Come and See

What does it mean to follow Jesus? To be his disciple? And why would a bunch of grown men drop everything to follow an unknown teacher?

To understand this, we have to first understand the upbringing and education of Jewish boys. From the time they begin to talk, they are taught and are expected to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament, or Torah, the Laws of Moses. By the time they are twelve years old they should have memorized all five books and are then tested by their Rabbi. At the time of their testing, they either “pass” and continue their education, or are sent back to their families to ply a trade. This learning and testing process continues for a Jewish boy, winnowing out those who are not quite good enough, until only the best of the best students are left. At this point the Rabbi chooses from these young men, who are between 18 and 20 years old, which of them will become that Rabbi’s disciple. Only the most accomplished students were called to be disciples.

Becoming a Rabbi’s disciple was the highest honor a young man could achieve for himself and his family, because only the best were called. All the rest who did not make the cut are then sent back to work.

This is significant because when Jesus arrives and calls these fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, shepherds, these “everymen”; He was making a distinction between how God thinks, and how men think. Naturally because of their up-bringing, these men all jumped at the chance to follow a Rabbi, to be a disciple, and to possibly one day become a full Rabbi himself. This group who were “not good enough” by the Religious elite, are now called by the Messiah Himself. The distinction that Jesus was making is clear, that God was more interested and more concerned with the hearts of the disciple than with their upbringing, grooming and societal position.

So here we have a new Rabbi, who in the book of John, has not been quoted as teaching anything yet, but says to “follow me” and as Matthew 4:19 states…”And I will make you fishers of men”. They drop everything. Immediately. To follow. Jesus sees in these men that which the religiously pious do not, a heart focused on God, good men, with good hearts, not concerned with stature, wealth or fame.

What was special about these men?

Nothing really, except they had believing hearts, they knew the truth when spoken and acted on it…Immediately.

Notice the vignette concerning Nathanial. Nathanial asks if “anything good can come from Nazareth?” He is then challenged to “come and see”. Phillip wants him to look with his own eyes, and hear with his ears, so that he will know the truth. Does Nathanial scoff? What does Nathanial do? He goes to see for himself and upon speaking with Jesus, and knowing the truth when spoken, Immediately praises him as the Messiah and the Son of God and the King of the Jews. That is the example I am trying to get at, to know the truth when you see it. And then act.

This could have gone a different direction though. Nathanial spoke from a prejudice against Nazareth. Nathanial didn’t have anything personal against Jesus, but because Nazareth is a small town outside of Jerusalem, with a “poor” population, probably filled with day laborers, roughnecks and undesirables, Nathanial dismissed it out of hand. It was not until Phillip said “Come and See” that Nathanial gives pause to his train of thought. But suppose Phillip doesn’t challenge Nathanial to see the truth? Suppose Phillip backs down and says something like “You’re right”.

How many of us were once prejudice against the Gospel, how many of us have friends who dismiss the Bible out of hand for some reason or another? Almost every person I know who scoffs at the Bible as being the true word of God, as the story of the ONLY redeemer, has never even bothered to open its cover. They have never heard the Gospel presented faithfully. What these people do is exactly what Nathanial initially did, dismiss it because of what they “heard”. Our news today is always talking about fallen Christian leaders, or people doing horrible things in the name of the Lord. Westboro Baptist Church comes to mind, as does the preacher in Florida who burnt all those Qurans, we have the Crusades also to thank for negative publicity along with Catholic priests caught in sexual scandals. These are the things that people hear about being “Christian” and they dismiss it. They have never heard the truth presented honestly to them.

The assaults against the Gospel don’t end with Negative Publicity, the “evolutionists” and atheists claim to know better and are prejudicing America’s kids from as early as elementary school against the truth of the Bible, all the while, most who claim to be atheists or evolutionists have never opened a Bible or had the truth presented to them. More and more people are dismissing God’s word out of hand.

That is why Phillip’s response to Nathanial is so important. Phillip doesn’t back down. Instead of not wanting to offend his friend, Phillip thinks this is important enough to challenge Nathanial to “Come and See”

It’s uncomfortable to many of us to be challenged for our faith, by someone who does not know Jesus. In fact many of us would rather do anything than talk to our unbelieving friends about Christ. But why is that? Why do Christians, who know the truth, back down from it when challenged? We can learn from Phillip.

