have heard from God, then we need to move to learning from God. Learning understands what we have heard. We need to understand the meaning of what God has spoken to us and the implications of that meaning and the way those things will impact our lives. We need to grab hold of what God has given us and study it until we fully absorb it until it is a part of us and our way of thinking.

This will lead us to following. Following is putting into action all we have learned and understood. This is simply life application of what God has given us. We need to understand that is God gives us something, we study it, understand it and we don’t live it, our mouths may profess Jesus as Lord but our lives deny Him and His teachings.

As disciples we must develop spiritually in our lives. If we don’t, we all nothing more than children in adult bodies. Until next time – keep you eyes on Jesus and remember a race is not over until we get to the finish line.