“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Every once in a while I come across a sentence or a phrase that lingers, irks, confronts, haunts. This is one of those. So I’m going to share it with you. I hope it lingers, irks, confronts, and haunts you too.

Francis Chan posted in social media, “When we get to a point where we are more concerned about our standard of living than we are about other human beings living…”

He didn’t even finish the sentence. He just left it like that. Francis Chan is a pastor. Back a decade or so, he was a pastor of one of the mega churches in California. But he left the mega church. Not because of a scandal. But because the gospel scandalized him. He realized that there were thousands of people at church every weekend, but very few disciples. Few were genuinely following Jesus. This scandalized him.

Now, Francis Chan pastors house churches with a dozen or people. And when they get to be over a dozen or so people, they plant another house church. And they are making more disciples and authentically living out what it means to be the church in those house churches than in the mega church with thousands of people.

I find his journey challenging and convicting.

And then he posts that sentence!

Dang. You see, I like my things. I don’t think I live an extravagant life, but I like my things. I have a pretty nice fountain pen collection. And I like them. And, if the truth be told, I can cut back on how often I eat out, how many pens and inks I buy…shoot. See. I like my pens!

So, I hope this phrase challenges you too so you can join me in thinking about and doing something about being even better stewards of all that God has given us than we are now.

“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free'” (John 8:31-32).

If you hold to my teaching…

Things Jesus did not say:

• If you were born and raised in the church…
• If you sing the hymns and praise songs like you really mean it…
• If your mom has been praying for you for decades…
• If you know a bunch of stuff about the bible…

If you hold to my teaching…

• The Greek word for “hold” is meinete. We normally translate this word as “abide”
• The meaning is not that we hold this teaching in our minds but that we abide and live out the teachings of Jesus
• Not only does a disciple know the teachings of Jesus, they are living it out

When we hold/abide/live out the teachings of Jesus, we are his disciples. And when we live out the teachings of Jesus, we come to know the truth and that truth sets us free.

Too many in America’s churches want a Jesus who saves them from hell, but not a Jesus who changes them.

That’s a problem. If you hold/abide/live out the teachings of Jesus, transformation is the result. A disciple cannot remain the same. The disciple is always becoming more like Jesus as they hold/abide/live out the teachings of Jesus.

“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free'” (John 8:31-32).

Mr or Mrs Know it all…

Ever know someone like that? They are so fun and pleasant to be with. NOPE.

Not only are they not very fun to be around, they are wrong. Worse yet, not only are they wrong, but they do not make very good disciples. One of the first marks of a follower of Jesus is teachability. Jesus knows all things. We do not. So, one of the first marks of a discipleship is teachability.

When we are convinced we already know the truth, we become unteachable.

On the night of November 27, 1983, Avianca flight 011, en route from Paris to Bogota via Madrid, approached Madrid’s Barajas airport. The weather was good, and there were no mechanical problems with the 747 jet. The crew was experienced; the pilot had more than 20,000 of flying time and had made this same approach twenty-five times before. Yet, with its flaps extended and its landing gear down, the jumbo jet smashed into a series of low hills about seven miles short of the runway. The plane cartwheeled, broke into pieces, and came to rest upside down.

Tragically, 181 of the 192 people one board lost their lives. investigators determined that a series of errors by the crew caused the crash. The crew misunderstood the reality of their location. They thought they knew the truth about the plane’s position, but they did not. Shockingly, the final and fatal error came when the pilot, so sure he knew where he was heading, ignored the computerized voice of the plane’s Group Proximity Warning System, which repeatedly warned him, “Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!” The cockpit recorder had his strange reply to the warning. He said, “Shut up, gringo” and switched off the warning device. The next moment he was dead with the rest of the victims.

Teachability. It might just save your life.