Phillip said “Come and See”, in the dry, non hyperbolic terms of the Bible, however there was probably more to the conversation than this. It could have gone something like this, “Come and see Nathanial, you claim to look for the truth, that you want to understand; yet you scoff at the possibility of learning from someone, even from Nazareth; Come and See.” Phillip didn’t go into a full discourse, explaining the Messiah and salvation, he didn’t go into the apologetics of Christianity, or delve into deep theology. He simply invited Nathanial to “Come and See” and then let Jesus speak for Himself.

Phillip invited Nathanial to experience the “Word” for himself. The Word will ALWAYS speak for itself. We need only to present the word, to share Jesus and let Christ do the work. While a farmer may plant a seed, someone else will water it and yet another will harvest. We only need to plant the seed, to invite them to “Come and See”

Now look at Nathanial’s reaction to Jesus. After Jesus speaks to him, Nathanial exclaims “You are truly the Son of God, the King of the Jews”. Nathanial followed Jesus. Once Nathanial heard the truth and recognized it, he followed. Immediately. Without hesitation. The same is expected for us. We have heard the truth and Christ expects us to follow. Following the first disciples examples we are to pursue Christ with all our hearts, minds and spirit. We need to learn and study, it’s not just enough to believe that Jesus is the Christ, because as Christians, followers of Christ, Disciples, or as the word Christian means “to be like Christ” it is our responsibility to share that message.

This is evidenced in the “Great Commission”. In Mark 16:15 Jesus says “…Go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations…” He was talking to us. Those who have given their lives to Him are to lead others to Him, we are to invite others to “Come and See”. And so it goes in a complete unending circle…Come and See, Follow Me, Go and Do

Afghanistan Ministry "Blanket With Love"

"Go and make disciples of all the nations" That was one of the last sermons that was given at Sunnyside before I deployed. I had recently been ordained, but since I am not a chaplain, I wasnt sure what type of ministry I would have over here. But I trusted that God would have something for me, and does he ever. There is a congregation of about 20-40 here on my FOB, and most Sundays the Chaplain delivers the sermon and I lead worship. This week, though I have been given the extra task of leading the weekly Bible study. I will also be delivering the sermons when the Chaplain is not available to do so.
As I was talking to Sarah about this, a thought arose that we should do more with this ministry than simply talk about Christ, but we need to show everyone here what Christ looks like. Sarah is the co-leader of a Women's Christian group back at Ft. Carson, and her group, although just getting started was looking for something to do as well. What Sarah and I came up with was a blanket ministry for the children here.
Afghan winters get very cold, and being that everyone here is basically in poverty, many go without the basic comforts of a warm blanket or hat. The hardest hit by this need though, are the small children, the newborns and the orphans. Together both the women's ministry and I hope to be able to Blanket the Afghanistan With Love. We are still working out the finer details, however; if you want to get involved please, please contact myself or Sarah through blogger or facebook.
This ministry will be one that I intend on keeping when we launch 12:1 Ministries after I return home from Afghanistan next summer.

God Bless
The Rev

Preparing for the Eternal Marathon

This morning, as I was going through my normal routine of post run coffee, bagel and runnersworld.com, I was struck by the headline "Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist Sammy Winjiru Dead at 24". Not exactly what you want to read first thing in the morning. My first thought was "heart condition", however, I was wrong. As I read the story, I couldnt tell if his death was accidental, suicide or homicide. I just knew one thing, that this amazing athlete and champion had gone to meet his maker.

It is just another proof that nothing on this world lasts and that fame and fortune do not garauntee us a great life, a long life or any treasures beyond this world. Being a world-class athlete does not mean that you have it all "together", and definetly wont make you a better person. The amount of time that we put into training ourselves for the physical and emotional rigors of selected sports, occupations and hobbies should be matched by the amount of time we put in to our spiritual lives as well. It reminds of the writer to the Hebrews, who stated that "...I will run with endurance the race God has set before me."

We each need to spend as much time as we can with God, preparing for our Eternal Marathon's, or Triathlons, or Century rides. We need to know that Jesus' sacrifice for us was real, and that we all will meet him one day, and through Him we are promised eternal life. Jesus overcame the world, so that we would not have to. That through belief in Him and his work on the Cross, God has opened the Gates of Heaven "which never close."

