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We know from Genesis that man and woman were formed and shaped by God and given the task to work, tend, and rule creation for God. While they were to rule over the garden for him, it was God who truly ruled. Everything was the way he designed it to be. His will had been done on earth as it was in heaven. I want you to breathe in that last statement and its context. God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven is a key point in understanding (and even witnessing) what the kingdom looks like, for it is what the very reign of God produces.

Author and minister David Young wrote, “The Old Testament was written so that we could understand what the kingdom of God is.”[1] I agree. From Eden to Abraham, from Moses to David, from Isaiah to Malachi, we come face-to-face with the kingdom of God.

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“So do you want to know why you’re an outsider in this world? It’s not because the world is changing or because of a political agenda or because of a leader. It’s because you worship an outsider king who has invited you to glorify and enjoy him by becoming an outsider yourself.”

This is from the opening chapter of Patrick Miller and Keith Simon’s book Joyful Outsiders: Six Ways to Live Like Jesus in a Disorienting Culture. It is tempting for us to think that we are the first generation of “outsiders.” C. S. Lewis coined the phrase “chronological snobbery” to describe the mindset that assumes things have never been better or more enlightened than they are right now.

Many of us are guilty of the inverse side of this snobbery. We struggle to think of a time when things have been worse, especially for the church. The wind of culture is in our face. Church attendance is down. All manner of debauchery is up. Faith, especially the public kind of faith that is anchored in tradition and Scripture, is at times mocked and at other times actively resisted. Even among the faithful, holiness has fallen on hard times, and many are struggling to merely persevere.

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During Jesus’ ministry, great crowds of people gathered around him to listen to his teaching. Some of those in the crowds committed themselves to him and became his disciples. Then, out of those disciples, he appointed twelve apostles. Luke recounts that moment like this:

“Now it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer with God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles.” (Luke 6:12-13, NASB)

First, we should observe how serious and significant this moment must have been since Jesus prepared for it by spending the entire night in prayer.

Notice also that there is a difference between being a disciple and an apostle. The words are not synonymous or interchangeable. Jesus called all his disciples to himself and chose twelve men out from that larger group to have the specific role as apostles.

What’s an apostle? The word referred to someone sent as an official representative bearing the authority of the one who sent them. So the twelve apostles are official ambassadors of King Jesus who are sent out by Him with his authority. To fulfill this role, the apostles had to be eyewitnesses to Jesus, especially his resurrection (Acts 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 9:1).

So all the apostles were disciples, but most disciples were not apostles. Only the twelve plus Paul occupied that unique and important position. The uniqueness of their role is seen when they are described as the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles being authorized spokesmen for King Jesus, the church is built on their teaching and ministry.

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How would you answer the question, “So, the Holy Spirit is God, but so is the Father and so is Jesus—and yet there’s one God? How does the Trinity make sense?”

Here’s the answer we’ll explore:

Let’s walk through this answer . . .

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When I was a kid, my dad was a certified instructor for Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, primarily in corporate settings. As a result, nearly every car ride of my childhood was soundtracked by Covey’s measured voice via cassette tape.

One of Covey’s central principles was this: Begin with the end in mind.

It’s a solid rule for business and planning. Most Americans don’t. Retirement gets delayed. College tuition sneaks up. Health is postponed until it can’t be. We drift without design. That’s what Socrates spoke of as the “unexamined life.”

And there is biblical wisdom in that instinct—to begin with a view to the end—but with a crucial difference. In Scripture, the “end” does not originate in our minds. It exists in God’s.

He is the main character of the human story. We are not the authors; we are the supporting cast. Friends and villains alike, we are forever moving across the stage of His purposes.

I think this is an important distinction.

This afternoon, during an online RENEW.org Learning Community event, I heard Dr. Carl Williams of Harding University—co-author with Bobby Harrington of Trust and Follow Jesus—speak on discipleship. (If you’re unfamiliar with this simple, effective, reproducible disciple making guide, order a copy.)

But in Dr. Williams’s presentation, he offered a perspective that lodged in me: focus on making your beginning.

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Every believer and every church needs a disciple making system that is simple, effective, and reproducible. Those three words are not trendy—they are essential.

I once heard someone compare a particular church’s disciple making strategy to the way the Harvard basketball team plays. “It’s pretty complicated,” he said, “but it might work.” That’s the problem. Disciple making is not for experts. It’s for everyday disciples. We don’t need a Harvard system.

