“Who could you tell this story too?” Even among M’s this question is always followed by an uncomfortable silence and a fumbling in the mind, ‘who to tell, who to tell?” I remember as a youth, my youth minster would from time to time ask us to think of one person who did not know the Lord and tell them. That produced the awkward silence, the flushing in my face. Guilt. Now I am learning the storying method. You tell a story from the Good book and ask a series of questions the last question is “Who will you tell this story too?” That question always seems so dirty. “Hey now you tricked me! Here I was thoroughly enjoying the story and now you are requiring I tell someone else?” I feel defensive when I get asked the question. But why? It was the last thing JC asked of us. I feel defensive because I come from a passive Xian Culture. I come from a culture of pew sitters. Each Sunday the preacher talked at me, sometimes I felt convicted, sometimes I felt inspired but rarely did I feel responsible. It is because I come from a personal culture. Xianity is personal, right? JC didn’t seem to think so, neither did Paul. JC shared every part of His life. Morning to night He taught His disciple by example. They knew everything about Him, he did not have a private walk with Our Father. That is why they were willing to die for His legacy because He walked with them. Paul says “Whatever is true whatever noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.” What did they see in him? A man who abandoned all and took the good news to the nations. In Paul’s final letter (that he wrote on death row) to his mentee a young man he considered like a son he wrote, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” It is progression. One person teaches a person who teaches another. It isn’t an easy progression however JC asks us to do it. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…” It doesn’t end there. Wouldn’t that be easy enough, to put on massive crusades and go out and dunk hundreds of people and then move on to the next town but that’s not what Jesus commanded. “…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Weird that sounds like it takes some time and (gulp) study. Xianity isn’t personal it’s communal.
“We by nature are receivers. Even if we have a desire to learn Our Father’s word, we still listen from a default self-centered mind-set that is always asking, What can I get out of this? But as we have seen, this is unbiblical Christianity. What if we changed the question whenever we gathered to lean Our Father’s Word? What if we began to think, How can I listen to his Word so that I am equipped to teach this Word to others?” (David Platt, Radical)
We are given to give. We are poured into to pour out again. Just as JC our example (Philippians 2:3-11)
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as JC:
Who being in very nature Gd,
Did not consider equality with Gd
something to be grasped;
rather he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore Gd exalted him to the highest place
And gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of JC every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that JC is Lord,
to the glory of Gd the Father.