I dont know if Sammy Wanjiru was a Christian or not, I only hope that he was prepared to meet The Father. May you, while you are out on your run or ride, or crosstraining this morning, spend some time with God. Glorify Him through your efforts and push yourself spiritualy as well as physically. And my you "run with endurance" this morning and every morning. Amen

Evangelizing for......Vibrams?

I have noticed that it is so easy to talk to people about Vibrams, evangelizing if you will. It takes almost no effort whatsoever. Its funny, if someone sees me wearing them they will walk right up and ask me about the funky shoes on my feet.

I then go into this long conversation explaining all the benefits of running "barefoot", how its so much better for our feet; that it helps strengthen all the supporting muscles, ligaments and tendons; how God designed our feet to be able to do these amazing things and we "like idiots" keep putting them in these casts. I am normally met with agreement and vows to go and "check 'em out".

I was out with my family at Garden of the Gods last week when we came across a couple climbers, one was on belay the other, female, was high up the rock. We decided to stop and watch her climb for a while, and soon there was a whole group of us watching this amazing woman climb this seemingly sheer face. I happened to be wearing my Vibrams and before long people start talking to me about my feet, rather than watching the woman climb.

I thought this was pretty odd, but I answered their questions, gave them my opinions and even the guy on belay seemed to be paying more attention to me than his girlfriend. What struck me later on, after the conversation was over and we were back in the car, my brother said "Mike, you were wearing a Jesus shirt, your Cross hat and yet all anyone wanted to talk about was your Vibrams."

(commentary) Why is it easier to talk about running, barefooting, or anything else we are into, however when it comes to the extremely important topic of God, Christ, Salvation and Redemption. What could possibly be more important of a topic?

Oh, my response to my brother: "Yeah, Andy, I guess they were really interested in saving their soles!"

A Day the Lord Had Made!

Saturday Morning as I pulled on my Vibram Five Fingers and got ready for my first 25k trail race of the season, the Cheyenne Mountain Trail 25k and 50k; I had no idea how epic of a day it was going to turn out to be.

It was the inaugural Cheyenne Mountain Trail Race, and I had accidentally stumbled upon it the day prior. I had not planned on racing Saturday, as I am currently training for my first Ultra Marathon: Greenland Trail 50k. I only entered after heading into Cheyenne Mountain State Park to get a 8-10 mile trail run in Friday. It was there that I ran in to Andrea and Jane, two of the race directors, who invited me to fill one of the final slots in the 25k the following morning. It only took me half a second to realize that this would be more fun than a solo 2o mile training run.

I also decided that I wanted to see what 25k would feel like with Vibrams on. Even though I had only been wearing them for a week, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Saturday Morning was pretty cold, but I was still out there with shorts and my VFF's. I didnt have any goals for the race, other than go as hard as I could for the duration. I had put in 7.5 miles the day before, including a 1200 ft climb.

The race was well organized and they even brought the Air Force Color Guard out to do the National Anthem, which I though was a nice touch. The 50k started promptly at 8, and then exactly 30 minutes later we 25k'ers were off. Immediately we started climbing, and I found myself in the top 50 runners, where I managed to stay all day. The climbing was relentless for the first 4 miles, but the downhills really made it worth it.

My training the day before really put more of a tax on my legs than I thought it would, but that was a good thing, because I wanted to run this hard on tired legs. I soon found a pace and was able to hang with it pretty much throughout. There were a few hard uphills that I had to walk, and a couple sections with some really thick rock gardens that made picking my way through in Vibrams slightly difficult, but all in all it was an awesome run! I even managed to find a massive kick in the last mile and a half (the course was over a mile longer than advertised) a 7:13 pace. I finished 42nd overall, 32 male and 16th in my age group, which for some reason was HUGE...it incorporated teens, twenties and thirties. I was really happy with my 2:46:12 especially because of the 2500 feet of total climbing on the course. That is 1,000 more feet of climbing in half the distance as my upcoming 50k, which I have a sub 5hr target on. The support for the course was awesome and overall was extremely well run!

When I got home, I was about to put together a crib for my soon to come daughter. My wife was 9 1/2 months pregnant Saturday. But instead of putting together a crib, my wife started feeling some bad pains and we went to the hospital, where 4 hours later Caitlin Michelle Hughson was born! The first remark the nurse made....look at those toes, she is gonna be a runner!

When I woke, I knew God had made a wonderful day for me, however; you never know how much the Lord is going to bless you until you step out in faith and take on each day with verve and vigor, giving Him credit for all of it.