If the average believer cannot understand it, practice it, and pass it on, it will not multiply.

And churches don’t need three competing systems. They need a clear, unified pathway (with minor variations if necessary) that everyone can embrace.

This is why the Discipleship.org pre-conference the day before the RENEW.org National Gathering will feature an afternoon with disciple making practitioners like Ralph Moore, Josh Howard, Carl and Alicia Williamson, Ashlee Catizon, and Kerry Cox. They are highly effective personal disciple makers with highly effective—and proven—tools.

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We live in a time when few people have difficulty believing in a God of love. Some central texts in Scripture emphasize this point. Here are a couple key passages emphasizing God’s love, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New Testament:

“[God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’” (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV)

The message of God’s mercy, grace, and loving kindness has been clearly taught in most churches and is emphasized by church leaders, writers, and podcasters.

And yet, there is also clear teaching in Scripture that not everyone will turn from their sin and receive the grace of Jesus.[1] The destination of the unrepentant will be eternal separation from God. There are many aspects to the teaching of God’s Word on hell, but for our purposes, we will focus on five.

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We don’t do nuance very well these days…

We tend to take complex realities, find their absolute worst expressions, and then decide the whole thing must be the problem. If something has caused harm somewhere, the dominant instinct is to label it dangerous everywhere. That’s especially true in our current conversations around masculinity and empathy.

In some cultural spaces, masculinity itself is treated as a liability—something that needs to be softened, restrained, or even apologized for. Can’t men be less driven, dominant, and competitive and more, say, cooperative and empathetic? In response to this—and other criticisms like it—some Christians have begun to push back, and in the process, empathy has come under suspicion. In certain corners of the church, empathy itself is now being described as toxic, corrosive, or incompatible with biblical faithfulness.

As a minister/pastor—and as someone who has also worked in the mental health world—I sometimes find myself caught in the middle of this conversation. It’s increasingly frequent that I find myself talking with men who are unsure what strength is supposed to look like anymore. I also sit with people more often than I’d like who are deeply wounded and yet have learned that being honest about their pain will be met with correction not compassion. Something has gone sideways in both directions.

Masculinity is not inherently toxic. Empathy is not inherently unbiblical. But both can become unhealthy when they are twisted into something God never intended them to be.

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If you have met me, chances are good that you also have met my ego.

It’s hard to miss. It usually dominates conversations, going on and on about its accomplishments, its brilliance, and how adept it is at parallel parking.

Since I retired, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my ego, an experience that is not always pleasant. My ego can be surly and petulant. And because retirement means my ego has lost access to so many things that typically fed it—job accolades, promotions, Marriott Hotel points—it is constantly looking for new forms of affirmation.

I think it’s harder to find those things in retirement. Bragging about grocery store couponing pales in comparison to the glory days of brilliant workplace insights (which were legion, as I recall).

Imposing a greater sense of discipline on my ego has become more urgent as I seek in retirement to worship God, grow my faith, and serve others. I had to put my foot down: God is number one and my ego is not. No matter how I describe my brilliant workplace insights, they don’t compare to what God can do.

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Sometimes in life it only takes 20 seconds of insane courage to do something extraordinary. At least that is the way the movie We Bought a Zoo summarizes it. In a tearjerker of a scene, Matt Damon who plays the dad takes his two young kids to the diner where he met their now deceased mother. The family has been mourning for the past few months because of her passing, and in the meantime he bought a zoo in the middle of nowhere to help his family heal. Why should he buy something he’s never tried owning or operating before? “Why not?” he replied and went through with his plan.

The story goes well; the family heals from the loss. The final scene ends with this moment in the movie with the whole family at the diner.

The dad, who has used this line before in the movie, starts by saying, “It only takes 20 seconds of insane courage.” He runs outside the diner to recreate the moment when he first sees their mom from the outside window. Then he rushes into the diner while counting down the seconds and keeping his children engaged in the story. Then, he shares his 20 seconds of insane courage line that started their story: “Excuse me, why would an amazing woman like you even talk to someone like me?” All a sudden their mom becomes visible in the room. The camera then pans to her.

Her response, “Why not?”

Courage beckons the response of why not. It invites us to do exciting things. Neurologically speaking, the younger you are, the more wired you are to take risk. The older you get, the harder those risks become to take. But risk is what helps your brain to grow.

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