Dust from the Rabbi's feet

An ancient Jewish proverb states, "Follow the rabbi, drink in his words, and be covered with the dust of his feet."  Those studying under a Rabbi, or his disciples, would follow him so closely that they would be literally covered in the dust from their sandals. 

I've been a part of a dicussion this week about true discipleship, where the church is missing the mark, and how can we make a course correction.  I think the first thing that needs to be established is, despite how some believe, the "Church" is not broken.  The church is the bride of Christ.  Even when we want to slam her down, beat her up, pick on her, spit on her, and just be down right mean to her; we must remember what Hosea 3:1 says, "The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife (the church) again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.  Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods, and love the sacred raisin cakes."  Despite how the people inside the church act, the church is not broken.

Speaking of the people inside the church...these ARE broken people.  Most people don't come to church when they've "got it all figured out".  Most of the people I encounter in church today are those who don't have it all figured out.  They are broken, spiritually dismembered, cast out, kicked off the island, fringe kind of people.  Most of them think they've got it together, but deep down inside they are spiritually poor.  They have no sense of normalcy in their lives.  I'm not just talking about those who on the outside don't look like they have it together, I'm talking about those who don't have it together on the inside either. 

So it leads me to ask this question...what is normal for a broken person?  I say Jesus.  Some of you are probably skeptical, and I'm going to ask that you not write me off just yet.  Some of you are saying that's garbage because I have lots of things in my life that I find fulfillment through and in that don't involve Jesus or Christianity.  First of all, let's let go of the Christianity thing and really talk about Jesus here.  Let's talk about what He really said.  If we look back and really read what He's saying, he's not calling us to a life that is easy by any stretch of the imagination.  In Matthew 4:19 Jesus says, "Come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men."  He's asking his disciples to let go of everything that they view as normal and come follow him.  These guys had it together.  Most of them weren't broken from the outside, but what Jesus knew was that they were broken on the inside. 

In saying "Come follow me" Jesus is asking us to drop what we find normal and follow him.  But what if you don't have normal so to speak?  Or a better question, again, would be "What is normal?"  Is normal dictated by society?  Or is normal dictated by Jesus.  Why is Jesus not our normal?

Here's some other questions to ponder on as well...

*  If we are called to make disciples, why do we not?
* What does it even mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
* Why do we keep on relying on systems of "discipleship" that have never worked and will continue to never work? (By the way, a friend of mine says that these systems are just episodic and unfulfilling.  I would agree.)
*  Why is it that you've been to tons of leadership conferences, teaching conferences, summits, etc. and yet nothing has changed?

1 Thesasalonians 2:8 says this, "so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well."

Discipleship is not leadership, it's "with me".  It's not a book.  It's not a conference.  It's not Sunday morning church.  It's not Sunday School.  It's not seeing how we can insert the latest and greatest gadget into our service.  True discipleship is following in the footsteps of Christ so closely that you are covered in the dust from his sandals. 

So what's holding us back?  Jesus left the 99 for the 1.  He was all about the 1.  Is it the fear of reaching the 1?  Is it the fear of revealing who you really are to another person?  Why do we wish to speak to the 100 and not the 1.  Is it to be known?  My friend Jim said one time, "Jesus didn't write a book, he invested in the men around him."

So who are you investing in right now?  Who are you discipling?  Because people know the story...they just want us to show them that it's real.