#making disciples

The Apostle Paul’s Testimony 11 To this present hour we hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and roughly treated, and homeless; 12 and we labor, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; 13 when we are slandered, we try to plead; we have become as the scum of the world, the grime of all things, even until now. . . . 16 Therefore, I exhort…

Take a moment and let these 10 ideas stimulate your own plan to make a difference in your neighborhood. Spring clean up: Find the oldest, neediest, or maybe the couple with the youngest children, and figure out a way to help with all the Spring things that need to get done. Go help them do it. (Things like pulling weeds, seeding lawns and planting flowers, and tilling the ground for gardens, and…

A pastor called with a question about what I have called on this blog, “INTENSELY LOCAL MINISTRY.” How do we reach the people around us? The neighbor next door and the one across the street–how do we tell them about the love of Christ in a culture where the discussion of personal faith is seen as off-topic and inappropriate? If that is the “nut,” how do we crack the shell? Changing metaphors, how…

"He has told you, O man, what is good;     and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness.     and to walk humbly with your God?" -Micah 6:8 The prophet Micah can't be more emphatic. We are not simply to think about justice or care about it, but to actually get justice done. Not a few people shy away from talking about justice because it is intertwined with issues of politics. It doesn't help that we were told about the two things we are not to talk about when we are with friends -religion and politics. For Christians, this is supposed to be a double black-eye for whenever we are to talk of justice, our calling is to do so from a clear biblical conviction. It may surprise not a few that the Bible actually tells us that justice is at the very center of Christian discipleship. Why so?

Well, because Christians are supposed to be ‘Jesus-people.’ And Jesus is a person of justice. Not only because he resolved the big problem of how a holy God, whose sense of justice cannot be broken, can possibly be merciful and forgiving of all our sins. The cross is where God’s mercy and justice meet; Jesus’ sacrifice resolved the demands of justice.

But not only this, Jesus is a person of justice also because he rolled-out the ideals of a just social order that God wants for His people (Luke 4:18-19). The “Year of the Lord’s Favor” in that verse refers to the “Year of Jubilee” -a legal provision provided by God in the Old Testament to wipe-out the mechanisms of injustice in society (Leviticus 25:1-13).

There were actually legal experts who studied the Old Testament laws and one of their conclusion is that the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are actually a form of magna carta on how people can live a good life without neglecting the plight of the less fortunate (and most especially, not at their expense). There were many laws in the OT that protect the ‘quartet of the most vulnerable’ in society: the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the migrants. Unfortunately, Israel failed as a society to implement this splendid vision of justice. And this is why God raised up prophets from time to time -to remind them of what they failed to do for their neighbors which is basically the cause of the deterioration of their nation. More so, they often speak of the coming “Day of the Lord” which is the time when God will deal with all the injustices in the world. This serves as a warning to evildoers and as word of comfort to those who suffer.

In Isaiah 1:11-17, the Lord is said to have remarked that if anyone is going for worship and yet at the same time continues to take advantage of the misfortune of his or her neighbors, eh wag na lang, no thank you. The prophets issue a sharp remind that real worship has to come side by side with genuine concern for the welfare of those who cry out to God for help. They cry out because they have no one else to take their sorry plight but to God. Most often than not the cause of their suffering is injustice in society.

Here are four kinds of people in relation to this issue of social injustice:

1. Those who cause injustice in society

2. Those who benefit from such systems of injustice (and therefore allow it to perpetuate)

3. Those who fight injustice and those who administer justice

4. Those who benefit from the fruits of justice in society

To really be like Jesus is to be people who do #3 so that more people can belong to #4. The calling of God’s people is not just to enjoy the comforts and security of a ‘just society’ but to make sure that other people will do so as well. And in the New Testament, the early church made sure that it will be on the side of God’s justice. In fact, when James gave the first and only description of ‘religion’ in the Bible this is what he said:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

Clearly, social justice is not only a matter of politics, but also an issue of worship and discipleship that are thoroughly holistic. The challenge for the church today is how it can rise-up to God’s call to be people of justice -a just community being “salt and light” in the midst of an unjust society.

-Rei Lemuel Crizaldo

This week, I leave for Africa to help train pastors in Tanzania to be more effective leaders and preachers of the message of the King. Today, as I was working on my preparations, it seemed appropriate to repost this article from 7 years ago. I hope to return to my loving wife. I hope to be with her, to move our home to Missouri, later this year. I hope to spend the remainder of my years with her…

Jesus’ mission is not to make converts, and it never has been. His mission is to make disciples. – Jim Putnam